OptiMaster, PsyQ - to buy or not to buy

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Sun Mar 17, 2002 6:09 pm

Hi all,

I will post a separate message about insert EQs for mixing but for mastering should I be getting these two devices?

Now I consider the prices to be very high, but if they are going to be the only mastering tools I could ever need/desire then I will probably purchase them one at a time and the price would be justifiable.

However, if they would be considered an interim solution then I cannot justify the expense so it's a fairly important decision for me to make.

Now I would tend to master a single stereo mixdown from Cool Edit 2000 and currently I use a native DX mastering plug-in called Ozone. So I do have a native solution already. Also, there would be many native solutions I could look at (I'm not looking for hardware).

Please feel free to offer advice.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Sun Mar 17, 2002 11:11 pm

Here's some info from the past.
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... 15&forum=5
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I just spent some time thoroughly experimenting with the PsyQ. (I'll do Optimaster sooner or later)

So the PsyQ is a bass enhancer, exciter, stereo enhancer, and a comp+saturator combo.

The bass enhancer section, I think, adds bass harmonics. It definitely has a sweet zone that needs to be touched for it to react. (probably around 100, 200 zone) Otherwise it seems to be a wide lobed low-end gain. (like when working with vocals) Works great with drums I think, but nothing you can't do with Celmo's subbass or careful tuning of self-oscillating filters.

I still don't have much of the exciter section figured out. There's 2 of them, one for mid/high, and another one dedicated to high. It seems the role of the mid/high changes when you turn on the one dedicated for high. On a two mix, or a final mix, it can work as a pin point high end enhancer. It is very precise. But this exciter can put so much harmonics in there, you can hurt your ears. Best be easy on these. Unless the recorded material is super bad, I think you can achieve similar results with careful eq-ing.

The stereo enhancer seems to be much more effective than the Propack one. Would recommend it on a final mix. But of course, you'd trade off some attack on the lower frequencies. They seem to go further behind in the mix. I personally like them upfront.

The comp+soft clip combo is so-so. You'd want to keep bass drums and other slow attack sounds away because this really tears off most of the body and leaves just a little (like 0.40 millisec) of attack. Soft clipping that won't help. I also wouldn't feed it any sort of material that's been treated with heavy dynamics. You'd probably end up with that door-knock sound. But if you're not very familiar with dynamics, (I had a very hard time learning it) and want something to start on, this'll do it. It'll give you a definite comp-ish feel to the sound. Its ratio seems pretty high. 4? 5? Or actually, I think I had the knob turned up too high. (duh!) But you get my piont. <http://www.planetz.com/forums/images/sm ... _smile.gif>

So that's about it. I really couldn't feel the so-called "analysis" feature at work. Perhaps it adjusts the threshold of the comp? I'm not sure. I don't think it's affecting the exciter portion either.

If you've got bad material that you want to liven up, this is for you. (especially vocals and other live instruments) If you've got good material, need to brighten things up, but want to save a couple of bucks, study psychoacoustics. (lots of neat eq-ing tricks!) We'd all be better off knowing how the ear and brain works anyway. I looove cognitive science.

Anyone else care to check out this device? It'll be great to hear what different people find out about it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2002-03-17 23:14 ]</font>

Post by **garyb** » Sun Mar 17, 2002 11:12 pm

optimaster is very nice.try the demo.

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:15 am

Yes I read that thread and was interested to see what you said about PsyQ. I was also interested to see how it compared with other 3rd party plug-ins for the Pulsar platform.

Likewise with OptiMaster.

I imagine they'd both have to be good to some degree. I'm trying to find out whether I'm overlooking an even better mastering solution from a 3rd party company like DSPDEV or something. Obviously, I would like to get a feel for which is the better solution.

I know some advice has to be based on opinions, but the considered and experienced opinions are welcomed in this situation.

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:48 am

You would definitely need the multicomp from DSPDEV. Or some sort of multicomp. It's a great sound creation tool, and a must have for mastering. Not sure how it compares to optimaster tho. For some reason, I can't get the optimaster demo.

despite · Post by **despite** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 12:34 am

mayby you should check out our impressor package, it has a multiband compressor which is very simple in use and is one of the best sounding compressors available for pulsar at the moment, you can use it for the final mix or individual tracks.

you can check the demo on the creamware site.

cheers,
sander
orbitone

On 2002-03-18 02:48, kensuguro wrote:
You would definitely need the multicomp from DSPDEV. Or some sort of multicomp. It's a great sound creation tool, and a must have for mastering. Not sure how it compares to optimaster tho. For some reason, I can't get the optimaster demo.

Post by **garyb** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 12:58 am

thanks, i'll check it when i get a chance.(impressor)

caleb · Post by **caleb** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 6:49 pm

I'm sold.

I will be purchasing both soon.

Thanks everyone.

ernest@303.nu · Post by **ernest@303.nu** » Fri Mar 22, 2002 2:51 am

To Absolutely Buy!!!!!!

Have them both since a couple of weeks.....

Psy Q: I have some experience with the DirectX DSP/fx Aural Activator
I liked the Aural Activator very much when applied in *very* small amounts because it can sound pretty harsh at higher volumes. The Psy Q is a different story. Of course it can be cranked up to earbleeding settings (most often not noticed until your ears actually start bleeding

) but at a wide range of settings the sound is mellow and 'unaltered'. I especially like the seperate low, mid/high and high enhancement, it allows for very precise adjustment of a mix.
The stereo enhancement is very good IMHO, the mix doesn't loose much low-end power when set to 0-25%, it sounds more natural than the other stereo enhancers I've tried (Waves DX), even when applied to mp3s. Surprisingly little "bit-smudging" can be heard, even using 16-bit files. I haven't touched the compression much, it didn't do much to please me. The Softclip shouldn't be used at this stage, just lower the gain a bit and it'll sound better. Overall I like this plugin very much.

Optimaster: VERY useful plugin!!! Frankly I don't have much experience with comparable products (Waves DX L1 Ultramaximizer comes closest) so this is an as-is review.
Optimaster is really capable of shaping a mix. Very precise multiband compression/limiting/expansion (especially when the Look Ahead is activated), it really amazes me to hear what it can do. It restores dynamics of poor recordings, it make good mixes really penetrate you speakers, and it allows for those 0db dance tracks without giving up much dynamics:)
The Wizard can be a good starting point but you're usually better of tweaking the suggested settings, it tends to overcompress and use too slow attacks for the low freqencies. I like the Softclip for loud tracks but it can add some audible distortion to softer tracks.
Overall opinion: very good plugin! The only mastering devices I'll ever need (fingers crossed)