Balance your mix with THIS native device - Bitwig Spectral Suite
Tutorial | Nov 18, 2022
In this video I discussed how to mimic the behavior of the DSEQ3 with Bitwig Studio's native Loud Split device. I demonstrated how to set the Loud Split device to a 3 dB per octave tilt setting and how to adjust the loudness level, knee setting, and rise and fall settings. I showed how to identify resonances and over amplified frequencies in a mixdown and how to use the Loud Split device to reduce these frequencies. I also suggested using the Loud Split device for mastering.
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[00:00.000] Hey folks, welcome back to another video.
[00:03.280] Today it's about mimicking the behavior of the DSEQ3 with Bitwig native devices.
[00:09.840] So we have here a DSEQ3 and we also dialed in your slope of 3.0 at the top here.
[00:18.080] And you can see the pink noise test tone here, we have selected pink noise here which is
[00:22.160] equally powered per octave.
[00:24.960] And you can see the pink noise is peaking here equally across the threshold line.
[00:30.560] And the threshold line is of course with the slope of 3.0.
[00:34.880] So when we dial in 4.5 here, which is more easy on the low end, you can see the top end
[00:42.800] here is removed more and the low end is barely touched.
[00:49.520] So this is for me the proof that 3.0 here as a slope is exactly or matches exactly pink
[00:56.720] noise.
[00:57.720] And pink noise is nice for mixing down tracks or identifying peaking resonances or maybe
[01:04.720] over amplified frequencies in your mix down.
[01:10.680] And also here on the EQ+, you can see it's a straight line because we dialed in here
[01:16.480] a tilt setting of 3 dB per octave.
[01:18.920] So it also matches pink noise.
[01:21.160] And pink noise with this setting is on the EQ+, straight line.
[01:25.880] And you can also use this to mix down your track and look or identify frequencies that
[01:32.000] are over amplified in your mix down, of course.
[01:35.960] It's not like that I'm saying you need to make your track a straight line.
[01:39.640] It's not what I'm saying you can have dips in there.
[01:43.080] But maybe the bass, which is peaking here around here, right, and the hi hats should
[01:49.880] match on an equally line, something like this.
[01:52.760] So you know, then you have an equally balanced mix down.
[01:57.960] And also go down here in volume, you can see it on the on the line here, it's pretty straight,
[02:05.440] right?
[02:06.440] Okay.
[02:07.440] So with this EQ3 here, it tries to catch us all the resonances that go above this threshold
[02:14.440] line.
[02:15.440] And you can see this here in the display.
[02:17.440] And we also have a tech setting and the release setting where we can ease out the reaction
[02:23.680] time.
[02:24.680] You can see it's getting slower, reacting slower to the peaking frequencies.
[02:31.280] And yeah, just go back.
[02:33.400] So we have kind of a compressor setting here, we have a threshold setting where you can
[02:37.400] decrease the threshold.
[02:40.760] And we have a slope setting.
[02:42.280] Okay.
[02:43.280] So inside of Bitwig Studio, we have now loud split.
[02:48.680] And the loud split device basically splits the signal into quiet, loud and everything
[02:55.560] in between parts.
[02:57.920] And it's kind of the same thing.
[03:00.800] We can select the device and bring in a tilt setting of 3 dB per octave.
[03:06.440] And you can now see here, it's equally distributed, right?
[03:10.240] It's almost a straight line.
[03:12.200] Maybe bring down your the knee setting and then bring down the threshold of the loud
[03:16.640] part here.
[03:17.640] You can see the red flashes here, these red lines of frequencies that are going above
[03:26.440] the threshold line.
[03:27.440] And it's also equally distributed.
[03:29.560] So we have the same amount of things going over the red line here on each kind of part
[03:38.880] of the spectrum.
[03:40.800] So it's equally distributed.
[03:42.280] If you go lower, then of course you catch more things, but it's, you know, it's not
[03:46.520] like that you have only red things here and here, it's everything is yellow, it's equally
[03:50.720] distributed.
[03:51.720] So that's important.
[03:53.840] So to remove these things, these red flashes, all you have to do now is to disable the loud
[04:00.600] part.
[04:01.680] So everything that flashes red now here is completely removed, completely gone, deleted.
[04:11.320] It's not pushed down like on the DSEQ3 where it acts like a compressor.
[04:18.560] It's completely removed from the spectrum.
