It's errr.. interesting how everyone talks about how to add the high "sheen" sound. Which theoretically should be above 15khz. I just wonder who in this aging audiosex crowd can hear anything above that frequency or even near that hahaha. Me, nothing beyond 12K and my doc said i 'm kinda gifted (too many lolz here!) as about 50% peeps at my age (58) are up to ~10K and the rest even lower.
So when we 're talking about the barely audible, don't you think we should really say barely audible for whom? hehehe. I mean i wonder how good ol Dave Pensado and other old engineers cope with this at 65+ y.o.
Cheers

 

Cmon, you know the answers to this already. What is "barely audible" to you doesn't matter, it's what is in the final deliverable files that matters. It's the same reason why translation is so important. If I send a analog out to an outboard device that functions as a High Cut filter, before being passed to the monitors; does it change the file? Age related hearing loss is just like a lowpass filter.

 

SPL Vitalizer maybe or aphex aural exciter?

 

The new plugin mixhead sounds interesting, not because of the high end sparkle it provides but it's ability to reduce the load of the limiter. This is a mix I've done yesterday

extensively using mixhead plugin

 

But the sparkle of your good sound (on the bright side) does not come from the top end but from the excellent midrange and the controlled transients.
Strangely amateurs are always focused on the unimportant two extremes, the bottom and top end, while ignoring the elephant in the room.

 

1 word solution: harmonics
I will write the multi-word solution later. Someone remind me plz

 

SPL Vitalizer (a little goes a long way!)

MIA Pi & Phi high bands

MIA Musiqual Blue boosting a high frequency (that EQ is so special)

Airwindows Stonefire/Air3

MIA 980 Spark with colour set on F

UnitedPlugins Fire Cobra (don't overdo it)

 

Lots to work with here, I will go through as many plugin suggestions as possible.

I tend to use Fabfilter Saturn for my harmonics/saturation as I find it gives a nice warm crunch to stuff that needs a bit of mid/high.

Thanks for all the replies :D

 

Most plugins don't add, they boost, so you can only boost what's already there.
This is why so many suggest Acuatica Audio plugins as they sample hardware harmonics that are then applied to digital sound.

I use hardware for add sparkle or sheen up top.
All anyone here has to do is use a quality tube EQ one time and they will cry returning to plugins working up top in the high frequencies.

Manley Massive Passive up at 16Khz or 20 KHz for sheen with those Manley transformers adding the HiFi gloss. I always found the Maag hardware air to be killer.
Non EQ's like the Manley VariMu also adds some gloss, the Black Box HG-2 has an air button that is a 3db boost up to without EQ, my Requaisite Audio tube gear also adds some killer top end is a more natural way. The Bettermaker Limiter adds a nice top end sheen too.

So many hardware devices easily add top end magic.

 

Kush Clariphonic
LTL Silver Bullet
Maag EQ4

 

My guess is that a lot of folks that have hearing that is aging are more dependent on spectral monitoring tools than ever before, including mr. pensado as well as many others. In this particular case, making certain that top end curve doesn't roll off too steeply.

 

I'm surprised to see no mentions of Kiive's Nfuse here. The Neve saturation module is amazing and almost never sounds bad. And if it sounds bad, you can just cut using the high or low shelves before doing the saturation. Easily one of the greatest plugins out there.

 

Some yes, some can hear up there or perceive those freqs while other can't... it takes a ton of training.
Interestingly Nyquist digital limitations really affect digital top end roll off, it's why I always suggest analog top end tools during mastering.

 

Are you using samples or an actual synth plugin? There's different stuff you can do with samples vs. a synth.

There's also BitGlitter and Shimmer Verbs, the thing about shimmer verbs is that, to get what you seem to want, you have to take the original sound, then the sound on full wet through a shimmer verb, then morph them with something like Zynaptiq Morph.

A lot of the stuff that adds "glitter" or "shimmer" really only works well if you do dry and wet signal, then morph them.

Samples are completely different, you can loop them in specific ways.

 

Looptrotter Sa2rate can also nicely boost harmonics

 

Write it, brother

 

The "antique" studio method explained in books and later in youtube videos from the late 2010's is indeed a transient-oriented, parallel processing approach.

It consists of selecting elements which will carry the "brilliance", it's usually some drum elements and let's say, a vocal bus, and duplicate a group or sending a bus where an heavy high end boost followed by a severe dynamic control is applied, and carefully mix it back. It can be of course anything you judge that can carry this "brilliance quality".

I personally never operated in such a manner a full master bus as it may imply too many risks of having errors or incompatible sources (for the same setting).

Now, have the basis. You can be creative with the process of lifting the high end with exotic effect chains (noise, enhancers, anything) or harmonic generators, but beware of not using effects that may degrade your source and make it less dynamic, natural, and harsh.

Crave EQ also proposes a transient/still separated version, where you can only chose to add brilliance properly to your needs.

Generally, transient-reactive tools work better for adding natural occurring boosts.

This is real and having a good midrange is to me, one of the hardest parts of delivering good mixes.

Pretty straightforward bullet list in order to achieve the goal rapidly.

One thing though. Most people complaining about digital plugins high-end and only swearing by their favorite hardware pieces of gear generally just do not accept the fact of running their mixing sessions beyond 44.1 khz (or, by divine grace, beyond 48 khz); where effectively, at barely the twice of human hearing range, dsp algorithms struggle with adding musical, pleasing complex content such as harmonics or other sideband effects, or noise. This is different from oversampling because you do not have the coloration of the ultrasonic LPF. And converters ADC/DAC cascade filtering also.

 

Clariphonic's been mentioned multiple times, and its reputation precedes it, but I actually prefer Blyss by the same developer. The HF band goes up to 28khz at +9db, and with the built in saturation and compressor, it's almost impossible to make it sound harsh. Sounds almost as smooth as Greg's voice.