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bx_refnement M/S arshness !ontrol

Faithfully musical and outstandingly tasteful.
Breathe exceptional life into your recordings with bx_refnement.
Imagine working on a recording and removing the harshness with no negative im-
pact to the sound otherwise. bx_refnement was designed to be such an enhancing
and de-harshing tool.
For many engineers their favorite processors are often the ones that smooth
things out. !hen you get down to it one of the main things people like about ana-
log e"uipment and their emulations in general is their ability to round o# harsh
edge.
bx_refnement was developed to focus directly on this task in the most musical and
transparent way specifcally focusing on de-harshing and cleaning things up. $he
internal algorithm is based on a careful combination of time-tested approaches
modern techni"ues and the latest science about the sensitivity of the human ear.
$he main goal was to be non-compromising tasteful and musical % to bring the
mindset of an analog mastering setup to the digital domain. $he result is bx_refne-
ment the most musical digital processor for de-harshing.
&astering 'ngineer (ebre !addell of )tonebridge &astering developed the proto-
type of bx_refnement while writing the book *+omplete ,udio &astering- .ractical
$echni"ues/. $he concepts of the book related to harshness and relevant tech-
ni"ues were perfected and blended into a 0)$ prototype he programmed and
tweaked. , crucial part of the development was critical listening and discussions
with other engineers. (ebre later presented the prototype to Brainworx. !e then
took on the task to optimi1e the underlying algorithms and port the processor to
the various platforms via our uni"ue plug-in framework.
!hile bx_refnement is exceptional as a mastering tool many mixing engineers will
also en2oy the unparalleled control over harshness on individual mix signals as the
processor can be used to generally widen stereo signals and make them more de-
fned and clearer.
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Tube "raphi#
bx_refnement is not a 3-3 emulation of a certain tube sound. Instead it combines
several desired musical aspects of audio enhancing found in tube-based e"uipment
to give you an easy-to-operate and very effective tool. &any people associate tubes
with a smoothing and de-harshing e#ect which bx_refnement is designed to do
extremely well. $he tube graphic gives you precise visual feedback about how
intensely the process is being applied. It4s easy to see how much how fast and how
dynamic the processing is by simply by looking at the tube4s glow in the display.
Brainworx toolbar
$he top toolbar will enable you to bypass the plug-in. 56 steps of 7ndo 8 9edo give
you the freedom to experiment without losing your initial ideas. : settings can be
used to store and recall momentary snapshots that also can be automated. ;ou can
+opy 8 .aste settings as expected and reset individual settings as well.
$amping
$he <amping control reduces harshness with a peak band '= by a fxed dB value. It
sets the constant baseline of reduction which can be altered 8 increased by a vari-
able value using the *<ynamics/ or *>scillator/ options % see the *<amping modula-
tion/ section on page :. For example the picture on the left shows a constant re-
duction of harshness of -?.5? dB.
Soft / ar%
$he soft8hard option sets the character of the processing. $he soft option uses
typical second-order fltering while the hard option uses high-order fltering
@fourth-orderA. bx_refnement features digital high-order dynamic fltering.
Solo &ilter
!ith this knob you can listen to the reduced harsh fre"uencies isolated which is es-
pecially handy when you use <ynamic &odes @<amping &odulationA. !hat you hear
is what will be fltered out in the mix.
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Saturation
bx_refnement4s saturation algorithm was designed to o#er a bit of character with-
out changing the sound dramatically. $he intent is to add little Bavour rather than
producing a dramatic e#ect. ,lternatively you can of course use bx_refnement
along with any character processor you choose such as Brainworx4s bx_saturator
06. $he saturation also adds a bit of brightness so if youCre looking to brighten
something as you are de-harshing you can reach fo either the presence control @see
belowA or the saturation control.
'resen#e
bx_refnement4s presence control is a shelving flter designed to boost highs and air
in a transparent way. >nce you4ve tamed the harshness with the core bx_refne-
ment controls you may want to ad2ust this range suitably. )ome mastering engi -
neers may prefer to tame this range with one of their many tools for the 2ob and
use only the core bx_refnement processing. Dowever this control was designed to
work in almost every situation. >ne techni"ue is to exaggerate the de-harshing us-
ing a combination of the damping and dynamics controls with the mix knob all the
way up. )et the presence with it exaggerated then use the damping and dynamics
controls to set the de-harshness to suit the recording then mix the e#ect in.
Mix
In the typical workBow once you have things set as you like this control may be ad-
2usted to easily increase or reduce the amount of processing being applied. .arallel
de-harshing in the box made easy.
Mi% / Mi%(Si%e
$his knob allows the processing to be applied only to the &id channel or to both
the &id and )ide channels e"ually. )ometimes it will sound better with 2ust the mid
channel selected but most often it will sound best when the processing is being ap-
plied to both channels.
What is Mid / Side (M/S)?
!e have some online info and videos for you here.
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$amping Mo%ulation) $ynami#s *ption
'nabling the <ynamics option modulates the de-harshing flter according to the
peak level of the input material. $he dynamic reduction will be added to the fxed
reduction dialed in via the <amping knob @see aboveA.
+ange
$his control lets you ad2ust how much damping will be added by the modulation.
Spee%
$his control ad2usts how fast bx_refnement will react to the incoming signal de-
pending on the loudness of the recording being processed.
Meter
In addition to seeing how much of the fltering is being applied by looking at the
tube graphic you can also monitor the meter in the dynamics section.
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$amping Mo%ulation) *s#illator *ption
$he oscillation option allows you to create nice warming e#ects. $he general harsh-
ness damping dialed in @see aboveA will now additionally be modulated by a sine.
;ou can ad2ust the speed of the oscillator with the duration knob in both modes
@free 8 sync see belowA. $he dynamic reduction will be added to the fxed reduction
of the <amping knob.
$epth
$his option ad2usts how much of the process is being applied during oscillation in
both modes @free 8 sync see belowA. $he dB value represents the maximum added
damping on the peak of the sine.
$uration ,&ree Mo%eA
In this mode the modulation will not be synced to the song tempo of your <,! @au-
dio hostA. Instead you can dial in a length in seconds.
$uration ,Syn# Mo%e-
$his option allows the oscillator to be synced to the tempo set in the <,!. $he sine
will be "uanti1ed and follow a typical groove pattern @383 386 38: etc.A. ;ou can
shift the accent of the modulation by dragging the sine graphics on the bar window
to cut or boost in a rhythmical pattern for example to emphasi1e or reduce certain
hi-hat hits in a beat.
'lugin .llian#e Toolbar
$his plug-in can be installed and operated like any other ,lliance plugin. .lease
check www.plugin-alliance.com for general info about the activation system re-
"uirements etc.
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