Manual

15 FINALIZER Desktop Application User Manual
6.2 Spectral Dynamic Contour (SDC)
The Spectral Dynamic Contour gives an overview of the full track, both spectrally and dynamically. This is a brand-new and highly useful approach to metering for
mastering, and the amount of visual feedback is comprehensive. While your ears are the most important instrument, relevant visual feedback will support what you
hear and help you in choosing precise and fast solutions.
The SDC will help you identify how a processing change, intended for xing a local issue, will aect the whole audio le. It will show how a dynamic process may aect
lower levels than expected due to settings of attack and release times. And you will get useful insight when comparing against related album tracks and genre-specic
reference tracks.
Six contour curves are represented, as shown below.
Key
The SDC curves show the level at each frequency as follows:
1. The maximum signal level at each frequency. This typically occurs a small amount of time in the track
4. The level at each frequency is below this line 50% of the time in the track (median). This is the ‘typical’ level of that frequency
6. The softest signal level in the track, at each frequency
The six SDC contour curves together show the spectrum and the dynamics of the full track, both of which are essential when mastering music.
The X-axis is the frequency, corresponding to the frequency bands each 1/6th octave wide, that the SDC is based on. The Y axis shows the levels of the energy
distribution in each frequency band. At a given frequency, the higher the SDC curves, the more energy is in that band. The closer together the curves are, the less
dynamic the content is, in that band.
The SDC curves are aected by the Loudness Compensation in the Monitor section. For example, if the Loudness Compensation turns the level down, the SDC curves
are also lowered accordingly. “What you hear is what you see.”