MD3 STEREO MASTERING
Contents
1. All Gain Comp All Ratio Limiter Soft Clip T User 315 Hz 3 15 kHz 4 0 dB 0 0 dB 2 00 1 0 dB hA MD3 MULTIBAND DYNAMICS t c electronic When using the EQ section located just before the Normalizer the gain might have been increased or decreased The Normalizer is used to optimize the gain before hitting the Expander Compressor section Trim Left and Trim Right Range 6 to 18dB in O 1dB steps Level parameter between the EQ and Exp Comp section When Input Mode is set to Stereo the parameters will be linked Soft clip Range 5dB Off The Soft clipper is placed between the Normalizer and Exp Comp section By enabling the Soft clipper you are able to reduce potential overshoots o c z MD 3 13 Expander Expander Fader Groups Lo Xover Hi Xover Comp All Thresh Comp All Gain Comp All Ratio Limiter Soft Clip v User 315 Hz 3 15 kHz 4 0 dB 0 0 dB 2 00 1 0 dB MULTIBAND DYNAMICS t c electronic Pressing Threshold Range Ratio Attack and Release keys will immediately assign Lo Mid Hi and Master values for these parameters to Faders 1 4 Press the L R key to see all parameters at the same time Threshold parameters Range 50dB to OdB in 0 5dB steps When the signal drops below the set Threshold value the Expander will be activated Range Range 40dB to OdB in O 5dB steps The Range parameter sets the Max attenuation relative tp the Ref level setting2. MD 3 Notch Filter Narrow Type Notch fiter narrow bandwidth Level dB MUN w Cut Filter Bessel type in menn d Cut Filter Butterworth type 10 10 10 Frequency Hz MD 3 11 Freq Press Freq and use Faders 1 to 4 to adjust frequence for each of the four bands Range Lo band 20Hz to 20kHz Range 1 band 20Hz to 20kHz Range Mid2 band 20Hz to 20kHz Range Hi band 20Hz to 40kHz Gain Press Gain and use Faders 1 4 to adjust gain for each of the four EQ bands Range for the Parametric Shelve and Cut type Lo Gain 12dB to 12dB Mid1 Gain 12dB to 12dB Mid2 Gain 12dB to 12dB Hi Gain 12dB to 12dB Range for the Notch filter Lo Gain inf 97dB to OdB Mid1 Gain inf 97dB to OdB Mid2 Gain inf 97dB to OdB Hi Gain inf 97dB to OdB TYPE Range for the Notch filter Range for the Cut filter Lo BW 0 02oct to loct Lo BW Bessel or Butterworth Mid1 BW 0 02oct to loct Hi BW Bessel or Butterworth Mid2 BW 0 02oct to loct Hi BW 0 02oct to loct Bandwidth Q Key Values BW Q Range for the Parametric filter 0 5 2 87 Lo BW O loct to 40kHz 07 2 04 1 BW O loct to 40kHz 1 0 1 41 Mid2 BW O loct to 40kHz Hi BW O loct to 40kHz Range for the Shelve filter Lo BW 3dB oct to 12dB oct Hi BW 3dB oct to 12dB oct 12 MD 3 Normalizer Lo Xover Hi Xover Comp All Thresh Comp
3. 19 BRICKWALL LIMITER Gain L Gain R ar 0 0 dB 0 0 dB wan m Group Gain L Gain R Threshold Soft Clip Release A v User 0 0 dB 0 0 dB 0 0 dBFS Off Normal A BRICKWALL LIMITER t c electronic GETTING STARTED The BrickWall limiter cannot prevent destruction of dynamic range from happening at earlier stages in the production process but it can get rid of the signals we know are going to get distorted in consumer CD players radio processors or data reduction codecs Precision in Level and Time The BrickWall limiter operates with extended precision in both level 48 bit through out and time 5 times oversampling Double precision calculations are always used while hyper precision in limiter timing can be turned on or off using the Upsample key Level meters are always upsampled in order to identify intersample and OdBFS peaks on Inputs as well as Outputs The meter scale is extended to 3dBFS because exces sive level normally falls between O and 3dBFS and most consumer equipment already exhibits severe distortion at 0 5 dBFS We recommend using the BrickWall limiter in Upsample mode However if you wish to just limit the signal based on sample by sample values like a normal digital limiter the function can be turned off When turned off the limiter does not protect against OdBFS peaks from occurring 20 MD 3 Limiter Time constants The Limiter employs adaptive time constants to combat di
