Tight high frequencies, how to mellow them?

[essami]

Hi everyone,

My first post here. Im mastering a song that I've gotten to sound perfect besides the high end frequencies that are really tight and harsh. If I master the whole album to sound like that it's gonna be really tiring to the ears to listen it all the way through.

I could go with less high end but I really llike the clarity and it suits the song(s) well.

I think most of the tightness and harshness comes from the vocals and glockenspiel. I've tried eq'ing but it seems that the harshness and tightness is too wide or in the same frequencies to eq without altering other instruments sound as well.

I'd be happy to hear any ideas and advice.

Thanks!

Sami

[junkyardtodd]

Hey Essami, as a home-recordist with a really annoying voice I deal with this problem a lot and have been using a de-esser with pretty good results. I use the free plugin "Spitfish" from Digital Fish Phones.

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi,

Could you post an example to listen to / tweak please?

Cheers

[essami]

Thanks for the help guys! Nick I PM'd you a link to the samples! I can't put them online just now. Thanks so much for helping out!

Todd thanks, I tried the de-esser and I think it's working a bit...

Sami

[Nick Sevilla]

Thanks for the help guys! Nick I PM'd you a link to the samples! I can't put them online just now. Thanks so much for helping out!

Todd thanks, I tried the de-esser and I think it's working a bit...

Sami

Hi,

Gimme about 1 to 2 hours to get to it in my DAW...

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi Essami,

I sent you a PM with a link to my iDisk.

Here's what I did:

Avid HEAT Settings :

Drive -1
Tone +1

George Massenburg MDW EQ settings :

283 Hz -1.0 dB, Q width 1.0
3350 Hz +0.6 dB, Q Width 1.0
6910 Hz +3.2 kHz, Q Width 3.2 dB
11.500 Hz, +2.0 dB, Hi Shelf

Waves Ultramaximizer L3 Settings :

Threshold -7 dB
Out Ceiling -0.2 dB
Release 10mS
Quantize 16 bits
Dither Type 1
Shaping Moderate

The mastering I heard in your example to my taste had TOO MUCH of the region of 1 kHz to 2.5 kHz boosted.

Let me know if this new example is better.

Cheers

[essami]

Excellent Nick! That's super helpful.

I was able to reproduce your example on my own DAW and indeed my master has too much high frequencies in the ranges you found and also maybe just in general I've given it too much of a boost from 2KHz up.

When you keep the frequency response as you did it the tight end does not disturb anymore. It is possible though that I'd like it to be slightly more open in the high end. Im using Neil Youngs Comes a Time and Robert Wyatt's Comicopera as reference for now. I'd like land somewhere in between.

I think I need to talk with the band and ask for a reference how much high frequencies they're looking for.

Thanks a lot Nick! Im sure I'll be coming for more advice in no time

Sami

[Nick Sevilla]

No problem Sami.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers

[Jitters]

Hey Sami. I don't know if you tracked this record or not, but tracking hot into a DAW will bork up your high end right from the get go, moderate recording levels give sweeter tops.

[Brett Siler]

Try duplicating the song so you have two tracks of the same song in parralle. On one track try pulling out the trouble frequencies with original track with a surgical EQ, most likely with a narrow Q. Leave the other track in it's original state. Blend the volumes of both tracks with your faders til they sound good together.

You may try experimenting with Low Pass filter, a multiband compressor, or a de-esser on one of the tracks.

[Nick Sevilla]

Hi to all other posters...

I listened to his example.

In his particular case, the strident middle range was in fact brought up in the mastering process.

The unmastered mix was fine. No strange high end weirdness there.

Cheers

[essami]

Hi Nick and all,

I've been at it again today for a while and its indeed the 2-2.5KHz area that has the guitars, maybe vocal esses and some glockenspiel hits that bring up the unwanted tones. I was looking for the problem from way too high frequencies!

Thanks!

Sami