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dB-M is a flexible dynamics plugin with many uses including loudness maximizing, advanced EQing, and dynamics tuning. dB-M splits your audio using a high quality crossover filter - this cuts the audio into low, mid, and high frequency bands. Each band is then processed through its own lookahead limiter (using the same intelligent algorithm designed for the dB-L mastering limiter). Here are a few example applications of dB-M... Increasing loudness of a mix "Traditional" limiters (like the dB-L mastering limiter) produce good results with many types of material, but sometimes they can give a "pumping" sound when pushed too hard. This is because when the limiter kicks in to compress, for example, a loud bass guitar, it limits the mids & highs as well. Because dB-M limits each low/mid/high audio band independently, it can boost the volume far more transparently. The mids & highs are not cut just because your bassist gets carried away! Advanced EQ control dB-M can be used as a 3-band EQ (equivalent to high-shelving, low-shelving and paragraphic mid bands). However, there is one important difference. No matter how much EQ boost you apply, the output will never distort. You need not worry about boosting the bass too far and going over that magical 0dB digital threshold and clipping the output. Intelligent compressor dB-M is great for compressing individual instruments. It can compress the lows & mids of a guitar or vocal track without destroying the sparkling highs that you worked so hard to record. Dynamics control at the mastering stage dB-M can be used to tune out problem instruments at the mastering stage. For example, what if you have a bass drum which is sitting just a little too high in the mix? Simply tune into the bass drum using the low band of dB-M (the solo feature is useful for this), then reduce the low limit control until the graph shows a small amount of limiting being applied.
general controls
display The three bands are shown as three grey boxes. When audio is playing, each box is a VU meter for that band. A blue meter above each box displays the amount of limiting being applied to that band. The VU meters to the right display the input and output levels from the plugin.
high & low Sets the crossover frequency points where the audio is split into low/mid/high bands. solo Allows you to listen to each band individually. Note: what you hear is the output of each band's limiter, not the input. limit Sets the limiter threshold for each band. (Each limit control is ganged to the corresponding boost control) boost Sets the gain applied to each band, after the limiter output. (Each boost control is ganged to the corresponding boost control) decay Sets the release time for the limiter in each band. bypass Switches off the plugin. But you probably knew that :-) Useful for doing A/B comparisons between the original & processed audio, particularly if your sequencer or editor doesn't have its own effect bypass button.
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dB-M multiband
limiter