4. Example With a Ref Level setting of 6 dB and Range set to 10 the max attenuation can be 16dB Ratio parameters Range Off to Infinity The Ratio of the Gain Reduction Example If the signal drops 1 dB below the Threshold with a Ratio set to 1 3 the actual attenuation will be 3dB 14 MD 3 Attack Range 0 3 to 100ms Exponential The Attack time is the time the Expander uses to generate the gain reduction speci fied by the Ratio parameter Release Range 20ms to 7sec Exponential The time it takes for the Expander to release its attenuation of the signal when the signal exceeds the Threshold Meter Zoom Press to zoom on the range of the Gain Reduction meters L R Press to view all algorithm parameters at the same time MD 3 15 Compressor Page 14 0 ms Lo Release Mid Release 200 ms MULTIBAND DYNAMICS t c electronic Pressing Threshold Gain Ratio Attack and Release keys will immediately assign Lo Mid Hi and Master values for these parameters to Faders 1 4 Press the L R key to see all parameters at the same time Threshold Range 25dB to 20dB in 0 5dB steps Relates to the Ref Level setting General explanation when the Input signal exceeds the Threshold value the Compressor starts to reduce the dynamic content of the signal according to the set Ratio Gain Range Off 18dB to 12dB in O 5dB steps Manual Makeup gain for each compression band Where the Auto Gain contro
5. pop up preset menu NAMING A PRESET Double click on the name field Type in the new name Press Enter SAVING A PRESET By selecting Save you can save your preset to any folder on the system that you have write access to including any shared folder By default presets are saved to the default location for the MD 3 and BrickWall Limiter presets QUICK PRESET COMPARISON The A B function of MD 3 and BrickWall Limiter allows for a quick comparison of two different settings Select Store and then A or B to save a setting into either the A or B memory After setting up both an A and a B setting you can simply select either A or B to imme diately compare the two settings As these are meant for a quick comparison these settings are LOST when closing the Plug In If you love your preset we advise you to save it DEFAULT PRESET LOCATIONS The following locations will describe where you can find the MD 3 and BrickWall Limiter presets which are stored in a folder unique to each plug in 22 MAC 0S X Files are stored in your user folder Library Application Support V TC Electronic Presets MD 3 Multiband Dynamics Library Application Support TC Electronic Presets BrickWall Limiter Refers to your user folder Users Your Name WINDOWS Files are stored on the Windows OS hard drive V TCWorks X PowerCore TC Electronic Presets MD 3 Multiband Dynamics V TCWorks PowerCo
6. LE OF CONTENTS 2 2 RR nr 1 INTRODUCTION TO MD 3 Stereo Mastering Package 2 GETTING STARTED ate acai einen cate Dn 3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ueeelllllllleel eene 3 PROCESSING DELAY at 1 oreet au e optet o Bu ew 4 POWERCORE REQUIRED 222 cece eee eee hh 4 PARAMETER OVERVIEW 0 0 ccc eee ee eee eee 3 hn 5 agg itc 6 EXPANDER COMPRESSOR eee nnn nnn 8 d un 9 NORMALIZER PAGE 2m xx UE Reg e RR ncs m x eww 13 EXPANDER PAGE sse YER RE Yu RE Y RR RE RR 14 COMPRESSOR PAGE 0 0 cece ehh hh 16 OUTPUT PAGE 5 5 e thee eine Shaws te dae ee eda Ec c ode 18 BRICKWALL LIMITER 0 0 cece eee eee ees 20 PRESET MANAGEMENT 2000 e cece eee eee eens 22 QUICK PRESET COMPARISSON 22 MD 3 1 Introduction TC Electronic is proud to introduce the MD 3 Stereo package for TC PowerCore This package includes both our MD 3 Multi Band Dynamics and BrickWall Limiter algo rithms the finest stereo mastering tools from our award winning System 6000 MAIN FEATURES Four band Parametric EQ Dual Mono capability Normalizer Three band Exp Comp Lim MS Encode Decode Sample accurate BrickWall Limiter MD 3 The MD 3 plug in features both Dual Mono and Stereo dynamics processing in thr
