ASSIMILATOR - TC Electronic
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1. 8 ASSIMILATOR Reference Target _ Learn File Learn Draw 2 2 ASSIMILATOR J Te wORKS lt N 25 Lu ASSIMILATOR 9 T oS 2 ANALYSIS DISPLAY On the A and B views the display shows the frequency of the reference analysis curve target analysis curve and the interpolated EQ curve The Analysis display will appear differently when the Morph view is active For details refer to the Morph section at the end of the manual Blue Indicates the reference analysis curve Green Indicates the target analysis curve Black Indicates the real time Analysis of the signal after processing Red Indicates the amount of the EQ curve that is applied to the target At zero when there is no application of the EQ curve to the target the red application curve will be flat DISPLAY OPTIONS By selecting the Display Options you can enable and disable any of the curves from being visible in the display Disabling a curve from the display will NOT deactivate the curve Only the metering will be hidden INPUT GAIN AND METER The Input gain fader and meter manage the input signal to the ASSIMILATOR The clip indicators at the top of the meters should never be active Remember POWERCORE is a fixed processing system and it is not possible to drive the signal above OdB without distorting the signal If the clip indicators are active reduc2. PRESET The preset is the global setting of the entire Plug In Saving a preset will store the reference and target curves for both the A and B views of the Plug In as well as any settings made in the Morph view This global type preset is similar to those handled by your host application the difference is that using ASSIMILATORs preset manager will ensure that you can share your presets with other users regardless of host application or platform ASSIMILATOR s comprehensive file based preset architecture makes archiving presets and curves a breeze This allows you to organize your presets the way you find most comfortable for your workflow and to exchange presets and curves with other users no matter what platform or application they are using Presets are saved as discrete files on your hard drive Once a preset is saved into the default location it will automatically appear in the File menu every time you use the Plug In The files can then be arranged in subfolders which will also be recognized by the Plug In FILE Pressing the File button will open the File menu The following options are available from the File menu LOAD PRESET CURVE By selecting Load you can navigate to any folder on the system including any Shared folder By default these will be loaded from the default location for ASSIMILATOR presets Only presets located in the default file location will appear in ASSIMILATOR s pop up preset menu SAVE
3. This will not place a heavy load on your host CPU and will reduce ASSIMILATOR s DSP use for non critical tasks such as gain staging lt o 5 2 WORKS isa Group company ULTIMATE SOFTWARE MACHINES BY TC WORKS amp HARDWARE GMBH 2002 ALL PRODUCT AND COMPANY NAMES ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS ALL SPECIFICATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GETTING STARTED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Windows POWERCORE running system 1 6 5 or later Windows 98SE ME 2000 or XP PIII 500 or faster 128 MB RAM VST compatible host application System must meet requirements of the host application Mac 05 POWERCORE running system 1 6 5 or later OS 9 04 or higher including Mac OS X 33 300 or faster 128 MB RAM VST or MAS compatible host application System must meet requirements of the host application X oS 2 ul ASSIMILATOR oS 2 ASSIMILATOR BASICS The ASSIMILATOR is an extremely powerful equalization tool for POWERCORE and it is unlike anything else The idea is simple you learn the frequency curve of one piece of audio and apply it to another audio file It is best to think of it in terms of sampling You sample the frequency curve of the audio that you want your audio to sound like Learn the reference audio You sample the frequency curve of th
4. PRESET CURVE By selecting Save you can save your preset to any folder on the system including any shared folder By default presets will be saved to the default location for ASSIMILATOR presets X 7 oS 2 ul ASSIMILATOR 5 Load Preset Save Preset Classical gt Country gt Film gt Rock gt Techno Ld Big Band Combos Ld Ld Armstrong Basie Big Ella Billie Chet Grover Miles The Duke ASSIMILATOR can arrange presets and analysis curves into different subfolders These subfolders are sorted into basic music genres and applications such as Classical Jazz Psychedelic Pop etc You can delete rearrange or create your own folders to accommodate your needs You could for example create preset folders for projects customers or by genre This figure demonstrates various analysis curves that can be used either as reference or target curves T oS 2 6 ASSIMILATOR DEFAULT PRESET LOCATIONS The following locations will describe where you can find your ASSIMILATOR analysis curves and presets which are stored in different folders Mac OS Classic Files are stored in the System folder System Folder Application Support TCWorks ASSIMILATOR Presets System Folder Application Support TCWorks ASSIMILATOR Curves Mac 05 X Files are stored in your user folder Users Your Name Library Application Support TCWorks ASSIMILATOR Presets
