Smooth highs......how do they do it?

[dictaphone]

Perhaps use a de-esser on a nasty freq. but most of all go to a good mastering guy.

[JonJ1176]

don't master it yourself if your client will listen. good mastering houses have access to high end eq's that you don't.

just take your time. make good mic judgement and placement. use only what you need to advance a mix. overprocessing a mix can ruin things. and find a good mastering house.

[LittleDogAudio]

Good advice JonJ1176 concerning not over processing the tracks.

You can never un-ring the compression bell.

Chris

[joelpatterson]

Well, maybe I don't know what "smooth high end" means, but in my experience, the difference between a mix that's a mix and a mix that's been put through some careful, cautious, quality limiting is that the whole high end now seems like an extension, and a smooth extension, of everything happening below, and there's kind of a "focus" that's been brought to bear where all the elements are now part of a whole. The way that a limiter stops a transient attack cold and creates a zone where all the transient attacks meet as equals and enunciate, for the good of the song, not shout out their own little interests.

And maybe this is saying, put it in the hands of a good mastering guy and let him do this shine and spit-polishing, and all of this can amount to the tiniest, subtlest shifting, but just because something's subtle doesn't mean it's not critically important.

[lifeintime]

Good advice JonJ1176 concerning not over processing the tracks.

You can never un-ring the compression bell.

Chris

Yeah, what JonJ1176 said. Think minimal.

As far as "un-ring"ing, it is one my home-grown axioms for software development - "You can't uncook spaghetti."