[04:20.720] You can also hear this when you play here, maybe a drum loop or something like this.
[04:26.480] You can hear it that these frequencies are missing.
[04:29.320] So if you like the sound of this, you can use it this way, of course, it's no problem.
[04:34.840] But you also can switch this back on and maybe just dial down here the loud part and maybe
[04:40.520] make everything that crosses this line 20 dB quieter.
[04:45.480] So it's also kind of, you know, reducing resonances in a kind of a smart way.
[04:53.360] And we also can dial in the rise setting, which is attack and fall, which is release
[04:58.800] to ease out what happens when these frequencies cross the threshold, how fast this device
[05:05.000] reacts to that and how fast it reacts to when something goes below the threshold, right?
[05:13.360] So it's kind of the same thing that what you do in the DSEQ3 just here with the native
[05:20.200] device.
[05:21.200] And I want to show you this in the next example with the drum loop.
[05:24.920] So in this example here, we have like a drum based drum loop and it's not very well frequency
[05:32.360] balanced.
[05:34.360] We have a lot of hi hats here and the kick drum is a bit too quiet, right?
[05:40.520] But that's the point.
[05:41.520] I'm going to make a point here.
[05:43.520] So in the DSEQ3, you can now see here that the hi hats are peaking above the threshold
[05:49.760] of the 3 dB slope and the snares may be a bit too over amplified, right?
[05:56.600] Or it's resonating too much and it's actually not a problem, but you can identify here certain
[06:04.360] things, right?
[06:05.360] So at least when the kick or when the snare drum is peaking here, the kick drum also should
[06:10.560] peaked in the same way as the hi hats and the snare and the kick.
[06:15.040] So this more like looks like the kick drum is too quiet for me.
[06:22.640] So maybe bring down here the snare drum also.
[06:29.000] So now it tries here to remove only the hi hats, maybe ease out here the settings.
[06:43.640] So and when we disable here the DSEQ3, it sounds completely different, right?
[07:00.560] So the DSEQ is basically a cueing for us and removing these frequencies because they are
[07:05.840] not really balanced with pink noise.
[07:10.480] So this is how we do it basically more or less with the DSEQ3 and I want to disable
[07:16.600] this and want to show you this here with a loud split device.
[07:20.920] So here it's the same.
[07:30.360] Maybe disable or maybe solely adjust the loud part, bring the rise down, the fall part down.
[07:36.320] You can see when we bring this down, the hi hats are peaking at first and then it's
[07:47.800] followed by the kick and the snare.
[07:53.120] So we can bring this down here in loudness, everything that goes above this line.
[07:57.200] Maybe we put it more over so we don't touch the kick and the snare, something like this.
[08:03.760] And then you bring in the rest.
[08:17.040] And then you can play around with rise and fall.
[08:33.920] So it's a nice way of identifying problems in the mix down or on certain sounds and maybe
[08:41.000] pull them down.
[08:44.800] As you can see it's peaking way too much and with the loud split on, we bring this down
[08:56.520] and ease it out a bit.
[08:58.280] So maybe you have an old drum loop, a classic drum loop from back in the days, old funk
[09:02.920] drum loop with a lot of high end content.
[09:06.680] You can use the loud split here and bring down the loudness just of the bits that are
[09:12.840] going above the threshold line.
[09:15.720] And it's actually very useful and I think I'm trying this trick or this workflow out
[09:21.440] in my next songs, my next mix downs, instead of using DSEQ3 and see how it works out for
[09:29.320] me.
[09:30.320] Because actually a neat device and it's in Bitwig Studio already included, it doesn't
[09:36.920] have too much latency and yeah, I can put some devices or some stuff on loud and mid
[09:45.440] and quiet in these boxes here and maybe act on certain things.
[09:51.040] So we will see.
[09:53.760] But this is what I discovered lately and made some experiments with it and I think it's
[10:00.400] a nice way of using this device instead of, you know, making some creative things.
[10:06.480] You can also use this for mastering.
[10:08.480] So this is what I want to show you in this video basically.
[10:12.240] If you have some more discoveries with this, let me know.
[10:15.560] I think for now that's it.
[10:17.920] Thanks for watching.
[10:18.920] Leave a like if you like the video, thumbs up or leave a comment if you have some questions
[10:23.680] and thanks for watching.
[10:24.680] See you in the next one.
[10:25.680] Bye.