Copyright 2016, Newfangled Audio

P/N: 141301, Rev. 4

Newfangled Audio and Elevate are trademarks of Orthogonal Art and
Science, LLC.
AAX and Pro Tools are trademarks of Avid Technology. Names and logos
are used with permission.
Audio Units is a trademark of Apple, Inc.
VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respec-
tive owners.
Elevate proudly uses the Eigen C++ library, which is available at http:
//eigen.tuxfamily.org.
Elevate also proudly uses the PFFFT library, which is available at https:
//bitbucket.org/jpommier/pffft.

Newfangled Audio
www.newfangledaudio.com

I
Contents

1 Newfangled Audio Elevate 1

1.1 A Word About Loudness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 Installation and Instantiation 3

2.1 Registering Your Plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Activating Your License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Installing Your Plug-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Moving or Removing an Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.5 Removing or Uninstalling your Plug-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Preset Bar 6
3.1 Preset Selector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Preset Load and Save Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Compare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.4 Gain Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.5 Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.6 Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.7 SETTINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.7.1 OPENGL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.7.2 VISUALIZATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.7.3 DITHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.8 Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.9 Resize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Parameters and Metering 9

4.1 Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2 Global Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.1 ACTIVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.2 MATCH LEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2.3 INPUT AND OUTPUT LEVEL and BAR METERS . . . . . . 11
4.3 PARAMETER PAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.4 MAIN PARAMETERS PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.4.1 LIMITER SECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.4.2 TRANSIENT EMPHASIS SECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.4.3 SPECTRAL CLIPPER SECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.5 FILTER BANK SUB-MODULE PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.5.1 AUDITORY FILTER BANK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

II
 4.5.2 MEL/CUSTOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5.3 SOLO BUTTONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5.4 INSERT FILTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5.5 REMOVE FILTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5.6 FILTER CENTER FREQUENCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5.7 FILTER BANK DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.6 LIMITER/EQ SUB-MODULE PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.6.1 GAIN PER BAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.6.2 RESET GAINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.6.3 BAND SOLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.6.4 DRAW CURVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.6.5 METERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.7 TRANSIENT SUB-MODULE PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.7.1 TRANSIENT EMPHASIS PER BAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.7.2 RESET TRANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.7.3 BAND SOLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.7.4 DRAW CURVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.7.5 METERING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.8 CLIPPER SUB-MODULE PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.9 METERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.9.1 INPUT and OUTPUT BAR METERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.9.2 CENTER SECTION METER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.9.3 SCROLLING INPUT/OUTPUT METER . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.9.4 SCROLLING GAIN REDUCTION METER . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.9.5 FILTER BANK METER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5 Conclusion 27

6 About Newfangled Audio 28

III
Chapter 1

Newfangled Audio
Elevate

Newfangled Audio’s Elevate plug-in is a professional audio grade mas-

tering limiter and audio maximizer designed to transparently increase
the loudness of your audio signal while maintaining or improving the dy-
namic perception and tonal balance of your mix. The Elevate limiter
uses several new technologies to achieve this goal, but the central idea
is to use an auditory filter bank to separate the audio into frequency
bands similar to the frequency curve in the human ear, it then uses
adaptive algorithms to recombine these frequency bands to give you
maximum flexibility while avoiding artifacts like distortion, pumping, or
shifts in the stereo image or tonal balance. In addition to the adaptive
algorithms the MULTIBAND parameter pages allow you to tweak this mix-
ture, giving you control over the tonal balance and transients even after
the final limiting stage. Finally, the UI has been designed to give you fast
and easy control over every aspect of the final master, as well as giv-

1
ing you clear and accurate metering to help you make good decisions
quickly.

1.1 A Word About Loudness

Audio maximizers are designed to increase and balance the loudness
profile of your audio while maintaining a high quality sound. This is an im-
portant audio processing step, especially when the quality of sound re-
production systems and listening environments can vary. However, there
is such a thing as too loud. When audio is consistently too loud it can
lead to listening fatigue for the user and a sub par experience. While an
audio maximizer can be an essential tool which will help you get a good
audio mix across a range of listening systems it’s wise to pay attention
to the overall mix levels and aim for the best sound quality not neces-
sarily just the loudest audio when determining the setting of Elevate’s
parameters.

