Mixdown and high frequencies

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Pauly1981
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:24 am

Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by Pauly1981 » Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:02 pm

Hello

I was wondering if anyone can add any insight into an issue i'm having with mixing down tracks, predominantly i'm making house / progressive. When I first started out everything was really muddy and cluttered and the bass was overwhelming. I've got that under control (or far better than it was at any rate) but i'm still really struggling with the highs. I'm using a pretty basic set up including rockit 5 monitors and I find that during playback everything sounds ok. But once i've uploaded to say soundcloud, or even just my phones the highs of perhaps risers, crashes and hats is too piercing. If I just cut at a lower frequency though they contribute to the muddiness, or dont offer enough in the way of high frequency balance. I try to hard cut frequencies at around 10k, but there may be 5-8 tracks contributing to this frequency at the end of a rise for instance.

I doubt that there is, as things are never this clean cut, but I wondered if anyone had a rule of thumb that they work to regarding high frequencies. I know my monitors arent the best, so there will always be an element of guesswork during the mixdown - but would be very interested to hear any pointers.

Cheers
Pauly

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by jestermgee » Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:34 pm

If your monitors aren't the best, you can use headphones (at a low volume) to get finer detail on these areas. Then there is also the method of reading a spectrograph to see your problems then use EQ to filter/notch some of the problems down.

Also, do some research into multiband compression which may help.

The only real general rule of thumb is use whatever tools fix the problem. Knowing what tools to use comes with practice so just experiment and see what works and what doesn't.

dougdi
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:45 am

Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by dougdi » Wed Feb 27, 2019 1:40 pm

It also helps using the Spectrum plugin native to Live to see the frequencies you may not hear. I use it on individual as well as the mix track.
Doug

jlgrimes
Posts: 1773
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:55 am
Location: Atlanta, Ga

Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by jlgrimes » Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:35 pm

Once I get near the end of a mix, I slap a limiter on the master to get a good idea of how it sounds if it was mastered. Usually the highs get more harsher and I know to tame the highs some more.

Also if you are self mastering, if converting to a lossy format, leave about 1 db of headroom as the mp3 compression process will add noise and hence will make your track louder than if it was a lossless format.

Its possible that could be creeping you into distortion.

Shift Gorden
Posts: 852
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 8:45 pm
Location: Oklahoma City
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Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by Shift Gorden » Wed Feb 27, 2019 5:47 pm

Hey mate, this is all great advice.

Another thing you might want to do is EQ all individual components. A lot of hit hat/cymbal samples contain unwanted frequencies which can make things sound very harsh.

Removing all of the nasty resonant frequencies can really clean up the harshness. You can do this by EQ sweeping - set the Q of a freq band to a pretty hight (steep) amoung and turn up the gain for that freq. Then you can slowly sweep through your high end to see which frequencies sound nasty and ringy, and then simply notch-out those freqs. It can work wonders!

But, it could also be a compression thing when uploading to Soundcloud like jlgrimes said.

U.G.U.R
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:05 am

Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by U.G.U.R » Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:15 am

Hey guys!! ı am producing about a year and ı love it.
maybe it's simple for you guys. but ı have a problem. ı am working on a project, which is house music. Now, ı am in mixing stage. In my project, ı have 3 synths (one of chord, one of melody, last one accent for chord) andd ı have frequency masking problem on my synths. Actually, ı tried to neutron to solve masking problem. but you know their frequencies are in same place. I think; I didnt do well EQing.

Do you have any suggestion?? I'm waiting for your response. if you have a article, video or smth. Cause I'm getting crazy 8O 8O


See you guyss :!:

fishmonkey
Posts: 4478
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:50 am

Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by fishmonkey » Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:55 pm

U.G.U.R wrote:
Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:15 am
Hey guys!! ı am producing about a year and ı love it.
maybe it's simple for you guys. but ı have a problem. ı am working on a project, which is house music. Now, ı am in mixing stage. In my project, ı have 3 synths (one of chord, one of melody, last one accent for chord) andd ı have frequency masking problem on my synths. Actually, ı tried to neutron to solve masking problem. but you know their frequencies are in same place. I think; I didnt do well EQing.

Do you have any suggestion?? I'm waiting for your response. if you have a article, video or smth. Cause I'm getting crazy 8O 8O


See you guyss :!:
if the masking is that bad then thinking about it as a mixing/EQ problem isn't the best approach. my suggestion is to go back and work on your arrangement and/or instrumentation.

wearemindflux
Posts: 315
Joined: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:33 pm

Re: Mixdown and high frequencies

Post by wearemindflux » Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:31 pm

You really need to test your mix on as many speakers as possible and I would invest in some room acoustics and room correction systems

In terms of harsh frequencies in the uppers use a bell curves sweep through until you hear the harsh frequencies and then cut.
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