izalloy en manuale

iZotope Alloy Help Documentation

Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................. 1

Welcome to Alloy ........................................................................................... 1

Alloy Overview............................................................................................... 2

Getting Started.............................................................................................. 4

Alloy Modules ................................................................................................ 5

Equalizer ...................................................................................................... 5

Exciter.......................................................................................................... 9

Transient .....................................................................................................11

Dynamics.....................................................................................................13

De-Esser......................................................................................................18

Limiter / Phase Tools .....................................................................................20

Macro..........................................................................................................23

Standard Module Controls ..............................................................................24

Using Multiband Modules................................................................................26

Macro Presets...............................................................................................28

Preset Manager.............................................................................................28

Macro Presets...............................................................................................30

Selecting Presets ..........................................................................................33

Adding, Removing, Resetting Presets ...............................................................34

Changing Where Presets Are Stored.................................................................36

Selectively Loading Modules from Presets .........................................................37

Preset Module Reference ................................................................................38

Meters.........................................................................................................39

Spectrum Meter ............................................................................................39

Exciter Meter................................................................................................40

Transient Meter ............................................................................................41

Dynamics Meters ..........................................................................................42

Limiter Meters ..............................................................................................44

Input and Output Meters ................................................................................45

Graph and Sidechain .....................................................................................48

Setting the Order of the Modules.....................................................................48

Parallel Processing ........................................................................................50

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Table of Contents

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Routing Sidechain Signals ..............................................................................51

General Functions .........................................................................................53

Input and Output Gain...................................................................................53

Zero Latency ................................................................................................55

Undo and History Comparisons .......................................................................56

Buffer Size Viewer.........................................................................................57

Options .......................................................................................................58

General Options............................................................................................58

Spectrum Options .........................................................................................61

Meter Options...............................................................................................63

EQ/Dynamics/Crossover Options .....................................................................65

Tips and Shortcuts ........................................................................................67

CPU Optimization ..........................................................................................67

Automation ..................................................................................................68

Delay Compensation......................................................................................69

Shortcut Keys and Mouse Support ...................................................................70

iZotope Customer Support..............................................................................74

Index ..........................................................................................................75

Introduction Welcome to Alloy

Alloy was created out of a desire to provide engineers, musicians and other audio professionals with a new class of mixing and sound design tool. A great deal of time and effort has gone into ensuring that Alloy delivers superior sound quality and a forward-looking feature set. Alloy offers the simple but important tasks provided by a traditional channel strip, but with the added benefits of transient shaping, de-essing, sidechaining and powerful MacroPresets that give you just the right tools for the task at hand. We hope that you enjoy working with Alloy and that it will bring a new creative edge to all of your projects.

Thanks for using Alloy!

- the iZotope team

2001-2009 iZotope, Inc. All rights reserved. iZotope, iZotope.com, the iZotope logo, and Alloy are either registered trademarks or trademarks of iZotope, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

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Alloy Overview

Alloy was designed to give you the essential mixing tools you need for every project in a self-contained and completely configurable interface. Alloy combines six key processors that let you precisely shape the sound of your tracks and busses. Smooth out vocals or slam your drum buss with a Dynamics section that combines the best characteristics of analog and digital compressors. Add body or take the edge off with an 8-band Paragraphic EQ. Take the bite out of harsh vocals and cymbals with a smooth, transparent De-Esser. Add tube and tape-like warmth, or even a little grit, with the Exciter. Give percussive sounds more snap or less room with the Transient module. And keep peaks under control, or pump up the volume, with the Limiter. Alloy gives you forward thinking features like a fully customizable signal chain, dual compressors that work in parallel or series, single- and multiband side chaining, and exclusive Harmonic Scaling Exciter technology.

Alloy can also simplify your studio workflow with a huge selection of MacroPresets. These intelligent presets let you take advantage of just the tools you need for the task at hand. MacroPresets customize Alloys screen to show you just the sliders and meters you need, giving you powerful preset signal chains with simple controls.

Key Features in Alloy:

Six essential tools: Equalizer, Exciter, Transient, Dynamics, De-Esser, and Limiter

Analog-modeled and digital processing algorithms

Advanced multiband sidechaining support

Elegant, highly efficient user interface

Extensive metering and spectrum analysis tools help you get better results

Over 100 MacroPresets by professional engineers

Integrated undo history with comparison tools

User-definable signal routing

Zero Latency operation mode

Extensive automation support

CPU-efficient and optimized for todays low-latency DAW environments

Supports sampling rates up to 192kHz

Highest Audio Quality

All modules within Alloy use highly optimized audio signal processing to achieve the highest resolution and sound quality possible. All of the modules in Alloy are designed to work together seamlessly. By carefully matching crossovers and other internal processing, Alloy eliminates phase and artifact problems encountered when chaining together separate plug-ins. In addition, the sound quality and characteristics of each of the modules is tuned to complement the others, providing consistent and high quality results.

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Introduction

Alloy uses analog modeling to give each of the modules a smooth natural sound. For example, the Equalizer recreates the soft limiting exhibited by a vintage valve equalizer, while the Exciter mimics the "musically pleasing" harmonic saturation of vacuum tube components, tape, and other analog processors. Alloys compressor can deliver the smooth release characteristics of vintage optical compressors, or the more crisp sound of later FET compressors.

Powerful Audio and Visual Feedback

We wanted to provide visual feedback wherever possible. Your ears and your eyes can be a powerful combination and each processing module is complemented with useful spectrums, meters, graphs, and level histograms.

We also wanted to make it easy to get audio feedback by providing extensive solo/bypass controls and histories with functions for A/B comparisons. The Alt-click function on the EQ is an example of this as well. Wherever possible, we wanted to give people ways to really hear what they were doing.

Intuitive Design and Easy to Use

We tried to make Alloy as easy and intuitive as possible from including a complete set of modules in a single plug-in system, to context sensitive help, to the little things like mouse wheel support. There is a lot of power in Alloy, but we think that in no time at all you'll be making the most of it and getting great results with ease. Whether youre a seasoned professional or youre simply ready to take your productions to the next level, Alloy is the complete solution you need.

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Getting Started

Using Presets in Alloy

Alloys presets are designed to give you a quick starting point for your own projects.

Every track is different so no one preset will always work well for your audio. However we have attempted to provide a wide range of presets that will help you find a good starting point for your own material. By starting with a preset and tweaking the available controls in Alloys Macro window, youll be able to make Alloy more closely fit the session youre working on. If you want more advanced control of any of Alloys modules, you can go deeper by clicking on any of the module selection buttons at the bottom of the interface to get to even more controls.

Presets can take you a long way, but learning how each of Alloys modules works is the key to getting the best results.

Setting Your Input Level

Setting the input level in Alloy can make a huge difference in how the dynamics modules in Alloy behave. Setting your input level is important when selecting presets as the presets will sound drastically different if your input level is too loud or quiet.

To begin, we recommend setting Alloys input level so that the input meter is peaking in the orange area of the meter to insure that you have a good neutral level as a starting point.

Choosing a Starting Point

Start by listening through several of Alloys presets. Weve organized presets into categories that will let you search easily for presets for every purpose. Because every mix is different, weve aimed to give you a lot of starting points so that you can choose the best one for your project. When youve found one that sounds like it has what your track needs, you can start tweaking that preset to your liking.

MacroPresets and MacroFaders

MacroPresets aim to put the most useful controls at your fingertips. When you load a preset in Alloy, youll find the most useful controls for that preset in the Alloys Macro window. This window may also include additional sliders called MacroFaders. These special sliders are designed to help you quickly adjust key parts of the presets sound by automatically controlling deeper controls in Alloy, and are often tied to multiple controls behind the scenes. For example some presets have MacroFaders named Shine, Loudness, or Warmth. A MacroFader named Shine might adjust the Exciter while also affecting the EQ for example. These can be useful for adjusting how dramatically Alloy affects your track or bus by moving just a few simple controls.

