User Manual MD3 NATIVE MULTIBAND DYNAMICS EQ, 3-band Compressor/Expander and True-Peak Limiter Based on the Legendary and Award-Winning System 6000 as a Native DAW Plug-in for Mixing, Mastering and Post-Production 2021-03-12, Rev.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Table of Contents Important Safety Instructions....................................... 3 Legal Disclaimer.............................................................. 3 Limited warranty............................................................. 3 1. Introduction................................................................ 4 2. Plug-in Installation..................................................... 4 2.1 Installation on a PC..................................................
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Important Safety Instructions Terminals marked with this symbol carry electrical current of sufficient magnitude to constitute risk of electric shock. Use only high-quality professional speaker cables with ¼" TS or twist-locking plugs pre-installed. All other installation or modification should be performed only by qualified personnel.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 1. Introduction Congratulations on the purchase of your MD3 NATIVE Multiband Dynamics Processor. Originally launched in 1999 and available in Music, Mastering, Broadcast and Film variants, TC Electronic's Flagship System 6000 processor is recognized as an industry standard for mix, mastering and post-production applications.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Note: If your DAW fails to detect the newly installed plugin, this can often be fixed by adding the following paths to the Plug-in Manager (or similar) of the DAW. The default paths on a PC are "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2" and "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3" for VST2 and VST3, respectively. 3. Activate the MD3 NATIVE iLok license 2.2 Installation on a Mac Step 1: Install iLok The first step is to create an iLok user account at www.iLok.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 4. Connection and Setup 4.1 Inserting the MD3 NATIVE plug-in in your DAW project 4.2.3 Bypass Press the BYPASS button at the top to bypass or engage the MD3 NATIVE. 4.2.4 Automation Once you have downloaded the plug-in, you can now apply it to a channel in your DAW to begin using the effect. This process may vary slightly depending on your software, but generally should require these steps: • Select a channel or bus in your DAW to which you would like to add the effect.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 5. User Interface Meters 5.1 Overview There are five tabs along the left edge of the interface, that bring up various pages of controls. As a general note, the parameters, controls, and graphs are color-coded as shown below: The top part of the display: • Bypass: Press this to bypass or engage the MD3 NATIVE. This makes it easy for you to listen and compare the overall effect of your awesome work.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 5.2 Main Page Input (purple controls) Mid/Side (MS) Normalizer Gain In this mode, the MS encoder is activated. The Expander/Compressor section of the algorithm uses Sidechains as follows: Range: -18 to +18 dB in 0.1 dB steps The Normalizer Gain is the first gain stage in the plugin, used to adjust the overall level of the input signal. Norm Soft Clip Range: +5 dB; Off The Soft clipper is placed between the Trim Gain and Exp/Comp section.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Auto Makeup Gain Options: Off, On Switches the Automatic Make-up gain on or off for the Compressor bands. When set to ON, the gain for each band is adjusted according to the Threshold and Ratio settings. When set to OFF, no automatic gain adjustments are performed. Click on the Pin Icon inside the ASSIGN button, and the Assigned Focus Fields will remain when presets are changed. The numeric values within the Focus Fields will change to the new preset values.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 5.3 EQ Page Introduction This page features a 4-band parametric EQ, switchable between Notch and Parametric filters. The Low and High bands can also be changed to Low/High Cut or Low/High Shelving. • The needle-sharp notch filter has a range down to 0.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Type /BW Selector • Select TYPE/BW and use the 4 Focus Fields to select filter types and vary the parameters. Click and drag on the numeric value to scroll through the types and their available values • Low and High filter options: Notch, Parametric, Shelve, and Cut • Low Mid and High Mid filters options: Parametric and Notch • Typical graphs of the different filter types are shown below: Parametric Filter - Broad type Notch Filter - Narrow Type • Bandwidth Range: 0.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 5.4 Expander Page Stereo or Mid/Side Stereo Operation The configuration control in the MAIN page allows you to select Stereo or MID/ SIDE for the expander and compressor setup (as well as the EQ, Trim Gains and Normalizer Soft Clip). If Stereo configuration is selected in the MAIN page, then the top section of the Expander page shows STEREO, and the gain reduction meters are shown as LEFT and RIGHT.