Spectrum Analyzer and how to use them

[lilith93]

Hi,

I wonder how you use spectrum analyzer plugins. I figured out that there are some plugins that available in Linux.

1. Respectrum plugin from: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=213501
2. Saike Spectrum Analyzer (available through Reapack) https://github.com/JoepVanlier/JSFX
3. LSP Multichannel spectrum analyzer: https://lsp-plug.in/

All of them are quite nice and offer multi channel support. Do you put these plugins usually on the master bus or on a separate "analyzer bus"? When putting the spectrum analyzer to the master I didn't find a way how to route instruments / tracks to different channels of the master. It's straightforward for a normal track, where you just can connect the routing buttons.

[Glennbo]

When I use a spectrum analyzer I put it as the very last thing on the master bus, and use it along with equalization to try and make the average of all frequencies even or as flat as possible.

[Lokasenna]

Originally Posted by lilith93

All of them are quite nice and offer multi channel support. Do you put these plugins usually on the master bus or on a separate "analyzer bus"? When putting the spectrum analyzer to the master I didn't find a way how to route instruments / tracks to different channels of the master. It's straightforward for a normal track, where you just can connect the routing buttons.

IMO it makes the most sense to have your analyzers "listening" to the same signal that you're hearing, and thus they should typically be the very last thing in your chain. If you want to analyze the snare, just solo the snare.

You can always throw an analyzer into the middle of a track if you need to find out what's screwing up your compressor, etc, but that's more of a temporary, as-needed thing.

I haven't had a chance to recreate my mix template since switching to Linux and can't find the file at the moment, but I was really enjoying a setup like this:

Master    --  Spectrum analyzer, LUFS meter, goniometer
Submaster --  All master effects; limiter, multiband, bus comp, etc.
          --> send to Master
All main buses 
          --> send to Submaster

Another advantage of this setup is that you can easily set up a shortcut to show/hide all of your analysis plugins at once:

SWS: Save current track selection
Track: Unselect all tracks
SWS: Select master track
SWS/S&M: Toggle show all floating FX for selected tracks
SWS: Restore saved track selection

[lilith93]

When mixing bass and e.g. kick I usually want to see both of them as separate channels with two different colors in the spectrum analyzer. I haven't figured out how this can be done when the analyzer is on the master track as the master can't receive sends.

[lilith93]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna

IMO it makes the most sense to have your analyzers "listening" to the same signal that you're hearing, and thus they should typically be the very last thing in your chain. If you want to analyze the snare, just solo the snare.

You can always throw an analyzer into the middle of a track if you need to find out what's screwing up your compressor, etc, but that's more of a temporary, as-needed thing.

I haven't had a chance to recreate my mix template since switching to Linux and can't find the file at the moment, but I was really enjoying a setup like this:

Master    --  Spectrum analyzer, LUFS meter, goniometer
Submaster --  All master effects; limiter, multiband, bus comp, etc.
          --> send to Master
All main buses 
          --> send to Submaster

Another advantage of this setup is that you can easily set up a shortcut to show/hide all of your analysis plugins at once:

SWS: Save current track selection
Track: Unselect all tracks
SWS: Select master track
SWS/S&M: Toggle show all floating FX for selected tracks
SWS: Restore saved track selection

So you send all your tracks to the sub master and from there to the master?

[Lokasenna]

Correct.

[Lokasenna]

Originally Posted by lilith93

When mixing bass and e.g. kick I usually want to see both of them as separate channels with two different colors in the spectrum analyzer. I haven't figured out how this can be done when the analyzer is on the master track as the master can't receive sends.

This is one that you can't do on the Master. In that case, I would put a separate analyzer before the submaster chain (in my example above) and send all of the track buses on separate channels.

Submaster:
  -- Multichannel analyzer (all output pins turned off)
  -- JS mixer to combine all of the channels down to stereo
  -- All of your master effects

With that setup, comparing different tracks is as simple as turning on/off the appropriate input pins in the analyzer.

If the multichannel analyzer is consistently in the same FX slot you can even use a script to toggle that specific effect open or closed when you want it.

[lilith93]

Originally Posted by Lokasenna

This is one that you can't do on the Master. In that case, I would put a separate analyzer before the submaster chain (in my example above) and send all of the track buses on separate channels.

Submaster:
  -- Multichannel analyzer (all output pins turned off)
  -- JS mixer to combine all of the channels down to stereo
  -- All of your master effects

With that setup, comparing different tracks is as simple as turning on/off the appropriate input pins in the analyzer.

If the multichannel analyzer is consistently in the same FX slot you can even use a script to toggle that specific effect open or closed when you want it.

Thanks, exactly that was my question.

[Glennbo]

Since none of the native Linux spectrum analyzers quite do it for me, I thought I might mention this free Windows VST analyzer. I've used this one for some time now and really like the easy to see what's going on aspect with it. Top line is peaks, bottom line is averages, and bars are realtime. The 1.09 beta runs fine on wine-staging here.

https://sevenphases.wordpress.com/spectrum-analyzer/

[lilith93]

Originally Posted by Glennbo

Since none of the native Linux spectrum analyzers quite do it for me, I thought I might mention this free Windows VST analyzer. I've used this one for some time now and really like the easy to see what's going on aspect with it. Top line is peaks, bottom line is averages, and bars are realtime. The 1.09 beta runs fine on wine-staging here.

https://sevenphases.wordpress.com/spectrum-analyzer/

Looks indeed nice, but I avoided installing wine. As I don't know what I'm missing from the Windows World, I miss nothing

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by lilith93

Looks indeed nice, but I avoided installing wine. As I don't know what I'm missing from the Windows World, I miss nothing

Yeah, I totally get that. I have too many nice Windows instruments like Kontakt and Arturia MiniMoog so I gotta have wine already for those.

The source code for that analyzer is here, but I don't know if it could be ported to Linux easily.

https://github.com/seven-phases/spectrum-analyzer

[mike@overtonedsp]

Since none of the native Linux spectrum analyzers quite do it for me, I thought I might mention this free Windows VST analyzer. I've used this one for some time now and really like the easy to see what's going on aspect with it. Top line is peaks, bottom line is averages, and bars are realtime. The 1.09 beta runs fine on wine-staging here...

If you are already using WINE, have you tried https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

I guess it might work with WINE, and as far as I know its still free.

[Glennbo]

Originally Posted by mike@overtonedsp

If you are already using WINE, have you tried https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

I guess it might work with WINE, and as far as I know its still free.

I have that one and it does work in wine-staging. I also have another one called Inspector, but of the three I tend to use the one from Seven Phases the most. I prefer a segmented display just because it's easier for me to see where things are on the scale.

If I programmed C++ I'd take a whack at compiling Seven Phases' code for native Linux, but C++ isn't a language I'm well versed in.