Alloy Modules Equalizer

Alloys versatile EQ allows you to add warmth and character with analog-modeled filters, and precisely boost and cut frequencies with its helpful frequency spectrum overlay.

Key Features:

Eight bands of bell, highpass, sharp highpass, lowpass, sharp lowpass, high shelf or low shelf filters

Analog modeled soft-saturation

Fully configurable spectrum analyzer

EQ resolution zooming

Frequency and Gain

The white numbered circles mark each of the eight EQ nodes. You can adjust an EQ band by clicking on a node and dragging the crosshairs to change the frequency and gain of the band. You can also use the arrow keys to adjust a selected band, or the Shift key in combination with the arrow keys to adjust in larger increments.

Q/Bandwidth

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You can adjust the Q or bandwidth of the EQ by clicking and dragging on the "handles" on the side of the band, to widen the band. If you have a wheel mouse, you can use the mouse wheel to widen/narrow a selected band.

Selecting Filter Shapes

Alloy provides the ability to set the type or shape of any of the eight EQ nodes. Any node can be a lowshelf, lowpass, sharp lowpass, peak, highshelf, highpass, or sharp highpass filter. To change the shape, click on the "Show Info" button.

From this table, you can specify a different filter shape by clicking through the corresponding nodes filters. You can also use the "Show Info" dialog to enter values for the EQ bands directly. Either double-click on the value to manually type in your desired setting, or click and drag on the values text to increase of decrease the value. You can also disable bands with this table by clicking on the square checkbox to the left of a band.

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Alloy Modules

Zooming

You can zoom in on the EQ curves by clicking the 1x button to magnify 1x, 2x, 3x or 6x. This allows you to better see and position EQ nodes around the 0 dB line. The zoom deliberately does not zoom the spectrum. The purpose of the zoom is to give you better visibility and resolution for small tweaks of the EQ around the 0 dB line. If the spectrum also zoomed in, well, the spectrum would be ineffective as a visual aid since you'd only see the spectrum around the 0 dB line, when what you probably want is a "stepped back" view of all the peaks and valleys.

Note: With Alloy, right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) a button toggles it in reverse - so for the zoom button a right click zooms back out - 6x to 3x to 2x to 1x.

Editing Multiple Nodes

When clicking and dragging in the EQ display, a shaded selection box will appear. You can use this to select and edit multiple nodes simultaneously. Once you have your nodes selected, you can proportionally adjust them by clicking and editing any one node in the selected group.

Visuals

As you adjust a band you will see two EQ curves. The bright yellow curve is the composite of all EQ bands while the darker yellow curve shows the EQ curve of the selected band.

A spectrum is overlaid by default on the EQ module for visual feedback of the mix. You can turn off the spectrum to conserve CPU or if you just don't want to see it using the Options screen. You can also set options such as average or real time spectrum, show peak spectrum, etc. These are available in the Spectrum Options screen.

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In the background you'll see the gain scale for the EQ down the center in a light grey color. This will change as you zoom the EQ in or out. You'll see the scale for the spectrum in gray down the right side of the EQ display.

Note: The scales for the EQ and spectrum are different, by design. If they were made to match, you wouldn't see enough of the spectrum for it to be useful. The frequency scale in grey applies to both the EQ and the spectrum.

The Alt-Solo Feature

If you hold down the Alt key and click on the spectrum, you have an "audio magnifying glass" that lets you hear only the frequencies that are under the mouse cursor, without affecting your actual EQ settings. This is useful for pinpointing the location of a frequency in the mix without changing your actual EQ bands. Releasing the mouse button returns the sound to the actual EQ. You can set the default bandwidth of this filter in the Options screen under "Alt-Solo Filter Q".

Additional Tips using Alloy's Equalizer

If you hold down the Shift key and drag an EQ band, the EQ band will be "locked" in the direction that you're dragging. So if you just want to change the gain without affecting the frequency (or vice-versa) just hold the Shift Key while you drag.

If you've chosen to display an averaging spectrum or a peak hold spectrum (using the Spectrum Options screen) you can reset the peak hold or the averaging by clicking on the spectrum.

Right click on the spectrum to bring up an options dialog to control the spectrum display.

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Alloy Modules

Exciter

Harmonic exciters can give a sparkle or shine to the upper frequencies of a mix. They can also be used in mid and even low frequencies to add a boost or presence to tracks and busses. Alloys Harmonic Scaling technology is designed to emulate the subtle effects of tube, tape and other analog hardware by emphasizing even and odd harmonics in varying amounts.

Key Features:

Unique XY pad lets you adjust the harmonics being emphasized by the exciter, letting you vary between even and odd harmonics and more or less harmonics

A multiband mode for adding varied excitation across different frequencies

Harmonics Graph and Exciter Spectrum show how the process is affecting your audio

Drive: Controls the amount of the harmonic excitation.

Mix: Allows you to control the mix of the excited signal with the original mix.

XY Pad: Controls the type and slope (number) of harmonics.

Width: This control sets the amount of stereo widening for each band. Higher amounts provide more widening: -1.0 (mono) to 1.0 (full widening)

Working with the XY Pad:

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When adjusting the XY pad, the vertical Y axis will give you control over the specific amount and distribution of your harmonics, while the horizontal X axis will control the amount of even and odd harmonics that are present in the excitation. In general, odd harmonics are reminiscent of transistor or tape distortion and tend to be a bit more abrasive to the ear. Even harmonics however are often less noticeable and can sound very warm and subtle.

Therefore, depending on the effect you are going for, you can move anywhere in between these options. For very subtle excitation that just adds a bit of color to your mix gravitate more towards even harmonics with a steeper slope (bottom left corner of the XY pad). For more angular excitation bordering on transistor guitar distortion either as an effect or to add some sheen and aggressiveness to your sound, use predominantly odd harmonics with a shallower slope (upper right corner of the XY pad).

Harmonics Graph

The Harmonics Graph shows a representation of the harmonics being generated by the exciter. By left clicking or right-clicking (cmd-click for Mac) on this harmonics display, you can also cycle through preset excitation patterns:

Transistor: This mode emphasizes odd harmonics similar to transistor distortion resulting in a sharp, somewhat aggressive sound.

Tape: Tape mode emphasizes odd harmonics but with a shorter harmonic slope than transistor, and emulates the sound of analog tape when pushed to saturation.

Tube: Tube mode emulates the sound of tube saturation with a mix of even and odd harmonics. It is characterized by its clear "tonal" excitation.

Warm: The Warm excitation mode generates only even harmonics with a steep slope and, as such, may be used as a subtle warming effect.

Bright: Bright excitation, similar to Warm excitation, is characterized by even harmonics however with a greater high frequency harmonic presence.

Like the controls on other screens, you can use arrow keys to adjust a selected slider, or the wheel of a wheel mouse, or double-click on the numeric label and directly enter a value with the keyboard. You can reset a slider by double clicking on it.

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Alloy Modules

Transient

The Transient module is especially useful for shaping percussive sounds. For example, it can be used to emphasize the stick attack of a snare drum sound, while de-emphasizing its body or room sound. Careful use of the Transient module can help a wide range different material sit differently in a mix, making it a powerful sound-shaping tool for any style of music.

The Transient module will analyze the incoming audio in real-time and split all transients into their two components: the initial Attack and peak of each transient, and the Sustain as the transient is fading down. This process happens very quickly in order to accurately account for each Transients Attack and Sustain components. With the available Time controls however, the Transient modules response and behavior with respect to each transient can be fine tuned.

If you are working with audio that has multiple elements with frequency dependent transient activity such as drum tracks, working in Multi-band mode will give you better sounding results.

Key Features:

Emphasize or de-emphasize transients

Control over initial attack and sustained portion of sounds with gain and time controls for each

Emphasis Meters show the effect of the process on audio.

Single and Multiband operation

Attack (Gain in dB) Putting the control above zero makes the attack portion of the transient louder, below zero the attack is de-emphasized and quieter.

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Attack Time (in ms) This affects how long (in milliseconds) of a portion of the Attack part of the transient will be affected by the Attack Gain. It also influences how Alloy will detect transients, in order to correspond with the material you are working with.