2
Chapter 2

Installation and
Instantiation

Newfangled Audio plug-ins are distributed by Eventide and like other

plug-ins Eventide distributes, Elevate uses PACE’s ilok.com licensing sys-
tem, with or without and iLok hardware dongle. Each license provides
two activations which can reside on either your computer or on an iLok
license dongle. Once you’ve purchased your plug-in, you’ll need to reg-
ister it on Eventide’s website, activate your license, and install the plug-in
on to your computer

2.1 Registering Your Plug-in

When you purchase Elevate, you’ll receive a Serial Number and License
Key. The Serial Number will be two letters followed by 6 numbers. If you
have an individual Elevate license, the Serial Number will start with NL
(i.e. NL-######). The License Key will be 3 sets of 4 characters, a letter or
a number, each; like XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
Once you’ve received these codes, you can register your plug-in on the
Eventide website. To do so, please log in to http://www.eventideaudio.
com, navigate to My Account in the top right corner, and select Register
a New Product. Then, fill out the form by selecting Native Plug-in (VST, AU,
AAX) in the Product Category field, select Elevate in the Product list, and
enter your Serial Number, License Key, and iLok.com account name. If
you don’t yet have an ilok.com account, you can create one for free
at http://www.ilok.com. Once you’ve done so, press Register.
Once you’ve entered this information and pressed the Register button,
Eventide will send the applicable plug-in license to your ilok.com ac-
count, which you will need to activate to your computer or iLok don-
gle.

3
2.2 Activating Your License
To activate and manage your plug-in licenses you’ll need to install PACE’s
iLok License Manager software which you can download from http:
//www.ilok.com. If you don’t have this software installed, please down-
load and install it now.
Once you have installed and launched iLok License Manager you should
be able to log in to your account by clicking the large Sign In button in
the upper left hand corner of the application. Once you have, you
should be able to see available licenses by choosing the Available tab
at the top of the iLok License Manager application. If you have success-
fully registered your plugin, your Elevate Native license will be available
in this list. Please activate this license by dragging it to either your com-
puter or iLok dongle listed on the left. When you do so, you will be asked
to confirm the activation, and you will be able to see it by clicking on the
location you have chosen. At this point your license is activated.

2.3 Installing Your Plug-In

You should have been given a link to the Elevate plug-in installer when
you purchased your plug-in, but if you haven’t, you can find downloads
for all of our plug-ins at http://www.newfangledaudio.com/downloads. Please
download and launch the correct installer for your system.
Once you’ve launched the plug-in installer, it will take you through sev-
eral pages of options. We have tried to choose defaults for these op-
tions which will best serve the majority of users, but it is worth a minute to
make sure you understand these options before clicking through to the
next page. A common issue with Windows VST plug-ins is choosing the
correct VST directory, which can be different on each system. Please
pay special attention to this setting. Once you have followed through
the installer, your plug-ins and presets should be in your chosen locations,
and you can hit finish to end the installer application.
At this point, you should be ready to use your Elevate Plug-In.

2.4 Moving or Removing an Activation

If at any point, you decide to move your plug-in activation, you can do
so in iLok license manager. To move an activation between an iLok don-
gle and your computer, simply plug in the iLok, locate the license in its
current location, and drag it to its new location. To deactivate a license,
find it in its location, right click on it, and choose deactivate.
Remember that each Elevate Plug-In License comes with two activa-
tions, which can be used on either a computer or iLok dongle, meaning
you can use Elevate in two locations at the same time.

4
2.5 Removing or Uninstalling your Plug-In
We’re sure you’ll love your Newfangled Audio plug-ins, but if you ever
want to remove them from your machine it’s as easy as removing the
following files.
For Mac:
• Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/<Plug-In Name>.component
• Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Newfangled Audio/<Plug-
In Name>.vst
• Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/Newfangled Audio/<Plug-
In Name>.vst3
• Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/Newfangled
Audio/<Plug-In Name>.aaxplugin
• /Music/Newfangled Audio/<Plug-In Name>/
For Windows:
• c:\Program Files\Common\Steinberg\VST2\Newfangled Audio\<Plug-
In Name>.dll
• c:\Program Files\Common\VST3\Newfangled Audio\<Plug-In Name>.vst3
• c:\Program Files\Common\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins\Newfangled Au-
dio
<Plug-In Name>.aaxplugin
• My Documents\Newfangled Audio\<Plug-In Name>\

5
Chapter 3

Preset Bar

At the very type of the Elevate plug-in is a preset bar which allows you
to load and save preset, as well as a couple other features. These are
the preset bar sections.

