Here's one for you... I received some tracks to mix and the drums overheads are really sizzly. Not in a bright way, not necessarily even in an overdriven way (though it might be that). They just sound a bit, garbled, for lack of a better word, mostly in the high midrange. Anyone know of a magic plugin that might help clean that up? EQ isn't going to do it.

 

BTW I fully expect the answer to be "No, of course not you idiot" but you never know...

 

Use a De-esser mate , they work like a charm on cymbals

 

Hmmm, maybe- this isn't resonance though, it's a garbly funk. Worth a shot though, I'll see what happens.

 

Oeksound Soothe

 

Sound sample would be nice, sizzling and garbling sounds like opposite of each others problem. So is this low or high end problem?

 

Gulfoss maybe.
But I would just change it with a sample, if possible.

 

Phasing issue? if that, check the new MAAT RSPhaseShifter. Nice tutorials on the site too

 

Although this one is more a tool for dealing with harshness, it could work ..
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/bx_refinement.html

 

But what about the rest of the overheads info?

 

Yeah, I tried to back-pedal on the "sizzle" description because it's a lot more noticeable in the high mids than the upper frequencies you would think of when you say sizzle. But, it's a harshness/distortion issue of some kind. The brainworx plug might be the ticket. I have read several articles talking about using a de-esser as well, looking forward to seeing if that helps.

 

I can attest to the Brainworkx plugin. Soundtheory Gullfoss might also help. You can tell it to zone in on just where the problem area is and tell it to use its science to take out just the harsh frequencies. I've never used it for your situation but I do know that plugin is pretty special. I swear I just saw a plugin dedicated to exactly your problem on the sister site about a week ago but for the life of me I can't find it now. Might have got taken down.

 

Most of this could be done with simple EQ. Maybe even dynamic EQ like Fabfilter Pro Q3, TDR Nova, etc. What frequency range are we talking about? Around 3k?

If it's distorted intentionally (or intentionally), ask for the overheads again and ask for them to be printed raw and without any effects. Maybe they added a plugin by accident.

 

drumforge df-clarify

you can find it on the sister site

 

Clarify, there's a thought.

 

Fabfilter Pro-DS works very well for nasty cymbals.

 

DF-Clarify actually seemed to be pretty effective, except I can't get it to work without distortion. It's acting like it's overtaxing the CPU which certainly should be the case. I set my buffer size up to 2048 samples and it still made a weird ringing noise- it gets weirder the higher the buffer is. I tried Gullfoss and it actually made the (original) crud worse. After farting around I've decided I can do it with eq; it's just going to have to be surgically targeted.

 

This is what Soothe is great for. Takes out some of the random peaks that are blurring the high end to help focus the sound.

Theres a preset called "easy on the ears master" (or something like that) which would be a good starting point.

 

I've resisted Soothe for so long... I'll have to demo it. I'm afraid I'll like it and it just ain't cheap...