Wave form analysis using deep zooming after 4A-Studio's amplification

Before we begin, let us categorically state: "These are REAL RESULTS from 4A-Studio" (i.e. we're not faking it)

(If you're not into impressive explanations, just click here for the amazing graphical proof)

Special considerations:

This genre was rock music. We chose rock because it is usually already very loud and compression usually has a tough time pulling out extra volume levels without that well known pumping effect. Skilled sound engineers often make adjustments on a spectral level using multiband limiting. This is great if the track needs additional EQ treatment but not so desirable if the EQ was previously fixed. Rock drummers hit hard so usually a lot of compression has gone in during recording and mixdown. Spectral changes to an already nice mix could damage the track's quality to a certain extent. Most compression will use the dynamics of peaks such as drums as a reference. No wonder over-compression sounds like a terrible wah-wah or pumping movement. The best solution to increasing a loud track without hurting its spectrum and without introducing over-compression effects such as pumping has to be 4A-Studio.

Is it possible to max out a piece of rock music without clipping the carefully mixed peaks?

If you're at home using standard audio workstation software you'll probably realise the answer is no. Most software will fail either before the peak arrives or when it hits the limiter. Failure on the way to your limiter means levels are swooping in a wah-wah style, which is something we need to avoid for a good master. Failure at the limiter means the level hasn't dropped and our valuable peak is then clipped. So the mixing engineer has wasted his time watching those peak levels because your software can't handle the changes. Is it possible to achieve a nice result using thousands of dollars in hardware at the studio? Yes and no. Rock music will reach a level where the engineer hasn't any more room to play. So hardware can help a little but at some point it will defintely be a tight squeeze getting more decibels. Can 4A solve this issue cleanly? Yes, definitely - within reason! Everything has its limits and if you try to amp a track to a perceived loudness of -5 dB it most probably will sound terrible. However, do it on hardware and your peaks will be clipped and swooped.

4A-Studio will NOT clip your peaks or swoop the track's dynamic listening range.

Mathematically, the only module in 4A-Studio capable of clipping is SpeedCompress. It does the job like a nasty software compressor you'd find in standard audio software packages. Those without 4A in their toolbox are risking clipped peaks and bad side effects of over compressing, especially on rock music. With the architecture of DVDaudio your track will blend volumes smoothly from quiet scenes to loud ones. This isn't swooping, it's graceful mastering automation with unmatched artificial intelligence. Nobody else in the entire audio industry has the algorithm we've planted into DVDaudio. SpeedCompress (as already pointed out) does the same as every other cheap unit. Yeah, it does it much faster than most others out there but when it comes to quality compression you shouldn't be tinkering with SpeedCompress. Use it when you really need clipping and possibly highly driven distortion with lightning speed!

Now we're getting to the juicy parts: MGvolumizer and RMSdoctor.

These are two highly optimized special designs based on lots of research into digital sound and human hearing. With loud rock tracks as challenging reference material we have been able to hit the mark in precision peak processing. We're talking about being able to amp a sound beyond normal without clipping and without pumping. How can we be so sure? Mathematically, there's no way a peak can be bent out of shape through using MGvolumizer or RMSdoctor (or DVDaudio, but we're on about our special two babies here) and the architecture underlying both modules is structured with its priorities, in this order: Intelligence, quality, efficiency. Surprised? Most software houses will boast about top-notch efficiency. Our algorithms are very efficient but that's not the priority. What good is speed if you have to sacrifice quality? Therefore quality comes before speed. Now onto something very high on our priority list - in fact it's at the top of the list. It's of course intelligence.

4A-Studio has special abilities while it listens to your tracks.

Sounds creepy and very futuristic doesn't it. Artificial intelligence is gaining more power in the world of software development and we're at the front when it comes to audio peak analysis. With MGvolumizer and RMSdoctor your audio is carefully inspected by a robotic listening device inside the software's core. There's no way, in practical terms, to manipulate audio peaks while preserving their spectral relationship unless you use some kind of automated intelligence. Try maxing out with hardware and most probably you'll be unhappy with the frequency destruction. Use 4A-Studio and you'll notice power without sacrifice. We're giving the world a taste of the future with software which has yet to be beaten in terms of peak manipulation.

We're not pedalling a gimmick.

Obviously there's a lot of ranting and raving out there in a competitive software market and everybody's trying to gain the edge using some kind of latest gimmick. With us the only gimmick is the fact that nobody else has figured out how we do it. Sound engineers are sending e-mails saying they can only solve certain tough mastering projects using 4A-Studio. Some are telling us they're saving time and studio expense through powering up with our software. Do we need a gimmick to shift our sales? Not really, see we make most sales based on recommendations within the industry. Sound guys are impressed when they see colleagues using 4A-Studio and before you know it, we make another sale. No gimmicks, just old-fashioned word of mouth.

What if nobody has spoken to you yet, to prove how amazing 4A-Studio does the job?

