Nasty "sandpaper" resonance has me stumped.

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by Satai, Nov 23, 2017.

  1. Satai

    Satai Rock Star

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Messages:
    453
    Likes Received:
    418


    I'm working on remastering this track where the nasty "sandpaper kshhhshshhshshhhhh effect" has me stumped (sound clip shows the problem). How would you fix this, if re-recording isn't an option and there are no stems?

    Tried finding the resonance with narrow Q cuts, and it somewhat helps but it's not at a single frequency. The sandpapering partially goes away with narrow cutting, but takes most of the music with it too, deadening the high end. Tried de-essers, with pretty similar results, same for dynamic EQ.

    If you know of a better way to deal with this kind of crap, please let me know. The soundcloud clip is a downloadable WAV if you want to have a go at it.
     
  2.  
  3. spyfx

    spyfx Guest

    hi my friend,i know you already said you tried de-essers,but have you already tried fabfilter Pro-DS ?
    if yes,maybe try this :
    https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/bx_refinement.html
     
  4. mozee

    mozee Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2016
    Messages:
    639
    Likes Received:
    562
    The vocal sibilants are already roasted and that 80s TC Helicon reverb is already baked into the track pretty hard. It doesn't sound too bad, but if you wanted to alleviate the presence of that sibilance this is one of those cases where a multi-band compressor and D-EQ can get some honest work in.

    You are basically going to build you own multi-band de-esser.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2017
  5. Futurewine

    Futurewine Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2017
    Messages:
    888
    Likes Received:
    558
    Location:
    Sound City Labs
    Maybe try Roland R-Mix or similar apps (iZotope RX, etc) that allows you to trace, edit, and minimize/remove that unwanted sound.

    Some example of usage..

     
    • Interesting Interesting x 2
    • List
  6. MMJ2017

    MMJ2017 Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2017
    Messages:
    3,538
    Likes Received:
    1,688
    use analog modeling of tube, tape and transistors stacked up where each is barely doing anything
    it will build harmonics and then afterwards be able to smooth out.
     
  7. No Avenger

    No Avenger Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2017
    Messages:
    8,911
    Likes Received:
    6,110
    Location:
    Europe
    You can build a deesser based on phase inversion yourself with as many broad or narrow bands as you like: Aux send, phase invert, bandpass. If you don't want it to be active all the time just add a gate or a downward expander.
    The best method I know.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2017
  8. Lambchop

    Lambchop Banned

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2017
    Messages:
    547
    Likes Received:
    126
    OP. are you doing this for someone? could they send you alternate vox takes? Hopefully not already mixed & ̶v̶a̶n̶d̶a̶l̶i̶z̶e̶d̶ ̶ processed -- "widened" (mono it to see what I mean) + verb/mayo.
    The t in come true. Look at it.
     
  9. Satai

    Satai Rock Star

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Messages:
    453
    Likes Received:
    418
    Thanks a lot dudes,for all the responses. You gave valuable ideas, and I wanted to share how the problem was finally tackled.

    The winsome technque for killing the sand was to use Zynaptiq Unchirp, followed by multiple instances of OD DeEdger, tuned to narrow bands where remaining elements of the "sandpaper" were sitting.



    upload_2017-12-11_7-58-8.png

    Unchirp is designed to reduce the effects/artifacts of audio codecs and the warble left behind by FFT processes like denoisers, however I used it with success to attack the buzzy HF component of the stuff I needed to get rid off. If you configure the bands as shown and crank the "Sync" param way down, it does a decent job of isolating the nasty buzz, and removing it. This naturally results in a loss of HF clarity, so it's necessary to then tune Treble and especially the desired Drry/wet Mix for the best compromise.

    DeEdger is a type of ess and harshness suppressor which I selected because it automatically does nothing unless it detects harshness in the selected "work band", and is much gentler than my previous deesser/dynamic EQ approach was. The sand was typically prominent just above 10k, and then I went down to 5k, 2.5k etc, adjusting the bandwidth of the processor down as I went and tuning intensity to taste for each band. After about 3-4 instances in chain, I got a palatable result where the sandpaper was dramatically reduced. It's still there but doesn't make the track unlistenable anymore to me.

    This approach proved powerful and flexible, I've used it several times now when faced with this type of problem. Here's the final result for you to enjoy, hard to believe that's what I was able to bring out from the same damaged source file I shared in the original post!

     
    • Like Like x 5
    • Interesting Interesting x 2
    • List
  10. No Avenger

    No Avenger Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2017
    Messages:
    8,911
    Likes Received:
    6,110
    Location:
    Europe
    Interesting appraoch and total unknown to me. Thanks for sharing this with us! :like: :like:
     
  11. mild pump milk

    mild pump milk Russian Milk Drunkard

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2014
    Messages:
    2,683
    Likes Received:
    2,262
    Location:
    Russia
    Deedger is not deharsher or deesser, it is mostly attack/transient smoother, dehardener, suppressor. It works for selected frequency but in time domain, smoothing short choks and ticks. It is not like Soothe or new Ozone Spectral shaper
     
  12. Satai

    Satai Rock Star

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Messages:
    453
    Likes Received:
    418
    Thanks mPm, I did not know that about DeEdger. Man, it's an obscure thing, even after reading the manual and all the "tip" pages about it, I still didn't have a clue what it's doing. For example, I would never have thought of using it to get rid of clicks. Going to have to try that out.

    Any links where more indepth info about it could be gleaned?
     
  13. Blue

    Blue Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2015
    Messages:
    1,807
    Likes Received:
    954
    TDR say it reduces hardness...Hardness is a so subjective term.
     
  14. fiction

    fiction Audiosexual

    Joined:
    Jun 21, 2011
    Messages:
    1,889
    Likes Received:
    687
    That's a creative approach, nice!
    I would have chosen a much simpler path: Use a harmonic exciter matching the voice well and use a little filtering/EQ to fine-tune. The "sandpaper" effect apparently comes from attenuated higher treble range.
    In fact, the way you've used Unchirp supports my suggestion.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2017
Loading...
Similar Threads - Nasty sandpaper resonance Forum Date
Nasty PACE / iLok cloud behavior? Software Apr 14, 2022
Anyone has this nasty issue with T-RackS.5? Software Dec 15, 2021
Nasty Looper - Free drum machine by beatassist.eu Software News Jan 21, 2015
Nasty Dubstep & DnB Extra - Free Samples by BHK Samplers, Synthesizers Nov 24, 2013
Variety Of Sound release NastyDLA MKII Software News May 13, 2012
Loading...