More Noob Questions - re mix finalizing/mastering

[LQM]

Hi,

I have just installed the evaluation of Pyramix 6.1 (thanks to Dennis Gaines, on of the staff on the USA Pyramix distributors who saw a question on Gearslutz). I had heard of Pyramix before, but being an ignoramus did not realize they had a native version of it and that you might be able to do anything else other than location recording of classical music with it

My intention of trialling this software is to consider using it for mastering pop/rock/electronic music 2 track stereo and/or stem mixes (usually between 4 and 8 stem tracks). I was really impressed by the demo videos on mastering, and I have to say the editing looks primo and the metering in the Virtual Console is fantastico ! I especially like the layout of the metering and the dynamic range addition as well as peak/vu. The strip/bus tools looks useful too (although it is disabled except to look at in evaluation mode).

However - I have used Wavelab and Soundforge before (I still mostly use Soundforge 9 for stereo mixes) and have Cubase 5 as my DAW. All of these programs have a global analysis of the file, which gives a readout of peak value, RMS values for each channel, (clipping detection in a seperate function), length of file etc. I have seen that the Clip Properties in Pyramix gives the length and the peak value overall, but does it do a stats analysis like Wavelab and Soundforge which includes RMS values and other information ??

In the Broadcast pack, which gives you the LE version of Pyramix, is there any metering included at all ? Is the meter bridge included in the LE version ?? I know the peak/vu/dynamic range plugin is only in the Virtual Console.

I'm telling you, it's a very steep learning curve as well with all the file management modes and such to learn this program coming from Soundforge for this purpose.

Also - I am grateful for the demo, and having fun playing with it, but this is one very crippled demo - only 1 stereo track can have audio applied to it and many of the plugins don't work. But it gives a feel for the interface and workflow, I just wish they could find a midway point between the broadcast pack and the music production pack which is the cheapest option featuring the virtual console and significantly more expensive. Anyway, that's just me, but any advice / answers appreciated.

[Graemme]

Hi there,

I've used Pyramix for mastering since about 2000 and I find it indispensable. I do, however, use it in conjunction with other programmes and this gives me the 'best of all worlds' ... I use Pyramix to either playback source audio or capture the processed audio that was played from another application or an external player. If you keep Soundforge and integrate it with Pyramix in this fashion, I think that you'll enjoy the strengths of both applications. you would, of course, need two sound cards to work this way.

As far as file statistics like RMS levels, etc. are concerned, there is no direct Pyramix counterpart to the tools in Wavelab or SoundForge. The realtime peak/VU metering in Pyramix covers my RMS/Average metering requirements just fine...by the time it's in a file, I no longer care about it's RMS level (at least not statistically). There is a 'history' list of peak levels that have occurred in the mixer, known as peak-logging' that you may find useful as well as a 'digital glitch and pop detector' that is to be found in the 'Render' window.

The plug-ins sound good, even if they aren't the last word in mastering-quality processors. They sound at least as good anything you'll find (stock) in SoundForge and WaveLab. BusTools is a very good limiter and EQ, as long as you don't need to crush the audio into a lifeless pulp; there are other, better tools for that ;->

Finally, yeah, it's a steep learning curve...but once I 'got it' I couldn't stand using anything of lesser quality and flexibility. The best thing that I can recommend to you is to find someone nearby who *knows* the programme really well and buy an hour or two of their time. Get them to show you the fade editor, mixer routing and the library functions, for starters. In my experience it would be well worth it.

Where are you located?

Best Regards,

Graemme

[benyheg88]

In the Broadcast pack, which gives you the LE version of Pyramix, is there any metering included at all ? Is the meter bridge included in the LE version ?? I know the peak/vu/dynamic range plugin is only in the Virtual Console.

I own the Broadcast Pack, and can confirm that it contains both meterbridge and the Peak/VU/DynRange meter VS3 plugin.
Best regards

[Perfect Record]

FWIW, "Finalizing" is a term you almost never hear a professional mastering engineer use. It kind of implies those $49 automatic-brain dead plugins that make any protools owner a mastering engineer in one easy step. (It was advertised in Mix magazine, so it has to be good)