5. Users Your Name Library Application Support TCWorks ASSIMILATOR Curves Windows Files are stored on the Windows OS hard drive System Hard Drive Program Files TCWorks System Application SupportASSIMILATORY Presets System Hard Drive Program Files TCWorks System Application Support ASSIMILATOR Curves To delete a file simply move it to the Trash or Recycle bin To create a new subfolder that appears in the Plug In menu simply create a new folder in the Plug In folder that resides in the PRESETS folder of the ASSIMILATOR default preset location ACCESS PRIVILEGES IN Mac OS X If you want to share your files with another user it is advised that you copy your presets to the Shared folder before the other user logs in If you save files into the System folder make sure that you have the appropriate Administrator rights Preset subfolders will not appear in the File menu unless there is at least one file in that subfolder X 7 25 2 ASSIMILATOR 7 OVERVIEW IN 14 5 Display Options ni 5 Analysis Display Preset Handling Input Gain and Meter Low Frequency Resolution Size Output Gain and Meter Limiter Enable and Limiter Activity Indicator Reference Analysis Curve Section Target Analysis Curve Section Apply EQ Curve Fader Level Calibration Fader T oS 2 COMO ON OO
6. is how you can sample or grab the spectral curve of any audio file or source This is the desired analysis curve or the audio you want to sound like This analysis curve is based on your audio or the audio you want to process with the reference analysis curve X 7 oS 2 ul ASSIMILATOR 3 lt oS 2 WHY LEARN TWO CURVES Learning just one curve would be insufficient for proper assimilation Consider the concept as a whole how else does the ASSIMILATOR Plug In know how to make your target sound like the reference Here are two examples that show the value of learning two curves ONE CURVE IS INSUFFICIENT FOR PROPER ASSIMILATION 1 Learn the analysis curve of the audio that you want your audio to sound like reference 2 Apply the analysis curve to the target audio What are the results In this example there is the risk that the results will not meet your expectations Consider what happens when we process our target audio using the method from the example above If the reference curve has a level of 12dB at 100 Hz and then you apply that to your target which already has 6 db at 100 Hz then the total boost at 100 Hz would be 18dB The conclusion is that if we apply the reference curve to the target without also learning the target then there will be a 6dB difference at 100 Hz and the two pieces of audio will not share a common frequency response PROPER ASSIMILAT
7. sound correct TARGET CURVE As described in the ASSIMILATOR BASICS section of this manual the target curve is the frequency spectrum of your audio or the audio you want to process to make it sound like the reference The target could be an audio track a mix from another recording session or even another take recorded earlier that does meet your expectations LEARN Learn The Learn function is how you can sample or grab the spectral curve of any audio file or source Simply engage the Learn button and begin playback When you are finished for example when the song has completed playback disengage the Learn button and the curve will become active FILE The File Dialog is where you can save or load your curves For details about managing curve files please refer to the PRESET MANAGEMENT section of this manual 12 ASSIMILATOR ASSIMILATOR VIEWS ASSIMILATOR has three views that each have a range of functions x B N Morp N The A and B views allow you to have two complete reference and target settings Morph allows you to Morph between the A and B View settings A and B Views ASSIMILATOR s A and B views have an identical user interface but allow you to have two complete sets of reference and target curves These views can be used to do quick A to B comparisons of different settings The A and B views become interesting with the addition of the Morph vie
8. the intro and the verse leave the Morph fader at 0 to hear the Low Fidelity portion of your audio 14 As the bridge begins playback start moving the Morph fader from O96 reaching 100 when the chorus of your song begins X 7 25 2 ASSIMILATOR 17 CONTACT DETAILS If you would like to get in touch with us please e mail to info tcworks de contact our local distribution partner or write to TC WORKS Soft amp Hardware GmbH Customer Support Flughafenstrasse 52B 22335 Hamburg Germany www tcworks de e mail info tcworks de USA TC Electronic Inc TC Works Customer Support 742 A Hampshire Rd Westlake Village CA 91361 www tcworks de e mail usQtcworks de TECHNICAL SUPPORT Details on how to obtain technical support can be found in the included Customer Support Document For immediate answers on many support questions visit the TC SUPPORT INTERACTIVE pages on www tcworks de oS 2 18 ASSIMILATOR
