RE-202 Exciter is pretty good!

[KirkMarkarian]

I tried it out today, and I really like it. I have read many reviews of it's harshness, but many have countered that it's how you use it.

Heck yeah, it's really harsh if you pump the living hell out of it. The way to use any exciter (and I learned back in the early 90s) is to raise it's values only slightly enough to know that there is a definite difference in clarity. Heck yeah it's gonna shred your ears if you turn it up high!

The reason I brought this up was due to me researching ways to master audio either in or outside of Reason. I do this because I create music for Songtradr and when I listen to examples of what makes the cut vs what doesn't, a lot of them have had it mastered in some fashion. A lot of what I've noticed is a particular sort of light, crisp clarity. I learn new stuff about the music I submit every day, and I'm finding ways to better my work quickly.

So, I found this software for mastering that's relatively affordable called "Blackbox" and it's for both Mac and Windows. Something like $80. https://nammick.com/blackbox The guy knows what he's doing, it's pretty fascinating to read about what he's done with it (Google's your friend), and the results are pretty amazing to me. I dropped audio in there, tried the presets, and wowee - much better. It's also adjustable, and you can hear it while you twist the knobs. It's also got some other tricks up it's sleeve and I believe it's a saturation of some sort. Really raised the volume and boosted everything nicely. It's not perfect, and doesn't work on every style of music I compose, but for a lot of the mixes, it did improve them.

Then I was listening to the Blackbox results, more and more, and one thing I noticed was the "clarity" knob. It acts as an exciter. So, I came back to Reason, downloaded the RE-202, and presto change-o, my mix now has a "clarity" knob. Whoopee! Like night and day, huge amount of satisfaction. I'm a proponent of mastering my mix while I work, and the exciter boosted my confidence in what I had created by a truckload. I turned it on and off several times; it just works. Yeah, took me a while to reduce the sharpness to something where it didn't hurt my ears, but it wasn't a tough thing to do. Just had to be patient and twist the damn knobs

So, for those looking for that little extra bit of icing on the cake, this is a very useful tool. Used sparingly, it took a mix of mine that I thought was pretty good, to something that sounds much better. Got a sparkle where things were flat, and I didn't notice it until I tried it. Nice GUI too, reminds me of old dbx equipment.

[Libraquaricorn]

Nice post! I thought I was reading a blog there for a minute...a really interesting one. I would love to hear your take on the Relight Harmonic Exciter as well.

[aeox]

So, for those looking for that little extra bit of icing on the cake, this is a very useful tool. Used sparingly, it took a mix of mine that I thought was pretty good, to something that sounds much better. Got a sparkle where things were flat, and I didn't notice it until I tried it. Nice GUI too, reminds me of old dbx equipment.

I'm still struggling to get the ingredients to taste good together

This comes in the Mix and Mastering bundle, I have not used it much lately because ColoringEQ has replaced it. There is a sub enhancer too IIRC.

[KirkMarkarian]

Nice post! I thought I was reading a blog there for a minute...a really interesting one. I would love to hear your take on the Relight Harmonic Exciter as well.

Well, thank you! I will look into the Relight, but most likely, I'm just gonna stop here with the exciters. Now, I'm going to get obsessed with the various ways to work with it. I came up with one way, but now I've got to listen and hear what else I can do.

[eusti]

Nice post! I thought I was reading a blog there for a minute...a really interesting one. I would love to hear your take on the Relight Harmonic Exciter as well.

I actually like the Relight Harmonic Exciter better... Find it less harsh and delivering a bit more of a pleasant result more easily for me...

D.

[dvdrtldg]

I haven't been able to get great results from the RE exciters. Endless futzing around with the RE202, hit and miss results

Waves Vitamin is my go-to exciter. The Klanghelm SDRR saturator is great too

[miscend]

You need to go carefully with exciters they can add harshness.

[TritoneAddiction]

I haven't been able to get great results from the RE exciters.

Same here. I really wanted to like them, especially before Reasons VST integration. This is one of the few areas where I turn to VSTs instead. iZotopes Ozone stuff works much better for me here. Much smoother sound.

[djs]

I think the RE exciter is wonderful to add the crisp of the hi hats and bass of the drums. I use it in majority of my songs. Too much can result to choppy and muddy sounds however.

[tallguy]

Just tried the RE-202 and, yeah, I'm sold. I had no idea exciters made such a difference. As long as I keep the dB mix button below 0dB, all seems to be well.