I find some rendered mixes harsh, then i use soothe to iron out the shit . But is it just because its digital or my ears are deceiving me.. ive used plenty deesser's but still keep chasing smoother sound. Any advice?
maybe new ears?

 

Can you show us a before and after processing?

 

Digital doesn't inherently make anything harsh, it just reveals what's actually there. In my experience harsh mixes are usually a result of many slightly harsh things going on within it all adding up to one big gigantic harsh. Rather than just try to put a Band-Aid on with Soothe I would recommend taking a careful look at all the elements within the mix to see if they can be tamed (probably with just a little eq, though not always.) I would save Soothe for situations that simply can't be fixed any other way.

 

Sometimes the reason you end up needing to use a de-esser all over the place is because you are creating compression artifacts. Fabfilter Pro-DS wideband from around 7-10K will get rid of the "abrasiveness" you are noticing. Try the Sonnox SuprEsser de-esser on non-vocal sibilance in the same situations. Find a prior sales price from them and they will often match it for you.

Listen to the original audio file and see if it has a problem. If not, the issue is in your mix. Try clipping it to increase your RMS, instead of using your compressor on that sample/channel. Shave off the top, instead of forcing it back downward, because it is often just noise anyway.

 

Last edited: Sep 8, 2024

Maybe you're doing too much saturation and/or compression. Try parallel instead: do compression and saturation as sends and then control all of them with a VCA. See if turning them down fixes your issue.

 

I will agree will @clone. Modern daws tempt people who make all kinds of electronic music to use compression on almost everything. Even in rock and pop too. I will add, too much eq boosting and shaping can have a similar effect. I have this producer friend who hates with a passion anything with high sibilance like crashes and hi hats etc. When needed he will only use synths to produce percussive hats and shapes them errr... non sibilant and he will never use crashes. Some woosh fx or hits instead of crashes and claims it is better this way. Kinda like Kraftwerk percussion. This thing with sibilance hate is a fact for some established engineers and producers as well. Too much of EDM ignores hihats altogether. But i wouldn't say it makes their music better as most of it is almost childish tracks with very little to no depth at all. Some good tracks there yes but a few.
For me, my mixes started sounding really good some 30 years ago. I was 28 then. Up to that point i was fascinated with my console and outboard gear and i would constantly boost mediocre sounds using eq and compression to make 'em stand out. Some will say this is normal, well it's not. Normal should be, if a sound needs too much eq or compression etc., then it's the wrong sound and needs replacement-period. If you start polishing turds you end up smelling like them, if you know what i mean haha.
So i did these 3 things.
1. I started using eq mostly to cut frequencies like they did in the early days of EQ usage and stopped boosting carelessly because i could. If you never tried this, you won't believe how nice this translates even today. Can be a game changer.
2. I stopped compressing shit and went really careful on volume settings and rode my faders hard when mixing. I would use midi automation when applicable. Today i will do the same but always automating volumes for each track and very rarely if ever compress tracks made inside the box. Recorded tracks is another thingie, i will use compression but only when needed. For example, a few bass players are so good, that they 're always unbelievably steady in rhythm and volume, it makes you think they ate up a compressor for breakfast lol. Using compression as a creative effect is something different of course and this is free for everyone to experiment and coming up with something unusual is always welcome in my book.
And lastly 3. I would nit pick every timbre in the tracks i made or record/mix/produce. Putting the work in sound "sculpting" before mixing, whether it's synth sound design, guitar pedals/amp combinations or just the best mic placement you can get on a drumset and the list goes on and on, i can guarantee you it pays off. When producing, just get every track sounding as close as you picture it in your head as you possibly can and by all means don't "fix it in the mix".
And yeah, 30 years have passed and tech has evolved so much but for me it is the same shit just different gear and "evolved" music styles and genres. I just stick with my 3 simple rules and i try to keep learning and creating. Also listening to new or unknown to me music never ends for me, but all these keep me young and mostly relevant. Or at least i'd like to think so lol.
Peace mates.

 

Last edited: Sep 8, 2024

years obsessing over getting clear smooth airy high end and along the way I learn that it's the transient. Smash/Limit them up at 2.5kHz and above, if it isn't enough use transient EQ and pull all the transient down 8kHz and above, there isn't any musical information (tone/notes) there mostly just high end extension, so make sure the crossover didnt pull the musical information, just the mosquitos. About the high end limiting, smashing 3db GR is already a lot, around 2db per track will stack up nicely at the end. High end sensitive compressor like the LA2A in limit mode (dial the emphasis so it's super sensitive to high end) can also give smooth transparent result. Again, high end harshness in mixing mostly caused by things stacking up so I dont really suggest doing it on the masterbus, go individual track.

 

An objectively better listening environment. Well tuned Iem's can work wonders here.