3.1 Preset Selector

On the far left is a drop-down menu which allows you to select preset
from a tree structure. You shouldn’t need to access these presets on
your computer, however, if you do, on the Mac these presets are stored
in your <User>/Music/Newfangled Audio/Elevate/Presets folder. On Win-
dows these presets are stored in your <Documents>/Newfangled Au-
dio/Elevate/Presets folder.
Next to the preset drop-down menu is a left and right arrow, which allow
you to quickly scroll through presets.

3.2 Preset Load and Save Buttons

To the right of the preset selection arrows is a LOAD and SAVE button.
LOAD will allow you to load a .tide preset from anywhere on your com-
puter. Save will allow you to save a new preset to anywhere on your
computer, however, we suggest that you place it somewhere in the pre-
sets folder so you can access it from the file dropdown.

3.3 Compare
The COMPARE button will allow you to toggle between the current set-
tings and the last saved or loaded preset. If you have settings that you

6
like, save them as a preset, and as you tweak you can always return to
them using the COMPARE button.

3.4 Gain Lock

The purpose of Elevate is to add gain to your audio, however, the pre-
sets give you slightly different takes on this. For this reason, just flipping
through presets can be jarring if they’re all stored with different amounts
of gain. The GAIN LOCK button solves this problem by locking all the
gain related parameters so the total level settings in the plug-in won’t
change and you will get fair comparisons. Specifically, this button will
cause the GAIN, DRIVE, CEILING, INPUT LEVEL, and OUTPUT LEVEL values
to not be updated based on the preset settings so they will remain the
same as you are currently listening to. The one exception is that the ratio
of the GAIN to DRIVE setting will be updated based on the preset val-
ues but the total amount of GAIN + DRIVE will not be, so the sound will
change, but the requested gain will not.

3.5 Info
The INFO button will open this manual for you to read about the plug-
in.

3.6 Update
If there is a software update available an UPDATE button will appear in
the preset bar. Clicking it will bring you to a web page where you can
download the new installers.

3.7 SETTINGS
The SETTINGS button pops down a settings page which contains addi-
tional options.

3.7.1 OPENGL
The OPENGL button allows you to toggle between two different render-
ing engines. Most people will want to use OPENGL set to on, which will
select a rendering engine that uses your computer’s onboard GPU to
do all graphics rendering for Punctuate. However, some computers do
not have a separate GPU processor, or have a GPU that doesn’t use
the specific OpenGL features used by Punctuate. In these cases, hav-
ing OPENGL set to "on" may cause graphics errors or an extreme load
on your computers CPU. To turn OpenGL rendering off, set the OPENGL
button to "off", close the plug-in window, then open it again. Closing

7
and opening the plug-in windows is necessary because the rendering
engine can only be changed when the plug-in window is closed.

3.7.2 VISUALIZATIONS
The VISUALIZATIONS button allows you to turn the animated meters on or
off. Generally you’ll want to keep these on, but if they’re bothering you,
or if your computer is having trouble showing all the animations you may
choose to turn these off.

3.7.3 DITHER
Elevate gives you the option to add Triangular Dither (also known as TPDF
dither) to your final output for rendering at 8, 12, 16, 20, or 24 bit output
resolutions, if needed.

3.8 Color Scheme

On the far right is a drop-down labeled COLOR SCHEME. This will allow
you to choose one of several different color schemes for your viewing
pleasure.

3.9 Resize
The bottom right corner of the UI will allow you to resize the plug-in. To
change the default plug-in size drag the plug-in to the desired size and
save over the default preset.

8
Chapter 4

Parameters and Metering

Elevate is designed to be incredibly easy to use, but also incredibly pow-

erful. The MAIN PARAMETERS page exposes ten core parameters which
give you control over an adaptive limiter, transient engine, and final clip-
ping stage. If you want to tweak further, Elevate also exposes band pa-
rameters for the filterbank and each band in the 4 Elevate sub modules.
In addition to this, Elevate shows you several different kinds of metering
to keep an eye on what’s happening. Here are brief descriptions of
these pages, along with some of the other features of the plug-in.

