Hello, everyone, it's "@phatstudio" and today on Dynamic processors we'll be looking at maximizers. you can also check out other articles on dynamic processors through the links at the end of this article.
What is a maximizer:?
A maximizer is a processor that is being used to get most volume out of our recordings. A maximizer can also be seen as a limiter or a compressor but it works a little bit more than that. to fully understand how a maximizer works we must a little knowledge of how a normalizer.
Normalizer:
A normalizer is a processor which takes care of the highest peaks in the hold material or program by busting the peak to be at the ceiling level and also busting other signals according to that.
For example: If the peak is let's say 5dB below the loudest, then the normalizer is going to bust the hold signal with 5dB.
Most maximizers only have two functions and that is;
- The threshold
- The output ceiling or the output level
N/B: The problem with a traditional maximizer is that it's going to bust the hold signal according to the loudest peak that we have in a material or program.
But this loudest peaks normally last milliseconds or so and they are just really small peaks in the entire song. The benefit of using a maximizer is that it's actually two in one (2in1). Because it's going to normalize the signal, but when you lower the thrashold values, it's going to look for peaks exceeding the threshold value and limit them which means that we can make our signal louder.
With that, we can simply describe a maximizer as a normalizer with a limiter in front of it.
Most maximizers out-there actually have some quantization, dithering, and noise shaping options as well which really indicates that they are best used for mastering porpoise.
So if you are going to be using your maximizer as an insert on maybe a track, then you will really want to turn off the Dithering and Quantizationand really keep that for the very last stage were we are going to be converting our mixes, let's say 24 bits to 16 bits which is really what the maximizers are meant for.
N/B:
Dithering is used to 'smooth out' quantization that takes place when converting the bitrate of a mix by adding a noise to the signal to avoid problems in the low end of the signal caused by truncation. Also, you will generally want to dither your signal only once and it is very wise to create a dedicated mastering project instead of mastering your productions in the mix project.
If we are going to be working with a maximizer on a mix, always keep in mind that our hears like dynamic range. So always try to keep a healthy amount of dynamic range.
Dynamic range is the difference between the softest and the loudest peaks of a signal.
The thing is that you will always want to have a little bit of dynamic range in your song.Dynamic range gives us a reference point to what's soft and to what's loud and that can actually make your song softer or louder.
Sometimes I see so many over the top maximize tracks which could have sounded a lot better if they were recorded properly, still have a little bit of hard room left.
Flat and lifeless mixes due to over-compression seem to get boring a lot quicker.
N/B:
Making your songs louder is a trend which does not make the song better. It only reduces dynamic range.
Conclusion:
A Maximizer can help enhance and also polish your audio tracks.It is also another useful tool in the studio arsenal for persons who do not have extensive experience in mixing. It can help bridge the gap between a poor end result and a more polished, professional sound. It can also work pretty well for the musicians who are trying to improve a "demo" song for presentation or for the user to finalize a song without having to go to a professional studio.
That will be all for now, And I hope you learn something today! And if you are going to be using a maximizer, put them to good use and also conceder what I've tried to explain here as well.
Once again this was @Phatstudio, And as always you are encouraged to send in your questions and suggestions through comments and I will do my best to attend to them.
You can check out our previous post on dynamic processors through these links: REF1, REF2, REF3, REF4
