Lots of 2khz-5khz...some hints?

[Seafroggys]

So I have found between my lead guitar and the organ, I get a lot of build-up in the "presence" region, generally between 2k-4/5k. I don't know this if this is normal. I did some spectral analysis of some other songs, and while many songs do tend to have a bump in this region, I don't know what processing was done during "mastering" to make it so. My bump is more like a hill.

The way I arranged my work is the rhythm guitar and organ sit in different spectral fields, so they both can shine. The rhythm guitar sits in the mids just fine, and the organ sits in the highs, where the 2k-4k region cuts through nicely. Sometimes its too harsh. Although I'm afraid of dropping the higher drawbars (its a B3 emulator) for fear of making it disappear during the rest. I tried an MBC in the area but that didn't really work too well.

Lead guitar is similar (and I even recorded using a ribbon!). If I drop the presence region too much, it just gets quiet overall, making it hard to hear. Would the obvious choice then to bump the overall volume, maybe add some 'verb?

Any ideas would be great!

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by Seafroggys

So I have found between my lead guitar and the organ, I get a lot of build-up in the "presence" region, generally between 2k-4/5k. I don't know this if this is normal.!

I don't know if I'd use the word "normal", but it's an awfully common problem, as that's where much of the energy for many different instruments tends to come from. The fact that that's where the human ear tends to be most sensitive doesn't help there either.

There's a number of possible approaches. Which one or combination of them is best for your situation depends upon your exact situation. But here's some things to try/consider:

- First, does it actually sound too midrangeway, or is it just how it looks in the FFT? If you're worried bout how it looks but it sounds OIK, don't worry about it. If it does sound like it needs work, however, read on...

- The arrangement. Can the amount that the two instruments seem to be stepping on each other or causing too much buildup be mitigated by reducing somewhat the use of each instrument in the mix, or highlighting one while drawing down the other for this line or two and then reversing that mix arrangement for that line or two, etc.?

- Panning. If the organ and the guitar sound too much the same (so to speak), can you separate them in the pan space a bit more?

- Differential EQ. Does one of the racks individually sound as though it might "want" or "like" to have a bit bassier or higher of a timbre to it than the other? If so try boosting that instrument just a couple of dB on one end of the mids while dropping the other instrument in the same area by just a couple of dB. Then, if necessary, do the reverse to each instrument on the other end of the mids. Then finally, if necessary or desireable, pull them both down in the center of the mids by just a couple of dB. This gentle shaping (keep it gentle!) will tend to pull each instrument just a bit away from each other spectrally while dropping the central mids overall.

- Punching narrow holes in the mixdown. I learned this technique a few years ago when I was remastering some old cassette mixdowns for an old band reunion. All I had to work with were WAV copies of the old cassette tapes, and they were very heavy in the mids and upper mids. MBC didn't really help much because there weren't many dynamics to work with to begin with. Scooping the mids with EQ took out waaay too much; it was throwing the baby out with the bathwater. So I tried the ol' parametric sweep on it, and found that by punching a series of very narrow but very deep holes in the midrange at the worst frequencies while leaving the rest of the midrange relatively alone managed to control the overall mids sound quite well without actually sounding scooped. Got rid of the dirty water but didn't lose the baby, so to speak .

G.

[Seafroggys]

Yes, shamefully I do have Inspector turned on at all times. What brought my attention to it first was by looking at the physical 'hill.' Then when I played back some of the mixes through some PA speakers I built, which I think are a bit strong in the 3k region (right in the middle of the crossover between the woofer and tweet), it became fairly obvious that it was a bit harsh.

In general, it is not harsh. Its just some notes stick out. For example, when the guitar plays high on the fretboard, but down low it sounds GREAT! It just needs a bit of smoothing. The arrangement, IMO, is fine (I wrote the whole thing and I've always practiced seperation in that regard, especially between two guitar parts).

What I'm trying to say is that they don't conflict frequency wise, but they're both potentially quite strong in that region, depending on what is being played. I fiddled with some of the organ settings and I think I found an easy solution, but I"m afraid of applying EQ on the guitar because it would affect all the sweet notes in a potentially negative way. Maybe I can try an MBC.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, I will try some of them out!

[mrhotapples]

I'd give the narrow cuts on the mix bus thing a try. It works wonders, especially when you're doing lots of limiting.

[Seafroggys]

yeah just needed some tight EQ at the right frequencies, seemed to fix the problem quite well!