9. the song to have completely High Fidelity equalization With ASSIMILATOR this is easy to accomplish 1 Make sure that the A view is visible 2 Learn a Low Fidelity audio mix in the Reference section or use one of the included Lo Fi presets 3 When the Low Fidelity song has completed playback press Learn again to disengage the Learn function If you want to recall this analysis curve at a later time save the analysis curve as Lo Fi or whatsoever from the File menu of the Reference section 4 Learn the analysis curve for your mix in the Target section 5 When your song has completed playback press Learn again to disengage the Learn function 6 Save your analysis curve as My Hit Song or whatsoever from the File menu of the Target section 7 Now that you have the Lo Fi as your reference and your mix as the target switch to the B view by selecting the B View tab 8 In the Reference section of the B View Learn a High Fidelity track you would like your chorus section to sound like 9 From the File menu in the Target section load the analysis curve My Hit Song lt oS 2 10 Once you have a complete range of settings in both the A B views switch to the Morph view by selecting the Morph view tab 16 ASSIMILATOR 11 Set the fader to the far left or to 0 Morphing 12 Play back the song using an application that can automate Plug In parameters 13 During
10. BUILT FOR POWERCORE IN 14 5 Jisplay Options Low Res ow Mad High 14 3 OUT Reference Target Apply Level Calibration ENGLISH WORKS ULTIMATE SOFTWARE MACHINES INTRODUCTION Did you ever ask yourself Why doesn t my mix sound like THAT If you have asked yourself this question then ASSIMILATOR is your Plug In With ASSIMILATOR you can learn the frequency curve of your favorite mix or solo instrument track and apply that frequency curve to your mix or track sort of like an automatic equalizer Simply put ASSIMILATOR is an equalization tool that delivers excellent results while removing the tedious work from equalizing and fine tuning your mix What s more ASSIMILATOR is a phase linear equalization tool freeing you from needless worries about artifacts related to phase distortion Without such phase interference you get the most transparent and musical processing possible Best of all ASSIMILATOR is a Plug In that demonstrates the most significant benefit of the POWERCORE platform Extreme processing without bogging your host CPU down Enjoy The TC WORKS Team ATTENTION THIS 15 A POWERCORE PLUG IN AND REQUIRES POWERCORE TO BE INSTALLED IN THE COMPUTER THIS PLUG IN WILL NOT RUN WITHOUT POWERCORE ATTENTION ASSIMILATOR is a Hybrid POWERCORE and Native Plug In To maximize the performance of this Plug In while maintaining the best sound quality the limiter will run Native on your host CPU
11. ION REQUIRES TWO CURVES With the additional step of learning the analysis curve of your target audio or the audio you want to process with the reference analysis curve then there is the ability to do a highly accurate comparison between the two curves and interpolate an ideal EQ curve Let s expand on our previous example adding only one step to correctly use the ASSIMILATOR 1 Learn the analysis curve of the audio that you want your audio to sound like reference 2 Learn the analysis curve of the audio that you want to process target 3 Apply the interpolated EQ curve to the target audio Now what are the results Quite good If we process our target audio from the example above we have an interpolation process that compares the two curves prior to processing If the reference curve has a level of 12 dB at 100 Hz and then you apply that to your target which already has 6db at 100 Hz then the total boost would be 6dB at 100 Hz 6dB is the difference between the two curves so the sum will result in something extremely different and much more useful than in the first example 4 ASSIMILATOR PRESET MANAGEMENT Unlike other Plug Ins ASSIMILATOR has two types of presets CURVE After you have learned the audio spectrum of one piece of audio you can save it as an analysis curve Once the analysis curve is saved it can be loaded as either a reference or target curve from one of the File menus
12. ase refer to the PRESET MANAGEMENT section of this manual T 7 oS ASSIMILATOR 11 T oS 2 DRAW It may be desirable to edit the reference curve with one of the draw tools 4 PENCIL TOOL ASSIMILATOR s Pencil Tool allows you to draw a reference curve on the display Say for example you wish to use a reference curve that has a very good bass spectrum but when you apply the reference curve to your target the high frequencies are not boosted enough If this is the case you can keep the bass frequencies in tact and draw a boost in the high frequencies with the Pencil 15 MAGNET TOOL ASSIMILATOR s Magnet Tool allows you to snap a reference curve to a target curve on the display Say for example you wish to use a reference curve that has a very good bass spectrum but you love the high frequency content of your target Simply use the Magnet Tool to snap the reference curve to your target curve in the area where you do not want processing applied if RANGE TOOL ASSIMILATOR s Range Tool allows you to group a range of points on the spectrum and move them up or down in unison Say for example you like the bass frequencies of your reference curve but you find that when you apply the EQ curve to your target there is just a little too much boost in the bass Simply use the Range Tool to group the bass frequencies and gently pull them down with your mouse until they
