Analog Heat and master buss processing

Yeah not convinced for master buss duties, seems may impart a little too much color to the signal. Master buss saturation is generally very subtle so will be very interesting to see if heat will be up to this task also.

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I bought this for mastering. I imagine it will be useful when mastering. Iā€™m sure nobody would have complained if instead of the Sonicstate reveal, there was only a showcase of how subtle the AH can be.

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Heaps curios me too about how it behaves on a ā€œmasteringā€ stageā€¦

For mastering Itā€™ll probably just come down to personal taste and using it delicately, like most things I guess. I like a lot of what ive heard so far, itā€™s a good unit at a good price, but not sure if it has a saturation color that Iā€™d want on ā€˜everythingā€™ by putting on master buss. Seems like in that role it could be one of those things Iā€™d really dig for 6 months and throw on everything and then one day Iā€™d listen to old pre-heat recordings and feel a little like ā€˜oh, Iā€™ve been ruining my mixes/hyping some unpleasant frequencies/thinning mixes out with this thingā€¦ā€™. All speculation tho. I really want to try one. Be interested to hear your/other thoughts when youā€™ve had it a while.

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Nice one. Please share your AH ā€œmasteredā€ track with us when itā€™s done!! Canā€™t wait to hear comparisons of the ā€œmixā€ and ā€œmasterā€ā€¦ think your one of the first in line ?!

Personally I canā€™t see it finding its way into many mastering housesā€¦ :slight_smile:

To be honest, I think thereā€™s a lot of psychology involved with high-end mastering gear. I donā€™t really see why distortion/saturation on the mix is acceptable when using something like the Elysia Karacter, but not the AH. I donā€™t see why running your whole mix hot through something cheap as hell like an Alesis Micro Limiter, and parallel processing it with the original mix wouldnā€™t be acceptable if it sounded good.

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Weā€™re talking about different things I think mate. A mix and the process of mastering are differentā€¦ mastering is a relatively simple less is more approach and Thereā€™s no disputing that with psychology, thatā€™s why people still use mastering engineers in all types of music, commercial
And not.

AH may well be up to it, but itā€™s pie in the sky at the minute and certainly isnā€™t itā€™s prime intention, but like I saidā€¦ I think weā€™re talking about different things.

Of course you can do it yourself and use whatever you want and engineer your own character with experience and totally ignore mastering at all if you wishā€¦ but the difference will be noticeable in a master with cheap outboard gear compared to pro ā€¦ and your tracks wonā€™t stand up with the best mastered material.

Look forward to hearing your comparisons.

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respectfully, i wouldnā€™t considering parallel processing something as mastering. it could be a part of the process but If Iā€™m sending my work to an audio engineer to master its to make sure all frequencies are balanced and within the right signal level for the desired medium. Getting audio mastered for itunes, vinyl. tape etc.

I think youā€™re oversimplifying the mastering process. you need really balanced room acoustics and a proper monitoring setup. Good metering and excellent understanding of the tonal characteristics of the genre youā€™re mastering for. Not as simple as buying ā€œmasteringā€ gear and calling it a day because it was expensive

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Why would you even consider the AH then?

None of these saturation/distortion units should be used

I just realised - again - I know absolutely nothing about mastering. Iā€™d just drive the Heat like a drunk to hell and back. This piece of Elektron would just make me reckless. Iā€™ll wait for their next box, the one where they do with recording what they just did to fx. Canā€™t wait.

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whenever I played live i found great use of using a master track on the OT with compressor and filter/eq. i am confident the AH will let me explore this much further without compromising a track as well getting closer to what I have in my studio without having to lug around a 500 series rack. itā€™s true that until I have it in my hands the results will be up in the air, but I am pretty confident with what Iā€™ve heard thus far.

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So throwing the AH over your mix to attain a character is using a ā€œMastering Widget,ā€ but using an Elysia Karacter is true mastering? I just donā€™t understand that logic.

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The reason weā€™re talking about this is because the AHā€™s effectiveness on the master bus is being questioned. How is what youā€™re trying to talk about even relevant?

Do I really need to explain that I donā€™t think professional mastering businesses can sell everything they own, and only use an AH to attain the effect they desire?

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Cool. Yeah, itā€™s just a tool like anything else.

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I think what he was getting at is that the AH, like any other super colored device, will give the most benefit to a track if you mix through it on the 2bus from an early stage rather than slapping it on at the end of a mix. Mastering is a separate process than mixing and generally all about transparency, and to that end, when using a saturater in mastering it is usually just to act as a zero attack and release limiter, just soaking up a bit of the transient while trying to avoid sounding like the track is distorted. On mixdown, however, you can go crazy and do whatever you like on the mixbus if it gets you the sound you want. GL with the Heat, canā€™t wait to get mine. My music already sounds overly distorted and driven to 11 most of the time, I feel like it was made just for mešŸ˜€

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With all due respect if you think this approach has anything remotely similar to mastering you need a little more education.
Mastering is all about extreme subtly and all about transparency.
You are obviously confusing mixing with mastering with a statement like that.

I thought mastering was about finalizing a track before release for a specific medium. There are all types of styles of music, all types of formats, and mixed tracks that need mastering that are infinitely different states. Parallel processing a track with a different version of itself isnā€™t allowed by someone mastering it? Is this a rule for all styles of music?

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Anyhow, I think we already clarified this. Weā€™re not talking about the same thing I guess. Iā€™m saying itā€™s ok to use the AH on the Master Bus of your mix to impart flavor. Iā€™m not saying all you need to master tracks is an AH. Iā€™m surprised this needs so much clarification.

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