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LetiMix GainMatch


Larry Shelby

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I literally just used this while mixing last night. It's very useful and a steal of a deal and he is actively working on it.  It could be a little more efficient. It seems to be slow opening, but I just use it to double check L/R balances and for checking if a plugin in my chain is really doing anything useful other than just turning up the volume.  Good plugin!

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Yes  - gainmatch. I hate the way some plug-ins pump the volume up - like black box. It  is designed with way too much gain. It still sounds great. Gain match will show you the winners and losers in plug-ins. Watch out for plugin gainers, even a part of a db can be deceptive!  

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It should come with a warning that users may become disappointed in one or more of their favorite sweeteners.

"I put this thing on my drum bus and it makes everything sound so much phatter while also enhancing clarity!" Well, yeah, it jacked up the level by 3dB, thereby hitting a sweeter spot on the Fletcher-Munson curve. That's how that works.

It sure saves having to continually turn the effect's output down when I'm auditioning presets.

I wonder what it's doing between the time you insert it in an FX bin and the time you see the UI, it takes the longest of any effect I've seen.

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This is a great plugin! I know they just did some optimizations to the code but I think it could use some more! code tweaks - it needs to be even more efficient.

I'm happy so far and hope for these guys to buckle down and do the Archie Bell (Tightenup) lol!

 

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He's been adding different features since it's release.
I mainly use it on tracks or my 2 bus either to check a  plugin or chain's pre/post diff or to gain stage. Once set I usually remove them altogether. For typical reference A/B I prefer & use PA's Metric AB.

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1 hour ago, rdavidovich said:

is it different / better / easier than Melda MCompare?

I use MCompare for blind testing mixes. It's great for that. I never have used it for Before/After FX Chain testing. When I read up on it before it seemed like you had to render the track to do it. (??)  Would love for someone to tell me I'm wrong about that!  ?

GainMatch is intuitive and easy to use.

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No rendering required.  1)Just put gain match in as the 1st plug-ins on a track or on a bus. 2)Add as many plug-ins as you like. 3) add another gain match as the last plug-in in the chain. Gain match will label the 1st instance as a. Then it will name the 2nd instance as b. Once this is setup there is a speaker icon  in the b version that you can click to hear the before  all the plug-ins version of the track or bus. The great thing about it is it will “gainmatch” the two signals so you hear the “real” changes and not the boost that the plug-in vendors almost always add.  “Louder is better will be eliminated.  You will be totally shocked about some plug-ins and plug-in chains!!  There are some details I left out for simplification. Be sure the read the docs!

 

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4 hours ago, mibby said:

I meant with MCompare. GainMatch - as you pointed out - is slick and easy to use.

with MCompare you can use both.. rendered files and audio signals from other plugin instances, and you can define up to 16 comparison points in the chain.

From what I could see MCompare is less practical for quick two points comparison, but very powerful if you want to test before after each plugin in a signal chain. Melda advertises it mostly for mastering or final mixes, probably because it takes some work to set up.

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I just acquired MCompare in the Essentials bundle, and was psyched, but I couldn't get it to do the Gain Match thing right off. Seems it needs more study. Gain Match is near instant gratification, so I'm glad to have both.

Gain Match is kinda resource-y, so I've taken to getting it set up and then disabling the upstream instance that does the analysis. Alternately, I dial back the gain on the plug-in's output and delete both instances.

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a while back i was watching a mix engineer show how he would calibrate the in and out levels so each effect/chain had net zero increase on levels - turn up the gain a channel, that gain is (mostly) the same on the output of the chain (and levels between each effect to avoid clipping - both on the external analog gear and plugins).

so for the past few years i've been doing that - gain staging to avoid clipping and net zero level increase on the effects/chains. when trying things i ignore this temporarily, but once settled on something i'll balance them, save as a preset, and off to the next track or buss. and of course, sometimes i violate the rule to make it sound like i like it ? i had tried a number of the gain management plugins but they were generally was too resource intensive for my systems. reusing gain staged and level balanced effects chains is pretty simple so i just go with that and no additional plugins needed for a minute or two of work...

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I usually take a VU meter and start at the top of the FX bin to set the input signal. Then, after each plugin is added to the bin I just move the VU down below it and set the output of that plugin to match the input signal. It means the level going into the next plugin is at the proper level and the output of the plugin feeds the next at the same level. It takes almost no time to do this.

As an aside, the gain knob at the top of each track and bus is one of the great features in CbB. I use it to make sure the input level is correct right at the start before anything is added. Gain staging is a fairly easy process and makes a big difference in how plugins operate, especially emulations that have a digital "sweet spot" that corresponds with the hardware.

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