In general, use shorter Attack times for very quick and percussive material and to sharply accentuate the initial transient. Longer attack times will give a more rounded transient shaping and be better suited towards material with larger, less percussive transients.

Sustain (Gain in dB) works similarly to the Attack Gain, but shapes the second half of the transient.

Sustain Time (in ms) Affects how long of a portion of audio the Sustain Gain effects after the initial attack of the transient. Similar to the Attack time, this also controls how Alloy will process the incoming audio in order to split each transient up into Attack and Sustain.

Longer sustain times can often provide a more gentle and pumping sound when accentuated, or a transient gating effect when diminished. Shorter sustain times can be used for very quick percussive material as a way of shaping the tail end of these transients.

Emphasis Meters

The Emphasis Meters how much the attack and sustain portions of the transient are being affected by the Attack and Sustain settings. When the level is being raised, the meter is yellow and extends above the center point; when the level is being lowered, the meter is blue and extends below the center point.

Multiband Operation

Switching the Transient module to multiband mode lets you apply the transient shaping process to multiple frequencies independently.

You may want to switch to multiband mode if you are working with audio that has multiple elements that sit in different frequency ranges such as a mixed drum track. For example, the low band could be used to emphasize the attack of the kick drum, while the middle band could emphasize the body and room tone of the snare. Multiband mode can also be useful for careful shaping of sounds like picked acoustic guitar or even voice (it can help control popped p or b sounds for example).

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Alloy Modules

Dynamics

One of the most powerful modules in Alloy is the Dynamics section. You can use this module to shape the dynamics of your mix with up to three bands of Digital or analog-modeled Vintage compression. Alloys dynamics section is extremely versatile and can handle smooth vocal compression and gating, extreme drum buss compression, and anything in between. Two independent dynamics modules can be used in series or parallel, giving you many creative possibilities for shaping your audio.

Key Features:

Apply dynamics processors selectively to different frequency ranges.

Auto Gain automatically adds make-up gain to adjust for the dynamics process.

Digital mode provides precise, linear compression

Vintage mode emulates the program-dependant compression and non-linear release characteristics of classic analog compressors

Real-time visualization of the dynamics within each band with gain reduction and dynamics transfer metering

Alloy Dynamics

Each Dynamics module is capable of two types of dynamics processing: compression, and gating/expansion.

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Compressor The compressor allows you to reduce the dynamic range of a recording, make it more consistent in volume, and increase its average level. When the audio input level is greater than its threshold setting, gain will be reduced by an amount controlled by the ratio parameter.

Gate/Expander The gate/expander can be thought of as performing the opposite task as the compressor. It takes program material below the threshold and reduces it by a factor determined by the ratio. Depending on the Ratio setting, the Expander/Gate can function as a noise gate (silencing quiet sections) or an upward compressor (boosting quiet sections).

This allows you, for example, to apply compression to high level signals, and/or boost/cut (expand/gate) the level of soft signals. The combination is such that you can tighten the dynamic range by compressing "from the top" or by expanding or gating "from the bottom" or a combination of both.

Alloy includes two independent Dynamics modules in order to further shape your sound and provide the necessary tools for any type of incoming audio.

Often times it is desirable to use Dynamics 1 to first provide heavier quicker compression with a higher ratio, faster attack and release times, in order to tame very transient material. Dynamics 2 can then be used to provide very soft compression with lower ratio and slower attack and release times, in order to gel the incoming audio into your mix. By default, Dynamics 1 comes before Dynamics 2 in series, however this can be changed in Alloys Filter Graph.

Both Dynamics modules 1 and 2 load in single band operation by default, however both can be switched into full multiband operation. Each band therefore has its own set of controls for controlling the dynamics.

Dynamics 1 and 2 can also have separate compression modes providing for interesting combinations of dynamics shaping. Each individual band however, cannot have its own unique compression mode. There are a maximum of three possible bands, as shown by the sections in the multiband section at the top.

To select a band, click on its corresponding section in the multiband spectrum. The controls and dynamics meters will be updated to display the currently selected band.

Threshold (in dB): Set the point where the dynamics processing takes place.

Note: Please also see Sidechain operation in order to trigger Dynamics modules 1 and 2 from an alternate audio source.

Ratio: Sets the ratio for the dynamics process. Higher ratios will result in more extreme compression or expansion/gating.

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Alloy Modules

In the Compressor, the Ratio determines how much gain reduction happens when audio levels pass the threshold. For example, with a 4:1 ratio, for every 4 decibels the input signal increases, the output will only increase 1 decibel.

The gate/expander can have a ratio greater or less than 1.0. When the ratio is greater than 1, it is operating as a gate and any signals below the threshold will be decreased in volume. With a high positive ratio it can act as an effective noise gate.

With ratios less than 1 the expander or compressor can act as an "upward compressor" by boosting the low level signals. This is an effective technique for adding fullness to a track as you can bring up the lower levels without compressing or limiting the upper levels.

Attack (in ms): This is the amount of time in milliseconds that Alloy will wait after the incoming signal has passed the defined threshold value, to apply the specified ratio and compression algorithm, Shorter attack times will result in much quicker compression and a clamping down on incoming peaks in your audio, while longer attack times can result in much more subtle compression/gating/expansion.

Release (in ms): The release time is the amount of time in milliseconds that it takes for Alloy to reduce its gain reduction back to zero once the signal has fallen below the threshold. Shorter release times can tend to unnaturally pump on certain audio material, where longer release times have a more subtle gradual feel to them.

Note: Auto-smoothing, available in the Options menu, causes Alloy to intelligently make small changes in its attack and release times to reduce the amount of distortion generated by the dynamics.

Mode: This button allows you to change each Dynamics modules compression algorithm

Vintage This mode emulates the program-dependant compression and non-linear release characteristics of classic analog compressors.

Digital This compression mode is built upon modern compression techniques and is designed to provide very clear, precise, and linear compression to give a great sounding but minimally colored sound.

Knee: Controls the shape of the bend in the compressors response curve. The bend in the dynamics response curve is created by the specified ratio with respect to the unprocessed signal and occurs at the threshold value. Changing the knee provides a method of dynamically altering the Ratio parameter in order to provide different compression characteristics.

Soft As the signal passes the threshold, the ratio will gradually increase until it reaches the value specified in the Ratio parameter. This therefore provides a gradual bend from the unprocessed signal to the specified ratio value, making this transition less noticeable for more transparent results.

Hard As the signal passes the threshold, the compression ratio is immediately imposed upon the signal, effectively eliminating all bend in the knee. This transition can therefore become more noticeable, and also provide for quicker, more firm compression depending on the desired effect.

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Make-Up Gain (in dB): Adjusts the output gain of either the band or the entire module. This is useful for making up the decrease in volume caused by compressing audio.

Auto Gain: When selected, Auto Gain calculates RMS levels of both the input and output signals of the compressor for each crossover band and applies the appropriate gain to the output signal to compensate for the difference. This allows you to not worry about manually applying make-up gain as you set the compressor.

Auto Gain is also a useful tool for A/B'ing the compressed signal against your original audio. If you compare your original audio to the audio being processed by Alloys Dynamics section by hitting the modules Bypass switch, having Auto Gain enabled will ensure youre really hearing the effect of the compression and expansion, not just a change in volume.

RMS detection: When this option is enabled, Alloy acts as an RMS compressor/gate/expander. This means that instead of looking at the peak level of the incoming signal, Alloy looks at the average signal level.

By default, this is Off and Alloys Dynamics will be triggered by incoming signal peaks. In general, peak detection is useful when you're trying to even out sudden peaks in your music. RMS detection is useful when you're trying to increase the overall volume level without changing the character of the sound.

Parallel Processing: Instead of Alloys Dynamics 1 and 2 modules running in series, one right after the other, with parallel processing enabled, the incoming audio will be split into two identical audio streams, each running independently into Dynamics 1 and Dynamics 2. What this allows for is to have two different compressors acting upon the incoming audio at the same time.

