L3—Multimaximizer Software audio processor User's Guide Waves L3 software guide page 1 of 26
Table of Contents 1. Quick Start Guide 2. Introduction 3. Technology Overview 4. Using the L3 -The Peak Limiter Section -Threshold and Priority -Release Behavior Types: Manual, ARC, Smoothed, Scaled -The IDR Section: Type1, Type2 -Noise Shaping Options: Moderate, Normal, Ultra 5.
A Very Quick Start for Mastering with the L3 In a Hurry? For best results it is recommended that you read this manual through or at least the chapters – Using L3 and L3 Controls and Displays. However, just to get you started, here’s a bullet proof recipe for quick mastering with the L3. • Insert the L3 Ultramaximizer preferably after the master fader and in any case do not insert any other plug-ins after it or make any consecutive gain adjustments. • Play the audio that you are mastering through the L3.
1. Introduction The L3-Multimaximizer is an integrated Peak Limiter and Bit Depth ReQuantizer. It utilizes breakthrough patented technology that takes the Waves Maximizers to the next level. The Waves L1 and L2 Ultramaximizers staged a revolution in digital limiting and re-quantizing for mastering and other applications. They used “lookahead” technology to perform wideband dynamic gain adjustment for brick wall limiting with no overshoots.
2. Technology Overview The L3 is a 5 band peak limiter that brings a new approach for multi band peak limiting. The L3 does not consist of 5 independent peak limiters operating separately on each of the bands. Instead, it has one central peak limiter controlling all of the bands. The L3 is based on a new technology by Waves called the Peak Limiting Mixer™ (patent pending). The Peak Limiting Mixer™ examines the signals of all of its input bands.
3. Using the L3 The L3 user interface is divided into two main parts: the Peak Limiter section and the IDR section. The Peak Limiter section of the L3 Multimaximizer is divided into two main parts: -full band controls – Threshold, Ceiling, Master Release -per band controls - Gain, Priority, Release THE PEAK LIMITER SECTION The single most important control is the Threshold control. Until the Threshold is set, the L3 is idle. It introduces only pure delay, and is otherwise 24-bit transparent.
“flavor” for the limiter action. We recommend using the general purpose default, or toggling through the profiles to select the one most suitable to your program material and personal taste. The user can select the Ultramaximizer profiles from the presets menu and further tweak each and every per band of Gain, Priority and Release as well as the Crossover frequencies, global Release behavior type and Separation amount.
Selecting the Crossover frequencies can also affect the Multiband properties. To make the most educated “tweaks”, we included solo buttons for each band. This enables you to adjust the boundaries of each band as you hear the audio running through each individual band. The separation control is another unique tool that allows you to mix the sidechains of the per band energy detector. This smoothes out the differences between bands until 0 separation actually sets all bands to attenuate at once.
THE IDR SECTION In the L3, there are two types of Increased Digital Resolution dithers: Type1 and Type2. The differences between them will likely influence your choice for your project. • type1 gives no nonlinear distortion with optimal dither. • type2 exhibits lower dither level with some low level distortion. It is up to you to choose no distortion or lower dither level for your audio. More information is in the section Basic control of IDR & Noise-shaping Options (below).
TYPE2 Type2 also uses dither with a similar noise-shaping curve, but the dither is of a unique kind designed to minimize the amount of noise added. This gives a lower noise level than the IDR type1 process, but at the expense of some low level distortion. Type2 has some advantages for high quality mastering as well. It is your choice whether the ultimate in low distortion of type1 is preferred, or the additional reduction in dither level of type2. Type2 is "auto-blacking" with no input signal.
Since the entire issue of dithering is a very subtle one, we recommend you listen to a rather long piece of audio (2-3 minutes). It should be of high-quality, say 20-bits if possible, with a good dynamic range. Jazz and classical recordings are ideal. For a quick start, the option that will generally work well for CD-mastering is type1 with Normal noise-shaping. For minimum noise with 16-bit and greater files, type2 Ultra; for maximum resolution use type1 Ultra.
4. Controls and Displays THE PEAK LIMITER SECTION THRESHOLD: 0.0 to -30dBfs, Default 0. The Threshold value sets the point that the audio energy should be limited to. When the energy goes over the Threshold, Gain attenuation will be applied to keep it just below the Threshold. The L3 will also add make up Gain in an opposite value to the Threshold. OUT CEILING: 0.0 to -30dBfs, Default 0. The Out Ceiling value scales the output of the peak limiter to a certain maximum set by the user. By default this is 0.