13. e at a later time save the analysis curve from the File menu of the Reference section 4 Now we will be using your track Make sure it is loaded into the file view or audio pool of mastering editor 5 Select Learn from the Target section to learn the analysis curve for your mix X 7 oS ul 6 Begin playback of your track When your song has finished playing through press Learn again to disengage the Learn function ASSIMILATOR 15 7 Save your analysis curve as Song or whatsoever from the File menu of the Target section 8 Now in the Reference section you have the analysis curve of the professionally mastered song and the Target section has the analysis curve of your track 9 Begin playback of your track and begin moving the Apply fader to the right until the overall equalization sounds good to you 10 Once you have found an apply setting that you like you can bounce your new mix to disk as a new audio file 11 If you want to edit the overall EQ curve this can be done in the reference curve using one of the draw tools Editing the reference curve will adjust the EQ curve that is applied to the target audio MORPHING You are mastering a rock tune You want the intro and the verse to have a Lo Fi sound as though it is coming from an AM Radio but you want the bridge to transform into a High Fidelity sound as it approaches the chorus By the time you reach the chorus you want
14. e audio that you want to process Learn the target audio You apply the reference curve to the target curve to meet your needs Simple isn t it The ASSIMILATOR compares the frequency curves of the two audio sources and interpolates between the two to generate the ideal EQ curve for the target audio ASSIMILATOR APPLICATIONS The ASSIMILATOR is perfectly suited for Matching a live mix to a studio mix or vice versa Matching tracks on an album to even out the overall EQ across the entire project Applying the frequency curve of your favorite song to your song Applying the frequency curve of your favorite track to your track i e vocals a snare etc Matching the sound of multiple environments and morphing between them as an audio post effect for film or video 2 ASSIMILATOR GLOSSARY OF TERMS Analysis Curve Assimilation EQ Curve Learn Reference Target The analysis curve is based on a frequency analysis or spectral snap shot of any audio source such as a complete mix or individual audio track The analysis curve can be stored for later use The process of making the overall spectral information or equalization of one piece of audio similar to another The EQ curve is the calculated equalization applied to the target curve The EQ curve is an interpolation between the reference analysis curve and the target analysis curve The Learn function
15. e the Input gain fader until no clips are indicated on the input clip LEDs LOW FREQUENCY RESOLUTION The Resolution Sizes of the FFT Low 2048 Points F Med 4096 Points Low Freg Res Low Med Ji High J High 8192 Points By default the Resolution of ASSIMILATOR s FFT is Med In most cases this is all that is needed for processing The High resolution is recommended for situations where you must ensure accurate analysis of the bass frequencies especially in a full mix The Low setting is only advised for use with an individual track rather than a full mix As an example the Low setting is sufficient for matching vocals from one recording session to another OUTPUT GAIN AND METER This is a standard gain fader and meter measured in dB that indicates the output gain stage of the Plug In The clip indicators at the top of the meters should never be active Remember POWERCORE is a fixed processing system and serious clipping 10 ASSIMILATOR can occur if the output signal is above OdB If the clip indicators are active reduce the Output gain fader setting or adjust the Gain Calibration described later in this manual until no clips are indicated on the Output clip LEDs APPLY This fader will apply the reference analysis curve indicated by the blue curve to the target audio When Apply is set to 0 the apply curve indicated by the red curve will be flat As the Apply fader i
