BUTE Loudness Suite 2 (Surround)

BUTE Loudness Suite 2 is a smart, integrated and responsive loudness metering and audio limiting plugin that delivers the tools studios, media and broadcasting producers need to mix and master professional audio within loudness specifications.

What Does BUTE Do?

Many producers are moving towards mixing and mastering within loudness specs set internally or by major streaming and broadcasting platforms for quality assurance. By providing metering and limiting functions in the same plugin with smart workflow features to maintain creative flow, BUTE helps optimise the quality of mixes and masters, while avoiding potential distortions downstream.

Smart, Synchronised Workflow For Broadcasting, Post and Games

Loudness metering tools are ideal for balancing music, dialogue and sound effects whether in stereo or up to Atmos 7.1.2 surround sound. Long-form content is made much easier to deal with using our smart history overview. Get an overview of up to 10-hours of content and navigate to any section of a track with ease using the interactive display. BUTE’s custom alert system will clearly point out areas where there are errors with True Peak overshoots. A wide array of industry-standard presets are included.

Mixing And Mastering With BUTE

BUTE plugins are compatible with VST, AU and AAX (including Audio Suite), so will synchronise harmoniously with almost any DAW. Signum Audio's smart auto re-metering feature gives instantaneous feedback on how loudness will be affected by changes to the mix so there is no need to re-meter the whole mix. Readings for Absolute/Relative Scale, True Peak/LUFS and Max/Live modes are easy to toggle between from the main display.

Powerful Compact Read-Out View

When screen estate and CPU are at a premium, a compact read-out helps keep things optimised. BUTE is completely resizable. Even while in compact view, easily switch between display settings and tweak limiting configurations, while saving screen estate for other programs.

Stay Faithful To Your Mix

Smooth out peaks by adjusting pre-gain and selecting a preset release curve - Transparent, Natural or Smooth - which have been designed to make gain reduction as un-noticeable as possible. The release time configures automatically based on multiple properties of the input signal, and the dial is used to set the multiplication factor of the calculated release time, enabling fine-tuning. BUTE can also be utilised as a maximiser to push quieter mixes louder whilst taking care of True Peak overshoots. The result? The audio stays faithful to the original sound, whilst fitting the loudness spec of any platform.

Bring Your Music To All Streaming Platform

All the tools in your hand to make your music sound optimal on Spotify, YouTube, TIDAL, Apple Check and more. We regularly update presets and include most platforms. User-defined presets for internal standards can also be created and saved. 

BUTE Loudness Normaliser & BUTE Limiter 2

Audio normalisation becomes a breeze with Signum Audio's automated solution, BUTE Loudness Normaliser, which comes in addition to the Suite as a standalone application. Perfect for a final check for True Peak overshoots. Simply drag and drop audio files into the standalone application, hit render and then export. Also included is Signum Audio's well-received BUTE Limiter 2 is a dedicated limiting plugin offering additional “Pumping” and “Linear” curves for creative music production.

Applications

Mixing & Mastering

• Produce consistent masters
• Avoid 'level shifting' and clipping downstream
• Ensure accurate representation of your audio/music
• Measure and refine dynamic content

Post-production & Broadcasting

• Hit target levels easily with a wide range of implemented presets
• Ensure and prove compliance with regulation
• Balance dialogue, music and effects
• Manage live broadcasting & streaming levels accurately and efficiently
• Optimise dynamics for streaming content

Game Design

• Balance sound effects and dialogue
• ASWG 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound support (Surround Version)

​Features

• Integrated True Peak limiter and loudness metering in one plugin
• Smart history overview for completely interactive browsing of up to 10-hours of loudness data at a glance
• Custom alert system flags up areas that need attention with severe (red) or warning (yellow) pointer on the history overview. User settings can be defined in the settings panel.
• Smart auto re-metering feature which syncs to DAW on load-up, and auto-detects and reflects any adjustments you make in the DAW on the graphical display
• Powerful compact read-out view which is completely resizable vertically and horizontally to optimise screen space while keeping readings visible and limiting settings accessible
• An adaptive auto-release function which can be tweaked by a scale factor using the release knob, enabling fine-tuning
• Ultra-transparent True Peak limiting algorithm means mastered audio stays faithful to the original mix
• 3 different release curves for Transparent, Natural and Smooth limiting (BL2 includes an additional “Pumping” and “Linear” release curves for creative music production)
• Display Settings on the main user interface to switch between True Peak/Metering, Relative/Absolute Scale, or Max/Live modes
• A highly responsive and informative graphical interface
• Auto-detects DAW channel configuration with a dropdown menu to select mono, stereo or surround configurations (Surround version)
• A wide array of built-in presets for the very latest loudness standards and recommendations
• Industry-standard (IEC 60268-18) meter bar fallback for natural, analogue feel
• Clean and comprehensive read-outs for short-term & momentary loudness, True Peak, and traditional RMS
• Reloadable session data
• Save, Load and Export metering data
• Includes additional copies of BUTE Loudness Normaliser standalone application and BUTE Limiter 2 plugin
• Free future updates

BUTE is fully compliant with up-to-date presets for the following loudness specifications:

• ITU-R BS. 1770, EBU R128, ATSC A/85OP-59, ARIB TR-B32, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Check, Hulu, Netflix, TIDAL, Sony Gaming (ASWG), AES Streaming Recommendation, US Public Radio (PRSS), TIDAL and Pandora. You also have the ability to save multiple user-defined presets

System Requirements

• OS X 10.9 or higher / Windows 7 or higher (64-bit only)
• VST/ VST3/ AU/ AAX (including AudioSuite)
• Available in 2 versions - Stereo or Surround (includes up to 7.1.2 support with Surround version).
• Pro Tools 12.6 or higher (for the AAX version of the plugin)