4.1 Controls
Elevate has several control types, including vertical and horizontal slid-
ers, rotary knobs, drop-down menus, and toggle and radio buttons, all
of which have tool-tips which will give you more information about their
function if you hover your mouse above them.
In general, all sliders and knobs can be double clicked to type in a
specific value, option-clicked to return them to their default value, or
command-clicked or control-clicked to enter a vernier mode for fine
tuning. In addition, some controls support special shift-click functional-
ity, such as using shift-swipe to draw and EQ curve, or shift clicking the
gain sliders to set output level compensation. Where available, these
shift-click functions are mentioned in the tool-tips for the individual con-
trols.
Where appropriate, most controls have a related on/off button which
will deactivate this control, or even the entire section. Turning sections
off when you’re not using them can reduce the amount of processing
power used by Elevate.

9
4.2 Global Parameters
4.2.1 ACTIVE

The ACTIVE button activates or bypasses all the processing in the plug-
in. If the nearby Match Level button is on, the inactive state will apply
the equivalent clean gain that you are asking for in the ACTIVE state. If
you have enough headroom, this will allow you to compare the output
of the Elevate plug-in at the same theoretical level to more easily hear
what effects the processing is having on your sound. Realize that if you
don’t have enough headroom on your master fader this will cause the
output of your DAW to clip.

4.2.2 MATCH LEVEL

As mentioned above, MATCH LEVEL will boost the dry signal when the
plug-in is inactive in order to allow you to compare the limited signal
to the non-limited signal with the same amount of gain. This can give
you a fair comparison between the clean and effected audio and help
you understand what artifacts the algorithm may be imparting. When
MATCH LEVEL is on and the plug-in is inactive the output level will likely be
much higher than 0 dBfs, so make sure you have appropriate headroom
in your playback system to avoid clipping.

10
4.2.3 INPUT AND OUTPUT LEVEL and BAR METERS

Above the INPUT meter is a knob for the MASTER INPUT LEVEL, and above
the OUTPUT meter is an AUTO button for setting the MASTER OUTPUT
LEVEL. By default AUTO is off and adding gain will result in a louder sound.
However, if you turn the AUTO output level button on, the MASTER OUT-
PUT LEVEL will be reduced by the total amount of GAIN and DRIVE added
to the signal. This will allow you to easily compare the limited sound to
the bypassed sound and determine that you are still getting transpar-
ent limiting. This is a very handy feature, but make sure to turn AUTO off
before bouncing your final track, or else you will be reducing the peak
gain, rather than increasing the RMS gain.
If you’d prefer not to use the AUTO button to set the MASTER OUTPUT
LEVEL and would like to set it manually instead, clicking the down arrow
next to the AUTO button will allow you to select a manual mode which
will display a knob for the MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL. The MASTER INPUT LEVEL
is just before the INPUT meter and the MASTER OUTPUT LEVEL is just before
the OUTPUT meter, these controls should be used as TRIM controls only
when you are targeting an input or output standard other than 0 dBfs,
or when the input signal is too low or too high as indicated by the INPUT

11
or INPUT/OUTPUT meter.
When the LIMITER section is in TRUE PEAK mode the OUTPUT meter will
show the TRUE PEAK output rather than the sample based output.

4.3 PARAMETER PAGES

Most of Elevate’s most important controls are on the MAIN PARAMETERS
page. Many times you will be able to get the results you want with-
out ever leaving this page. However, there are also four ELEVATE SUB-
MODULE pages which are arranged to show the flow of audio through
Elevate’s sub-modules. We will discuss the parameters on each of these
pages here.

4.4 MAIN PARAMETERS PAGE

The MAIN PARAMETERS page contains the primary parameters for mak-
ing the input signal louder while avoiding artifacts. It contains 5 param-
eters for the LIMITER, 2 parameters for the TRANSIENT EMPHASIS section,
and 2 for the SPECTRAL CLIPPER.

12
4.4.1 LIMITER SECTION
On the left hand side is the LIMITER section. You will see sliders for the
standard limiter parameters GAIN and SPEED (sometimes called thresh-
old and release) as well as a slider for CEILING. Below these parameters
you will see knobs for ADAPTIVE GAIN and ADAPTIVE SPEED, these control
the adaptive algorithms that reduce audible artifacts and make Elevate
so powerful. Elevate works by using an auditory filter bank to split the sig-
nal into the critical bands of human hearing, then using these adaptive
algorithms to know when and where to best apply limiting. If you deac-
tivate the ADAPTIVE parameters and the PER BAND parameters on the
EQ and TRANSIENT pages, the LIMITER will act as a standard single band
limiter, but that would be boring.

