Hello my Friends,

I have seen lots of opinions regarding T-Racks on usergroups, from I
love it to I hate it, but no one addresses the issue of WHAT happens to
the sound wave WHEN it goes through the different processors and the
controls are applied. The manual seems to be a bit shallow when it
comes to explain the principles and concepts involved with the
processors.

I am a "know-to" kind of guy. In my line of work, Nuclear
Medicine/CT Scan, I've seen through the years many people making
mediocre exams. They just push buttons; if you ask them WHY they
adjust a parameter, they get upset, they don't know HOW to reason
their action. Much less, don't know how to compensate for it when it
affects other factors of the exam.

I would like to understand T-Racks at the "know-how" level. I want
to know how the signal is transformed/modified as it passes through the
different components on a conceptual manner. (I got no problems
understanding the physics of dynamic modulation.)

I work with orchestral music in my free time. I use Logic Pro and
plug-ins for my mixes. I use T-racks and The Inspector from Elemental
Audio in Waveburner when mastering.

I have been reading Bob Katz's book on Mastering and have decided to
learn T-Racks in and out. When I ask some of my friends, they just
show me how "well" they would do it. Yeah right...

Could some of you wizards out there, please, help me to understand:

a) The correct steps/approach in processing the signal through
Comp/Lim/Clip
b) The Effect main knobs have on the signal

Any comment and assistance will be deeply appreciated.
Thanks in advance my friends. Merry Christmas.

Rikardo
Mr.Composer

"Mr.Composer" wrote in message
oups.com...

..

I would like to understand T-Racks at the "know-how" level. I want
to know how the signal is transformed/modified as it passes through the
different components on a conceptual manner. (I got no problems
understanding the physics of dynamic modulation.)

There is little to learn about T-Racks in itself other than it's particular
routing and methodology.

What *is* important to learn and understand is the physics and musical
implications of EQ and dynamics processing.


geoff

Mr.Composer wrote:

I have seen lots of opinions regarding T-Racks on usergroups, from I
love it to I hate it

That's the way it is in audio, and restaurants, and movies, and . . . .


but no one addresses the issue of WHAT happens to
the sound wave WHEN it goes through the different processors and the
controls are applied. The manual seems to be a bit shallow when it
comes to explain the principles and concepts involved with the
processors.

You won't usually find a tutorial on what a compressor is when you buy
a compressor, maybe just a little, but what it (and any other signal
processor) does depends on what's going into it. A compressor reduces
dynamic range by reducing the gain as the input level increases. As to
what that DOES to the sound depends on the sound and how you apply the
process. It can make it louder by making it denser, it can make it
sound duller by chopping off initial transients, it can make it sound
punchier by leaving the initial transient and reducing the level of
everything beyond the attack so the attack sounds relatively louder. It
can do many things. A book will help you to understand the principles,
but you really can't know what's going to happen unitl you try.

Could some of you wizards out there, please, help me to understand:

a) The correct steps/approach in processing the signal through
Comp/Lim/Clip
b) The Effect main knobs have on the signal

I wrote an article about compression in Recording Magazine (December
96) and most of it I think is still on the Manley Labs web site. You
might see if you can find it from http://www.maneylabs.com

Geoff@home wrote:
"Mr.Composer" wrote in message
roups.com...

I would like to understand T-Racks at the "know-how" level. I want
to know how the signal is transformed/modified as it passes through the
different components on a conceptual manner. (I got no problems
understanding the physics of dynamic modulation.)

There is little to learn about T-Racks in itself other than it's particular
routing and methodology.

What *is* important to learn and understand is the physics and musical
implications of EQ and dynamics processing.

And for that, I don't know how you'd go about learning that with the
emulated systems.

I think I learned an awful lot of it from reading the principles of
operation in old Orban manuals, to be honest. That and abusing Orban
products of various sorts.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I have seen lots of opinions regarding T-Racks on usergroups, from I
love it to I hate it, but no one addresses the issue of WHAT happens to
the sound wave WHEN it goes through the different processors and the
controls are applied. The manual seems to be a bit shallow when it
comes to explain the principles and concepts involved with the
processors.

The properties of EQ's, compressors, limiters, and saturation are too easily
found with a web search, so I'll leave that to you.

A big part of the appeal of T-Racks is the under-the-hood harmonics
processing. It's emulating tubes at various stages, which is for the
mostpart coloration by adding harmonics. A "tube harmonics" search should
fetch plenty of info.

My take on T-Racks is that certain components do certain tasks very well,
but for example I'd rather have a compressor plug-in and a tube harmonics
plug-in, rather than blindly apply harmonics. I think this is where the
industry is heading, the end of magical misuse of analog gear, the
deconstruction of coloration into its various processes, and tools to
address each process at a fundamental level.

The only T-Racks process that does only what it says is the Soft Clipper,
which is a saturator and peak limiter that I find very handy.

Thank you all, my friends, for all the assistance and your time. I
have followed everyone's suggestions and visited suggested sites.
Thanks.

There are some knobs, still, a bit confussing to me in the Limiter and
Clipper:
a) Overload and Threshold - Limiter section
b) Saturation lights - Clipper

Are these the the ones related to the harmonic saturation/coloration
that Zigakly spoke about?

Do you guys think could elaborate on that?

Thanks
Rikardo

There are some knobs, still, a bit confussing to me in the Limiter and
Clipper:
a) Overload and Threshold - Limiter section

Threshold - the point at which the limiter starts to attenuate the signal
Overload - I suspect a better word for this is make-up, a gain stage after
the limiter to regain some of what was attenuated, perhaps with a saturation
function. Both aspects are redundant with the Soft Clipper present.

b) Saturation lights - Clipper

This indicates that saturation is being applied. I treat it as 50%
saturation, meaning that if the incoming signal does not exceed 0dB, at the
default -6dB saturation setting the signal can never exceed -3dB, so 3dB of
make-up gain can be added afterwards. However we're left in the dark with
no metering except the output.

Are these the the ones related to the harmonic saturation/coloration
that Zigakly spoke about?

No, there are absolutely no indicators or controls related to the
coloration. That's why I called it blind, and addressing those issues with
at least a modicum of control is how I expect the industry will progress.
Take a look at Voxengo plugs, for example, www.voxengo.com