Reading a spectral analyser

[Mr Fletch]

So I know roughly what I'm doing when it comes to reading a spectral analyzer. I kinda know what to look for, but I tend to use my ears more than anything. Anyway, I'm currently in the proccess of doing a bit of "In House" mastering in the Dead Noise System Studio on one of our latest tracks. It's a bit tricky because there's a lot of elements in this track so I've slapped a spectrum on there for good measure.....and it looks like this......

Is this a good read out?

 

[RevTech]

That looks good to me, very detailed. Do be careful that you don't find the increments used, and the logarithm used on frequency a bit different than you expect

 

[Rajstah Vibe]

Yes Fletch, I spam your posts...
Reason? I know there's always something interesting to talk about..

Points:
Ableton Spectrum, excelletn tool to have a super quick overlook of what is what.
Details? Not still on the professional level to be used even for attempt to masterings.
They'll laugh at us if we will go to a mastering engeneer telling that everything was looking ok in a self mastered tune using the Ableton Spectrum!

Your ears? They are the most precious tool there's in this your world, but not specific as a graphic analiser.

Your meter reading looks pretty ok with the right enhancements and right cuts.
But if you want to really rely on a spectro analiser, go for products that they dedicate theire efforts on producing specific tools and only those!
You don't buy Timberlands for Jogging... They are still good shoes, but not for what you are looking for!
Just to give an example, my favourites tools, after looking on many and many (included Waves, which I still need to explore entirely, but too expensive) are:
http://www.nugenaudio.com/visualizer.php
http://www.dynamicrange.de/en/press

As usual, i end my post by saying: do not take my intervent as an arrogant dialog.
It's just based on my experience which I like to share, especially in arguments which are really interesting to me.

So........ I.M.O.!!!

 

[IV4]

I USE FUCKING REASON where there are NO spectrum anal lizers. Read that phonically and you might laugh.


Now on to the basics, I use Reason have no idea what a spectrum analyzer should look like. The Bastards at Propellerheads do not believe in spectrum analyzers despite the fact that spectrum analyzers have an ability to point out obvious flaws.

Fletch you have more than a good ear for these things, I think you get caught up to much in analytical side of music production. Trust yourself! For once stop being so insecure and truly trust your innate abilities.

Also put the song up for critique, I am sure I have more than one complaint about it.



Also also, that is not a phrase any where, but please read the sarcasimn, sarcesmmm, sarcasm, how ever the hell you spell that word that defines a subtle suggestion of what you don't or do mean.

for good measure I put a pfft smily after the sentence you should most believe in and is the most honest just in case anything about my post was vague.

 

[Sammy Dexcell]

I USE FUCKING REASON where there are NO spectrum anal lizers.

Mate, I first started out on Reason, used to get tips from Culprate, he used wavelab running in the background. Had dual monitors so he can bring up its analyser on one screen. If you don't have that just use it anyway and when you're listening over bring up the analyser in wavelab (to do it just hit the record button, change the settings to playback audio and hit pause so you don't record any unnecessary audio). It helped a lot!

I just recently discovered Ozone 5 analysers...... Game changer....

Is this a good read out?

It's hard to tell just by looking....as it stands it's looking like normal? Yet I've never used that analyser before, so is there a reason the right is more dense than the left? Does that mean anything? Or is it just a fancy way of showing you the difference in frequencies from highs to low??

 

[Mr Fletch]

Mate, I first started out on Reason, used to get tips from Culprate, he used wavelab running in the background. Had dual monitors so he can bring up its analyser on one screen. If you don't have that just use it anyway and when you're listening over bring up the analyser in wavelab (to do it just hit the record button, change the settings to playback audio and hit pause so you don't record any unnecessary audio). It helped a lot!

I just recently discovered Ozone 5 analysers...... Game changer....






It's hard to tell just by looking....as it stands it's looking like normal? Yet I've never used that analyser before, so is there a reason the right is more dense than the left? Does that mean anything? Or is it just a fancy way of showing you the difference in frequencies from highs to low??

Yeah it's basically that, the lower freqs have the lines further apart, and as the frequencies get higher, the lines get tighter together, I guess it's meant to resemble a sine wave going up in pitch?

EDIT - Guys I am using my ears, I trust them much more than any analyzer. This track is a tricky one though so figured I'd see if any of you lot know how a spectrum should look on a good mix. I'm not over complicating anything, or getting stressed out with the technical aspects of anything. Merely here for a bit of guidance

 

[Rajstah Vibe]

Take a tune that you feel it sounds great and with similar characteristics as your one and use it as a reference to compare the spectrum.
Load the reference in a new audio track, copy the Spectrum that you use on your tune master buss and past it on the reference tune track.
You can even freeze the display of the Spectrum to have a static view of a specific event in the tune.

 

[pikaaa]

lol for me ableton analyser is great much better than izotopes one also a blue cat is pretty nice and voxengo, i also saw in my friends computer t-racks 3 analizer whick looks totally like crap learn just one analyser look at the tunes which sounds great for ya and try to make similar behaviors like snare shoudl always turn up a highs littlebit and the corelation between peak of snare kick and subbas for me ableton analysers are pretty good and thoos who sad its crap , deserve for BIG LOL.

 

[Rajstah Vibe]

lol for me ableton analyser is great much better than izotopes one also a blue cat is pretty nice and voxengo, i also saw in my friends computer t-racks 3 analizer whick looks totally like crap learn just one analyser look at the tunes which sounds great for ya and try to make similar behaviors like snare shoudl always turn up a highs littlebit and the corelation between peak of snare kick and subbas for me ableton analysers are pretty good and thoos who sad its crap , deserve for BIG LOL.

Uh.?!
Who said Ableton Spectrum its crap?
I don't see that post in here...

I mostly use it to recognise the transients of kick and snare in which tuning they hit the freqs.

 

[djSing]

I USE FUCKING REASON where there are NO spectrum anal lizers. Read that phonically and you might laugh.


Now on to the basics, I use Reason have no idea what a spectrum analyzer should look like. The Bastards at Propellerheads do not believe in spectrum analyzers despite the fact that spectrum analyzers have an ability to point out obvious flaws.

You can use the vocoder within Reason to get a (very) rough approximation of the frequencies your hitting. But really, its useless, theres no hertz reading along the bottom. It can still give you a rough idea of the frequencies a sound is hitting though.

Best way to do it is to use a splitter on your instrument output, then take one of those outputs to your main mixer, and then use another to plug it into the modulator input on the vocoder and switch the band to 512.

I'm pretty sure Reason 6 has some analyser plugins