Tc Electronic Finalizer 96k Mastering Processor

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Product Info

The Finalizer has become something of an industry standard for the new breed of outboard jack-of-all-trades DSP boxes which would be classified as ""mastering processors."" Similar products have appeared of this same kind, from Drawmer, Behringerand dbx among others. The Finalizer was upgraded to the Finalizer Plus and now has the added 96kHz compatibility, and even spawned a cut-down Finalizer Express model offering just the 3 band auto-compressor . It's almost identical big brother, theDBMax isa five band version aimed at broadcast / post production with a remodelled library of factory presets. As it stands, the Finalizer 96k is TC's best implementation of this machine for the recording musician who wishes to premaster their own material, although it serves as a great outboard toolkit for any recording application. Much like an exciter, the Finalizer processes are best applied with a light touch to create a subtle improvement, without too obvious ""processed"" effect -perhaps most noticeable when switching between process and bypass. Good mastering engineers invariably strive for ""inaudible"" compression where average gain is increased without ill side-effects. The whole reason for multiband dynamics processing, such as this,inthe first place is to make unwanted compression artefacts like pumping and spectral modulation less severe. If you admire the in-ya-face commercial style of chart CDs, like Oasis where the VU meters are stuck on max all the waythrough, then a Finalizercancertainly give you this edge if you push it hard. The 96kHz interface is double fast AES/EBU or via the converters. Tools include 3 band compressor, limiter and expander, 5 band EQ, normalizer, dynamic EQ, exciter, stereo spread for treble / mid / bass,and master fader, balance and stereo width, and output dithering.