TRUE PEAK

By turning on the TRUE PEAK button Elevate will enable TRUE PEAK lim-
iting, otherwise known as inter-sample peak limiting. When TRUE PEAK

13
is on Elevate will limit the incoming audio based not on the incoming
samples themselves, but based on the peak values measured between
samples. Many users believe that inter-sample peaks that go above 0
dB can create audible distortion when the audio is rendered in listeners
playback systems. Additionally, TRUE PEAK limiting is required for several
broadcast standards, and may be important for signals that are con-
verted to lossy formats like mp3 and mp4.
Elevate’s TRUE PEAK mode is designed to match all standards while main-
taining maximum clarity. You should not be able to detect a significant
difference between in audio between TRUE PEAK on and off, however,
it does alter the processing, so you may detect differences, especially
at extreme settings. Additionally, turning on TRUE PEAK will raise the CPU
usage of Elevate slightly.
Finally, when Elevate’s TRUE PEAK mode is engaged Elevate’s OUTPUT
METER becomes a TRUE PEAK output meter and instead of displaying
the maximum sample values it will display the maximum inter-sample
peaks.

NUMBER OF FREQUENCY BANDS

The first stage of signal processing is the FILTER BANK and next to the
LIMITER section label is a drop down that allows you to select the num-
ber of frequency bands being used by the adaptive algorithms in both
the LIMITER and TRANSIENT sections. This can be viewed as a resolution
parameter for the core Elevate algorithms, as is set to the maximum be
default. However, this can use a lot of processing power, and the num-
ber of bands can often be reduced and still provide good results. If you
find that you’re running out of processing power, just select a smaller
value.
More fine tuning of these frequency bands can be done on the FILTER
BANK sub-module page.

GAIN

The GAIN is the amount of gain you wish the ELEVATE limiter to apply. In
a nod to the compression that happens in mastering limiters this control
is often called threshold, but we felt that GAIN was more appropriate
given the purpose of this control. The ELEVATE limiter uses an optimally
soft knee to allow very fast release times while producing minimal distor-
tion. To the left of GAIN is a button which will allow you to deactivate
this part of the algorithm.

ADAPTIVE GAIN

The ADAPTIVE GAIN parameter allows the algorithm to adapt the gain
applied to each frequency band individually, allowing more gain re-
duction to be applied to the loudest bands if the signal is near the limit.
Note that similar to a multi-band limiter this has the potential to effect

14
the tonal balance of your mix if used too heavily. The setting is the num-
ber of dB by which each band can stray from the others. To the left of
ADAPTIVE GAIN there is a button which will allow you to deactivate this
part of the algorithm.

SPEED

The SPEED parameter is the combined attack and release time of the
LIMITER. Moving this slider up speeds up the dynamics of the LIMITER and
allows higher output levels, but also introduces the possibility of distor-
tion. The perception of distortion and therefore the best setting is highly
program dependent so pick the best setting for your mix.

ADAPTIVE SPEED

The ADAPTIVE DYNAMICS parameter adapts the attack, release, and

look-ahead parameters for each filter band and greatly reduces "pump-
ing and breathing" artifacts as well as perceived distortion.

CEILING

The CEILING slider allows you to set the maximum output level of the
plug-in. This affects the behavior of both the LIMITER and SPECTRAL CLIP-
PER.

4.4.2 TRANSIENT EMPHASIS SECTION

Look-ahead style mastering limiters have a tendency to squash tran-
sients and reduce the dynamic impact of music. Elevate alleviates this
problem by re-emphasizing these transients and driving them into a clip-
per stage. The MAIN PARAMETERS page shows TRANSIENT EMPHASIS and
ADAPTIVE TRANSIENT controls.

TRANSIENT EMPHASIS

The TRANSIENT EMPHASIS slider allows you to compensate for the squash-
ing effect by allowing fast transients through the limiter or even empha-
sizing them for a more explosive sound. To the left of TRANSIENT EM-
PHASIS is a button which allows you to deactivate this part of the algo-
rithm.

ADAPTIVE TRANSIENT

The ADAPTIVE TRANSIENT parameter allows the TRANSIENT EMPHASIS en-

gine to be adapted to each filter band individually. Settings in between
0% and 100% make sure that adjacent bands are similarly emphasized,
but that distant bands are not. This allows transients from kick drums,
snares, and cymbals to maintain their impact while not effecting the
entire mix or each other. TRANSIENT EMPHASIS and ADAPTIVE TRANSIENT

15
are powerful parameters, so use with care. To the left of ADAPTIVE TRAN-
SIENT is a button which allows you to deactivate this part of the algo-
rithm.

