Subject:Fat Sound

Posted by: DJAnton

Date:1/14/2003 1:37:03 PM

I am a DJ who uses a Hi-Fi CD recorder (Pioneer) to record continuous dance music mix sets. The sound quality is very good, but I want to get that Fat Sound you hear on professional Mix CDs. I have tried the Limiter, Compressor and the Normalizer in Pro Tools (Free) but are unhappy with the result. Everything I try seems to result in a quieter, duller and less dynamic sound, which is the opposite of what I am trying to achieve. When I use a compressor, I cannot get the Gains anywhere near 0db with clipping.

Also, I only run a Mac Titanium.
Can anyone suggest a better approach?
Is the Wave Hammer plug in the answer to my dreams?

Cheers
DJ Anton

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:1/15/2003 3:00:44 PM

Wave Hammer is a good start. iZotope's Ozone is also a great mastering plug-in. As always, be sure to experiment.

HTH,
Iacobus

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: Sonic

Date:1/15/2003 3:49:49 PM

I should point out that Sonic Foundry products are only available for the Windows platform...If you are determined to stick with the Mac, the Waves L1 Ultramaximizer is similar to Wave Hammer and available in Mac compatible formats. Also, while unsupported, all Sonic Foundry products seem to work pretty well with SoftWindows.

J.

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: specktron

Date:1/16/2003 1:21:05 AM

The L1 is great, ozone 2 is 1/5 the price and has a pretty decent loudness maximizer/dither, some would say comparable to the L1(I agree). For $150 US you can't beat the PSP Vintage Warmer for a compressor you can run on several multiple tracks and still use as a mastering compressor.

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: Chienworks

Date:1/16/2003 7:02:09 AM

One issue i would like to point out here is that "less dynamic" is what you get by compressing or wave hammering. These processes operate by reducing the dynamic range of the material. The more you compress, the less dymanics you'll have left.

"Dynamic" sound and compression are opposites.

I have a feeling that many posters in this forum are confusing dynamics with loudness. The reason some material sounds quieter even when normalized is that the normalization only brings the loudest peaks up to the highest level. If the material has a broad dynamic range, then much of the material will sound very quiet. Compression is used to help eliminate the broad range by reducing the peaks so that the average sound level can be increased without clipping the peaks.

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: DJAnton

Date:1/21/2003 4:47:31 PM

Thanks for the tip. Waves L1 Ultramaximizer looks good. However, it is hard to find info on Ultramaximizer outside the Wave website. Also it seems very expensive and comes bundles with all these other plug-ins (Wave TDM Bundle). Also it doesnt seem to have evolved for years, unless the product has changed names or something.

Any ideas how I might get my hands on it without selling the car?

Cheers

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: Rednroll

Date:1/21/2003 6:29:18 PM

The reason you're not able to get that "Fat" sound is because you're trying to achieve the wrong thing. What you really want to go for is that "Phat" sound.

It's so hip to be square!!!
:-)

Subject:RE: Fat Sound

Reply by: harlock

Date:1/25/2003 12:17:18 AM

I think you would benefit greatly by buying a used Aphex Aural Exiter, most older ones go for under $100. It's one rack space and you can just pipe your tunes through that into your burner.If it doesn't give you that Phat sound, nothin will!

harlock
www.mp3.com/mindwrench