Painful Frequencies

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Chris F

Chris F

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I've been doing a good deal of mixing recently (admittedly on a variety of monitors which are NOT ideal), and have been experiencing the dreaded "ear fatigue" a fair amount. I realize that this will improve when I get a decent set of monitors and get my listening setup down pat, but it got me wondering: are some frequencies more tiring than others on the ears? If so, which ones?

And if some frequencies ARE more tiring than others, the big question becomes: is it good to try to reduce the level of these frequencies in your mixes, or by doing this will you be making your mixes sound dull and lifeless?

Thoughts, anyone?

(P.S. - I tried to search for this answer, but didn't know where to start...so if this has been discussed at length, a link to the discussion would be great - I'm not trying to be redundant)


Thanks,

Chris
 
Reduce your overall volume and your fatigue should diminish a bit.......

Try and keep your listening level around 85 dB or so....

Bruce
 
...and this from the man whose motto is "it's one louder". :D

(Yes, I know who Nigel Tufnel is, and I usually recognize sarcasm when I see it)

I know what you're saying, and I know it's true. Still, I find that some of the mixes I'm making are more tiring to listen to even in my car at a reasonable volume than most of the commercial recordings I listen to. I'm thinking the problem is somewhere in the mids, but can't put a finger on it. I can hear certain things "pushing" on my ears harder than others, and I have to wonder if a certain frequency band isn't responsible. I'll keep experimenting, but if anybody has any suggestions, I'm all ears. SORE ONES, at this point. :)
 
It's my studio that's "one louder" than everyone else's, not me specifically!

My console goes to eleven -- when I need that extra little bit 'o push, I have it! ;)


But anyways, Spinal Tap aside, in addition to monitor level (and the actual monitors themselves), another source of ear fatigue is overcompression!

Take that cheap-ass compressor off the mix buss!!!! :p

:D :D
 
Here's an easy solution that would be, in my opinion, well worth the small amount of money involved:

1) Make an appointment with a well regarded local mastering engineer in your area.

2) Bring a song to be mastered that you find demonstrates a good example of your problem.

In about 15 seconds the engineer should be able to tell you exactly what you are doing wrong. And probably what to do to fix it.(You may have to pay for an hour their time anyway, but it's worth it!)

Mastering engineers spend every day taking mixes that don't sound like commercial mixes and making them sound that way. They've pretty much heard any conceivable "problem" dozens of times, and can recognize the source of the problem almost instantly.

If you do follow this advice, let us know what happens!
 
Good advice on both counts. I record only acoustic music and don't use compression (I've tried it, but it sounds like crap to my ears, so I always end up just doing without), but I have been consulting with a local studio engineer with great ears...the same guy who helped me get my home studio together. When I get a chance, I'll run it by him if I can't figure it out by experimentation first. Either way, I'll post whatever I find.

Thanks again.
 
Making some progress: the lower mid frequencies that were messing with my ears were at around 800 Hz, there were also some nasties at 1.2K, and 5 K. After I removed a chunk of these, the mix sounds much better, and my ears FEEL much better. :D

I sat around for a couple of days wishing I had a graphic EQ plug in, simply because I find graphic much easier to use quickly than parametric. Then it dawned on me that I could daisy-chain a couple of 8-band parametric plug ins and create a "virtual" graphic EQ that would cover the entire spectrum. Duh...:rolleyes: Anyway, after I had got that far, finding the offending frequencies was pretty easy.

BTW, 800 Hz pretty much sounded like complete ASS on every one of my tracks. Is there something that this frequency range DOES sound good on? Just wondering...
 
Chris F said:
BTW, 800 Hz pretty much sounded like complete ASS on every one of my tracks. Is there something that this frequency range DOES sound good on? Just wondering...
Click to expand...

According to Nyquist and Fletcher-Munson, :) :) 800 - 1,000 hz is right about the beginning of the region our ears are most sensitive to. If there is a lot of peeking around there, it can get grating on the ears fairly quickly. Try a little multi-band comp around there sometime as well.
 
Thanks. You lost me on the "Nyquist and Fletcher-Munson" part though. HOODAY??? :o :confused:
 
newbie question

let me see if i can ask this question right. okay, what eq or plugin do i use to identify offending frequencies? how do they show up?
do they read above a certain point or do i just have to go through each track and cut back on these frequiencies? is this a mixing technique that's needed on every track or just certain ones? can someone explain in newbie terms for me or just point me to a websit?
thanx in advance
 
Well, if you can invent a software/plugin that does just that, then you will probably retire a rich person. :)

It's one of those things you gotta' listen for. And it's something you want to do to both the individual tracks and the final mix. The best way to do it is to just start cutting various frequencies all over the place untill it sounds better . . . or boost certain frequencies untill it sounds much worse and/or exaggerated. Once you've identified where it's at, start cuttin' away.
 
well i dunno but I almost cry everytime I play a 23 or 24kHz sine wav through my monitors it hurts so bad... dunno why I do it... just checking to see if I can still hear that high I guess...
 
you can't hear that high. it's something else sympathetically resonating at a lower frequency. perhaps your balls (which would explain why it hurts!)
 
I almost started another thread about this, but I guess it kind of fits in here as well, so I'll try here first:

All of my recordings include Double Bass played pizzicato. I'm happy with the sound I'm getting from the bass itself, and happy for the most part with the mic sound (it's finally getting more even across the range). When I mix, I'm able to take out the boominess inherent in the instrument by using a low pass filter, and that helps a lot. BUT....there is still one "WOLF" tone on all of the recordings that I can't seen to get rid of: the open "D" string. It stands out like a sore thumb, and I'm guessing it has to do with proximity effect.

My question is: what is the frequency of this pitch on the bass, and what would be the most common overtones of this note? Would the overtones simply be the next notes up in the harmonic series, like 8ve, 5th, 4th, Ma 3rd, etc? And once I figure out this information, is it possible to "Spot reduce" a single Wolf tone with a good notch filter, even if it takes several bands to do it?

Thanks in advance.
 
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