Earle Holder's television interview

Earle Holder's television interview from HDQTRZ Mastering Studios

http://blip.tv/file/3249251/

Har-Bal Celebrates Its 7th Successful Year In Business

Har-Bal Celebrates its 7th Successful Year in BusinessAtlanta / Australia, - February, 16 2010 -

Har-Bal, the worlds first visual mastering equalizer and sometimes the source of major debates around the world is celebrating its 5th year in business. The software allows engineers to immediately identify problem areas in a track and make corrections in real time resulting in a sound that rivals the best mastering studios.

Har-Bal has received numerous industry awards and rave reviews from top magazines all over the world. Don't take our word for it just Google "har-bal". This ingenious piece of software continues to move forward and make its way into studios worldwide.

Dan Ball of Home Recording Connection says "Har-Bal rocks in my book, and will remain among my most used applications for its continuing innovation in an area of audio production that is very much in need of it. Ian Waugh Music Tech Magazine says "Har-Bal is a truly unique program, extremely affordable and probably the quickest and easiest way to balance your audio material. Paul Alfery MI District Sales Manager Roland Corporation US says “I will enthusiastically tell everyone I know who does any recording about Har-Bal. It's so rare that a program does what it says it will do. Har-Bal does!" Craig Anderton of EQ Magazine says “Har-Bal is a cleverly implemented tool that fixes EQ problems with astonishing speed and precision...

The company is currently working on porting the code over to a Mac base because of the demand from Mac users worldwide. Currently Har-Bal is a standalone program and will remain so because of the complexity of the analysis engine. System Requirements: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 or XP, Vista, Windows 7.

The company was started in 2003 by Earle Holder Chief Mastering Engineer of Hdqtrz Digital Mastering Studios www.hdqtrz.com and Paavo Jumppanen an Electrical Engineer in Australia. Their dedication to the product and their customers is considered by most to be impeccable.

They have over 4500 articles on recording, mixing and mastering tips in their forum which can be found at their main site, www.har-bal.com

How Does Your Music Sound Compared To Your Favorite Commercial Recordings?

Har-Bal, “the world's first visual mastering equalizer”. www.har-bal.com has caused a paradigm shift in the recording industry and is an award winning outstanding technical achievement.

This superior method of EQ'ing and harmonic balancing gives Har-Bal it's distinction as the premiere spectrum analyzer for the most important step in the CD mastering process. It truly separates an amateur recording from a professional recording and removes the need to test your CD's on different systems and environments.

In addition, unlike a typical digital equalizer, Har-Bal leaves the initial volume level unchanged even after performing spectral correction thanks to its "loudness compensation"

technology.

Har-Bal allows you to easily tidy up the sound quality of mastered or un-mastered recordings while preserving the original intent of the producer and/or recording engineer.

The company started 7 years ago by Earle Holder and Paavo Jumppanen has been nothing short of successful.

Global demand for Har-Bal has not slowed down even after 7 years in operation. Har-Bal is now in use by recording, mixing and mastering studios in 116 countries.

"If you have the ears to know how to use this clever program, Har-Bal makes fixing equalization problems in everything from samples to master recordings just that much easier." Craig Anderton EQ Magazine

With Har-Bal you can create a harmonically balanced sound of unparalleled quality one hundred percent of the time. With this software you will be able to create original and re-mastered recordings that rival the best mastering studios the world has to offer.

Visit them at www.har-bal.com

Next Version of Har-Bal

At present, the analysis part is essentially complete but I have a major bit of design work figuring out the details of how the filtering design will work. I can tell you that the analysis engine does time based analysis on a nominally 1/20th of a second basis and also provides for calculating averages as per current Har-Bal (it does time based analysis first and can then calculate averages from that, typically less than a second to do the average of a typical song).

By doing time based analysis it allows for the ability to arbitrarily partition a track into segments and have average analyses for each plus individual filters for each segment. Not only does the analysis engine do time based analysis but it also does analysis for mid,side,left and right channels. The engine is written in a general sense so it can (theoretically) also handle 5.1 and 7.1 setups.

It is the time based filtering aspects of the filter design process that still needs sorting out as far as the back end design is concerned.Time based analysis also offers other possibilities, possibly most notably is an integrated compressor. The time based analysis gives you access to a smooth volume envelope that can then be used to drive compression. That envelope will be altered through filtering but there is sufficient information to predict the change in envelope from the filter characteristic and the spectrum by time.

