smoothing "harshness"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rusty K
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Rusty K

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Hello,

I'm getting close to a "wrap" on a song I've been working on, but the acoustic sounds harsh in certain places, vocals too. Is there a frequency range in the eq I could play with to smooth this out a bit?

Thanks,
Rusty K
 
a good mp3 would help....the frequency you are looking for really depends on the voice and guitar as all are different....vocal harshness for me is around 1k, but typical can be between 1k and 5k.....acoustic guitar is pretty similar.....

if you are using N-Track, just play the track and set the Q (bandwith) really narrow(between .1 and .5) and set the boost/cut really high (-10db) with the frequency at 1k (1000hz) and then sweep thru the frequency until you find where the harshness was....then adjust the boost/cut and bandwidth to the desired effect......
 
Usually in digital, that "harshness" is around 5-9KHz. If it is just in "spots", you might want to go into your editing software and just apply a bit of cut eq at the offending frequency ONLY on the parts that sound harsh, rather than the whole track. But cutting it on the whole track, you really didn't solve the problem. You did, but the rest of the track, which MAY NEED those frequencies will now be deficient because of the cut eq applied over the whole track.

In the analog mixing world, a lot of times, if I don't need eq on the track, I will set up the eq to cut that frequency, but will only engage the eq on the spots that need it using the EQ On/Off switch (if the mixer has one...no luck with Mackies....:() or will just manually do the tweek when needed while mixing.

Ed
 
Yes sonusman...... it is just in spots at least on the guitar. The vocal could probably use smoothing throughout. I'm using a Sennheiser E855, stage mic, I really like it because of the noise rejection in my puter room but the characteristic that makes it a great stage mic also I think makes it kind of harsh and piercing for recording. I haven't used my editor in the way you described so I'll have to experiment

Gidge......I am using Ntrack so I'll give your method a try on my vocals first. Hey have you tried 3.0 yet? I'm not sure that there is much there that I need right now so I'm holding off to get some feedback.


Thanks guys
RK
 
Rusty, if you need to edit in "spots", try exporting the wave into Goldwave and do it there...its much better than N-Track for editing..... www.goldwave.com

no I havent moved up to 3.0...I was pretty didappointed that it didnt have all that much also.....but I cant complain because 2.3 is doing just fine.....
 
Gidge,

We must have pretty much the same setup. Goldwave was my very first computer online purchase a couple of years back.

I'm always a little hesitant when I try something for the first time....so I highlight the area but then what? Do I use Goldwave eq, that is, after I've found the offending frequencies with realtime in N-track?

I just upgraded to a 1G AMD Thunderbird and my system seems to run smoother and definately faster than my 700hz Duron. I haven't had a recording session though. I'm getting a few skips in the playback in Ntrack especially when I plugged in a mic to check it out for recording. I'm not sure what it going on. If you have any ideas please pass them on.

Thanks as always,
Rusty K
 
Once you find the offending frequency and how much of a cut and Q you need and you know what spots need to be processed, bring it into Goldwave, left click the start and right click the end to highlight the area....hit effects/filter/parametic eq and then put in your settings...click ok and it will process.....

As far as the pops, you may need to reset your bufferings...once you get into a session, keep us updated on anyproblems u encounter....
 
I'm not familiar with your editing software...I'm a Sound Forge user, but another way to do this would be to set up a multiband compressor/limiter at the offending frequency. That way you could set it up to only kick in at a certain gain level, in other words only when it's offending.
 
Say Gidge,

I tried your method and it really worked. I increased the gain on a .5 bandwidth to about +10 and it really jumped about 3.9k. My only question on that is as I decreased that freq. to -10 it just got better. How does this jive with Sonusman's "rule of thumb" to never increase or decrease freq. gain more than +/-6db? Would the exception be to "notch" out a particular freq. completely?

I just re-eq'd the guitar and was able to smooth it quite a bit. Funny it was close to the same area in frequency.

One other question.....On the playback buffer settings...how much should I increase them...I mean what's a good increment for a first try? It's at 3584 right now.. I haven't ever adjusted them till now so I assume that's default.

Rusty K
 
If you are doing some spot editing on a track, you will find that around -10 of gain is not uncommon.

My comment of using only around +/- 6dB of gain on a digital eq was more for applying eq overall on a track.

Ed
 
Ed,

Thanks....I kind of figured that was the case. As I listened and reduced the gain on the offending freq's I knew it must be the exception to the rule.

RK
 
as a cut, -10db wouldnt scare me.....a 10db boost on the other hand would scare me more than those nude pictures i have of sonusman (Mom seems to like them)......

it may be that the mic you are using has a boost there, but you may want to experiment with different mic positions so that you get a better sound....

like Ed said, if more than +/-6db on a whole track is needed, it was probably recorded less than optimally...however, with the "bottom feeder" gear we use, it may happen and if it works, it works....and again, cuts are better than boosts.....
 
Hey Gidge.....

You must have missed a question to you that I posed on an earlier post. I've been hoping you would reply as I'm still having this "skipping thing" going on during playback.

It's about the buffer thing in NTrack. My playback buffer setting is 3584....how much should I increase it incrementally? Since I've never played with this setting I'm assuming it's the default setting now.

Thanks,
Rusty K
 
I have a crappy system (500mhz Celeron HP Pavillion) so I have all my buffers cranked to max....when making volume and eq adjustments, it takes a second or so to get the results, but its the only way I can get a decent amount of plugins going.....what will work on your system is just up to experimenting, I wish I had your answer.....I rather mine cranked because the last thing I want is a hiccup in the middle of recording a track....
 
Gidge,

Man it's a buyer's market around these parts for computers right now. I've been told that one can pick up a used/refurbished Dell at one of their outlets in Round Rock, Tx. for $200 bucks.

I just spent $250 upgrading mine...which seemed kind of stupid after I heard about the used Dells.

Hey it's not that far from the swamp....ha!

Rusty K
 
sjoko2,

It looks really cool but I already use TRacks for may mastering and "warming" is their speciality too. I think this was a mic choice and and initial eq'ing problem. I believe I've smoothed it quite a bit now.

Thanks,
Rusty K
 
It looks like you've got it under control but I do have an additional suggestion. I have found that the db-audioware deesser works well for this type of problem
 
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