Fanu/FatGyver
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Do this for that great natural high-freq sheen in your tracks/master (nope, not an exciter)
🕑 Added 2022-03-09 11:22:39 +0000 UTCOne of the things that home masters often lack is this brilliance, "sheen" in the very high frequencies. Producers often use exciters to bring that up.
Well, let me tell you that you don't need to pay for an exciter – your basic decent EQ can probably get that energy up, as long as it's there.
Ever since I started doing this, I've barely touched my fave exciter (Revival by Slate Digital).
Get an EQ that can give you a really steep curve: see pic for an example.
There, I'm using ProQ3 with a 48 dB/octave curve, and I'm placing it really high.
You usually want to get it around 8K> so you won't pull up any high mids.
When doing this, you should hear how that beautiful high-frequency "sparkle" comes up, and it can often invigorate your mix.
It's very easy to overdo, so be careful: boosts of 4-7 dB are often enough!
It's often enough to do this for the master; of course if you hear anything stick out, go and tame the highs of that track/sound.
Comments
Janne Hatula
Ableton EQ can do a similar-ish steep curve; never tried it on the master, but prob works. Also one can do nice sheen with the resonant analog-modeled filters of Ableton.
5D Nick
PS: glad i joined your Patreon bro... big ups
5D Nick
How does this fare using the Ableton EQ8? Or should I use an Izotope EQ? Don't really wanna shell out for Revival. I assume its not free?
Neal Schlatter aka VariableOp
Gotta keep em separated! For the bass bins and vinyl :)
Janne Hatula
Stereo boosts aren't bad per se. But always focus on mono power first: check your mix/master in mono often and make sure it's powerful enough, all sounds are loud enough etc. In a way, mono/mid and sides/stereo have nothing in common, and you *could* have a beautiful, wide mix in stereo that sounds like garbage in mono. So, learn to inspect both separately (mid and side). Will try and do a small lecture on this on Patreon!
Neal Schlatter aka VariableOp
Good point about stereo. As per usual, I read an article like "how to improve your mix using mid/side eq" and should just be focusing on how to improve my mix lol....smh. Tbf I think I'm stereo boosting in this range on the individual tracks. Revisiting this. Yeah, I didn't know why anyone would be thinking about 40K range, but was someone I respect who said it so thought I would check.
Janne Hatula
This might call for a longer lecture on mid/side, but it's "safe" to do it stereo so it'll boost both mid+side. Most of the stuff that'll enjoy that boost is in the mids (drums, percs etc). I rarely do side-only boosts; I often rather cut than boost sides (while i can enjoy a wide mix, I seem not to enjoy a very bright side signal or one that has a lot of transient action in it). ProQ3 has mid/side modes, which is great. Our ears won't even hear half of 40K, but yeah, doing kind of crazy boosts at the very top can def bring that "air", which this technique of mine is also aiming for.
Neal Schlatter aka VariableOp
Should the side channel also get a similar 8K> high shelf boost? For some reason it looks like I have only been doing this on the side. Have you heard any producers boost 40K for "air" to help with this? i haven't tried it, but I thought I heard someone say something like that.
AltBraKz
I love how effective simple things like that can be, great tip