To turn Parallel Dynamics processing ON, simply open the Graph and click and drag one Dynamics module up and over the other. The Dynamics modules will then jump into a closed box circuit shown below, indicating both Dynamics 1 and 2 running in parallel mode.

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Alloy Modules

Because of this, Dynamics 1 and 2 must both operate in either single band or multiband modes. If both are in multiband mode, each module must have the same crossover frequencies. This is done to maintain phase and high audio quality when working with this internal routing.

The benefits of parallel processing are such that, one Dynamics module can have very severe pumping settings, in order to create the effect of heavy compression and expansion, while the other module only has very light settings. This will therefore give your audio the sound of heavy dynamics processing without sacrificing your dynamic range entirely.

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De-Esser

Alloys De-Esser is a powerful tool for controlling sibilance on vocal takes as well as other high frequency problems such as harsh cymbals and clanging guitars.

Key Features:

Select range to de-ess with spectrum display Solo the de-ess band to hear the frequencies affected by the de-essing process Broadband or Multiband operation.

Traditionally, De-Essing is used to dynamically reduce loud sibilant noise particular from vocal takes, either spoken or sung. This technique can also be extended to other audio material containing large amounts of high frequency information, such as cymbals, distorted guitars, or other percussive elements.

Alloys De-Esser however provides a completely customizable De-Essing bandwidth range, allowing it not only to excel in traditional circumstances but also provides for other unique uses.

Placing your mouse into the De-Essing bandwidth range will allow you to click and hold to drag your frequency boundaries left and right, as shown below.

Note: With your mouse in this frequency range, you can use your mousewheel to make your range either narrower or broader

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Alloy Modules

By setting De-Essers frequency range in lower mid-range frequencies and adjusting our settings, this module can also become a powerful tool for controlling build up of mud or other problematic audio at any frequency. As another unique effect and alternative to standard dynamics processing, using De-Essers Broadband mode can serve to control overall volume of your signal, triggered by whatever frequency area you select. Depending on Attack and Release times, this volume control can range from a thick and heavy pumping effect to a subtle dropping of volume whenever the De-Esser is triggered.

Multiband/Broadband: Multiband mode will affect only the frequency range selected whenever a sibilant signal passes above the specified threshold. Broadband mode will reduce gain on the entire audio signal when De-Esser is triggered by loud sibilance in the selected frequency range.

Threshold (in dB) The threshold control affects the point at which the de-esser is engaged.

Attack (in ms): This is the amount of time the De-Esser will wait once any audio sibilant passes the threshold to apply its gain reduction algorithm.

Release (in ms): The amount of time that the De-Esser will take to reduce its gain reduction to zero once the sibilant audio has passed below the threshold.

Band Solo:

Engaging this solo button allows you to preview only the audio material that De-Essers triggering circuit will be listening to, allowing you to better train the processing on your troubled audio.

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Limiter / Phase Tools

Alloys Limiter serves two purposes: it allows you to aggressively limit high level signals to prevent clipping, and it allows you to create an overall louder or fuller sound by limiting the dynamic range and boosting the perceived overall level of the audio.

Key Features:

Soft and Brickwall limiting algorithms

Release control helps you fine tune the Limiters response perfectly to your source material

Gain Reduction and Histogram meters provide valuable visual feedback

Threshold (in dB): Determines the level at which the limiter will begin limiting. Turning down the threshold limits more of the signal which in turn will create an overall louder output. In other words, by turning down the Threshold you limit the dynamic range of the audio. The limiter also automatically applies gain as you bring down the Threshold, boosting the overall level of your audio.

Release (in ms): This is the release time in milliseconds for the particular limiting algorithm being used. In general, more extreme limiting will benefit from longer release times.

Margin (in dB): Determines how much to boost the output signal after limiting. If the Margin is set to 0 dB, the signal will be boosted all the way up to 0 dB. If the Margin is set to -0.3 dB, makeup gain will be applied until the output signal is at -0.3 dB. Note that in the Soft mode, the level may be allowed to cross the Margin setting, while in Brickwall mode the Margin serves as an absolute "stop" point.

Mode: This allows you to select between the two types of limiting algorithms (Soft and Brickwall).

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Alloy Modules

Soft: The soft limiting algorithm uses the Margin output value as a guide but not as a fixed limit for the output level. It provides a natural "soft" limiting effect at the expense of allowing the level to exceed the Margin.

Brickwall: The brickwall limiter, on the other hand, uses the Margin output value as an absolute guide, and the final output level will not exceed this point.

Both algorithms provide a natural analog limiter effect, so the choice is related more to the behavior of the limiter and the output level than a choice in sound quality.

Limiter Meters

A loudness histogram level meter gives you visual feedback to help you set the Limiter. The height of the level meter represents the level at any point in time of the mix, while the width shows the history of the level over time. As you decrease the Threshold, the top of the meter will become red. This indicates the range that is being limited.

By default, the range of the meter is from 0 dB to -64 dB. You can adjust the range by pressing down the Ctrl key under Windows or the Command key under OS X and clicking with the left mouse button to zoom in or clicking with the right mouse button to zoom out. Under OS X you can also Command-ctrl-click to zoom out.

Alloy also provides a gain reduction meter next to the threshold slider, which provides a visual and numeric decibel readout of the amount of limiting or gain reduction that is being applied.

Phase Tools

Rotate Phase:

By rotating the phase, this feature can help reduce asymmetric waveforms that are found in dialog and voice. Making the waveform more symmetrical allows the voice to ride perceivably higher in the mix. This is useful in broadcast radio and dialog mixing.

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This effect can be viewed in the Phase Tools meter just above Rotate Phase. The waveform is displayed in real-time in yellow. When Rotate Phase, Invert Phase, or Filter DC Offset is enabled, the effected waveform will be shown in shaded grey underneath the yellow waveform.

Amount: This parameter controls the amount of phase rotation of your signal will be rotated in order to account for any asymmetrical waveforms.

Invert Phase: When activated, this will flip the phase of the (L)eft, (R)ight, or both channels from positive to negative and from negative to positive.

Filter DC Offset

DC offset is characterized by an audio signals average waveform being offset slightly from zero. This in most cases is undesirable as this offset will rob your final output signal of extra headroom, keeping your audio from reaching the maximum possible output volume.

The advantage of performing the DC correction with Alloy is that it's after all of Alloys internal effects and filters drifting DC offset in real-time as opposed to just applying an average offset correction for the mix.

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Alloy Modules

Macro

Alloys Macro screen provides innovative control over select parameters and modules inside of Alloy. The Macro screens layout will change depending upon the preset that is selected.

For each preset, there is a corresponding Macro screen layout that provides control to the most applicable parameters for that preset.

For more information on designing your own Macro screens please review the MacroPreset section of the help documentation.

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Standard Module Controls

At the bottom of each of the modules is a navigation bar that includes a set of buttons and controls. The function of these controls is the same regardless of which module you are using.

Reset: Resets the control to its default value. For most modules, this means setting the values of controls in the displayed module to zero or some "neutral" state.

Note: For the Equalizer module only, double-clicking the Reset button will reset both the gain, frequency and Q values but also the filter types of each node.

History: Clicking on the History button brings up a window which shows a history of the operations that have been performed. You can undo a single operation or sequence of operations and assign setups to keyboard shortcuts for A/B/C listening comparisons.

Solo: Checking the Solo button turns off (bypasses) all the modules except the one currently displayed. This allows you to audition the effect of one module without hearing the effect of the others. If you change screens by selecting a different module, the solo will be automatically turned off so that you can work immediately on the new screen and hear the effect (without worrying about whether a screen that isn't displayed is being solo'd).

Bypass: Checking the Bypass button on the touch-screen turns off the processing within the currently displayed module. This allows you to compare the sound with or without the currently displayed module. Unlike the Solo button, if you change screens by selecting a different module the bypass will still apply. This allows you to bypass more than one module.