7. c plug in delay compensation that will adjust for any latency automatically Check with your host application software manu facturer whether plug in delay compensation is supported POWERCORE REQUIRED The MD 3 Stereo Mastering package requires a PowerCore device to run on your sys tem SCROLL WHEEL SUPPORT If you are using a host application that supports this feature all of the MD 3 and BrickWall Limiter parameters support scrolling on both Windows XP and Mac OS X Simply roll your mouse over a knob and use the Scroll Wheel to increment decre ment the associated parameter TOOLTIPS If you are just getting started with the MD 3 Stereo Mastering Package and you want to know what all the parameters do press the question mark Icon to activate the tooltip function When activated moving the mouse over the different parameters will display information about the parameter functionality Of course you can disable the tooltips as soon as you know your way around DISPLAY DISABLED Should your PowerCore be fully loaded and there is not enough free processing on your DSPs the plug in will come up in a disabled state Should this occur it is advised to remove the Plug In from the mix The User Group Assign key You can group your own set of most important parameters into a user group at the bot tom of the plug in for having a better overview without having to switch pages By pressing the Control Group Selector Up key you enter the U
8. ee frequency bands It s pristine signal path uses 48 bit processing Make up gain can be applied automatically or manually so the algorithm can be set up to do everything from strictly limiting to level maximization By offering a true side chain split structure MD3 is also capable of demanding mono material compression limiting on two separate channels not found in other multi band dynamics processors Look ahead delay may be used for improved peak handling and low distortion opera tion Used for mastering MD3 can be regarded as a high end mastering tool M and S com ponents of a stereo signal can be processed separately and provide even more control making full use of the Spectral Stereo Enhancer I O page Head Room In case you are working with very hot signal levels in your audio application you might experience clipping of the input of the MD 3 or BrickWall limiter algorithm In that case we recommend that you lower the output level of the previous plug in or turn down your input channel or send level 2 MD 3 If this does not help you can use the build in headroom parameter on the plug in 1 0 page to get an additional head room Please be aware that this results in a loss of bit resolution Setting the Head Room parameter to a value different from O dB will change two gains the native input gain is set to reduce the signal level while the gain at the input to the 48 bit algorithm is set to make up that reductio
9. hN BUILT FOR POWERCORE MD3 STEREO MASTERING for POWERCORE USER MANUAL t c electronic SOUND MACHINES TC SUPPORT INTERACTIVE The TC Support Interactive website is our online support and information center At the site you can find answers to specific problems regarding TC products 24 7 All resolved problems are stored in a database searchable by product category keywords or phrases We constantly update the database and you will find the site to be a huge resource of information Browse through our Q amp A s and discover new aspects of your TC product If you can t find an answer online you have the option of submitting a question to our technical support staff who will then reply to you by e mail The TC Support Team is on constant alert to help you in any way they can URL www tcsupport tc CONTACT DETAILS Alternatively you may contact the TC Electronic distributor in your area or write to International TC ELECTRONIC A S Customer Support Sindalsvej 34 Risskov DK 8240 Denmark USA TC Electronic Inc 5706 Corsa Ave Suite 107 Westlake Village Ca 91362 www tcelectronic com BY TC ELECTRONIC A S 2004 ALL PRODUCT AND COMPANY NAMES ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS VST IS A TRADEMARK OF STEIN BERG A G AUDIO UNITS IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPUTER ALL SPECIFI CATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TC ELECTRONIC IS A TC GROUP COMPANY TABLE OF CONTENTS TAB