4.4.3 SPECTRAL CLIPPER SECTION

The SPECTRAL CLIPPER sits at the end of the signal chain and allows you
to clip transients, or even drive the entire signal into it. Its innovative
design allows it to overdrive a signal without effecting the tonal balance
or allowing the signal to get "tubby", which makes it ideal for overdriving
an entire mix. Clipping short transients is often the ideal way to increase
level without introducing pumping, and using the DRIVE parameter will
allow you to add an extra oomph to more aggressive styles of music.
These parameters are duplicated on the CLIPPER page along with a
graphical indication of their behavior.

DRIVE

The DRIVE parameter allows you to increase the LIMITER output into SPEC-
TRAL CLIPPER to increase loudness and distortion. It does this according
to a gain curve determined by the SHAPE parameter.

SHAPE

The SHAPE parameter changes the shape of the gain curve from soft
to hard. This clipper uses an ideal set of shapes which allow for max-
imum boost with minimal added harmonic content. When DRIVE is 0
dB no gain is being provided and the soft and hard SHAPEs are the
same.

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4.5 FILTER BANK SUB-MODULE PAGE

The Elevate plug-in uses a triangular filter bank to split the input signal
into a number of frequency bands that resemble the critical bands in
the human ear. The FILTER BANK parameter page allows you to control
the filters that split the input signal into these frequency bands. This filter
bank outputs a number of audio streams which the adaptive algorithm
uses to set the gain reduction across bands. In general, the higher the
number of bands, the more fine grained control the adaptive algorithms
will have, and the more gain you can add before hearing artifacts. How-
ever, a larger numbers of bands does increase the algorithms processing
requirements significantly, and increasing the number of bands may not
always produce a noticeable increase in quality.
The number of bands selected in the auditory FILTER BANK will change
the number and frequency of bands in the graphic EQ and TRANSIENT
emphasis pages. Selecting the 1 BAND option will also deactivate the
ADAPTIVE parameters, as these work across the bands. By selecting 1
BAND you are turning the limiter section into a standard look-ahead lim-
iter, with transient emphasis.

4.5.1 AUDITORY FILTER BANK

This drop-down allows you to select the number of bands you are split-
ting the signal into. Setting the number of bands using this drop-down
will automatically space them on the mel scale between the minimum
value and the maximum value.

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4.5.2 MEL/CUSTOM
This set of interactive radio buttons allow you to distribute the filter cen-
ter frequencies using the MEL scale or a CUSTOM scale of your choosing.
The MEL scale is an auditory scale based on the perceptual distance be-
tween pitches, selecting MEL will equally distribute the chosen number
of filters between the current minimum frequency and current maximum
on the MEL scale. CUSTOM is selected by either choosing the radio but-
ton, or by moving any of the filter center frequencies away from their
MEL based values. By customizing the filter bank to your program mate-
rial you can use the EQ and TRANSIENT pages to hone in on particular
frequency ranges that are important in your program material. For in-
stance you might choose one filter to focus on the resonant frequency
of a kick drum, and another for the bass guitar and use the EQ and
TRANSIENT pages to increase punch in just the bass drum without effect-
ing the relative loudness of the bass guitar.

4.5.3 SOLO BUTTONS

There is a set of toggle buttons which allow you to solo the output of
one band, or for a number of bands by shift-clicking or ctrl-clicking.
These are the same solo buttons that appear on the EQ and TRANSIENT
pages.

4.5.4 INSERT FILTER

The [+] button beneath the solo for the selected band will insert a new
filter with a center frequency between the band chosen and the one
to it’s right. This can be especially helpful if you find you need more
resolution in an area when fine tuning the filter center frequencies. If
you are already using the maximum number of filters, the INSERT FILTER
buttons will be greyed out.

4.5.5 REMOVE FILTER

The [-] button beneath the solo for the selected band will remove the
current band without effecting the center frequencies of the surround-
ing bands. This can be helpful if you find one or more bands to be re-
dundant while fine tuning center frequencies.

4.5.6 FILTER CENTER FREQUENCIES

There are also a set of text box sliders that allow you to set the CENTER
FREQUENCY of each band. By default these are set to match the crit-
ical bands of the human ear, however these bands can be fine tuned
to more closely match important frequency ranges in your program ma-
terial as well. Doing so will allow you to use the band specific gain and
transient sliders in the other sub-modules to fine tune your result.