Note: You can also bypass modules by clicking the Active light on the Alloy faceplate as shown below. You can solo a module by holding down the Alt key and clicking the Active light for the module you wish to solo.

Graph: The Graph button reveals the order in which Alloy processes audio through the main modules. Here is the default order of signal processing through the main modules:

Equalizer

Exciter

Transient

Dynamics 1

Dynamics 2

DeEsser

Phase Tools

Limiter

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Alloy Modules

Spectrum

Clicking on the Graph button also allows you to change the order of processing, and insert the meters at any point in the signal path. By default, the spectrum is based on the final output signal (the readout is the signal after all processing).

Alloys Global and Module Input/Output Gain stages are fixed by design.

Options: Opens the Options screen which lets you customize the behavior of meters and set other properties.

'(?): Opens the Help file to the specific page or topic that relates to the module shown.

Slider Compare Feature: You can Shift+Click on any slider in Alloy to quickly A/B the changes that have been made to that slider. This works for all sliders on the touchscreen as well as the Module/Global Amount Sliders.

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Using Multiband Modules

The Dynamics, Exciter, and Transient modules in Alloy can work in multiband mode and therefore allow you to apply processing independently to three frequency ranges. The ranges (or cutoffs) of these three bands are shown at the top of the multiband modules with the two vertical white lines. You can adjust the cutoffs by dragging the cutoff lines to the left or right with the mouse.

Each modules multiband frequency ranges are independent of one another, allowing you to achieve the greatest amount of control in shaping your sound. Adjusting the frequency ranges for the multiband Exciter will therefore, not change the frequency ranges in the Transient module nor in the Dynamics modules and vice versa. The same independent behavior is true for both Dynamics 1 and 2. When both Dynamics modules are placed into multiband mode, neither modules frequency settings will control the other.

Bypass a Band

You can bypass the processing for a specific band (or bands) by clicking on the box labeled "b" in the upper left corner of the band. This allows you to hear the audio within that band, but without any processing for that band. You can also Bypass a band by either holding down the Alt key and clicking, or right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) the box labeled "s" in the lower left corner of the band.

Solo a Band

You can solo a band by clicking on the box labeled "s" in the lower left corner of the band. This allows you to adjust multiband processing by hearing only the audio within the selected band. You can also Solo the effects on a band by Alt-clicking or right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) the box labeled "b".

Change the Number of Bands

You can choose to split the audio into 1, 2, or 3 bands. For subtle compression or when working with solo instruments, less bands can sound smoother as there is less processing required for the audio. The other benefit is that less CPU is required when working with fewer bands.

To add or remove bands, right-click (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) on the mini-spectrum and select "Insert Band" or "Remove Band" as shown above.

Copy and Paste Settings Across Bands

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Alloy Modules

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Using the same right-click (or ctrl-click under OS X) menu, you can copy settings from one band and apply them (paste them) to another band. This is helpful, for example, for duplicating settings across bands in the multiband dynamics module.

Adjusting Controls in Other Bands

When you select a control, horizontal lines appear on the individual bands. These lines allow you to adjust the control that you've selected for other bands, without having to switch to that band.

Note: You can turn the display of these handles on or off from the Crossover Options screen as explained below.

Show Slider Handles: Provides the option of turning on or off the horizontal handles (white lines) that appear on the multibands when adjusting controls.

Macro Presets Preset Manager

Alloy has over 150 Presets designed by professional engineers, composers, musicians and sound designers. These presets are designed to help with common mixing techniques and tools for applications like Drums, Guitar, Bass, Vocal, Utility, Special Effects and Orchestral recordings. Each preset contains a defined MacroPreset layout displayed in the Macro screen module on Alloy's interface. The Macro screen will display the most useful controls for the described application for each individual preset.

To access the Preset Manager, click the Preset button on the Alloy faceplate or press Ctrl+P.

Key Features

Easily backup and transfer preset files

Store preset files in folders for easy access and management

Share Alloy presets across multiple host applications

Sort presets based on name, date modified or date last used

Update presets with one click

Selectively load settings from individual effects modules. For example, take the EQ settings from one preset and combine them with the dynamics settings of another preset.

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Macro Presets

Add comments to presets for easy reference.

Design custom MacroPresets

Preset Folders

Alloy presets have been sorted and organized into separate categories or preset folders. This makes finding a good starting point for your session quicker and easier. The default preset folders that are included with Alloy are shown below.

Dock and Undock

Clicking the Undock button at the bottom of the Preset Manager opens a floating window. This lets you work with the Preset Manager while still being able to view the edit windows for the individual Alloy modules. To have the Preset Manager return to the Alloy interface click the Dock button.

Note: The 'Advanced button' allowing you to create your own MacroPresets is not available in the Docked preset manager. To design your own MacroPresets, you must work inside of the Undocked preset manager.

Options

Show at Startup: With this option on the Preset Manager will automatically be displayed every time that a new instance of Alloy is called up inside of your host application.

Auto-Show Macro: When enabled, Alloy will automatically display the Macro screen controls for each preset as it is selected.

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Macro Presets

MacroPresets are designed to allow you to take full advantage of Alloy's many modules and parameters in a quick, concise and creative way. MacroPresets in Alloy consist of a Macro screen layout comprised of individual MacroBlocks, displaying the most useful and applicable module parameters for that preset. MacroPresets can also include custom MacroFaders that provide instant control over parameters like warmth, width, or bass to get the results you want quickly.

MacroFaders link multiple parameters together across Alloy's modules so the user can quickly and intelligently make creative decisions about how a particular preset will affect your overall sound.

This innovative approach to preset design will instantly improve your workflow and will greatly increase your ability to refine standard presets and get the specific "sound" you are looking for.

Note: If you Shift+Click a MacroFader, it will jump to its last position for a quick A/B comparison of your settings.

MacroBlocks are predetermined layout and parameter configurations corresponding to each of the modules inside of Alloy. MacroBlock configurations are displayed in the Macro window on the Alloy user interface.

Alloy's Macro screen can be broken up into quarters, halves, or have the entire screen display whichever module controls you wish.

All of Alloy's Factory Presets contain their own defined MacroBlock configuration and Macro screen layout, however you can use the information below to design your own.

Designing your own MacroPresets

Clicking the Advanced button within the Preset Manager opens the MacroPreset editor. This allows you to custom design your own MacroPresets by selecting which MacroBlocks you would like visible and by linking multiple parameters to individual sliders (MacroFaders).

To begin creating or customizing your own MacroPreset follow the steps below.

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Macro Presets

1. Click on 'Advanced' button inside of the Undocked preset manager.

Note: The 'Advanced button' allowing you to create your own MacroPresets is not available in the Docked preset manager. To design your own MacroPresets, you must work inside of the Undocked preset manager.

2. There is a maximum of 4 selectable MacroBlocks corresponding to their positions in the Macro window.

Each contains a drop down list allowing you to choose which module and variation you would like to display as well as providing the option for a 'Custom' layout.

3. To create your own MacroFaders, first choose a 'Custom' layout in the MacroBlocks section. You can edit the Title of your Custom MacroBlock as it will be displayed in the Macro window by clicking on the 'Title' field.

4. Next, click 'Add Fader'. You can then edit the name of the MacroFader, set the range of the slider. (minimum, maximum, and default), and then begin to select which parameters you wish to link to this MacroFader.

You can add multiple parameters to a MacroFader and you can add multiple MacroFaders to each MacroPreset.

5. You can then use the swap arrow buttons to re-arrange or swap out the placement of your MacroBlocks in the Macro window.

Understanding MacroBlocks

Placement

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These define the size and direction of a specific MacroBlock. The placement of each MacroBlock corresponds to its position in the Advanced MacroBlock page. You can then use the swap arrow buttons to re-arrange or swap out the placement of your MacroBlocks in the Macro window.

Quarter: This will place the desired MacroBlock in a 1/4-sized view in the Macro window.

Note: This option will not be available for MacroBlocks that cannot fit into the 1/4 sized view.

