Cool new audio tool

HatefulMusic · Ears bleeding yet? Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 793

www.har-bal.com

It's called Har-Bal (short for harmonic balancer). It's an audio spectrum analyzer and 8,192 point EQ with built-in loudness compensation. I've been playing with the 8-bit free version and it sounds great considering. The real version goes up to 96bits (what comes in goes out). And at $95US I'll be picking it after I get my tax return.

It will also let you compare the EQ of one song to another. So you can analyze a WAV you rip from, say, a commercial CD you really like the sound of, and then compare a song of yours to it and use it as a guideline for EQing your song. It also comes with some genre-specific sample analysis files.

And it's "moron simple" to use. But, you still need your ears.

Cheers,

Theo

HatefulMusic.com

bbchris · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 2:34 am Post subject: Re: Cool new audio tool

er... huh? Sounds great but silly me doesn't know what I'd do with it...... :dunno

HatefulMusic · Ears bleeding yet? Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 793

Ok, let's say you had a song that just didn't sound "right". And you thought, "ya know, I really like the way this song from <insert band of choice here> sounds. If only my song sounded like that."

You could load up both songs in this tool and see the differences in the the sound and adjust your song to get it closer. This tool is excellent for fixing soongs that sound "thin" or to bassy or not "sparkly" enough or whatever.

Make sense?

Theo

HatefulMusic.com

droolymutt · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 5:55 am Post subject: Re: Cool new audio tool

So I take it you use it as a mastering tool?

I'm gonna play with this a bit... - looks useful.

bbchris · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 7:48 am Post subject: Re: Cool new audio tool

Wow Theo! Your explanation makes TOTAL sense. Now you've got me interested. Thank you so much for posting. I might tell Chris W to check it out too! :merci

sethr · Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 190

When I first read this, I thought it said "harmonica balancer". Now that's a tool everybody in a blues band like mine could use.

HatefulMusic · Ears bleeding yet? Joined: 08 Jun 2003 Posts: 793

Drooly - I don't use it for mastering (yet). I've only been messing with the free 8-bit version. But I have used it to analyze a couple of songs that were bugging me before I remastered. And that convinced me that I think I could get better results with Har-Bal.

Chris - always glad to help.

Seth -

Theo

HatefulMusic.com

droolymutt · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 3:15 pm Post subject: Re: Cool new audio tool

yeah - I played with the 8-bit freebie for a few minutes last night...

Too bad the freebie doesn't let you record (save) the changes...

But I think I'm gonna study it a bit more - there's potential in them thar hills...