Fundamentals of Digital Audio Podcast

Fantasic Free Plugins and Add-Ons

• Notes
• Digitizing records feedback
• Derrick K Miller of Inside Home Recording Tips for doing it right http://www.insidehomerecording.com/?p=186
• Use phono preamp
• It will boost the signal so you can get as much fidelity as you can.
• 3. The preamp will apply proper RIAA equalization curves to the signal. Yes, before the RIAA was the Evil Empire, they were primarily about establishing technical recording standards.
• The ground wire screw that phono preamps usually provide will help avoid static and interference, further reducing noise.
• #1 and #2 are the main reason the recordings were noisy: boosting signals artificially in Bias Peak is really only stretching signals that aren¹t using enough of the digital bandwidth, and it¹s much better to get a hot signal from your record player to start with.
• Also thanks to Gary LeRude who provided similar advice
• This is what FDA is about discovery of digital audio and how to work with it. This includes learning from mistakes and from others. Thanks again Derrick and Gary
• Audacity new Intel Mac beta. Newest beta version support AU plugins on Macs and VST on Windows but alas not real-time effects.
• Fabulous Free Pugins and Add-ons
• Levels Management
• RMS Buddy from Destroy Effects http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/extras/#rmsbuddy AU and VST Universal Binary avasilable
• Rider from Sound Consulting rider automatically rides the gain to keep the apparent volume level consistent. Useful for mastering, broadcast, or just listening. Universal: PowerPC and Intel. AU only. Free RMS Normalization plugin. http://sounds.wa.com/audiounits.html
• gain from Sound Consulting offers large volume steps which do not introduce any additional quantization noise. It is comparable to an audiophile stepped attenuator in the analog world. Fine gain control is also available, but it introduces the normal amount of quantization noise inherent in most digital gain stages. Universal: PowerPC and Intel. http://sounds.wa.com/audiounits.html
• The Levelator - http://www.gigavox.com/levelator. Evens out your audio levels. Drag and drop. Especially wonderful for recordings of things like panels or muliple hosts.
• Audio Leak - RMS measurement. http://www.channld.com/dwnldpg.html. Drag and drop to analyze levels AudioLeak allows quickly (over 200 times realtime on newer Macs) and easily previewing the relative (perceived) playback volume of sound / music files without having to listen to them. Various compressed and uncompressed audio formats are supported, of any sample rate and file size. Shows Average unweighted RMS, A-Weighted RMS and Peak values. Graphing of analysis results: RMS, Peak, histogram, Peak Check. Real-time input mode (can run concurrently with file analysis).
• EQ
• Music Unfolding xEQ - nice UI AU only EQ is a straight forward parametric EQ/Tone Control. It consists of Low and High shelf filters and three Peak/Cut filters. It is very useful for placing around distortion effects. Place before as a tone control and after to simulate a speaker cabinet's frequency response curve. There are some example presets in the distribution that are useful starting points for tailoring your tone. The presets starting with TC are tone control curves and those marked with an SC are for speaker cabinet response curves. http://www.musicunfolding.com/muxeq.html
• Effects
• ColorTone Free - ColorTone-Free is a Tone Box which simulates the signal path of analog devices through the use of convolution and various proprietary non-linear processes. ColorTone-Free is designed to provide analog-like character and flavor to the modern digital audio workstation. Worth trying for mastering vocal tracks. I like it subtle but very nice http://www.tritonedigital.com/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=35 AU and VST
• LFX-1310 from Luxonix - http://www.luxonix.com/home/en/products.html?id=lfx1310 S'Filter 12 / S'Filter 24 / 3-band EQ, Peak Compressor / RMS Compressor, Overdrive / Distortion / Amp Distortion, Crusher / LP Noise / Stereo Image, Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Auto Wah / Tremolo / Auto Pan, Delay / Stereo Delay / Ping-pong Delay, Gate Reverb / Room Reverb / Hall Reverb / Spring Reverb. I particularily like the RMS compressor and the reverb effects. Plus you get 3 effects in one whic is especially nice in garage band because you can only do 2 effects on one track.
• Ozone Vinyl The ultimate lo-fi weapon, iZotope Vinyl uses 64-bit processing and advanced filtering, modeling and resampling to create authentic "vinyl" simulation, as if the audio was a record being played on a record player. http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/
• Compressors
• CamelCrusher - a free versatile 'colouring' multi-effect plugin. It offers two characteristically different distortion sounds which can be blended together to create a wide variety of tones and textures. Great for guitars, drums and plenty more! http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php AU and VST. Nice sublte master compression
• Digital Fish Phones Block Fish - good compressor but non standard settings http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5 AU (Power PC only) and VST Win
• Reverb
• DX Reverb Light - allowing you to simulate from small rooms with sudden attacks and coloration characteristic of small spaces to large natural-sounding spaces with spread attack and build of a concert hall from ANWIDA Soft. http://www.anwida.com/product.asp?pid=7 VST only Mac and Win
• Blackwater Reverb http://www.apulsoft.ch/freeports/index.php Based on the free verb plugin
• Commercial
• Metro halo for channel strip for Garageband $90
• Ozone Isotope mastering plugins $300-$400
• ANWIDA Soft