Half Horizontal/Vertical: This option will take up half of the Macro window display in the specified direction from where you originally placed the MacroBlock.

Full: The entire Macro window will display MacroBlock chosen.

Note: When choosing, Half Horizontal, Half Vertical, or Full MacroBlocks, any MacroBlocks present in the other available slots will be overwritten. You will be prompted by a dialogue box before Alloy removes any previously present MacroBlocks.

Simple: When selecting the 'Simple' forms of each module or process in Alloy, generally only the most essential parameters for that module are made visible in the Macro window. This can be very useful when choosing individual processes such as 'compression' or 'gate/expansion' or individual single band modules.

Advanced: The Advanced configurations for each module generally provide as much control as is possible for the parameters of that particular module.

Multiband: Only available for the Exciter, Transient, Compressor, Gate/Expansion, and Dynamics processes, this option will display all pertinent parameters as well as a mini-spectrum, allowing you to adjust your multiband crossover points from within your Macro window.

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Macro Presets

Selecting Presets

To access the Preset Manager, click the Preset button on the Alloy faceplate or press Ctrl+P.

Loading Presets in Alloy

You can select and audition any preset by simply clicking on the name in the list. This will activate selected Alloy modules and you will hear the effect of the preset when you playback your audio. You can easily compare several different presets just by picking a different name on the list.

Working with Presets in Alloy

Once you have selected a preset from the list, you may choose to change the original settings within a specific module. When you change any of the original settings within a preset you will see an asterisk* added to the beginning of the preset's name. This means that the preset has been altered. If you want to keep these settings you need to Add a new preset or Update the existing preset.

Working Settings

If you modify a preset's settings, then these modified settings become your "Working Settings". Your Working Settings will always be at the top of the preset list within the preset manager. This allows you to freely preview and compare different preset options. When you are done, you can return to your Working Settings by either selecting the item at the top of the Preset Manager labeled or by clicking the Cancel button to close the preset system. To select a preset and have it replace your Working Settings, just select the name of the new preset and click the OK button.

Note: Your last selected preset will have a faint highlight to provide a visual reference for updating presets.

Sort by Name, Last Modified, or Last Used

As a convenience you can sort presets by name, by the time/date last used, or the time/date last modified.

Last Used

A preset is considered "used" when you select it and you close the preset system dialog. The last used time/date stamp is not updated when you are selecting and auditioning presets from the list.

Last Modified

A preset is considered "modified" when you either create one or you make changes to one and update it with the Update button.

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Adding, Removing, Resetting Presets

Add: Clicking this button adds the current Alloy settings as a new preset. You can type a name and optionally add comments for the preset. Note that a few keys such as * or / cannot be used as preset names. If you try to type these characters in the name they will be ignored.

Note: This is because presets are stored as xml files (for easy backup and transferring). Their file names are the same as the name you give the preset (for easy reference) and therefore characters that are not allowed in Windows file names are not allowed in preset names.

Remove: To permanently delete a preset, select the preset from the list and click the Remove button.

Update: When you click the Update button your current settings are assigned to the selected preset (highlighted). This is useful of course for selecting a preset, tweaking it, then coming back to the preset system and clicking Update to save your changes to the existing preset.

Note: The Update button is only available in the undocked preset manager

Compare: The Compare button is a great way to quickly hear the difference between the default settings of the most recent preset that you've selected, and the result of any changes that you have made to this preset (Working Settings). This lets you start your session based on one of Alloy's default presets and then continue to tweak the settings, always comparing to where you started.

New Folder: The New Folder option allows you to easily add custom named folders to the Alloy preset manager.

Reset: When adjusting MacroFaders within Alloy's presets, the 'Reset' button located below the floating MacroFaders will set the MacroFaders back to their default value as defined in each individual preset.

This is done because changes in each MacroFader are not saved and treated in the same way that individual parameters are. As such, the Reset button allows you to get back to the originally defined factory value for the MacroFaders.

Cancel: The Cancel button simply closes the preset system dialog and reverts the settings back to the previous Working Settings, which would be either the settings when you entered the preset system or the settings of the last preset you created or updated while the preset system was open.

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Macro Presets

Note: You cannot "Cancel" an update of a preset. That is, adding, removing, and updating presets are done "in place" and are not reverted when you Cancel the preset system dialog.

OK: Closes the preset system, but unlike the Cancel button, clicking the OK button loads the last preset you selected from the preset list.

Renaming Presets: You can double click on the name of a preset to enter the "edit" mode and then type a new name for that preset.

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Changing Where Presets Are Stored

Change Folder

You don't need to store all of your presets in the default folder(s). Alloy also allows you to create custom folders of presets for different projects, archive presets, etc. To change the folder that Alloy will look to for presets, click the 'Change Folder' button and browse to the folder that contains the presets you want to use.

Alloy will also pick up and display any sub-folders that may be present in your chosen Alloy preset directory. You can add and remove presets and folders with the 'New Folder' and 'Remove' buttons inside of the Preset Manager.

Backing up Presets

Alloy's presets are stored as '.XML' files inside of your default or chosen preset directory. These '.XML' files will be named and categorized as they appear inside of your Alloy Preset Manager.

Backing up presets is as simple as copying files. Just browse to the location of your presets, select the directory or individual preset files you would like to backup, and copy them onto your backup drive or location.

To restore any presets that have already been backed up, simply copy the desired presets back into your Alloy preset directory, and on the next instantiation, Alloy will recognize their presence and display them in the internal Preset Manager.

Default Preset Directories:

Windows Users

C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\iZotope Alloy Presets

Mac Users

/Documents/iZotope Alloy Presets

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Macro Presets

Selectively Loading Modules from Presets

Alloy isn't just a plug-in, but instead a system of effects. Sometimes you'll want to load an entire preset (update the whole system), but other times you might just want to use parts of a preset - e.g. just change the Equalizer settings. Selective loading of modules gives you this option.

When you select a preset from the list, the settings of any modules which are checked are being taken from the preset you selected.

You can change which modules a preset loads by selecting the preset, then clicking on the checkboxes. So for example, if you want to load a particular presets Equalizer settings, un-check all of the modules except for the EQ checkbox, and only the Equalizer module settings will be loaded.

Each preset remembers which of its checkboxes are checked. As soon as you click on a checkbox, this change will be saved to the preset.

Note: There is a shortcut to quickly check just one module. Hold the Alt key and click on a checkbox, and it will be selected while all others are deselected.

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Preset Module Reference

In order to select which modules to load when selecting a preset, you need to know which settings are contained in each module. Please refer to the references below.

Dynamics: All settings for the both Dynamics 1 and 2 modules including cutoff frequencies for multiband settings and bypass On/Off

Equalizer: All settings for EQ bands (frequency, gain, Q, filter type) as well as EQ bypass settings, number of enabled EQ bands, Alt-Solo Q, and Soft Saturation option (on/off)

Exciter: All settings for the multiband exciter and crossover points for multiband

Global: All Input/Output settings, as well as DSP options for all modules

Limter: All settings for the limiter module

Transient: All settings for Transient module including crossover points, bypass on/off settings and attack and sustain times.

DeEsser: All settings for the DeEsser module including the mode and particular crossover points

Meters: All meter settings, including the spectrum, phase meters, level meters, etc.

Meters Spectrum Meter

The spectrum provides a real time display of the frequencies of the mix. This display helps with EQ'ing and adjusting the band cutoffs for multiband dynamics. Alloy can show two spectra, so users can see both peak and average spectra simultaneously in the display. By default, only a real-time averaging spectrum will be shown in the Equalizer and Mini-spectrum above the other modules.

Options

You can set options for the spectrum by accessing the Spectrum Options tab or right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) the spectrum and selecting "Spectrum Options" from the context menu.

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Exciter Meter

Alloys Exciter display provides accurate visual feedback for precisely what frequencies and in what quantities those frequencies are being excited.

No excitation is represented by the faded white color of the overall spectrum. As more excitation is added, this white will become a more prominent red color showing clearly where your audio is being affected by the processing and chosen exciter mode.