The Ultramaximizer has a single release control which controls all of the per band release values as a master control. The indicated value is a multiplier for the per band values of the currently selected Profile. PROFILE: Default – Basic Profile. Ultramaximizer Only. The Profile pop up menu includes combined settings for the L3 multiband engine. Each profile applies different internal settings to the per band controls, Release behavior type, Crossover frequencies and Separation.
The per band Priority control affects the internal Peak Limiting Mixer™ optimization algorithm. When possible, the bands with higher Priority are prioritized to receive less attenuation at the expense of other bands. This allows for controlling the spectral balance of the processed output in a way that is very different from a Gain control. When you feel limiting is causing one band to be suppressed too much compared with the others, the Priority can be used to change this.
The graph also shows 4 markers for showing or adjusting the crossover frequencies. THE IDR SECTION QUANTIZE – 24, 22, 20, 18, or 16. Default 24-bit. The Quantize control sets the target bit depth of the L3 output. The perceptual result will be increased by using Dither and Shaping. However, this control sets the actual output bit depth of the L3. There is no way to turn this off, thus the output of the L3 will be quantized to a maximum of 24-bits even if you are in a floating point environment.
5. Some secrets of digital audio In order to make the best use of the L3-Ultramaximizer, it is important to understand some of the less obvious implications of digital audio. Once these have been explained, you will understand why Waves thought a product such as the L3 was necessary. You will also be a in a better position to make use of its powerful features. The operation of the L3 breaks down into two main areas: 1 - Maximum level of the digital signal through proprietary peak control.
If the audio signal is repeatedly processed and truncated back to 16 bits, the losses accumulate. This causes a significant loss of fidelity. This fidelity loss is most evident as a loss of the tonal subtleties of low-level sounds within a mix. The solution is to properly dither and noise-shape a signal each time the wordlength is increased and reduced. Nearly every digital signal process will require this.
6. In-depth IDR Information ABOUT DITHER AND NOISE SHAPING Dithering and Noise Shaping are two independent, complementary techniques. They are used to improve the perceived quality of sound after it has been re-quantized. Each technique is responsible for the improvement of a different subjective quality of the noise imposed by re-quantization. Each can be used separately to improve that specific quality.
IDR type1 Dither. This dither is a wide-band dither. Type1 adds a certain amount of noise, causing a 5dB increase in background noise compared to no dither. It completely eliminates all low-level distortion and signal-dependent modulation effects. The result is a very transparent and clean low-level sound with a high resolution. It most resembles the steady low-level hiss of an excellent quality analog system with no digital quantization noise. This is the "purist" technology.
Moderate. This typically reduces perceived hiss (or distortion if dither is not used) by around 6dB. The HF noise Gain is about 9dB for 44.1kHz. Normal. This typically reduces perceived hiss (or distortion if dither is not used) by around 12dB. The HF noise Gain is about 15dB for 44.1kHz. Using Normal with type1 dithering is very suitable for the creation of Production Masters.
"clicks" at the edit points. This might occur when played on low quality CD players. Applications in which you should avoid use of Ultra shaping include CD's with production music, sound effects libraries, or loop libraries. These would certainly be subject to further digital editing.
7. 16-bit (and higher) mastering Here are the basic steps of using the L3 in a 16-bit, 44.1/48kHz application. These steps also apply to 24, 22 and 20-bit mastering. • • • • • • • All processing, sample rate conversion, dynamic changes, etc. MUST be done before L3 processing. The L3-Multimaximizer should be the last processing of the file. Ideally, dithering occurs only once. Using a 16 or higher bit input file, set the Threshold for desired peak limiting.
8. Use the L3 last It is recommended that L3 be used as the final process after all dynamic and EQ adjustments have been made. Only when all these processes are finalized should the question of peak level be addressed. Instinctively, it might seem appropriate to Normalize the file once all other processing has taken place. But, in practice, it may be better to set the peak levels to around 1dB below clipping using the L3. For an explanation, see the notes on digital clipping in chapter 9.
9. Important notes on digital clipping The digital words representing an audio signal at each moment have a maximum possible positive value and a minimum possible negative value. These are defined by the bit depth of the file format. Any attempt to force an audio signal beyond these maximum permitted values (for example, by applying excessive gain), will result in the audio signal being clipped. There are other ways in which a signal can become clipped, and some of these are far from obvious.
circumstances or with non-typical signals, the peak level could increase significantly more than this. The L3 forces the signal to skim the peak level more often so the likelihood of clipping in this way is further increased. In practice, filters attenuating mid or high frequency components tend to cause the kind of increase in peak level described. But, high pass filters that attenuate the bass can sometimes cause much larger increases of peaks.
We hope that this has been a helpful guide for using your new L3.
