Old 08-01-2017, 10:43 AM   #1
zeekat
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Default High end - what to do with it?

Everyone knows what pain the lower bit of the mix is, with all the bass sounds quickly accumulating and threatening to turn your work into a bloated boomy mess. So everyone has highpassing and attenuating various sectors of the left side of the EQ chart in their little finger.

What with the high end, though? I feel like a lot of "real" mixes sounds airy and bright (even rock ones, with tons of midrangey guitars), like there's a lot of added shine that most likely wasn't there naturally for my ear. I just realized I completely don't know, don't touch it usually and end up mostly liking the effect (as in "doesn't need to be any brighter, tones I've used are bright enough"). Don't even remember many discussions about cranking highs up, actually I recall some people mentioning cutting those too (stuff like "I lowpass @ 15kHz because reasons"). It's sort of a blind spot for me, maybe someone can share how it's approached by the People Who Know What They're Doing?
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Old 08-02-2017, 11:52 PM   #2
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itīs kinda the same. The top-end mostly consists of noise instead of more or less well-defined overtones (like midrange). You donīt want to have too many different noises at the same time, in order to get a clear picture of your treble region.

Usually thatīs not much of a problem. Cymbals and the human voice are the most prominent candidates for top-end, unless you have a blaring aggressive synth as well.

Thereīs sound sources that do have some top-end, which might need to be taken care of at times: many classical instruments do, especially bowed strings.

Then thereīs sources that do contain a bit of top-end information which is unnecessary or sometimes annoying. Overdriven electric guitars as the most common example.

So yes, current productions have a more or less clean top-end, sometimes boosted with an EQ like mad.
Thatīs part of the modern, ear-piercing sound, with lots of limiting on the master bus and more.


Many vocalists introduce high-frequency noises on certain notes in certain expressions, or during sibilants. Mostly some kind of rattling or whistling noise. The usual basic vocal processing chain thatīs propagated in all the vocal tutorials today is the famous 1176 - LA2A - De-Esser. Which is okay for the basics and works well in rock music. But itīs also very common to not take care of those top-end noises, which are highlighted by the compression, frequency response of microphones and sometimes EQ. I have heard quite a few records that got completely degraded by nasty vocal noise, sometimes to the point of being un-listenable to me.

Oh, and cheap condenser mics resonate in the top-end as well.
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Old 08-03-2017, 01:06 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBongo View Post
Then thereīs sources that do contain a bit of top-end information which is unnecessary or sometimes annoying. Overdriven electric guitars as the most common example.
I feel like electric guitars take care of themselves, with guitar speakers/cab sims not going much over 5kHz. Plus I notice anything close to high-endness of guitar tone is considered cheap sounding, S-gear everyone loves doesn't seem very "bright".

Yeah, I imagine having a lot of acoustic instruments must be a lot more difficult to manage, overtones for days.
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Old 08-03-2017, 01:37 PM   #4
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i regularly do narrow cuts at 10-11 kHz on e-guitar cabs, on top of a hi-cut. Super annoying resonance up there on many speakers
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Old 08-03-2017, 03:46 PM   #5
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Stereo widening in the high end can help a lot to alleviate harshness and cause a sense of separation between mids and highs, which to me is part of that modern sound.

In mono mixdown the phase results are actually beneficial to 'smear' the range and decrease harshness. In stereo, the effect is to put the highs at a lower overall volume while still maintaining that spatial proportion to the mids.

Effective ways to do this are M/S EQ and multiband compression, inverted reverb in the high end only, and delays
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Old 08-04-2017, 05:06 AM   #6
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Quote:
I feel like a lot of "real" mixes sounds airy and bright (even rock ones, with tons of midrangey guitars)
Recording technique is very important

If you can record in a good room with good acoustics, distance between source and microphone is the key.


the hi mid range and trebles are less aggressive when the microphone is 30-40 cm away from the source
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Old 08-06-2017, 12:27 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fergler View Post
Effective ways to do this are M/S EQ and multiband compression, inverted reverb in the high end only, and delays
I suspected the multiband compression (smashing the highs or something) might a part of that, yeah. Another blind spot of mine, I never got around to using multiband compressor, altough I have some freebies installed (not counting reaXcomp). Esoteric stuff.

Feels like more nuanced situation than dealing with bass, in general.
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