Sorry guys, me and Foster have been busy working on our Stay - Zedd & Alessia Cara remix the past week so we have been a little inactive, anyhoo....

I have some drum samples that are great sounding (I like how the groove) but the high frequencies are just a little too harsh for my taste. Besides just a EQ roll off/wave clipper/glue compressor, how would you guys start addressing this issue? Are there specific go to tools/Vst's that are much better at mixing those harsh frequencies out than the stock ableton ones? Are there special or tricks of the trade that you would be willing to share with me? I know people tend to keep the best kept secrets to themselves on here... Thanks If this post offended someone I apologize someone recently told me that I have a gift for making people angry?

 

I guess you've just described the tools of the trade. The only one thing you haven't mentioned is de-essers. I guess I heard Dave Pensado say that de-essers can be great to tame harsh cymbals. Try every technique out and see which gives you the best result. You might wanna report on that.

Peace.

 

Yeah a deesser is essentially one band of a multiband comp. I use ozone Dynamics with only the high band engaged that way you can control what frequency it's compressing at. Then it's essentially just like dialing in a compressor but only on the targeted frequencies

 

Maybeez have a look at Waves Saphira with just the Warmth engaged and tinker with the harmonic modes.

 

thanks guys, u rock. I noticed on my JBL 305's and my sound environment it really misses catching harsh high frequencies so when I put in headphones or listen in my car those highs really catch my attention. Then I have to go back into the mix and really focus on that.

 

dynamic Eq works fine in harsh top perc and in synths. For busses or mastering chains i like bx refinement, for exemple

 

Drums?
High Frequenc harshness?

>> TAPE! Seriously, try a Tape emulation.
It serves 3 Purposes: rounding of hi end nicely, smoothing out sharp transient, and gluing drums together nicely. Combine with Dynamic EQ or notching High Frequency Spikes.

 

Oeksound soothe
Bx refinement
TDR OD DeEdger (desharpens your attacks and transients at selected range and Q, works too subtle)
Tdr Nova as well

Dynamic eqs, multiband compressors, equalizers as well. Transparent and clean, of course.
For some more chemistry in surgical procedures are SoundRadix, Zynaptiq stuff. Try Melda, Hofa also etc.

 

Personally? I take many different parts from different samples, so if something is a bit too high in the top end, that doesn't benefit from EQing, I'll take out the high freq sample, and use something else in it's place. Otherwise I find it's a constant battle to fit a square into a circular hole! Sure it CAN be done, but it wont look (Or in this case, ever sound right)

 

Well, since Tape simulation plugs are on a roll right now... Tape?
Seriously, I've used it to tame bitey guitars. Might be worth it to throw a few different sims at it and see if it takes it in the direction you're looking for.

OOPS, just reloaded and saw you beat me to it, @5teezo!

 

Is it just too bright, or are the transients to sharp? Or both?
De-esser/MB-compressor, dynamic EQ, transient designer, etc. Pro tip.

 

Though all the asnwers here will work, we dont know if hes trying to just clean up the loop an keep it pristine, or duuuurty it up proper with tapes or like RC-20.
Why dont you @TruBlood post an example of what you need help with.
Youre kind of like telling your mechanic that your car makes a whirring noise, lol, but different.

 

Okay and when using the Tape emus like a Satin or SSlate which parameters am I really going for to round out the harsh frequencies? I obviously have ears but I was just wondering if anyone had a certain why they used tape emus for taming high frequencies. Basically which knobs am I really going to be focused on?

 

It's a combination of input Level ("Drive"), Tape Speed (IPS) and the actual magnetic Tape (if modeled) – Slower = more high frequency roll of and pronounced low end. Higher Speeds: crispier sound less pronounced bass. The louder the input level is the more compression/saturation/distortion occurs which tames the transients. Different Tapes = different flavors/nuances. But it also depends on the genre of music. Great for Hip-Hop Drums but might not be the first choice for EDM, where it's all about frequency separation and crispyness.

Check out Analog Channel 2 from McDSP. It displays the curves of different Tapes and IPS Settiings (just to get an Idea).

 

Last edited: Jun 14, 2017

tape
bx_refinment
waves cobalt saphira

if you dont want to add distortion, which all of the above mentioned plugins do,
try a dynamic eq.

On tape try to go for "older" tape - speed and ips. This will have the most effect on highs but also on lows.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 14, 2017

You see the curve you get in satin by changing heads, encoder/decoder, speed, etc as you can see in the screen below. There are tricks and recipes according to what you want to get and you can get pretty much anything if you know a bit what you're doing. Drastic, subtil whatever. There aren't that much knobs, just test them. And don't push the hiss if you wan to tame your highs...
Seriously though those are tools you want to master yourself, which isn't long to achieve specially with your good ears, they have a lot of different uses.

 

Really need to check out Satin, I see it gets a lot of love here. I didn't realize it was so configurable. Does it come with a decent amount of presets to get you started?

It's totally true that room resonances can cause these problems. I've been a victim of it myself. Then I got out of the corner!

 

Depending on the source I would either reach for a tape emu (as many have suggested), or Soundbrigade by SKnote in Tame or Control mode, focused only on the offending frequency range.

A tape emu if I want to shape and color the entire sound, Soundbrigade if I want to be more surgical and only affect the offending frequencies when they peak.

 

One other useful approach when using tape emulations: Instead of driving the tape harder, turn the high hat levels up and push them into the tape. It will react more to those frequencies and tame them harder. Works beautiful when trying to tuck in and place the snare nicely in a track. You could try that with Hi-Hats also.

Also really nice for taming harsh highs is the C1 Comp Sidechain. Set the EQ Mode to Sidechain and compress the harsh frequencies.