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Meters

Transient Meter Emphasis meters:

The Emphasis Meters how much the attack and sustain portions of the transient are being affected by the Attack and Sustain settings. When the level is being raised, the meter is yellow (left) and extends above the center point; when the level is being lowered, the meter is blue (right) and extends below the center point.

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Dynamics Meters

Peak Reduction meters:

Present in both Dynamics and Limiter modules, these meters are very informative for displaying not only overall peak level, but the gain reduction applied, as well as the resulting peak level after processing.

1. The peak level before processing

2. The resulting output peak level after processing

3. The amount in decibels of gain reduction applied to the signal

Alloy provides three types of meters for viewing the dynamics of a mix. You can set options for these meters by right clicking on any of the dynamics meters, or selecting the Meters tab of the Options dialogue.

Reduction Meters

When working in the Dynamics and Limiter modules, the reduction meter provides you with a readout of how much the dynamics processing is changing the level of the signal. You can set this to display the amount of compression and limiting, and/or the amount of gating by right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) on the meter.

Curve Level Meter

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Meters

The meter above is a traditional dynamics curve, where the x or horizontal axis is the signal going into the dynamics module, and the y or vertical axis is the signal coming out. Flatter compression curves means the signal is being flattened (compressed) more.

Zoom Tool

You can zoom in on the curve level meter by holding down the Ctrl key under Windows or the Command key under OS X and clicking on the meter's X or Y axis. Left clicks zoom in the meter, while right clicks zoom back out. Under OS X you can also Ctrl/Cmd-click to zoom out.

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Limiter Meters

Phase Tools Meter

The Phase Tools section in the Limiter module provides a real-time waveform display for viewing your outgoing waveform. When Rotate Phase, Invert Phase, or Filter DC Offset is enabled, the effected waveform will be shown in shaded grey underneath the yellow waveform.

By default, the Phase Tools module and waveform display are located after the De-Esser and before the Limiter module. If you would like to have the Phase Tools waveform display your audio waveform at a different point in your Alloy signal chain, simply open Alloy's Graph and place the 'Phase Tools' box where you would like it.

Level Histograms

A level histogram is provided in the Limiter module to provide a view of the audio level as a function of time.

As Alloy processes audio, it calculates the level and displays it on the level histogram. Unlike a standard level meter, the level histogram provides a view of the history of the level over time. The height of the histogram represents the high and low levels of the audio, while the width of the bar indicates the most frequent levels. In the example above, most of the time the level of the audio was around 12-16 dB, although in a few cases the level was as high as -8 dB and as low as -24 dB.

This meter is a powerful tool for applying dynamics. In the case above, we could apply some limiting around 8-12 dB to bring down the edges of the top levels, but we could also apply expansion to bring up the levels that are found in the -24 dB range.

For additional visual feedback, the histogram is displayed in white for regions that are being limited by the Limiter. In the case above, we have a limiter threshold set around -10 dB that is limiting the upper crest of the signal.

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Meters

Input and Output Meters

Alloy level meters display the input and output level for the left and right channels as your audio enters and exits Alloy.

Module Mode: By clicking on the Module button located at the bottom of both the Input and Output meters, you can view the Input and Output signals of the particular module you are focusing on. The I/O Gain Sliders will also control the Input Output Gain for that particular module, and not for the overall Input and Output of Alloy when in Module mode.

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You can set options for the Input/Output meters by opening the Options dialogue and selecting the 'Meters' Options tab. The available options for calibrating Alloy's I/O meters are listed below.

RMS: RMS (Root Mean Square) is a software-based implementation of an analog style level meter. Using different integration times, you can model popular VU or PPM meters. The RMS meter displays the average level calculated over a short window of time. The result is a meter that is appropriate if you are interested in tracking the overall loudness. The RMS meter readout will typically be lower than an equivalent PPM meter (Digital/Analog), since it is averaging peaks into the overall loudness.

Peak: The Peak meter is a fast meter that measures instantaneous maximum sample value OR peak analog waveform values, depending on the "detect inter-sample peaks" checkbox. If you are tracking the peaks for possible clipping the Peak meter is appropriate.

RMS + Peak: This is a combined RMS and Peak meter. This meter displays a lower bar representing the average level (RMS) and a higher bar representing peak level. There is also a moving line above the bar representing the most recent peak level or peak hold.

Setting the Scale of the Meters

By default, the range of the meters is from 0 dB to -96 dB. You can further customize you metering by adjusting the scale of the input and output meters. Clicking the (+) sign below the meters will increase the zoom or resolution of the metering scale, and clicking the (-) sign will decrease or zoom out the resolution of the metering scale.

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Meters

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You can also adjust the scale by pressing down the Ctrl key under Windows or the Command key under OS X and clicking with the left mouse button to expand the range or right to decrease the range. Once you've zoomed in, you can change the viewing range by clicking on the range and dragging it up or down.

Peaks

By default, the meters will hold peaks. You can configure this in the I/O tab of the Options Dialog, which you can also access by right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) on the level meters.

To reset a peak that is holding, click anywhere on the meter.

Clipping

Above the meter is a red LED that serves as a clipping indicator. If the level exceeds 0 dB at any point, this LED will light up and remain lit until you double click anywhere on the LED itself. (Once you have clipped over 99 samples the indicator will show three periods...)

Graph and Sidechain Setting the Order of the Modules

By default, the order of processing is the order listed below (the signal passes through the EQ, then the Reverb, etc.)

Equalizer

Exciter

Transient

Dynamics 1

Dynamics 2

DeEsser

Phase Tools

Limiter

Spectrum

You can change the ordering of the processing by clicking on the Graph button.

Filter Graph

This provides a signal path flowchart of the current settings. You can modify the order by selecting a module and dragging it with the mouse to a new position. You can also place the spectrum and phase meters at any place within the processing, if

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Graph and Sidechain

for example you'd prefer to see a spectrum of the audio going into the EQ as opposed to seeing the spectrum after equalization.

Reset: If you want to reset to the default order, click the Reset button.

OK: To apply the new signal order, click on the OK button.

Cancel: Click the Cancel button to discard your changes.

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Parallel Processing

Instead of Alloys Dynamics 1 and 2 modules running in series, one right after the other, with parallel processing enabled, the incoming audio will be split into two identical audio streams, each running independently into Dynamics 1 and Dynamics 2. What this allows for is to have two different compressors acting upon the incoming audio at the same time.

To turn Parallel Dynamics processing ON, simply open the Graph and click and drag one Dynamics module up and over the other.

Because of this, Dynamics 1 and 2 must both operate in either single band or multiband modes. If both are in multiband mode, each module must have the same crossover frequencies. This is done to maintain phase and high audio quality when working with this internal routing.

The benefits of parallel processing are such that, one Dynamics module can have very severe pumping settings, in order to create the effect of heavy compression and expansion, while the other module only has very light settings. This will therefore give your audio the sound of heavy dynamics processing without sacrificing your dynamic range entirely.

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Graph and Sidechain

Routing Sidechain Signals

By default, Alloys Dynamics module will simply respond and react to the incoming audio from the track that Alloy is inserted on. In this way, if the incoming audio, passes the specified threshold values inside of Dynamics 1 or 2, the module begins to process the audio.

When working with sidechain signals however, while each Dynamics module will still process the incoming audio, the module will no longer be triggered by the same incoming audio. Instead the compressor will be triggered either by an external audio source or audio from one of the bands in a multiband dynamics section.

To load the Sidechain menu, click on the Sidechain button in the upper left corner of your dynamics meter in either the Dynamic 1 or 2 modules.

For both Dynamics 1 and 2, Alloy can accept incoming sidechain trigger signals from varying sources of audio as defined inside of your host audio application. When working with single band dynamics, you can select an External audio source from inside of the Sidechain menu.

Inside of your host application, with the use of busses, sends or aux tracks, you will need to send the audio signal you would like to serve as your sidechain trigger, to the audio track that Alloy is inserted upon.

