Or for the VST audioist with a little voyeur in their blood Voxengo GlissEQ and SPAN work nicely too. If you are mastering someone else work - sure, eq may be necessary. He only has two tracks to work with - let him have two virgin tracks. Otherwise, he might have to undo what you've done. I strongly believe that no effects - whatsoever - should be applied to the master buss for the mix that is given to the mastering engineer. Just eq'ing the whole mix doesn't give me that option.
Because I don't have to - I have full access to my own mix, so why slaughter it with an overall eq, when I can re-mix better?įor example - I might decide to boost the kick. Why don't I just "Har-Bal-ize" it with their eq?. Then, if I identify a weakness at - for example - 80Hz - I go back and re-mix. Personally - I use it as a spectrum analyser. And I wasn't talking about Har-bal when I commented about products that match another eq curve. I wasn't dissing Har-bal myself, if anyone took that. I see so many people dissing Harbal for not having this feature, so they seem to be bowing to pressure. Har-Bal2 is at beta stage, I believe, and it does have the curve matching.
I just wish that they had released a VST version of it like they had originally planned, but apparently they had some problems with that and ditched the idea. as always, using your ears and not just your eyes is the way to go. If you just drag lines around to match a preset curve of another song, you may make some improvements but you may make some harmful changes to the sound too. but like all tools, it's not going to do the whole job for you. but I did buy it and gave it a fair try, and I actually find it to be a pretty cool tool. Their website was (at least at that time) pretty hyperbolic and frankly that turned me off. When the program was first released, I was a skeptic.
and unlike programs like the old Free Filter, there isn't an "automatch" feature (unless they've added that recently), with the idea being that you DO have to listen as you adjust things for the best results. However, if you have good ears and know what you're doing, you'll get even more benefits out of the program than just trying to "match" an EQ curve. Is it a substitute for a good mastering engineer? Nope. As an EQ, it's pretty powerful and sounds pretty good. I own Har-Bal, and I do use it occasionally. I wouldn't go overboard in this direction, but I would be mastering each track with my ears on the matter. If something is sticking out, definately fix things to be more in line. that's a matter of taste and certainly not a rule. Regarding making different artists fit together well for a compilation. I use the Waves Phase Linear Multi Band Compressor, process. if I've got to do it myself, you bet I'm using HarBal to help me along, regardless of any "use you ears, not your eyes", second hand logic. I would much rather send my stuff to a good ME than do it myself but. It is also, as Kiwi pointed out, a great eq. It requires your good taste to use it well. The people that diss HarBal are the people that haven't used HarBal, relying on wisdom and soundbytes from forums, etc. And yes, you have to use your ears! It takes quite a few tries to create a good curve for a particular tune and then listen to it on different systems.Ħ0Hurts! I agree.