These four audio examples illustrate the ideas discussed in the Cubase workshop article in SOS May 2023.
www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cubase-12-drum-processing-raiser
Cubase 12 Drum Processing With Raiser Audio Example JW 01.mp3
This example uses Raiser on a single drum channel (in this case, a snare drum). The audio example is split into three sections, separated by two bars of silence. In each section, you can hear several sets of four, quarter-note, snare hits and Raiser’s settings are adjusted between each set of four hits as follows:
Section (1) Raiser’s release time is set to 30ms using the Restricted Max mode and the gain settings is automated to change from 0dB (the first set of four hits) through to 18dB (the last set of four hits);
Section (2) Raiser’s gain setting is set to 9dB and the release time is adjusted from 500ms (the first set of four hits) through to 1ms (the last set of four hits);
Section (3) as for section (2) but with the Gain set at 18dB. With longer release times, the limiter release curve does not fully release before the next hit occurs, while at higher gain settings (from around 12dB and upwards in this example), you can clearly hear the change in timbre of the snare giving greater emphasis to the ‘tail’ portion of each hit.
Cubase 12 Drum Processing With Raiser Audio Example JW 02.mp3
This examples applies an individual instance of Raiser to each track of a drum mix. You hear the same four-bar drum pattern played four times. For each four-bar section, the settings in each of the Raiser instances are automated to change as follows. The gain setting is stepped through 0, 6, 12 and 18 dB while, at the same time, the release time setting is stepped through 2, 30, 10 and 3 ms.
While the kick and snare sounds seem to hold up pretty well even at higher Gain settings, the cymbal sounds do become more ‘splashy’. For simplicity here, the same settings were used in each instance of Raiser, but you could easily apply different settings for the cymbals (perhaps lower gain and longer release time of the crash/ride?) to achieve a more balanced overall result. Raiser does, however, allow you to obtain notable increases in average loudness of the overall drum mix should that be your aim.
Cubase 12 Drum Processing With Raiser Audio Example JW 03.mp3
This example uses a single instance of Raiser on a drum bus to processes a full mix. The audio example is split into three sections, separated by two bars of silence. in each section, you can hear the same basic drum pattern played and Raiser’s settings are adjusted between each set of the three sections as follows:
Section (1) Raiser’s release time is set to 30ms using the Restricted Max mode and the gain settings is automated to change from 0dB (at the start) through to 18dB (at the end);
Section (2) Raiser’s gain setting is set to 6dB and the release time is adjusted from 500ms (at the start) through to 1ms (at the end);
Section (3) as for section (2) but with the gain set at 12dB. At longer release time settings, the limiter release curve does not fully release before the next hit occurs. This is more noticeable when processing a full mix rather than a single drum and, for this performance, a release time less than 40ms is required to avoid this issue. At the higher gain settings, while obviously louder, the overall sound of the kit does start to take on a trashy/splashy nature which may (or may not!) be musically appropriate.
Cubase 12 Drum Processing With Raiser Audio Example JW 04.mp3
This example uses a single instance of Raiser on an effects bus with a send from the drum bus providing Raiser as a ‘parallel’ processor. The audio example is splits into four sections, separated by two bars of silence. in each section, you can hear the same basic drum pattern played and Raiser’s settings are adjusted between each set of the first three sections as follows:
Section (1) Raiser’s release time is set to 30ms using the Restricted Max mode and the gain settings is automated to change from 0dB (at the start) through to 18dB (at the end);
Section (2) Raiser’s gain setting is set to 6dB and the release time is adjusted from 500ms (at the start) through to 1ms (at the end);
Section (3) as for section (2) but with the gain set at 12dB. The channel faders for both the drum buss and the Raiser effects channel are kept constant so any changes in perceived level or tone are due to changes in Raiser’s parameters. The results are similar to Example 03, but you can control obviously control the blend between to the unprocessed and processed sound to taste using their respective channel faders.
In section (4), the gain (18dB) and release time (5ms) remain unchanged, but the fader of the Raiser effects channel is automated to gradually blend in more of the processed sound alongside the unprocessed sound of the drum bus. The overall drum mix gets gradually louder and takes on the more aggressive sound of the processed version. Again, the faders can be adjusted to taste if you like the aggressive edge this parallel processing can bring.