10. l start operating when set to OdB 8 MD 3 f 100Hz 1kHz 10kHz Group Lo Gain Gain Hid2 Gain Notch Hi Gain 7 Local 9 7 dB 1 6 dB 9 0 dB 2 5 dB hA MD3 MULTIBAND DYNAMICS t c electronic INTRODUCTION This digital EQ features a four band parametric EQ with high and low pass filters switchable between Notch Parametric Shelving and Cut filters The needle sharp notch filter has a range down to 0 01 octave and the shelving filters has a variable slope ranging from gentle 3 dB oct over 6 and 9 to 12dB oct Cut filters are switch able between 12dB oct maximum flat amplitude Butterworth or flat group delay Bessel types The parametric equalizer features a natural and well defined band width behavior at all gain and width settings BASIC OPERATION e Press keys Lo Mid1 Mid2 and Hi to activate deactivate the EQ bands e Select Freq Gain Type or Lo Hi to access all four parameters on individual bands e Press Bypass EQ to bypass all four bands o MD 3 9 TYPE SELECTOR Press Type and use faders 1 4 to select filter types For Lo and Hi filters select between filter types Parametric Notch Shelve and Cut For Mid 1 and Mid 2 filters select between filter types Parametric and Notch Parametric Filter Broad type Parametric filter broad bandwidth Level dB 10 Frequency Hz Shelving Filter Shelve filter 3 dB oct Level dB m Frequency Hz 10
11. l in the Main page compensates for the total gain reduc tion caused by the Compressor the Gain controls in the Compressor pages are used as additional gain controls on the individual bands 16 MD 3 Ratio Range Off to Infinity Specifies the Ratio of the performed compression Example With a Ratio setting of 2 1 the compressor will reduce every 2dB above the Threshold point to only Attack Range 0 3 to 100ms The Attack time is the time the Compressor uses to reach the gain reduction specified by the Ratio parameter Example If the Input signal increases by 4dB above the set Threshold with a Ratio set to 2 1 and the Attack time set to 20ms the Compressor will use 20ms to reach a Gain reduction of 2dB Release Range 20ms to 7s The fallback time The time it takes for the Compressor to release the attenuation of the signal Meter Zoom Press to zoom on the range of the Gain Reduction meters L R Press to view all algorithm parameters at the same time MD 3 17 Output page z 1 5 ml el f Tim L Trim R Output Level Betence 0 0 dB 0 0 dB 0 0 dB Center Compare A 0 0 dB Group Lo Xover Hi Xover Comp All Thresh Comp All Gain Comp All Ratio Limiter Soft Clip v User 315 Hz 3 15 kHz 4 0 dB 0 0 dB 2 00 1 0 dB MD3 MULTIBAND DYNAMICS t c electronic FULL RANGE LIMITER Soft clip Range 6dB to O dB in 1 dB steps 3dB off Soft clipper after the Compressor Th
12. n The advantage of this is that any of the algorithm parameters especially thresholds will affect the signal in the same way independent of the headroom setting The disadvantage is that some of the lower bits are lost in the 24 bit path to the algo rithm On the other hand the same loss would happen when you would reduce the signal via an input level parameter Getting Started SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS The Plug In requires POWERCORE PCI or POWERCORE FIREWIRE version 1 9 or later to be available in your system MAC 0S X e PowerCore PCl Element or PowerCore FireWire running system 1 9 or later G4 or G5 800 MHz or faster 256 MB RAM 512 MB or more recommended Mac OS X 10 2 6 or higher Any VST or AudioUnits compatible host application System must meet requirements of the host application Internet connection for product activation WINDOWS PowerCore PCI or FireWire running system 1 9 or later Pentium IIl 1GHz or faster 256 MB RAM 512 MB or more recommended Windows XP Any VST compatible application System must meet requirements of the host application Internet connection for product activation MD 3 3 PROCESSING DELAY In addition to the typical latency delay associated with DSP Plug Ins MD 3 and BrickWall Limiter also has an internal processing delay that will increase the latency Using a larger look ahead delay in MD 3 will result in additional latency being intro duced Most host applications feature automati
