My mixes sound too harsh...help!

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Subject: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

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Original Message Date: 24-Jan-03 @ 09:05 AM - My mixes sound too harsh...help!

Jan

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My mixes always sound too harsh - My kicks never sound smooth like in other people's tracks. I compress them to give them thwack, but always too loud/harsh. Then there is a bass overload when a bass and kick come together. I compress everything, but how do I eq it to get it to gell and not sound so unpleasant?

many thanks,

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Message 11/18 24-Jan-03 @ 05:32 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

nomad

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maybe look up 'gibb effect' or 'dac overshoot' as well - dunno really how awful it is but it was new to me.

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Message 12/18 24-Jan-03 @ 05:48 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

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what's the "gibb effect"? is that the one where
one girly-singing brother is not obnoxious
enough so you need three? sort of like the
"hamlisch maneuver"? you know, the one
where someone's choking on food, so you
start singing "feelings, whoa oh oh feelings"
which causes them to retch, clearing the
windpipe.

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Message 13/18 24-Jan-03 @ 06:15 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

nomad

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haha

no, basically most D/As are designed with no headroom (because you can't go above digital zero... right? right?) well, if you get the right (wrong) sample sequence, because of interpolation you might... and with no headroom, this equals 'clipping'...

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Message 14/18 24-Jan-03 @ 06:41 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

psylichon

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hmmm... veeeely interlesting, nomad. Kinda like how when you use clip restoration in Sound Forge, you have to specify how much to bring down the level initially to allow for "interpolative" fill-in overshoots. Makes sense. Is this design (no headroom) still the norm or do modern converters compensate for this?

Heh, I really don't think this is dude's main problem though

psy

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Message 15/18 25-Jan-03 @ 04:58 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

BJT

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harsh.sme

How'd you know I'm a male, I am, just wondering.

What I meant to say is that if you take a sine wave and double its frequency (thus moving it up an octave) it sound twice as loud, even though its the same amplitude.

The SynC modular attachment shows this.

I remember this article where this old sound engineer used to mix in pink noise into his mixes to get the levels right, interesting idea. Anyway he stressed it had to be pink-noise not white noise because pink-noise has the same power per octave.

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Message 16/18 25-Jan-03 @ 06:18 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

Jan

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Thanks! I'll give your suggestions a go. I always make my kicks very loud - They peak around -3 dB. Maybe the kick doesn't need to be the loudest element in the mix? Is it ok for my whole mix to peak at around -6dB? I always wondered how you work out which part should be loudest?

Thanks for all your help,

Jan

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Message 17/18 25-Jan-03 @ 06:31 PM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

milan

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use your ears, innit!!! NO other way about it!

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Message 18/18 27-Jan-03 @ 09:59 AM - RE: My mixes sound too harsh...help!

Dominic

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You could try the old A/B thing. Its what I do. Just choose a track you like and rip it off a CD. (CD is better than vinyl cos you ain't got to record it into the computer). Then import the track into your sequencer and assign it to 2 outputs down your desk. Set the faders and gain pots on your guide channels so the meter bridge just flickers at the top during the loudest bit of the guide track. Then you'll be able to see what level everything is at as it comes in and out of the guide track.

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