Calling all mix engineers, advice please.........

SubLik · Post by **SubLik** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:25 am

.... when I get to the mix stage, my highs (as in eq's) are sounding clear, not too harsh though, but say if I compare the sound to say P Diddy's latest album, his highs sound bright but smooth? How do I achieve this, which frequencies should I reduce to make my sound less brittle?

Any advice much appreciated..

Thankx in advance.

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:32 am

Try not to imitate anybody elses work too much.

With regarding the smoothness try simple things first like changing your samples, change velocities in your midi tracks, and reducing/boosting frequencies. I always prefer the Subtractive EQ method (taking out what you dont want before boosting the things you do)

It really isnt a matter of knowing what frequencies to change as all samples are different, recorded in a different way.

I havint heard P Diddys new stuff so i cant tell you how i would approach this. Whoever did his album though would have spent a long time perfecting the mix - weeks/months even.

It is for this reason this is called engineering.

SubLik · Post by **SubLik** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:52 am

Thankx for your opinion, not the info I'm after though. I already use subtractive eq to mix, & I'm not trying to imitate anyone else, just want to be able to reduce the brittle nature of say the hatz with eq whilst still retaining clarity, so they are silky smooth.

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:22 am

Not an opinion mate, just words of advise - take it or leave it.

There is no mathmatical formula anybody can give you, or a plugin that magically does it for you.

Sorry if its not what you want to hear.

SubLik · Post by **SubLik** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:40 am

Whoa, talk about crossed-wires ...not looking for a magical plug-in either just technical advice.

blank · Post by **blank** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:19 pm

did you sue some aural exciting technique ?

if not

read about this

or go buy an aphex aural exciter ( this is prolly waht he uses)

cheers

D K · Post by **D K** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:24 pm

it has alot to do with a professional mastering engineer, and quite possibly analog tape and 100k console mixbuss(i could be wrong about the last two, though)..

SubLik · Post by **SubLik** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:08 pm

Cheers for the info everyone.

blank I've checked out the aural exciter. Hit the nail right on the head. My problems to do with lack of harmonics & compensating with eq which has made them sound a little brittle.

Cheers

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:03 pm

I think the best way to avoid this brittleness is to start with good quality samples in the first place. Try and use sounds that sound fine as is if you can, it'll make solving this riddle ten times easier when you're mixing down later.

But, if it's too late for that, gently EQing the highhats say -2 to -3dB around 12-15kHz should help some. It's always a trade off though, retaining nice clear hats and keeping them form being too bright. Use your best EQ, and try a shallow EQ curve first. If that doesn't work, raise the Q some and try to notch out just the offending freqs that way.

detroitechno · Post by **detroitechno** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:54 pm

most likely he's going to tape. That will give your highs the sound your after. It's the slight saturation of the tape along with subtle distortion rounding everything off giving it a smooth overall 'level' feel.

I would say try the psp vintage warmer or something similar to try and round those high hats out.

With all due respect to digital recording, recording done digital beginning to end has the tendancy to feel like your ears are being cut with a knife.

Try some different plugs, mostly tape/saturation emulators. You may like what you get.

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:42 pm

SubLik wrote:Whoa, talk about crossed-wires ...not looking for a magical plug-in either just technical advice.

cool mate

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:56 pm

detroitechno wrote:most likely he's going to tape. That will give your highs the sound your after. It's the slight saturation of the tape along with subtle distortion rounding everything off giving it a smooth overall 'level' feel.

I would say try the psp vintage warmer or something similar to try and round those high hats out.

With all due respect to digital recording, recording done digital beginning to end has the tendancy to feel like your ears are being cut with a knife.

Try some different plugs, mostly tape/saturation emulators. You may like what you get.

leonard cohen disagreed on this point with his latest album. he said they bounced to tape but it lost the warmth they had.

detroitechno · Post by **detroitechno** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:05 pm

sweetjesus wrote:leonard cohen disagreed on this point with his latest album. he said they bounced to tape but it lost the warmth they had.

'loosing warmth' by going to tape is pretty much technically and audibly impossible. With respect to Cohen, I'm sure at his age his ears are no where near perfect any longer. His high end hearing 15k+ is probably almost non-existant. 1 artist out of thousands choose an all digital path for his album. That isn't saying much no offence.

D K · Post by **D K** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:43 pm

i could see how going to tape could possibly be a negative if you've used alot of analog on the front end....it may be an unnecessary step in a particular situation.... i would think it would be too warm and loose definition, though, not the other way around.

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:02 pm

detroitechno wrote:
sweetjesus wrote:leonard cohen disagreed on this point with his latest album. he said they bounced to tape but it lost the warmth they had.
'loosing warmth' by going to tape is pretty much technically and audibly impossible.

I hate to be as argumentative as you are, but that's just wrong.