[Simon Billington]

Okay I just checked it out and on the onset it sounds like it would be tricky to fix.

But I’ll have a closer look at it over the weekend and see if i can come up with a solution for you. Assuming its still an issue you want to get worked out

[Simon Billington]

Oh I went to check out the link, but its missing.

Did you manage to fix your issue??

[Simon Billington]

I usually do most of my audio from within Logic, also being a qualified sound engineer myself. However, it’s a workflow I’ve been considering for smaller projects.

WLM is a great tool, the Plus version, which you will also have comes with an Inter Sample Peak Limiter and an audio Gain feature. This is a great option to put last in your audio processing chain, after the L2.

Just like there are some color grades that are better to put on Compound Clips that house the entire project, the L2 and WLM Plus will live better there. The trouble is the Volume Automstion comes after the plugins so this becomes an issue.

What you need to do in this instance is leave the volume set at 0dB and leave it alone and treat the Gain slider as your Master Volume. Any changes you need to make to your levels either do on the clips contained in the Compound Clip or do it to the Gain parameter of the WLM. The manual explains a good workflow regarding the plugin itself.

If you want to add anything else to your audio master chain then add it before these plugins. Eq, compressor, stereo enhancer, harmonic enhancer, whatever you feel the project needs.

[Simon Billington]

You know what… I just discovered the same issue too. I can’t believe i over looked this.

I usually use this particular plugin in an audio app, where i finalise all my audio. I just new that the plugins worked in Resolve and all the parameters came up. This isn’t just a Waves issue, but none of my AudioUnits seem to be opening their UIs.

I think this is a bit of an oversight on Blackmagic’s behalf.

It’s my believe they are very good in timely updates and bug fixes. Mention this one to them and I’m pretty sure it will get a look at. After all how can you use a professional metering plugin if you can’t even see the meters!?!?

Sorry I can’t be of more help at this point. I might just mention this to support myself to add weight to the issue.

[Simon Billington]

Oh its no issue for me. I have WLM after all. It also requires less DSP which can be an advantage at times.

I could even copy the settings over to Insight if I so desire.

[Simon Billington]

Yep that’s true. I’m in Australia and our standard here is OP59, which is closely based on the R-128.

I do own RX Advanced myself, which is also how I got Insight which I do use also but I also use that WLM meter I spoke about also. As I said i like the Trim and the Inter-Sample Peak limiter on to for safety reasons.

It also has a preset for OP59, so it was very simple for me to jump straight in and use. Of course I can set the same up on Insight, but I’d have to go digging around for the specifics first, since iZotope don’t really factor Australia in as among their customers.

[Simon Billington]

Yeah Insight is a great meter, a little on the expensive side however. That’s because it offers many features.

A cheaper, simpler alternative that I know of and also possess is the Waves WLM. It doesn’t have all the various metering displays of Insight, but it does offer all the info you usually need, especially when it comes to loudness measuring. It even features a trim function and a True Peak limiter just to ensure the signal doesn’t go past 0dB.

LUFS is basically a measurement of loudness information as opposed to peak information that we have become accustomed to working with digital. The problem with peak metering is it can only indicate how far we are away from clipping a signal or how loud a very percussive signal is, but isn’t much help at indicating how loud the overall lever of a signal really is.

LUFS are measured the same way as Peak metering, in decibels, starting with 0db as the loudest possible signal, then moving down from there to the quietest. The real difference is it has a much more slower response time, very similar to the old RMS meters in the analogue days, in some respect. Because of its response characteristics it more accurately represents the way the ear interprets a signal and measures the loudness on an overall level.

A good average loudness level for a signal should be around -18 to -21dB, thereabouts. It doesn’t have to be exact. You should also aim for most of your percussive peak signals, like drums or gunshots to hit between roughly -3 to -6dB.

Every time you put the audio signal through a process such as eq or compression, you also want to make sure that it comes out sounding roughly just as loud as it was before it went in to the process, that’s called gain staging.

[Simon Billington]

Hahaha!! I was just watching those videos last night.

Watching vids like Simon’s, I feel, saves me thousands of dollars of a University course!! Well, that and some solid reading of whatever I can find.

[Simon Billington]

It involves putting a compressor plugin on your music that has a “sidechain” or audio key feature. While the compressor is placed on the music, the sidechain is set to listen to the dialogue track. Duckers also do a similar job in a similar way but are arguably designed better for the task.

So that’s where to put the compressor, but setting it can be a little more tricky.

Make sure the compressor is listening to the sidechain. You will want to audio to drop pretty much immediately, so the attack should be set pretty fast, maybe around 3-5ms. If sounds to abrupt when dropping the audio, lengthen the time, if it’s not quick enough, lower the attack.

The release should be set to a long time, long enough so the music gently fades back in, but not to quick. Try around 1sec and lengthen or shorten it to taste.

Next set the ratio to about 4:1 which may just be displayed as plain 4. This is a place to start but will most surely need tweaking as well. I’ll get back to that.

Now as the music and dialogue plays lower the threshold until you hear the music dropping in volume. Keep lowering the threshold until you get the volume drop you want. Adjust the attack and release to taste.

If the music sounds too suffocated while being reduced, reduce the ratio. If it sounds relatively soft enough, but still seems to be a bit too distracting, increase the ratio. Readjust the threshold to taste, the lower it is the more volume reduction.

Not that the threshold is usually measured in dBFS, which is the same scale as the audio meters display. This just means don’t be fooled by the big numbers, they are negative values. So lowering a threshold will make it go further into the negatives, while increasing it will bring it closer to 0dBFS.

I probably wouldn’t increase the ratio past 10:1, or 10, and a ratio of 1 means the compressor really isn’t doing anything. For this purpose, 3 is probably the lowest you would want to go. Your magic zone should probably be somewhere in there.

This might all seem a bit confusing, but do it one step at a time. There should be plenty of videos on YouTube as well to help you to sidechain a compressor to duck music.

[Simon Billington]

I meant using the 3 way to change the brightness of just the highlights, it might leave the rest of the colours relatively untouched, but it may not.

You may have to pull color key on just text and then adjust its highlights.