13. ompressor bands for the two channels Hi Xover Range Off 25 32 40 50 63 80Hz 16kHz Sets the Cross over frequency between the Mid and the Hi Expander and Compressor bands for the two channels NOTE The Lo Xover value can not be higher than the Hi Xover Crest Range Peak 6 10 12 14 16 20 24 RMS Select compression method between RMS and PEAK for all three bands The dB steps between RMS and Peak are number of dBs needed for a peak value to override RMS measurement and can be perceived as a Threshold setting Example If the Crest parameter is set to 6dB the Compressor will respond to RMS values and to peaks 6dB higher than the current RMS value Auto Gain Range Off On Switches the Automatic Make up gain on or off for the Compressor bands When set to on the gain for each band is adjusted according to Threshold and Ratio settings When set to off no automatic gain adjustments are performed Nominal Delay Range O to 15ms lt 2ms in O 1ms steps gt 2ms in 0 5 ms steps Sets the nominal Delay of the signal compared to the Sidechain signal This is also known as Look ahead delay enabling the compressor section to become more responsive to the incoming signal thereby performing a more precise compression Reference Level Range 24dBFS to OdBFS in O 5dB steps This parameter sets the reference level in the algorithm The reference level is the level at which the Compressor Threshold parameters wil
14. re TC Electronic Presets BrickWall Limiter Refers to the path for your System Hard Drive Program Files e 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 MD 3 or BrickWall Limiter default preset location NOTE A folder will not appear in the Preset File Menu unless it has at least one pre set inside MD 3 23
15. reshold is relative to OdBFS not to the Ref Level Threshold Threshold is relative to OdBFS not to the Ref Level Range 12 to 3 dB 6 to 4 3 in O 1dB increments 12 to 6 in O 5dB increments 18 MD 3 Release Range 20ms to 7sec Release time for the Limiter Ceiling Range to 0 10dB in 0 01dB steps Fine tuning parameter setting the Ceiling for the Limiter This parameter prevents the Output signal from ever exceeding the adjusted Threshold It can be used to hide overloads to downstream equipment but it does not remove the distortion associated with an over TRIM LEVELS Trim L Range O to 12dB in O 1dB steps Left channel Output level trim after the Compressor and Output mode parameter M S and before the Limiter section Trim R Range O to 12dB in O 1dB steps Right channel Output level trim after the Compressor and Output mode parameter M S and before the Limiter section Output Fader Range Off to OdB lt 40dB in 3dB steps gt 40 in O 5dB steps Output fader for both Outputs Balance Range 6dBL to 6dBR Changes the Output balance between the Left and Right channel COMPARE key Due to the difference in level in circuit and out of circuit comparisons are often difficult to make using the BYPASS key Use the Compare Level parameter to compen sate Press to activate compare function Compare Level Range 20 to OdB Bypass Lim Press to bypass the Limiter section MD 3
16. s the Input level for the two Input channels Input Mode Range Stereo Dual Mono MS Linked MS Unlink Selects the Input mode Stereo In Stereo Mode the Expander Compressor section of the algorithm uses one common SideChain for both Left and Right channels and the EQ section is linked Please note that when coming from e g Dual Mono mode EQ settings from the Left channel will be copied to the right channel Dual Mono In Dual Mono mode the Expander Compressor section of the algorithm uses separate SideChains for the Left and Right Channel and they can be operated individually Linked In the MS Linked mode the MS Encoder is activated and the Expander Compressor section of the algorithm uses one common SideChain for both Left and Right chan nels EQ is unlinked MS Unlinked In the MS Unlinked mode the MS Encoder is activated and the Expander Compressor section of the algorithm uses separate SideChains for the Left and Right Channels EQ is unlinked NOTE When a mono signal is processed only the left channel of the algorithm is active Output Mode Range Left Right MS Left Right Straight Output without MS Decode MS MS decode before the limiter section DC block Range Off On The DC block is a Lo Cut filter used to remove potential DC noise at 2Hz MD 3 1 EXPANDER COMPRESSOR SETUP Lo Xover Range Off 25 32 40 50 63 80Hz 16kHz Sets the Cross over frequency between the Lo and Mid Expander C
