Vinyl Optimiser - Ableton rack / chain

[Tplates]

Hi all,

First time poster, so I would like to firstly say thank you all for your continued sharing of knowledge in this forum - it has been a huge help to me! I purchased a T560 last year and have been slowly getting to grips with the machine, with the lockdown proving to be the perfect time to hunker down in the basement. So far I'm getting some really nice cuts, and also some pretty bad cuts!

Currently I am working towards removing some of the gear that comes with the T560, including the mixer, the main unit and the optimiser. I plan on adding a second PSU to the main unit for the motor, and replacing the mixer with a Mackie Big Knob. I'm absolutely no expert, but I'm sure that having the signal path run through these is deteriorating the quality somewhat.

I wanted to share an Ableton rack I made that more or less matches the Vinyl Optimiser that comes with the T560 - it uses only native Ableton plugins (v. 10.1.15) and it's very simple, but hopefully someone will find some use for it / find problems with it! Feel free to download it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ulqe7v-tDMc6frn2-dEfSjEdViutKZrP/view?usp=sharing

I'm also aiming to add in an IRIAA pre emphasis at the end of this chain in the future in order to bypass the Main Unit, but am still working on getting it to sound right. Early experiments with a standard IRIAA proved pretty disastrous (nearly killed a stylus) but I'm getting there! Seems to be just frequencies above 1K or so that need treating, with the low end mostly staying flat or even needing a bit of a boost. There seems to be some info floating around on the forum about this - still working on it!

Stay safe out there

Screenshot 2020-07-06 at 14.09.49.png

(Edit: apologies if this should have been in the Newbie forum!)

[PMST]

For my IRIAA i used (with a lot of help from Mark Rob!) Fabfilter Q3 to EQ match. I used program material, an audio loop i made with a fairly good tonal balance, covering the full spectrum, then sent around +2db on the meter (but make sure your playback is 100% calibrated! i use the 'Ultimate Analogue Test LP'), then cut this audio loop, record it back into the DAW and match EQ match this with the original loop in Q3. So now my signal chain is my audio player, direct to amp, nothing between. Definitely a strange EQ curve but easy enough to sort, bypassing the main unit has helped me a lot, cuts sound much cleaner, louder and less distortion on the louder cuts

[PMST]

I did try with noise profiles but after getting advice from Mark Rob, using program material worked much better, just a 4 bar loop, very repetitive and easy to match

[Tplates]

For my IRIAA i used (with a lot of help from Mark Rob!) Fabfilter Q3 to EQ match. I used program material, an audio loop i made with a fairly good tonal balance, covering the full spectrum, then sent around +2db on the meter (but make sure your playback is 100% calibrated! i use the 'Ultimate Analogue Test LP'), then cut this audio loop, record it back into the DAW and match EQ match this with the original loop in Q3. So now my signal chain is my audio player, direct to amp, nothing between. Definitely a strange EQ curve but easy enough to sort, bypassing the main unit has helped me a lot, cuts sound much cleaner, louder and less distortion on the louder cuts

Hey PMST - I managed to do this successfully - I used a reference track that I'm familiar with, as well as a pink noise profile and then found a nice middle ground which is sounding great on the first few test cuts.

Now to implement the big knob in a way that I can still monitor both the outputs - will come back when I have an update.

Thanks again for the tips!

[NickGrooves]

Fascinating, as usual. Thanks all for sharing

[Discomo]

For my IRIAA i used (with a lot of help from Mark Rob!) Fabfilter Q3 to EQ match. I used program material, an audio loop i made with a fairly good tonal balance, covering the full spectrum, then sent around +2db on the meter (but make sure your playback is 100% calibrated! i use the 'Ultimate Analogue Test LP'), then cut this audio loop, record it back into the DAW and match EQ match this with the original loop in Q3. So now my signal chain is my audio player, direct to amp, nothing between. Definitely a strange EQ curve but easy enough to sort, bypassing the main unit has helped me a lot, cuts sound much cleaner, louder and less distortion on the louder cuts

If you have the time, can you post a screenshot of the RIAA you've created in Fabfilter Q3 ?

[PMST]

Yeah no worries will do when I'm on the computer, remind me if you can in case I forget, feel free to PM or email me!

[HannesFTL]

I did the same thing, so balanced cables for me

The boosts can get pretty crazy so beware!!

+20 dB so better have your mastering sorted

[David34]

Thanks for the plug in! Please can I ask which model of Mackie Big Knob you folks are all using? Ive looked on the rear input section and can't see 'phono' as part of the input for them?

Please if anyone has any diagrams on the correct wiring of inputs/outputs etc, this will be great too!

Sorry to hijack, but I think its relevant too

[PMST]

Making your own EQ curve means bypassing the main unit, so ideally you just want 1/4 jack, not phono. Then you can used balanced (or unbalanced) from computer/player to volume controller, to cutter amp