Once you have defined your Sidechain inputs, your Dynamics module will indicate that its processes are sidechained with the logos shown below:

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As each audio host application is different, please refer to your hosts help documentation for instructions on how to route audio to Alloy.

Note: Incoming stereo sidechain signals will be mixed and summed to mono for use in triggering the Dynamics modules.

Multiband Sidechain

Traditionally, external audio is used to trigger the sidechain on single band dynamics processes such as compression/gating/expansion. Alloy however, building upon its multiband operation, can allow for the audio output of individual bands to be the trigger source for their own compressors/gates/expanders.

This is done, first by switching either Dynamics 1 or 2 into multiband mode. Then, by opening the sidechain menu, the audio output of each band is available as a source choice to act as the trigger for that modules Compressor or Gate/Expander.

Each of the three available bands in each Dynamics module, as well as any external audio inputs, will be available to choose as a sidechain trigger source. This can therefore allow for unique processing and routing ranging from simple traditional setups to a more complex matrix of dynamic control that moves beyond simple sidechain inputs.

This can also be used as a way of EQing the source audio for Alloys Dynamics sections. By using multiband compression, and choosing Band 1 as the compression trigger for all three bands, the Dynamics module will now only be triggered by audio in the lower frequencies contained in Band 1. The result being that the compressor in this example, will only triggered by peaks such as the kick drum in a drum track, or the thump of lower strings in a guitar track.

General Functions Input and Output Gain

The panel on the right side of the Alloy interface is the main input/output section for Alloy. This is used for setting and monitoring gain levels going into and coming out of Alloy.

Setting Input and Output Gain

You can adjust the input or output gain by sliding the white faders with the mouse, either by clicking and dragging or clicking and using the wheel of a wheel mouse. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to adjust the level in small increments.

Adjusting Left and Right Channels Independently

By default, the left and right gains are linked so moving one moves the other. You can adjust left and right gain independently by clicking on the "lock" icon. You can offset the two channels and then "relock" them, so that later adjustments move both channels by the same amount.

Faders will remember their offset even if they are temporarily turned up or down all the way, so that when you bring the faders back to the middle the offset will be preserved.

Double-click to Reset Faders

If the left and right faders are locked, double clicking on either fader will reset both of them to 0 dB. If the left and right faders are unlocked and set at different levels, double clicking a specific fader will reset it to 0 dB. If the left and right faders are locked but had been previously been set to different levels, double clicking on a fader will reset it to match the level of the other fader. Another double click will reset both faders to 0 dB.

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Setting the Scale of the Meters

You can further customize you metering by adjusting the scale of the input and output meters. Clicking the (+) sign below the meters will increase the zoom or resolution of the metering scale, and clicking the (-) sign will decrease or zoom out the resolution of the metering scale.

Setting the Source of the Meters

The small module button below the meter allows you to choose the source of the input/output meters. When engaged the meters will display the levels for the particular Module you are viewing and when off (default) the meters will display overall plug-ins Stereo (left/right) levels.

More Information

Right-clicking (under OS X you can also ctrl-click) on the level meters provides an options screen for the level meters.

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General Functions

Zero Latency

When Zero Latency mode is active, look-ahead processing in Alloy's Dynamics, Limiter and Transient modules will be turned off allowing the plug-in to be used in situations where your host application does not have delay (latency) compensation. In these cases, adding latency to your audio is undesirable as it will make your tracks out of sync with each other, and cause phasing.

With Zero Latency mode inactive, Alloy will impose a small delay to account for look-ahead processing, allowing the modules to react to incoming audio material quicker. If your host has delay compensation, this short delay is not an issue as your host application will keep all of your audio perfectly aligned.

Due to this functional difference however, the sound and behavior of the Dynamics, Limiter and Transient modules will change slightly with Zero Latency mode On or Off.

The Zero Latency mode checkbox is located inside of Alloys Options menu under the General tab.

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Undo and History Comparisons

The History window is a unique and powerful feature for comparing settings in Alloy. To access the History list, click on the History button.

As you tweak controls, each movement is captured and displayed in the History list. To go back and hear a previous setting, simply click on the list at the point you want to audition. The changes that you've undone will show up in a lighter color.

Clear : You can also press the Clear button to clear the history list at any time.

Close : If you close the History window, processing resumes from the point you had last selected, so you can continue building on the History list from a earlier point.

A,B,C,D : You can assign up to four points in the History list to A, B, C and D buttons. To do this, select the point in the list you want to capture, and click on the "Set" button below the A, B, C or D button. Clicking on the appropriate button will then recall the setting assigned to that button.

History: The history list has a depth setting which controls how many edits it remembers. You can change this setting in the General Options tab.

When you exit Alloy, the History list and any settings assigned to the A, B, C or D buttons will be saved to the file iZAlloy3.hst in the directory where you installed Alloy. The next time you start Alloy, the list will be remembered so you can pick up right where you left off.

While using Alloy, you can press Ctrl+Z repeatedly to undo edits you've made, and Ctrl+Y to redo edits. See Shortcut Keys and Mouse Support for more keyboard shortcuts.

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General Functions

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Buffer Size Viewer

The Buffer Size Viewer dialog lets you inspect the buffer sizes which your host application is using.

If you are using Alloy at low latencies, you may experience unusually high CPU usage. Alloy allows you to tweak several buffer sizes in order to optimize CPU usage for your host application settings. Some host applications make it very easy to see what your buffer sizes are, but it can be more difficult to determine in others. For that reason, Alloy provides this dialog to let you find out exactly what buffer sizes are being sent to the plug-in.

To use this dialog, simply launch it by clicking the View Buffers button on the General tab of the Options screen. Then use the following controls:

Captured buffer sizes: This list-box shows the buffers you have captured thus far. The number on the left is the input buffer size, and the number on the right is the output buffer size. Note that the input and output buffer sizes will be equal in Pro Tools, VST, AU and MAS versions of Alloy, but in the DirectX version if delay compensation is enabled then the sizes may differ. When tweaking buffer sizes, you're interested in the number on the left, which is the host application's buffer size.

Start/Stop: Push Start to begin capturing buffer sizes. Now each time a buffer is sent to the plugin, it will be added to the list of captured buffer sizes for you to see. Push Stop to stop capturing buffer sizes. Note that buffers are sent in very rapid succession to the plug-in, and after 100 buffer sizes are captured, the capturing will automatically be stopped.

Clear: Clears the list of captured buffer sizes.

Copy: Copies the list of gathered buffer sizes to the Windows clipboard, useful for pasting into a support e-mail if necessary.

Options General Options

The General tab lets you configure general Alloy properties to improve Performance, Automation, Graphics, and Buffering. These properties are displayed in the table below.

Graphics

Enable meters Although each meter has its own options, this option allows you to quickly turn on/off all meters.

Show tooltips When enabled this allows informational notes to appear when the cursor/pointer is hovering on top of the features' controls

Enable animation

Allows you turn on/off the animated appearance of dialog boxes.

Enable animated focus

Allows you to turn on/off the animated white brackets which indicate the control where keyboard commands are sent.

Show background grid

Toggles the visibility of the grid in the background of Alloy's display and also will hide the glare layer on top of Alloy's interface.

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Options

Frame rate limiter

Allows you to set the speed (frames per second) that Alloy should use to display and update meters. In most cases the default will provide smooth displays while still allowing adequate processing time for audio. If your PC hardware allows it, you can increase the frame rate for smoother animation. On the other hand, if you are running Alloy on slower hardware or notice graphics performance problems in your host application, you can set the FPS value lower to limit the amount of CPU Alloy uses for drawing.

Opacity

Allows you to control the opacity or transparency of the Alloy UI. This is helpful when working with automation, for example, to be able to have the Alloy UI in front but be able to "see through it" to the automation curves on the track view of the host app. Setting partial transparency does require additional CPU, but there is no CPU penalty when opacity is at 100% (i.e. the feature is not being used). If you find this feature useful, be sure to note the keyboard shortcuts for it. The slider will be disabled in host applications that do not

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