All in all, it should make for a clean sounding compression. Another possibility that I've catered for in the design proposal is controlling errant peaks in a track. The spectrum analysis has information in it that will allow you to quickly locate the time segments that are responsible for particular peaks in the peak spectrum trace. With that time selection centred on a particular errant peak you will be able to build a filter to just control that, yielding a process which you might refer to as my take on multi-band compression.

One thing I'm also working on doing is separating the filter design process from the filtering process. This will allow for a separate standalone and free Har-Bal player, allowing people with Har-bal licenses to design filters and make them available for people to hear without the need for them to purchase the software. Finally, the way I do the filtering will be generalised into a cross coupled filter block which allows support for independent filtering of mid, side, left and right channels as well as Haas zone ambiance processing and integrated room EQ (compensating for room acoustics). That is all achievable with a filter structure that has only twice the computational complexity of what Har-Bal has at present. Har-Bal Air as it is now, will be replaced with a more powerful and natural sounding Haas zone ambiance process. That way you use it will be the same but it will sound better and have a greater range of possibilities, one of which is stereo'ising mono sources.

On the GUI side of things the geometric mean trace will cease to be and is being replaced by a realtime trace which displays the spectrum at a particular 1/20th second time slice. I've actually prototyped this behaviour and it works quite well. It needs some optimisation though. That's a fair summary of where I'm at an where I'd like to go. Hopefully it should give you some idea as to why I'm taking so long doing this re-write.

Cheers,

Paavo.

Har-Bal Tutorial

This video tutorial will give you a full overview of the features in Har-Bal and remove its mystery. Many more features have been added in out latest version 2.3

Click here for the video tutorial

Cheers

Earle

Engineers Sing The Praises Of Har-Bal Mastering Software

Har-Bal, the world's first visual mastering software, has been revolutionizing the mastering process since its launch in August 15th 2003, with sound engineers increasingly turning to the software to improve the quality and efficiency of a variety of studio projects. Harmonic Balancing provides a reliable means of correcting and removing the tonal imbalances inherent in any song, thus producing a more naturally pleasing and agreeable sound to the listening ears.

"Har-Bal makes all of the difference in the final product at MISA Studio," noted MISA Studio's Sam Casamento. "Any problem area is immediately visible in Har-Bal and therefore, very simple to address and adjust, resulting in a finished product unsurpassed in audio quality."

Sam continues "Before discovering Har-Bal, mastering was a slow and tedious process. Using spectrum analysis and making constant adjustments as changes in one range often made the previous change in another frequency void. This time equates to money as well as a struggle to meet deadlines."

"When you are able to focus in on the minutest details of a frequency, and properly adjust the amplitude in a specific range you can now realize finished products that are easy on the ear."

Har-Bal was the result of a collaboration between Paavo Jumppanen, an electrical engineer and an expert in speaker design and room acoustics, and Earle Holder, a highly sought mastering engineer in great demand worldwide, who will be releasing a book named "Mastering Audio Exposed!" in October 2005.

The Har-Bal software has received numerous awards, including the Keyboard "Key Buy Award" and EQ Magazine's "Exceptional Quality Award," with respected journalist Craig Anderton noting "If you have the ears to know how to use this clever program, HarBal makes fixing equalization problems in everything from samples to master recordings just that much easier."

The key to Har-Bal Harmonic Balancing software is its unique ability to allow mastering engineers to actually see these types of frequency conflicts and initiate the proper steps to correct them. The spectrum analyzer allows engineers the ability to actually see the frequency ranges monitors aren't able to reproduce.

By coupling spectrum analysis with digital filtering Har-Bal provides the most powerful, yet functionally simple means of re-adjusting the spectral balance of sound recordings, be they original new masters, or re-masters of existing works.

"Manipulation by visualization!," explained Sam Casamento. "I just could not believe how simple this made such a difficult task. Soon I was dropping in audio files of target sound concepts and desired end results and simply dragging and shaping the spectrum of my audio accordingly."

"I use Har-Bal daily," commented Lloyd a.k.a. Zumbido. "The visual aid is very beneficial to me if I am mastering like-songs and/or instrumentation. This is common for me with many of my clients (i.e., similar instrumentation or style). I still take commercially produced songs and 'study' them in Har-Bal to 'see' whether they are sonically representative of what my clients are trying to achieve, or why I do or don't like something."

"I was looking for mastering software as I had been approached to master a clients CD. The idea of mastering visually, as well as aurally, appealed to me - maybe because of my lack of experience in this 'black-art' at that time. I completed this first project with great success and took on a second project well before the '30-day money back guarantee' expired."

Unlike a typical digital equalizer, Har-Bal leaves the initial volume level unchanged even after performing spectral correction thanks to its "loudness compensation" technology. It allows engineers to easily tidy up the sound quality of mastered or un-mastered recordings while preserving the original intent of the producer and/or recording engineer.

