Question about Maximizing/Leveling plugins

[ajaxlepinski]

Has anyone tried using a Maximizer/Leveling plugin on separate tracks instead of the overall mix?
I was wondering.... if you just used it on drums, would you really need it on everything else?
Drums are the most dynamic instrument on most recordings so, if you only Maximized the drums, the overall sound of the mix would have less chance of causing ear fatigue.

Any thoughts?

[newholland]

i'm sure it'd work-- but i kinda find they do more damage than good on really dynamic mixes than just parallel compression. they're okay taking a db or two off, but the grotty artifacts they get into if you hit them as hard as a comp can get kinda shitty in a way putting something on the drum buss doesn't.

AND, you can't adjust the envelope in quite the same way-- so you can't adjust for the speed of transients like with a compressor-- so i use maximizers sorta as a last icing on the cake AFTER gross compression and you get that thickening of hitting tape hard. you could probably put one mildly on the drum buss though to good effect if you barely graze it as a finisher, but never tried it.

[ajaxlepinski]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of maximizers for the same reasons you mentioned... they really kill dynamics and cause ear fatigue.
All those remastered CDs were maximized in the 2000's sound awful... when I listen to them, they sound like a gremlin is in my ear, pressing on my eardrum, in one spot, for a long time... weird but, that's the only way I can describe it!

I used the maximizer that came with my ProTools 10 to remaster two old albums and again, like you said, I was pretty much forced to use it minimally and rely more on compression.

I was finally able to download Ozone 8 Standard and it comes with a maximizer... haven't tried it yet but, it's given me reason to put some thought into it.

Waves makes one that splits the frequencies into several sections and maximized each section separately. Sounds like an interesting idea... not sure how well it works but, I guess anything's a step up from a basic maximizer.

I may upgrade my Ozone Standard to Advanced to get their tape saturation plugin... I'm thinking a tape saturator may work better or, help in some way.