Steinberg frequency analyzer tool and a Wave's plugin

OK, I was mixing some tracks and I thought I would put the Steinberg Frequency Analyzer on the first insert of the Stereo Out bus. I put the FA on its ‘frequency’ setting, watching the various frequency bands light up. All good. As the tracks finished playing, with no audio remaining, I noticed the bands were still jumping up and down on the FA. ?? There was no audio playing, I.e., no sound coming out of my monitors.

I started muting the various channels. I found that my bass bass guitar track that was using a Waves SSL400 mono compressor was the culprit. When I muted the channel or bypassed the plugin, the FA went to idle. Now, let me add, that even if I stopped playback - !!! - the FA was showing the various frequency bands were playing along to sounds that I could not hear.

What do you think? :confused:

It’s probably the Waves SSL400 doing it’s emulation of analog (hardware) counterpart which always has some noise associated with it although at very low level.

Mauri.

Mauri, thanks for the response. I can almost agree with you except I think the frequency bands are also indicative of gain/volume - and here the levels were as if my typical volume level in the project was playing.

In other words, it looked no different than if I had full signal running through it via the insert - and it did not. But am I wrong about this? I will have to go back and check but I think the FA is sensitive to volume because typically, when the program material stops, even allowing for some hesitation (which seems weird), all the frequency bars drop to the bottom of the plugin window.

I can tell you it is really weird to see this. It is as if there is a ghost project playing without audio. This is not possible of course. My thinking is that either the Waves is lighting up the FA with digital hash via some software anomaly, or the Steinberg plugin is misbehaving with Waves. It may be something to do with compression plugin software in general, but I have not tried the Steinberg compressors to check this. I will. Again, there is no audio, it is just a visual.

And BTW, C6.5.4 is awesome in so many many ways! I have spent two solid days with it and it really blows me away with what it is capable of and how well it performs overall. :smiley:

P.S., I am running the Waves plugin with the switch engaged (or disengaged) to ‘digital’, vs. 50 or 60 cycles ‘analog’ settings, something you may have been suggesting.

I think even though there is an “amplitude knob” on the multi scope, is is still self ranging?

A lot of the waves plugins generate noise, it’s seem to be part of the modeling. Particularly when the analog 50/60 Hz button is switched in, but also it seems when not.

Split - Well, this may be true, that the compressors generate self produced noise. And I get that this is definitely the case with 50-60 cycle switch is in play, audio through it or not. But then again, switching to all ‘digital’ in the plugin should bypass this feature.

If none of you are experiencing this with Steinberg plugins then I will have to assume it is a Waves issue. I have a question out to them about this right now so we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for the input.