I've been watching tutorials about resonances when mixing, and I was wondering if anyone has opinions on this topic.

I understand that removing painful, obvious resonances in an acoustic instrument or vocal is important. But some tutorials recommend scanning for peaks in artificial/synth sounds with SPAN or FabFilter and notch-removing half a dozen resonances on every instrument claiming it's 'essential' to a clean, professional mix.

Yet I've seen some mix engineers do very little of this seek-and-destroying of little peaks and produce great results. Is a mix with a bunch of notched out resonances clean, or lacking soul? Should I be just removing obvious things, or scanning around for even minor out-of-tune peaks? Any tips in general?

 

I think the best thing to do in synth is to edit the sound by removing/reducing the harsh harmonic (Serum/Vital wavetable editor), if it can't be done, using Spectral tools like Soothe is good too, but the most ocmmon way to fix that would be with a notch EQ like you've said, having it in dynamic mode is better as it would act when needed.

 

You are looking for Soothe 2

https://oeksound.com/plugins/soothe2/

 

And you are not looking good in my vision of future, when all people giving answers to unasked questions are forbidden to ask for anything under threat of tortures

 

There are many ways to manage harshness but most of the time it depends on the type of harshness presents. Start with normal EQ move, normal no so wide bell cut or low pass filter, listen in context. If the harsh frequencies only present in individual track, listen if it is obvious in full mix. Do the EQing in context. Maybe try the dynamic mode if it helps. There are some nasty special frequency that you get to check first that always causing trouble but our ears will perceive it someplace else. 2.5kHz, 4kHz, 8kHz, 11kHz. Check those frequency first before anything. Make sure those frequency are in check before fixing other frequency area.

If the harshness has to do with obvious "S" sound, try a simple de-esser first. Combine it with 1 - 2 tight cut on the EQ if needed. If it's requires more than 2, dont do it, try spectral resonance tamer like Soothe or DSEQ, and focus on that range. Other than using at 100% mix, smashing the resonance tamer and mix it in parallel can sometimes give better result.

If the track become duller, maybe add saturation or exciter after. Sometimes tool that doing Split Transient & Sustain can also help, by removing the transient only. For vocals there's this Andrew Scheps smashing technique using LA2A + 2 Pultec, there's youtube video about it. All of those technique apart, sometimes boosting other area of the sound that sound good with EQ to mask the harshness can work as well. Sometimes it works sometimes it wont, for sensitive tracks like vocals, it will change the overall tonality that's why it's always a good idea to try everything possible and see which one works best.

 

So, if I got you right, you're not asking for the How, but for the When.
Rule of thumb, if there's something annoying in the mix, reduce it, if not, not. Simple as that. An exception would be to make room for other sounds, of course - independent of resonances.
Reducing resonances for the sake of the looks can easily backfire if these resonances are a significant part of the sound. I mean, have you ever had a look at a bell sound? Almost nothing would remain if you remove the resonances.

 

do a mix on a console and ask yourself or your assistant what rack kills resonance...
ppl dont talk about it b/c as No Avenger mentioned, that will backfire quickly. use your ears and dont mix as much visually.
we listen to music, its about feeling and sound nothing visual. too many ppl "look" at plugin and look at settings but if you ever mix on a console or with hardware in general you'll see you arent doing 2db moves and you're using a lot more compression that you thought b/c you're listening rather than looking. one reason why when im tracking or mixing i turn screens off or dim them and just listen. i just tracked some vocals last night that i and the artist loved and i never even bothered looking at the settings as i was strictly using my ears.. when i looked i said to my apprentice "14-16db while tracking through 2 different compressors and you have the nerve to say to me "you" try to not compress vocals more than 3db and wonder how i create certain tones... ummmm, use your tone shapers" lol

vocal chain was:
sE/Neve RNT > Mercury v76 >Mercury p2(pultec) >Dave Hill Titan > cl1b > a-designs hammer eq into daw.
needed to do noting with plugins, didnt even use soothe2, strictly pro q 3 to roll off some low, cut a little 370hz and started being creative with effects and automation b/c the sound that the record needed was already there

dont worry about resonance SO much and dont get rid of all resonance, its very essential

 

Last edited: Dec 8, 2023

NEVER do anything "just because" when mixing/mastering. Forming mindless routines with plugins is never a good idea. That being said, not experimenting with plugins even if nothing sounds "wrong" can be detrimental to sound quality too.

If I don't hear anything wrong in a mix, I still try EQ/Comp/Sat/iZotope low end focus. If it sounds better, then great! If it doesn't improve the sound quality, I don't keep them in just because it's "correct."

If speed/efficiency is key then just skip experimenting if nothing sounds wrong.

 

You have to add these techniques and things you may find in tutorials to your perspective, like some additional information that might apply to the current situation. You will see lots of producers doing "seek and destroy" for obvious resonant peaks, but not the small stuff. Absolutely you will see this done. Often you will see it done to reduce masking, or you will see it done with a kick drum to take boxiness out of it. Or cutting at around 300hz because it's a common band where mud is developed. Lots of reasons. These tutorials people are more than happy to show you how to use a hammer, but then will send you off looking for nails everywhere with your new hammer. Especially if they are selling hammers, only by sheer coincidence. You can overdo anything. Don't get out some plugin and then start looking for places to apply it, or you will need yet another plugin to fix it.

 

I would care more about masking than taming resonant peaks that are not damaging the sound. it's ok to notch 2 or 3 harmonics that are jumping like a lazer bean and interfering with the listener experience. But if you're notching a whole bunch of resonances that causes no harm and forgeting to pick frequencies for each instrument on the respectives bands of spectrum, you're bugging. The most common scenario is the hihats clashing with the top edge of the snare that is clashing with the top end of a vocal. If not dosed right, everyone here can imagine how it would sound. Or rock guitars, bass and organ clashing on the low mids. I generaly mix to archieve clarity on each element and take anything off from the picture that shouldn't be there. Analog eq plugins are good for that because they are fast and you start not being very pick and biased by your eyes, just cut wherever feels right and follow your life. The greatest records of all time, i swear for you, none of them were done with dozens of notches, just right frequency'wise decisions.

 

Try removing every unnecessary frequencies that you can hear on every single instrument
After you do that try to change the spot you are sitting while mixing , you will see that you are not done yet panorama mixing trick!!! Start from around 5Q and -6db.

 

Those people are EQ-ing their badly treated rooms or a pair of headphones incompatible with their ears (cheap and expensive headphones alike, can be incompatible to one's ears, so it won't matter if they own Audeze or AudioTechnica)

 

I had a pair of yamaha hs8 then i sell them them i mixed in a tv monitor .... even better at tv .. reference thru the real playback device

I even dont use a soundcard

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 25, 2023