HAR BAL HOW TO
HAR BAL INSTALL
HAR BAL WINDOWS

LED meters would be awesome to see when, as you adjust the spectrum, any clipping is introduced.

HAR BAL WINDOWS

I hate to admit it, but I like apps that look cool, if I am going to stare at a program all day, it better look pleasing, Har-Bal is kind of old-school with basic windows components to make up the interface.

Things that I believe would be great additions to the product:

Pretty simple, straightforward interface that takes limited time to understand.

Nice display of the spectrum, the spectrum display expands and contracts very well with the window size.

HAR BAL INSTALL

Small, clean install and limited disk space usage.

Some things I immediately noticed that I really dug: I do think there is some room for improvements, and judging by the receptiveness of the people I have been talking to improvements WILL be coming. However, that said, the more I played with it, and got to know it, the cleaner track started showing signs of improvement. After tinkering around with Har-Bal I also found that the treatment I gave it worked better on the dirty tune, I was happier with those results than I was the acoustic one, though both had audible differences. I found that each had peaks and valleys in the spectrum, the acoustic one MUCH more than the dirty one. Both of these songs were not as finished as I would of liked them, but I was reasonably happy. One very mellow acoustic tune and one dirtier, more hard rocking one. I used two songs of very different style to play with. It has been an interesting experience so far, showing me the flaws in my current mastering jobs. Their web site also has a very complete list of FAQ's to answer many of the common questions about this rather new concept in audio processing.

HAR BAL HOW TO

It is pretty intuitive so the help menu may not get used much, but, the documentation is very good and very informative beyond just the 'how do I do this' and explains what it does, not just how to do it. I did look through the documentation, which as a rule I really only had to once or twice because of the programs very targeted task list. So much quicker in fact, maybe home studio owners may actually start doing it. Being able to compare and contrast songs like Har-Bal allows you to do makes MUCH quicker work out of this step that is so often forgotten or hurried by the typical home studio owner. Not in music style or anything like that, but in perceived volume and tonal quality. When doing this it is important that the song sounds fluid, and moves nicely from one into another. From there it allows you to save the 'filter' that you used, and compare it against other songs to prepare a group of songs for a release. Har-Bal allows you to grab the peak or valley in the spectrum and pull it down or raise it up to a more pleasing range and even out the sonic spectrum of the audio. In theory what this does is eliminate the need to test your mastered CD's in your car, on a small stereo, in a boom box, in a walkman and any other environment you can think of, because it's designed to balance the tones that create the problems from environment to environment. Har-Bal uses an 8196-point linear phase FIR filter to match and compensate for the average spectrum as closely as possible. These peaks and valleys increase the fatigue that your ears experience while listening.whether you know it or not. These results can show significant peaks and valleys in your audio. Har-Bal takes your audio file (it supports many file types), analyzes the processing of it and displays the results (see screenshot below).

The result of misaligned tones and inconsistent EQing of the music. This is usually caused by mix down and mastering techniques and processes that compensate for the less-than-adequate tuning of the listening environment of the room. Very often, even the best home studios are not tuned as well as they should be, so the music coming out of the studio, while sounding great in the studio, is less than it should be outside the studio. Harmonic Balancing is aligning tones and frequencies to a consistent, pleasing level for the listener. They have, in a joint venture with TAQUIS (Australia), created and are now distributing a product called 'Har-Bal', OK, weird name, I'll give you that, but it stands for 'Harmonic Balancer', which is what the good mastering engineer spends most of his or her time doing. Over the past few weeks I have had the pleasure to talk to and work with the good people at HDQTRZ Digital Studios (US), the mastering house for the likes of Public Enemy and other acts. Har-Bal is a new application that brings the art of mastering to a visual stage, allowing you to SEE your music as well as hear it.

Har bal