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Author Topic: Plugin order  (Read 522 times)

soundslikehollis

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Plugin order
« on: June 05, 2020, 12:03:48 pm »

I love JRiver for its plugin support, but one thing has always bothered me. I can't order my plugins correctly. Like in this image, I am using a dynamic range recovery plugin called Relife, it needs to be 1st in the chain in order to work correctly. I would like to use Relife to reconstruct the peaks, then Volume Leveling to even out each track by perceptual loudness. Sadly JRiver wont let me do that. It thinks that Volume leveling has to be first, and wont let me override.

Any idea how I can fix this? Or wait for a future version?

A second plugin that would need to be before Volume Leveling is the VST host of my TC Electronic Clarity M loudness meter. As a mastering engineer I love having watching the levels as I play other people's recordings, movies, and tv. It really helps you learn a lot, but, once again. This has to be first in the chain if I want to see how the other engineer constructed the loudness of his record.
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Matt

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Re: Plugin order
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2020, 08:41:54 am »

It's right that Volume Leveling has to be first.  But since the chain is 64-bit, it really shouldn't matter.  You might even want it off?

Some effects are done before even handing the data off to the DSP chain, so it would be complicated to change.

Can you explain why you want it?

Thanks.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

soundslikehollis

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Re: Plugin order
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2020, 03:05:02 pm »

Thank you so much for your response.

You are totally right that 64bit will preserve the audio quality. What I am talking about here are two plugins with very specific uses. If I want to use these plugins, I have to have Volume Leveling, and Peak Level Normalize turned off. The first plugin was a dynamic range restoration plugin. It was created to fix heavily limited, clipped audio, like much of pop music. I found it performs far better when the signal is approaching 0dbfs, its made for very hot masters. I use its internal output gain to drop it down by 4db and give room for the restored signal.

The second plug in was a loudness meter. It gives me a variety of scopes into what exactly the audio is doing. Once again, this one wants to be absolutely first in the chain (so I can see what the original master is doing), or absolutely last in the chain (so I can see what I am doing to the signal overall).

Both of those plugins work great in Media Center with Volume Leveling, and Peak Level Normalize turned off. It it only when I play a playlist or shuffle, that I want to have Volume Leveling turned back on. Ideally I would do metering first, then dynamic range "fixing", then volume leveling (for track to track consistency), then any eq or spatilization or other VSTs.

I think Volume Leveling works great for playlists, it also drops the overall level closer to Netflix or other video content. Leading to a far more relaxed audio experience (without sudden jumps between music mastered to -6dbfs and movies at -18dbfs).
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