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4.5.7 FILTER BANK DISPLAY
The FILTER BANK DISPLAY shows you the relative distance and shape of
each filter using the MEL scale. This will help you visualize how the fil-
ters are arranged across the auditory spectrum. The triangular shape of
these filters help adjacent band have some amount of similarity, leading
to a smoother overall sound.

4.6 LIMITER/EQ SUB-MODULE PAGE

The LIMITER/EQ sub-module page allows you to fine tune the GAIN set-
tings for each frequency band and see the relative gain reduction be-
ing applied. The GAIN and ADAPTIVE GAIN parameters are the same as
on the MAIN PARAMETERS page, but each filter band now also breaks
out:

4.6.1 GAIN PER BAND

A GAIN slider which allows you to adjust the amount of additional gain
or cut to be applied to the band, similar to the EQuivocate graphic
equalizer. You can set these slider individually by clicking and dragging,
or draw a curve by shift-clicking and dragging across the parameter
field. These gains can also be deactivated by clicking on toggle button
to the left of the GAIN PER BAND title.

4.6.2 RESET GAINS

Clicking the RESET GAINS button will reset all gains to 0dB.

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4.6.3 BAND SOLO
A SOLO button which allows you to hear the output of this or a com-
bination of bands. This can allow you to zero in on the effects of the
parameters from a specific band to either find problem spots, or better
understand what the algorithm is doing. When a SOLO is active the en-
tire algorithm is still running across all bands, but you are simply changing
what you can see and hear.

4.6.4 DRAW CURVE

Clicking the DRAW CURVE button will allow you to draw a single gain
curve across all the GAIN sliders. Turning this off will allow you to fine
tune each GAIN slider individually. Whichever mode you’re in you can
use the opposite behavior by pressing the shift key.

4.6.5 METERING
Drawn behind the sliders for each band is an input, output, and gain
reduction meter for each band. These are the same meters shown in
the FILTER BANK meter page in the top section of the GUI. Note that this
meter is slowed down from the gain reduction actually applied to the
signal to make it easier to view. This metering is a good way to see the
effects of the ADAPTIVE GAIN control.

4.7 TRANSIENT SUB-MODULE PAGE

The TRANSIENT sub-module page allows you to fine tune the TRANSIENT
EMPHASIS for each band. The TRANSIENT EMPHASIS and ADAPTIVE TRAN-
SIENT parameters are the same as are on the MASTER PARAMETERS page,
but each filter band now also breaks out:

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4.7.1 TRANSIENT EMPHASIS PER BAND
A TRANSIENT EMPHASIS slider which goes from 0% to 200%. This allows you
to reduce or increase the amount of TRANSIENT EMPHASIS being applied
to each band. This can be helpful for bringing out just the transients
in particular frequency ranges, like kick or snare drums. The effects of
these additional transient emphasis controls can be turning off using the
toggle button next to the TRANSIENT EMPHASIS PER BAND title.

4.7.2 RESET TRANS

Clicking the RESET TRANS button will reset all transient emphasis sliders to
100%.

4.7.3 BAND SOLO

A SOLO button which allows you to hear this output of this or a combina-
tion of bands. This is the same SOLO button available on the MULTIBAND
GAIN parameter page and its state will transition across pages.

4.7.4 DRAW CURVE

Clicking the DRAW CURVE button will allow you to draw a single gain
curve across all the TRANSIENT sliders. Turning this off will allow you to fine
tune each TRANSIENT slider individually. Whichever mode you’re in you
can use the opposite behavior by pressing the shift key.

4.7.5 METERING
And a TRANSIENT EMPHASIS meter which shows the amount of TRANSIENT
EMPHASIS being applied to each band. These meters will show you the
effect of the ADAPTIVE TRANSIENT slider well. Similar to the FILTER BANK
meters these are slowed down to give you a better sense of the spectral
ramifications of the transient emphasis section. These meters are a good
way to see the effects of the ADAPTIVE TRANSIENT control.

4.8 CLIPPER SUB-MODULE PAGE

The final stage of the Elevate plug-in is the SPECTRAL CLIPPER. This clip-
per is primarily designed for clipping the fast transients allowed through
the transient emphasis section, but also allows you to add up to an ad-
ditional 12 dB of distortion based gain. The SPECTRAL CLIPPER uses an
optimal soft clipping curve to add the minimal amount of harmonics
for a particular gain setting, as well as a special frequency domain al-
gorithm to avoid the low-passed "tubby" sound that can be produced

21
when over-driving full bandwidth audio. The SPECTRAL CLIPPER parame-
ter page allows you to control the DRIVE and CLIPPER SHAPE of the SPEC-
TRAL CLIPPER using duplicates of the parameters found on the MAIN PA-
RAMETERS page. An animated meter below indicates the shape of the
clipper by mapping it’s output on the Y axis to it’s input on the X axis. A
meter also shows what the level in to and out of the SPECTRAL CLIPPER
is at any given moment.