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Turn off DYN LINK to allow separate expander control of the Mid and Side . The Expander controls affect the Mid (initially) and Side instead of Stereo. Note that an "M" appears in the controls as a reminder they are for the Mid. The example below shows THRESH. selected, and the separate threshold values in the Focus Field displayed for each band, and the "Exp All" parameter in the 4th Field. The Mid Band value follows the Exp All value.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 5.5 Compressor Page Stereo or Mid/Side Stereo Operation The configuration control in the MAIN page allows you to select Stereo or MID/ SIDE for the expander and compressor setup (as well as the EQ, Trim Gains and Normalizer Soft Clip). If Stereo configuration is selected in the MAIN page, then the top section of the Compressor page shows STEREO, and the gain reduction meters are shown as LEFT and RIGHT.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Turn off DYN LINK to allow separate expander and compressor control of the Mid and Side. For MID, an "M" appears in each of the controls. The Mid Band value follows the Com All value, and is the same value as the rotary knob. If you vary Com All then all three bands will change, but keeping in the same relative levels from each other. Select SIDE, and the Compressor controls will affect the Side instead of MID. An "S" appears in each of the controls.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 5.6 Output Page The Limiter Limiter Threshold The limiter cannot prevent destruction of dynamic range from happening at earlier stages in the production process, but it can get rid of the signals we know are going to get distorted in consumer CD players, radio processors or data reduction codecs. Threshold is relative to 0 dBFS - not to the Ref Level. The limiter operates with extended precision in both level and time. Doubleprecision calculations are always used.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Output Gain Range: Off to 0dB (<-40dB: in 3dB steps, >-40 in 0.5dB steps) Output level adjustment for both channels. Output Balance Range: 6 dB Left to 6 dB Right in 0.1 dB steps Changes the Output balance between the Left and Right channel. Compare Enable Click to activate the compare function, and tactivate these controls. Due to the difference in level, "in-circuit" and "out-of-circuit" comparisons are often difficult to make using the BYPASS key.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 6. Dynamics Processing In-Depth After the Normalizer Gain, the signal is gently split into 3 overlapping bands the low, mid, and high frequencies. It will then compress each band somewhat independently. Thereby, for example, a powerful kick-drum will not modulate the processing of the lead vocals. After compressing/expanding, the 3 bands are combined again. 6.1 Compressor The very basis of compression can be reduced to "controlling the dynamic content" of an audio signal.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 6.2 Limiter The Limiter is actually yet another compressor. It uses a very fast attack time and has a ratio of 1 to infinity. But why is the Limiter necessary? Noise, whether it is hiss, hum or just background noise, is always a parameter to evaluate and deal with. Initially, noise must of course be reduced to a minimum from the source, but with a Gate/expander it is also possible to reduce the noise on channels when no significant signal is present.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual Loudness is a modern, but still well-rehearsed reference method, which is standardized in BS-1770, and many music streaming services refer to this standard, or similar proprietary methods. Loudness is measured on the LUFS metering scale. LUFS stands for "Loudness Units Full Scale." The scale does not measure sound as a dB meter or a VU meter would. Rather, it accounts for how the human ear (and brain) perceives the loudness of a track.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 7. Presets 7.2 User Presets The MD3 NATIVE offers a collection of factory presets, as well as the option to create and save your own custom settings as user presets and favourites. If you make an alteration to any of the parameters in the current preset, the preset name changes to italics as a reminder that something has changed from the original factory preset.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 7.3 Favorite Presets 7.3.1 Browse Favorites Only Creating your own presets will make them accessible from the Preset menu, but they will only appear in the list of 100 favorite presets in the plug-in if you set them as a favorite. This is done by assigning a favorite slot number to the preset using the Favorite menu. The 'Browse Favorites Only' option in the preset menu allows the UP/DOWN arrows in the bottom bar of the plug-in. Otherwise, scrolling goes through all presets.
MD3 NATIVE User Manual 8. Software Updates New versions of the software may be released to add new features and improve performance. Updates can be detected from the plug-in directly and can be installed after download from the website. See Chapter 2 for plug-in installation. If the ’Automatically check for updates’ option is checked inside the update menu, the red dot will appear on the settings icon when a new plug-in is available. 9.
