MIX MINUTES - Gain Your Stage Tape w/Mix Monolith

[@mikelo303]

The one thing I learned form this is that there should be one volume standard for all plugins.

[@eprotz]

I think you are confusing the calibration of most of the analog emulation plugins. Most of them that come with the VU Meter are calibrated so that when you hit 0 on the VU the signal will be at -18 dBfs. So if you hit the VU at minus 18 that means that the signal is at -36 dBfs and may be to low. I was checking the UAD manual and they say " a digital signal with a level of -12 dB below full scale digital (0 dBFS) at the plug-in input will equate to 0 dB on the plug-in meters." Page 645. That means that they calibrated theirs so that 0VU = -12 dBfs.

[@ayaicware]

I believe you're speaking about the ATR-102 Tape. Yes I read that as well...that is their internal calibration for 0dB for that emulation. If you set your 1kHrz tone at -18dBfs for the tape-inputs as you see we are doing with the Monolith then play a sonic element such as a vocal into it, you will see the signal hitting the VU meter nicely on the loudest passages just like on a real-world 2" machine.

[@bobcabrera3080]

I'm thinking that it would make sense to instantiate Mix Monolith twice on every track...in the first position for gain staging, and a second instance in the last position (after other plugins...EQ, Comp, etc.), to do the auto-mix function. If I want to save some CPU, could I do the "learn' and "mix" process for gain staging, lock the gain adjustments, and then render each track (printing the gain). This way I would be able to remove the first instance of Mix Monolith from every track. Would this work or am I missing something?

[@ayaicware]

Yes...this is what I commonly do. It allows me to begin my "final" processing with "analog tracked" elements. Meaning, I gain stage into my favorite tape emulation plug-ins and render them out as new ("raw - name") WAV files.

[@bobcabrera3080]

@@ayaicware Ahh, so you start with Mix Monolith, followed by (in my case) the J37 Tape plug-in, and after running "learn" and "mix", you render all tracks. Do you do any parameter tweaks to the tape emulation plug or just leave it at the default...just to get a little "analog goodness" on each rendered stem?

[@ayaicware]

@@bobcabrera3080 That's entirely up to you and the amount of tape saturation/overdrive you're looking for...at least it will be an accurate representation as you're feeding the virtual tape an ideal input level.

[@bobcabrera3080]

@@ayaicware THANK YOU SO MUCH! It is so helpful to get direct feedback like this.

[@riverpixels2740]

Where to download present ?

[@HakonAudio]

I am so thoroughly confused after this and am calling for some education (I'm not a noob, but there is obviously something I'm missing here and would love to be educated...) At 3:32 we go into the UAD ATR-102. According to the UAD manual, it is operating "at an internal level of -12 dBFS. Therefore a digital signal with a level of -12 dB below full scale digital (0dBFS) at the plug-in input will equate to 0 dB on the Meters". I am assuming that's RMS and not Peak..? But the Monolith plug-in is calibrating the incoming signal to hit the plug at -18 dB ON THE ATR-102 meters (not the dBFS meters), which would indicate that it's hitting the tape machine emulation at -24 dB too low a level to reach the 0 dB mark on the meters of the plug-in (which is calibrated to -12 dBFS - the optimum level of the plug). What am I missing here...?

[@ayaicware]

The ATR-102 is operating at an internal level of -12dBfs but we are calibrating an external signal hitting the tape. As you can see in the video, at -18dBfs the 1kHrz tone is aligning with the -18dBfs "tick" mark on the VU meter.

[@HakonAudio]

@@ayaicware Ahh, got it 😊 Thank you for your reply 🙏