4.9 METERS
In addition to the plug-ins parameters there are a selection of meters
available.

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4.9.1 INPUT and OUTPUT BAR METERS

The left and right hand sides of the plug-in have matching vertical bar
meters which display the INPUT (on the left) and OUTPUT (on the right)
levels in Peak (horizontal ticks), RMS (solid bar and numerical display),
and Peak Hold (numerical display) formats. Additionally, the right hand
side includes a global gain reduction meter, which shows the maxi-
mum gain reduction being applied across the bands at any given mo-
ment. These meters are always present in the display and clicking the
Peak Hold section, or bypassing the plug-in will clear the held peak
value.

4.9.2 CENTER SECTION METER

Additionally, when OpenGL rendering is on, the top center section al-
lows you to see one of:

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4.9.3 SCROLLING INPUT/OUTPUT METER

The scrolling INPUT/OUTPUT meter displays the input peak value over-
layed with the output peak value over time. This allows you to visualize
the INPUT level over time as the top of the solid color, the OUTPUT level
over time as the top of the overlayed color, and the amount of GAIN
being applied by the processing as the width between these. This me-
ter also gives an indication of when the INPUT level exceeds the output
when the input pokes out over the output. For instance, in the NEW-
FANGLED color scheme, if the red input curve is poking out above the
green curve it’s an indication that you may want to use the MASTER IN-
PUT LEVEL control to reduce the input level and make this up with the
GAIN control.

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4.9.4 SCROLLING GAIN REDUCTION METER

The scrolling GAIN REDUCTION meter displays a combination of GAIN

REDUCTION and TRANSIENT EMPHASIS for each active band. It has two
views. In "Stack Waveforms" view each individual GAIN meter is stacked
on top of each other with the same dB scale. Lower frequencies are
displayed in a darker color while higher frequencies are displayed in a
lighter color. This meter give you a good view of the dynamics of each
gain signal over time (they can be quite fast), and allows you to see how
the parameters are effecting these gain signals. In "Spread Waveforms"
view, each individual GAIN meter is has it’s own waveform, with the low
frequencies being represented on the bottom and the high frequencies
being represented on top. This is good at showing relative gain and
gain reduction for each band over time, and shows how the adaptive
algorithms are working well. This is probably the best meter to show you
what Elevate is doing over both time and frequency.

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4.9.5 FILTER BANK METER

Finally, the FILTER BANK meter is a bar graph showing the input level,
output level, and gain reduction for each individual band. These meters
are slowed down to show you an average amount of level and gain
reduction over time to get a better sense of the tonal effects of the
processing being applied. While the GAIN REDUCTION meter gives a
good indication of the dynamics of the Elevate algorithm, the FILTER
BANK meter gives a good indication of the frequency distribution in the
input and the output.

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Chapter 5

Conclusion

We hope you enjoy Newfangled Audio’s Elevate plug-in. If you have any
questions, comments, or concerns please write us at [email protected].

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Chapter 6

About Newfangled Audio

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Newfangled as "objectionably new".

Music technology can sometimes be a backward looking pursuit. This
is understandable, the purpose of music technology should be to help
musicians make great music. There have been many great pieces of
gear in the past and we should seek to keep these pieces and make
them available to people who want to use them, and the time and
dedication required to master a musical instrument means that changes
in their design are often evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
However, the great pieces of gear from yesteryear are more often than
not those that contained new ideas in their time. The reverence we
have for these pieces can sometimes turn into fetishism, and mindless
re-creation of classic gear can fail to inspire musicians and artists to take
new risks. It’s important to make sure artists and engineers have access
to good tools that inspire them and don’t stand in their way, but these
tools should never be used as a security blanket to stand in the way of
an artist or engineers ears and taste.
Newfangled Audio seeks to only make gear that incorporates new ideas.
We want to make gear that is great, but only using ideas that others are
not. We realize that deviation from the norm might sometimes be ob-
jectionable. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Newfangled as "ob-
jectionably new".

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