Maxx introduction

Maxx is a tool for final limiting of audio files in production environments. There is a manual interactive mode and a batch file processing mode using either a new two band (MBL2) processor or a nine band  processor based on MBL9 from Sonos 4.

Computer Requirements

Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7.(Windows XP needs to be fully updated via Windows Update).
The CPU needs to be SSE/SSE2 capable. Most recent CPUs meet this requirement. To check for this capability download this program and run it. There are so many different CPUs the only way to check if yours is powerful enough is to download the Maxx Demo and try it. The application needs a sound card to work in manual interactive mode.

General features

Maxx interfaces to sound cards using either ASIO or the Windows native multimedia sound interface.

There is password protection to prevent unauthorized tampering.

Maxx can be automatically started when Windows boots. Additionally the application can be made to minimize to the 'Sys tray'.

Maxx supports '.wav','.ogg' and '.mp3' files for input and output. Mp3 encoding requires the installation of Winamp.

There are two processors. The nine band processor is derived from the Sonos 4 MBL9 processor. There is a new two band processor.

Maxx has two operating modes that can be used simultaneously. The manual interactive mode is used for one off processing of audio files. The automatic batch file processing mode automates the final limiting/processing of audio files.

The processors

The processors are what Maxx is all  about. There are currently two a dual band processor (MBL2) and a nine band processor MBL9. Both processors use a distortion masked final clipper.

Maxx uses two pass processing. The first pass normalizes the input level. This avoids using the AGC except for extreme processing.

The architecture of the two processors is similar. Optional gated dual band AGC followed optionally by a multiband gated limiter and optionally a broadband limiter and finally a clipper.
In manual interactive mode there are easy to use controls for setting up the processors. Presets can easily be saved and loaded.

MBL2 is more transparent than the nine band processor (MBL9) but not quite as loud.

Manual Interactive Mode

Manual mode is for one at a time processing or for setting up presets to be used in batch file automatic mode.

Batch File Processing Mode

This mode processes a list of input (batch) files.
It is possible to process simultaneously multiple files. The number of simultaneous operations is user selectable and allows up to the number of cores a CPU has.