Three things: 1) Love your mastering work! 2) Cool to see you are using Reaper. 3) From what I gather from the pre-release forums on the Reaper site, being able to upsample whole fx chains is apparently in the works for a future update - hopefully that will mean the reduction of aliasing artifacts when using certain plugins (Soundtoys stuff, Inflater, as you point out here) that don’t have any built in anti-aliasing solutions.
4:08 whatever, bro you don't know me! I cut out seed oils and stared into the sun until i coul hear colors! 🙃🤣 This, and all your videos are INSANELY good! 🔥👐
DDMF metaplugin allows you to build a chain using any of your third party plugins within metaplugin itself and oversample the whole thing. This is a great way around this and gives you the option to use those plugins that don't have oversampling built in (all plugins should these days!!)
This is actually a solid video. Much of the harmonic behavior introduced by certain modeled plugins, begins to resemble a recursive noise floor depending on context...
Fascinating! I use the LA2A a lot in my mixes often for bass and background vocals. I may start using standard limiters instead for volume boosts. Though sometimes they hog CPU which is why i don’t use them currently.
Of all the plugs I tested here, la2a from UAD is closest to OK. As long as you give it headroom, you should be ok. Not sure about LA2As from other manufacturers, but you can set up these tests for yourself and try all the plugins you’d like 😀
@@WillBorza good to know! In general, I give everything decent amount of headroom. I did notice that i didn't like how the LA2A saturates when i pushed it, so there's that lol
But after thought it over , signals ran into hardware machines and been pushed in those can easily reach levels above digital zero on their way out to AD ,so this may apply to both duties in fact... Correct ???
Hey, just discovered your channel - great content! 2 questions re aliasing: 1) Have you thought of Metaplugin (or similar) wherein you can build your own VST networks and have it all run with oversampling options? Unless it's just gimmick marketing, it seems to me that you'd be able to run SPL Iron, Sonnox Inflator, any other such problematic plug (with no internal oversampling option) oversampled and hence aliasing-free - or at least with aliasing greatly minimized. I vaguely recall Dan Worral doing something like that with Decapitator. 2) Just was watching a few vids debating the phase altering effects of HP filtering (in normal zero-latency mode), and how the steeper the slope would amount to ever-wackier amounts of phase distortion. Would this be something to be concerned about re LPF as well (like you did to cut out the effects of the aliasing in your jazz track ex)? Thanks!
Thanks for watching! I have and love metaplugin. Such a cool tool! And yes, a LPF is gonna cause phase distortion. If you have it above the range of human hearing, that makes it less problematic.
hey Will I love your videos above digital zero they were very insightful especially the pro tools vs logic one!!! On that regard from the same company. who made plugin doctor you should try metapluign wich allows you to oversample any plugins that's been passed through it wicth. can resolve your concerns about let's say inflator for example ... Nevertheless thank you for putting out such good content. Also may. I ask you. if we should consider this in both tasks mixing and mastering or just mastering alone since we're talking passing digital zero thanks in advance
There are lots of plugins that produce aliasing even when your signal is peaking way below 0dBFS. The aliasing is usually fairly quiet (like -60dB) and can easily be buried in a mix, but it's all "out of tune" noise that really has no business taking up headroom in your mix or master, unless you actually enjoy atonal distortion.
Thanks. I read somewhere recently that clipping mastering converters introduces aliasing. Perhaps something to consider and test for. What are your thoughts?
Maybe I'm not understanding, but wouldn't a solution be to just avoid clipping plugins that can't handle it, especially in the upper frequencies? Isn't just proper gain staging tailored to the digital domain the best way to avoid this?
It happens even if your volume level doesn't reach 0dBFS, albeit the aliasing will be correspondingly quieter. It typically happens with saturation plugins and compressors that have some "analog mojo" created with the addition of odd and even harmonics. e.g. You play a drum loop through a compressor that adds even and odd harmonics. If a kick drum plays at 100Hz, there will be harmonics at 200 and 300Hz and multiples thereof. That's fine, but what about a hi-hat at 8kHz? The first harmonics will be at 16k and 24k. Since that latter number is above Nyquist (when dealing with 44.1Khz files), the harmonic that should be at 24Hz (inaudible) will get bounced back down to 18k or lower, where it is "out of tune", as it's not a simple multiple of the fundamental. If the saturation was quite loud, you'll have unharmonic bits of hi-hat showing up as spikes at 500Hz or even lower. If you have several plugins running and creating aliasing on multiple tracks, you end up getting noise that sounds like a low bit rate MP3 and a lack of musical clarity due to harmonics showing up where they really shouldn't. These atonal harmonics are usually quiet, but they are there all the same, using up the bandwidth and headroom that could have been taken by stuff you actually want.
