NUGEN Audio MasterCheck

At the 137th AES Convention, NUGEN Audio is celebrating 10 years of service to the music and audio post-production communities by introducing MasterCheck, the first modern loudness tool for the music industry, as well as a significant update of Visualizer, the company’s industry-leading audio analysis tool.

MasterCheck is the first music-industry-specific audio plug-in designed to facilitate mix and mastering for the modern world of loudness normalized playout. iTunes®, Spotify®, and DAB Radio all now use loudness normalization, and MasterCheck reveals how the consumer will hear audio on these music platforms, and others, by using internationally recognized loudness, dynamics, and true-peak standards. Ideal for every aspect of music production including recording, mixing, mastering, compilation, archive, and restoration, MasterCheck can also be used for producing podcasts at optimal loudness levels for dialog clarity within the listener environment. With MasterCheck, audio engineers can employ a single plug-in to apply loudness matching and dynamic content analysis, using techniques such as peak-to-loudness ratio (PLR) to compare multiple sources. The advanced side-chain loudness matching can also be used to audition signal paths, without the “improvement” of increased loudness, to understand precisely how various effects, such as compression, can change the sound with no influence from the loudness enhancement.

Version 2 of Visualizer is the latest incarnation of NUGEN Audio’s audio analysis suite designed for high-end music professionals. Ideal for music mixing and mastering, as well as audio post-production, Visualizer provides comprehensive audio analysis for recording, mixing, and mastering in a single plug-in. A standardized reference set of professional tools is designed to help audio engineers work faster, avoid mistakes, repeat past successes, and understand the success of others.

Based on customer feedback, Visualizer now features numerous user interface enhancements including a fully resizable interface, a multiview feature that enables engineers to compare multiple sources with a single plug-in, and a difference view showing the difference between two input signals. Visualizer is available in a version supporting Avid Pro Tools | HDX, as well as a stand-alone application version.

At AES137, NUGEN Audio will preview a new upmix process specifically designed for film and TV production. Capable of producing a downmix-compatible upmix with optional dialog isolation in the center channel, the new technology is projected to be available in early 2015.

More information: NUGEN Audio