Har-Bal also provides reference files, genre-based spectrum pictures based on some of the best examples of recording within their genre. The templates are compiled from hundreds of songs to give an accurate frequency range for any songs. In addition, users can access filter files, custom designed filters for specific songs either by Har-Bal users submitted in the Har-Bal forum, or from popular music heard every day.

Michael J Rhoden with Electric Einstein Studio for example has been working with a contemporary Gospel group for three years. "In the past few months I have Harbalized a few of their songs and they could not get over the clarity and power it added. I must say I used one of Har-Bal's filters that works quite well with many genres. It is based on pink noise. You can see the pink noise peaks and dips. It is very uniform."

"I initially utilized templates," explained Lloyd. "Now I generally use my ears. However, the visual aid is still very beneficial to me if I am mastering like-songs and/or instrumentation. This is common for me with many of my clients (i.e., similar instrumentation or style).

But perhaps most telling are engineers' initial experiences with Har-Bal as well as the varied recording projects they've applied it too. Bruce Bartlett for example, author of "Practical Recording Techniques" (Focal Press), has used the software for tasks ranging from restoring an early 1950's recording by improving its tonal balance to controlling overly loud tympani hits in an orchestral recording. "So far, in two albums I've been able to achieve more uniform song levels and tonal balance, and better quality because of the improved tonal balance," commented Bruce.

"My first project with Har-Bal was a sound clip for a comedic DVD," said Sam Casamento. "I was competing with two major studio's in L.A. and was comfortable for the first time that I would have a clip that would hold up to the pro's. After completion of the 14 second sound file I loaded it into Har-Bal, using a sound clip from the prior DVD release and simply adjusted the spectrums to match. It sounded great! And, I got the project."

"I used Har-Bal recently on an 15 year old experienced German Oompah band comprised of seasoned schooled musicians," recounted Michael J Rhoden. "The producer could not believe how musical Har-Bal made the music. It really brought it to life. Even if a customer doesn't want mastering in my studio, I give them an HB version to listen to before the final mixes."

Paavo Jumppanen

Paavo Jumppanen
Developer/Engineer

As with many good ideas, Harmonic Balancing has its origins in a number of life experiences leading up to a seminal realization. The seed of the idea came from my time spent as a researcher at the University of Tasmania whereupon I was using homomorphic signal processing techniques in the analysis of laser schlieren signals in transitional combustion flows. My reference book on the subject (Digital Signal Processing by A.V.Oppenheim & R.W. Schafer ISBN 0-13-214107-8) had a particularly interesting section (10.7.3) giving an overview of homomorphic deconvolution applied to the restoration of acoustic recordings. More specifically they were using the technique to remove the frequency response of the recording horn from recordings of Enrico Caruso. At the time I found the idea very impressive but saw no direct use for it and there it remained dormant in my mind.

Concurrently, I was also developing spectrum analysis software for the same research project that would, over a number of years and after my departure from that institution, evolve into what is now AtSpec, a PC based 2 channel FFT spectrum analysis software package.

I was simultaneously in the process of designing and developing what I was hoping to be my definitive pair of loudspeakers. Having invested a large amount of time and effort in both modelling and testing and trialing a number of different drivers I settled upon a design that I was satisfied with but only to a point. Coming from a purest standpoint I was somewhat naive to believe that if you had good speakers and good components then any recording you happen to listen to should sound good. By and large this held true for 70-80% of the recorded music I listened to but there was always those exceptional recordings that raised doubts in my mind as to the quality of the speakers that I had designed. So much so that I was in the habit of continually tweaking the crossover to get the right tonal balance. Then after considerable time I reverted back to the original design and resigned myself to the fact that my speakers weren't up to par (or so I thought at the time).

For a number of years this whole issue of how some recordings just sounded so distressing while others sounded beautifully serene continued to trouble me. It was then, quite by accident, while checking the speaker performance with AtSpec that I discovered, much to my surprise, that the recordings that I found difficult to listen to had distinctive spectral characteristics that tallied with my perception of how the recording sounded. It was a vindication for the speaker design and an indictment on the recording. In hindsight this seemed to make perfect sense and shouldn’t have come as a surprise but yet it did.

The concept of Harmonic Balancing had sprung to life : If we can measure the mean spectrum of a recording we can test the quality of the sound through its spectrum and our perception of the song, and if found to be lacking we can construct an equalization filter to correct for any deficiencies. Over the following five years Harmonic Balancing has been transformed from a concept into reality.
His home site is www.har-bal.com