Metric Halo – MELD v4.0.86 for WiN

MELD is a solution to the problem of creating a coherent musical mix in ATMOS. It was created to address the key challenge John Hanes faced when creating immersive ATMOS mixes that matched stereo masters.

In ATMOS immersive mixes, channels are mixed with tracks and objects. A board is a multi-channel bus or stem, and can be processed similarly to a stereo bus (with multi-channel-capable instruments, which MELD provides).

The objects required for immersive overhead panning are panned by the renderer, meaning they must be represented discretely. Simply put, when processing audio that conceptually forms a bus, the resulting bus is virtual (since there is never an available sum in the mixing environment).

When using a virtual bus, there is no room for bus processing, which is a key technique in creating quality music mixes for pop and rock music.

MELD solves this problem elegantly and quickly. It turns out that addressing these issues in ATMOS mixes also provides significant benefits for stereo mixes.

When you insert MELD into a session, each instance recognizes all other instances. You can access any channel directly from the MELD user interface—no need to manage the mix from a host DAW—everything (including Solo, Mute, Metering, and Grouping) is at your fingertips within the MELD user interface.

MELD has 26 virtual buses (groups); any instance can be added to a group. All instances in a group share the same processor settings. This allows you to apply the same processing to multiple channels—just as if you combined them into a bus and applied processing to the bus. Each channel remains individually available for sending to objects or further processing.

MELD also allows for detector sidechain control for dynamics processing blocks (compressor and limiter) within a group. This allows for combining channels within a group or from any other channel or bus running a MELD instance—all without the need to manage complex routing in the host. Default routing with a shared sidechain for groups allows for bus compression for channels routed to objects.

MELD also offers exciting new capabilities not available in traditional bus processing workflows: since the channels within a bus are still individually accessible after processing, you can adjust levels and EQ compression after the bus—whether you plan to send the channels to objects or simply mix them back to a stereo bus or multichannel signal.

And of course, it sounds great.

Key Features

• World-Class Signal Processing and Workflow
• 12-band fully parametric EQ with analyzer.
• Compressor.
• Limiter.
• MixHead tape processing.
• Loudness clip processing.
• Instant reordering of processing blocks.
• User-selectable oversampling (up to 16x).
• User interface for processing overview.
• 26 virtual buses/groups.
• Integrated Solo+Mute functions.
• Instance table with project overview and meters.
• LUF and True Peak metering for each channel.
• Display of reference LUF and True Peak metering for selected channels.
• Support for instances from mono to 9.1.6 channels.
• Shared sidechains between instances to support keys and virtual bus compression/limiting.
• Numerous presets included.
• Adjustable interface size.
• MH Preset Manager – cross-platform presets.