We're happy to provide proof in a way you'll understand. Could we let you listen to some audio examples? Yeah but you're unlikely to notice the subtle difference unless you're better than the intelligent core of 4A-Studio. You're a great sound engineer but let's face it - ears have their limitations and humans just aren't good enough to deal with high-speed peak differentials. Therefore we're going to show you some graphical evidence from a track we processed earlier. Could have been any loud track to prove this point. The results are real. The track is part of a rock composition containing very loud drums and heavily distorted bass guitar, overlaid with metal guitars and of course vocals. By the way, we can't post the MP3 here due to copyright restrictions! If you really need to hear some loud tracks for yourself, click on the download links at WaveGenix.COM under the 4A-Studio category and try the demo.

These are genuine results of a heavy rock track made 3 dB louder without clipping!

When we say heavy rock, we're talking overall loudness of -13.74 dB. This doesn't mean a maximum peak level of -13.74 dB, it means a power rating throughout the entire average! This is an important distinction when speaking of power manipulation. You can clearly see in the images that the peaks seldom drop below -6 dB on the chart. So anyway, we applied 4A-Studio's MGvolumizer amplifier unit for a boost of +3.4 dB, bringing the overall perceived loudness measurement to a whopping -10.38 dB power. This means LOUD and best of all there's no clipping. Hard to believe? See for yourself...

Figure 1

Figure 1 (above) shows us starting with a 48 seconds section of a rock composition. As with all these charts, the upper window shows before and the lower window shows after processing with 4A-Studio. We've selected to zoom in, from roughly 33...36 seconds, giving a 3 seconds window. You might think peaks have been chopped off, judging by the look of our processing result. This is an optical illusion (refer to Figure 2 below).

Figure 2

Figure 2 (above) shows us at a zoom from roughly 33...36 seconds. In this 3 seocnds window one can clearly identify loud dynamics. We'll take a look at that section which appears to contain some of the most outlying peaks and what looks to be of fairly high frequency (refer to Figure 3 below).

Figure 3

Figure 3 (above) shows the close zoom being selected from around 34...34.6 seconds. Let's zoom in (refer to Figure 4 below).

Figure 4

Figure 4 (above) shows a pretty good zoom from 34...34.6 seconds. Notice the individual peaks. It would be impossible to amplify this section beyond normalization using today's hardware or top-market software. This is where a track's power can be felt on your ear - those sections between the highest peaks. How is a compressor going to identify this sound pressure when it's surrounded by outlying peaks? The answer is to apply intelligent gain to the entire section without clipping those near their maximum. 4A-Studio can achieve this near-impossible task and still maintain spectral relationships. We're going to prove this by zooming even further. First, let's select our zoom window (refer to Figure 5 below).

Figure 5

Figure 5 (above) shows us selecting a very deep zoom window from aound 34.2...34.35 seconds. We're particularly interested in this 0.15 seconds of peak data, so it's time to zoom right in (refer to Figure 6 below).

Figure 6

Figure 6 (above) shows that we've zoomed to an enormous factor and we're now looking at peaks between approximately 34.2...34.35 seconds. In the upper window you can see where we began before processing. The track's peaks at this point look loud. Now refer to the lower window and you can see the amplification - yet we've preserved the spectral relationship within this sound. Now we want to take you up close and personal with this wave data (refer to Figure 7 below).

Figure 7

Figure 7 (above) shows how we just can't satisfy the itch for proving a point! As you can see, we've selected 0.025 seconds of data from 34.245...34.270 and again (finally... phew!) we're planning to zoom in for a closer look. Now then, obviously ananlysis on this level is way beyond human detection using normal human ears. Now you get why we had to do the proof in a graphical way, rather than saying, "Now listen to the following 0.025 seconds of rock music and tell us what you think." Let's be realistic hey (refer to Figure 8 below).

Figure 8

Figure 8 (above) shows a massively over-the-top zoom and it's taken us a while to arrive here but now that you're with us, let's see what's happening. It's clear that the maximum level is at 34.26 seconds, roughly speaking, and that the quieter peaks are amped up too. At this level of zooming you can see that the lower window contains peaks which are proportional to one another and have the same spectral relationship as the peaks in the upper window! This is amazing, because the track has gained around +3 dB yet the EQ is still in proportion to its original. Not only that, but the track has no pumping and most important of all we can see no clipping. Now come on, let's get one thing straight. Not many audio software developers have the up-close proof on this level of zooming like we've presented. Remember, this track was already loud. We chose the track at random from our library of high quality reference material. In theory it could have been any track in any musical genre. We happened to zoom in on a track processed by 4A-Studio's MGvolumizer and even at this intense zoom factor we're still unable to see clipping.

This is the sort of proof you'll want if colleagues haven't already told you how good our gear performs in their studios. Admit that you're impressed and head over to www.WaveGenix.COM now so you can download the demo version. Try it for yourself and do all the zooming in your workstation editor for your own proof. We're sure there'll be no clipped peaks in DVDaudio, MGvolumizer or RMSdoctor. We're sure there'll be no pumping or swooping in MGvolumizer or RMSdoctor (DVDaudio may exhibit swooping volume changes depending on source material and extreme user settings). If you're after some cheap clipping, it's included in 4A-Studio as a bundled module, called SpeedCompress. Most pros tell us they rarely use SpeedCompress because it's too "standard" and a little dirty. They also tell us they absolutely love MGvolumizer and can't imagine working without it once they're hooked. Try 4A-Studio today and you'll be desperate to buy the full version - it's just too good and we've just proved it.