17. ser group In this group you can assign any parameter to any Control field in the group The User Control group is stored with a preset Press the Link key Select the Control field you wish to link a parameter to by pressing the field Press the parameter you wish to link to the selected Control field 4 MD3 PARAMETER OVERVIEW The MD 3 is a 3 band 2 Channel Dynamics processing algorithm The algorithm con tains e Stereo four band precision EQ Linked or Dual mono operation Stereo 3 band compression with linked or separate SideChains e MS Encode Decode at the Input and Output The MD 3 will run at sample rates up to 96kHz Signal flow through the algorithm EXP COMP IN LEVEL MS ENCODER MS DECODER SOFTCLIPPER NORMALIZER LIMITER SOFTCLIPPER OUT LEVEL FADER HH H MD 3 5 The MD 3 algorithm occupies Sample Rate PCl Element PowerCore FW Q 44 1 khz 40 of 1 DSP 48 khz 44 of 1 DSP 88 2 khz 92 of 1 DSP 72 95 of 1 DSP 96 khz 10076 of 1 DSP 79 6 of 1 DSP Subject to change MAIN PAGE Y User Nominal Delay 10 0 ms Ref Level 6 0 dBFS Lo Xover Hi Xover Comp All Thresh Comp All Gain Comp All Ratio Limiter Soft Clip 315 Hz 3 15 kHz 4 0 dB 0 0 dB 2 00 1 0 dB MULTIBAND DYNAMICS t c electronic 6 MD 3 Inlevel Left and Inlevel Right Range Off to OdB 40dB in 3dB steps gt 40dB in O 5dB steps Set
18. stortion at low frequencies while maintaining quick adoption to occasional peaks A manual Release time can be set if the Auto Release key is turned off We recom mend using the Auto setting with Release set at Default If quick recovery and loud ness is an issue move the Release setting in the Fast direction Processing of very sensitive material might sound better with Release settings in the Slow direction Absolute Bit Transparency Whenever the BrickWall limiter is not attenuating the signal it is passed completely unaffected transparent to the 24th bit Consequently the BrickWall limiter may be used to remove OdBFS peaks on already mastered and finally dithered material When the Limiter is bit transparent a green indicator next to the Threshold control lights up Input and Output gain controls have O 1dB increments but snap to bit shifts at O 6 12 18 and 244 settings When a bit shift value is selected a green indicator is lit on the screen Bit transparency from Input to Output is obtained when Input Gain and Output Fader hit these values and sum to OdB e g Input Output O OdB 6 6 dB 12 12dBetc Bit Pattern Transparency When only bit shift gain settings are used on Input and Output bit patterns remain unchanged through the algorithm but can be shifted up in the MSB direction or down in the LSB direction as desired E g Input Output 6 0 one up 12 two down Linking The two channels BrickWall limi
19. ters can be operated independently or linked If pro nounced limiting is performed on stereo material linking should be considered to avoid L R image shifts If only mild and occasional limiting is being done un linked operation even on stereo material may sound the best MD 3 21 PRESET MANAGEMENT TC s comprehensive file based preset architecture makes archiving presets a simple process This allows you to organize your presets the way you find most comfortable for your workflow and to exchange presets with other users no matter the platform or application 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 organized into subfolders where you can delete rearrange or create your own sub folders to accommodate your needs NOTE A folder will not appear in the Preset File Menu unless the folder has at least one preset inside PRESET FILE MENU Pressing the File button will open the Plug In s File menu The following options are available from the File menu LOADING A PRESET By selecting Load you can navigate to any folder on the system that you have read access to including any shared folder By default these will be loaded from the default location for MD 3 and BrickWall presets Only presets located in the default file location will appear in the MD 3 and BrickWall Limiter
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