This spectral analysis tool aims to
flag up frequency collisions you didn’t hear, showing you what to cut and boost
One of the most important things to learn
about mixing is that every sonic element needs its own space in the frequency
spectrum. It doesn’t matter how much you turn two elements up, if they’re
fighting for space in the frequency range, neither will stand out. You need to
cut back the bits that aren’t key to each sound. But what to cut?
MeldaProduction’s MMultiAnalyzer plugin (VST/AU) is here to help.
Insert MMultiAnalyzer on all the channels
you want to analyze and all of them become accessible through a single
interface. This means that you only need to open one plugin instance to control
the whole lot. To keep such a setup easily navigable, you can set a name and
corresponding display color for each channel.
MMultiAnalyzer
is a unique multitrack analyzer and sonogram
There are four views in MMultiAnalyzer. The
first is Spectrum, which shows the frequency activity for each channel,
overlaid in a way that will be familiar to anybody who’s used a spectral
frequency analyzer (such as Voxengo SPAN). Thankfully, you can hide whichever
channels you don’t need to see, preventing visual overload. You can also fill
the color-coded graph for any channel, making it much easier to keep track of,
say, a vocal for which you’re trying to make space. We’d quite like to see a
musical scale in addition to the frequency scale, though.
Next, the Sonogram is a vertically
scrolling view (over time), with thickness of shading representing the volume
level at any given frequency (along the horizontal axis). It also layers the
selected channels on top of each other, giving a good overview for finding
trouble spots, so it’s a good place to start your overall analysis process. If
you see loads of colors overlaid, that’s most likely the cause of any sonic
“blurring” you’re hearing.
Collision course
Then comes the extremely useful Collision
view, which analyses two channels and shows their collision points (ie,
frequency clashes). Like the sonogram, colored shading is used to indicate
signal strength at a particular frequency, but this time there is no scrolling
time axis - instead, you see three horizontal 'bars’ that light up in real
time. The upper two bars show the frequencies present in the source signals
while a lower bar indicates the frequencies present in both. Figuring out exactly
what frequencies these collisions are at, though, is a little unintuitive; we
found ourselves spotting collisions using the Collision view but deducing their
frequency and by how much we needed to cut using the Spectrum view. For this
reason, we reckon there should be a view that combines the Collision and
Spectrum views.
The final mode is Levels, showing the
levels for all selected channels in one window. This view isn’t quite as
life-changing as the others, being largely what you can already see by looking
at the mixer in your DAW.
Our one gripe with MMultiAnalyzer is the
documentation: this kind of tool is only useful if you know how to use it, and
there's more information on that in this review than in the manual! Once you
figure out what you’re doing with it, though, MMultiAnalyzer really is a superb
multipurpose analysis tool. Whatever your skill and experience level, it’s
endlessly useful, and at this price it’s pretty much essential. It isn’t
perfect, and there are some minor refinements we’d like to see applied, such as
larger fonts and buttons, but if you’re serious about mixing, it’ll quickly
become one of your go-to plugins.
MMultiAnalyzer
really is a superb multipurpose analysis tool
Sweet deharmony
One of MMultiAnalyzer’s hidden strengths is
the Deharmonize mode. This intelligently removes the harmonics from the
display, letting you home in on the fundamental frequencies (notes) alone. It’s
not a good idea to stay in this mode all the time, of course, as you won’t be
seeing the full frequency range you’re dealing with in the signal being analyzed.
It does, however, let you visualize just the frequencies that are often most
crucial to a given part.
By dialing it up then back down again, you
can see what each channel can afford to lose. This is useful for figuring out
which channel you should be cutting from and which part of a conflicting
channel you can cut without damaging it too much. Of course, as with everything
in MMultiAnalyzer, this feature should be used as support for your ears. It’s a
tool that can help you find trouble spots, but it shouldn’t be treated as any
sort of ‘magical’ fix.
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Info
§ Price:
$65
§ Web:
www.meldaproduction.com
Verdict
§ For Simple to use Collision view is a
great idea Useful display and resolution options Deharmonize can be very
useful
§ Aginst Collision mode needs refining
CPU hit unpredictable Manual not very explanatory
§ Not
perfect, but it's an almost essential mixing aid at this price, giving plenty
of useful information on multiple channels
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