16. ng nylon guitars 1 Insert ASSIMILATOR into the channel processing your 6 string nylon guitar track 2 From the Target section of the interface select Learn and begin playback 3 When the audio track has completed playback press Learn again to disengage the Learn function 4 Now we will be loading one of the default presets that will be used to equalize your track From the File menu in the Reference section load the preset curve 6 String Nylon 5 Begin playback of your track and from the user interface begin moving the Apply fader to the right until the equalization of the guitar track sounds right MASTERING In this example let s review how this Plug In is used in a mastering application such as Spark or WaveLab Our goal is to create a mix that sounds like another mix that was professionally mastered The two songs use similar arrangements i e they have more or less the same type of tracks with a similar overall spectral balance In this example we will use Spark LE as our editor 1 Grab the audio from the track on the CD that you would like to use as the reference or Master audio track Load this audio into your Spark LE or whatever audio editor you typically use for mastering and sample editing 2 From the Reference section select Learn and begin playback 3 When the CD track has completed playback press Learn again to disengage the Learn function If you want to recall this analysis curv
17. ptions you can enable and disable any of the curves from being visible in the display Disabling a curve from the display will NOT deactivate the curve Only the metering will be hidden Morph Slider This slider will morph between the settings made in the A and B views of the Plug In For this to be effective you must learn reference and target curves for both the A and B views When the Morph slider is set to A only the settings in the A section are applied to the audio and the red apply curve will be identical to yellow A curve When the Morph slider is set to B only the settings in the B section are applied to the audio and the red apply curve will be identical to purple B curve Curve Calibration These calibration tools allow you to adjust the gain of the curves from the A and B views This allows you to adjust the curves so that morphing is possible without changing the output level This way you can be certain that the level is the same between the A and B curves when morphing is applied 14 ASSIMILATOR TUTORIALS INSTRUMENT MATCHING In the first example let s review how ASSIMILATOR is used as an insert effect for matching instrument tracks in a multi track application Our goal is to create an acoustic guitar sound that sounds identical to your favorite guitar track The two guitar tracks are somewhat similar i e your guitar track the target and your ideal guitar sound the reference are both 6 stri
18. s increased the red curve will change to indicate the EQ interpolated between the target and reference curves At 100 there will be a 100 interpolation of the EQ CALIBRATION The calibration tool allows you to adjust the gain of the applied EQ curve so that you can evenly match levels with and without processing With this function you can bypass the Plug In and compare the signal at exactly the same levels allowing you to best monitor the equalization LIMITER ENABLE AND ACTIVITY INDICATOR Limit The Limiter will ensure that the output of the Plug In never exceeds OdB When the Limiter is engaged it will have an orange color When the Limiter flashes Red this indicates that the Limiter is active REFERENCE CURVE As described in the ASSIMILATOR BASICS Section of this manual the reference curve is the desired curve or the audio you want to sound like The reference could be another track another recording session or even a song from a CD that you would like your audio to sound like LEARN Leann Learn function is how you can sample or grab the spectral curve of any audio file or source Simply engage the Learn button and begin playback When you are finished for example when the song has completed playback disengage the Learn button and the curve will become active FILE The File Dialog is where you can save or load your curves For details about managing analysis curve files ple
19. w A y B y Morph X Preset IN 14 5 Display Options Low Freq Res Low Med High 14 3 OUT A Curve Calibration B Curve Calibration ASSIMILATOR Fel works MORPH ASSIMILATOR s Morph function provides unprecedented power The Morph slider can be used to transition the processing from A to B or B to A depending on which direction you move the fader This could be used to morph from one equalization curve in the intro and verse to a completely different equalization curve for the chorus The morph function could also be used in film and television post where you smoothly transform the EQ curve of one environment to another in order to match sound to picture T N oS ASSIMILATOR 13 T 5 2 ANALYSIS DISPLAY On the Morph view the display will show the frequency analysis of the A analysis curve the B analysis curve and the morphed EQ curve rae n y The yellow curve indicates the EQ curve view A The red curve indicates the morph curve At zero the morph curve is set to the settings from the A view As you move right with the Morph fader the applied EQ curves will morph to the settings from view B The purple curve indicates the EQ curve from view B The black curve indicates the real time analysis of the signal after processing Display Options By selecting the Display O
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