The icing on the cake

[Douglas Boyle]

To all the M/E's
When you are happy with you are nearing the end of your tweaking for a song what are a few ways that you put that little sparkle in the high end to give it that crisp sound that i often hear.
Or it may not be in the high end.
I like to put in a little boost with eq and sweep between 15k-24k. See where it sits best and go from there.
Presuming you have good material to work with.

Thank you

 

[Massive Master]

Presuming you have good material to work with.

That's the key, right there... Adding "that sheen" on a well-done recording with a nice, open, airy top isn't a rough thing to do if it isn't already apparent - It can be as simple as a high shelf, it might come out through some gentle compression. The thing is that in most cases, it's already there and just needs to be "brought out" a bit.

Trying to *make* it happen (MBC, EQ'ing "drity" frequencies, etc.) is another story - It can work, but it tends to sound "fake" and somewhat disjointed from the rest of the mix.

 

[Douglas Boyle]

That's the key, right there... Adding "that sheen" on a well-done recording with a nice, open, airy top isn't a rough thing to do if it isn't already apparent - It can be as simple as a high shelf, it might come out through some gentle compression. The thing is that in most cases, it's already there and just needs to be "brought out" a bit.

Trying to *make* it happen (MBC, EQ'ing "drity" frequencies, etc.) is another story - It can work, but it tends to sound "fake" and somewhat disjointed from the rest of the mix.

Interesting John
thank you, i think sometimes i try to make it happen and i know it does not sound the best.
Would you say if the sweet sound does not start to appear after correct eq and compression then maybe its not worth making it happen.
Extra unnecessary processing/calculations and so forth.

Douglas

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

Generally I go for the throat on mixes and try to nail the "sparkle" right from the get-go. I'll focus on the core elements, balance out the mix, and make things sound as big as necessary. Usually by the end of a mix I'm toning down a few things for the betterment of the production.

However, the *last* thing I do is tweak the reverb on any mix. I'll make sure that it breathes some depth into things. I guess that's my icing on the cake.

 

[Douglas Boyle]

Generally I go for the throat on mixes and try to nail the "sparkle" right from the get-go. I'll focus on the core elements, balance out the mix, and make things sound as big as necessary. Usually by the end of a mix I'm toning down a few things for the betterment of the production.

However, the *last* thing I do is tweak the reverb on any mix. I'll make sure that it breathes some depth into things. I guess that's my icing on the cake.

Interesting Cloneboy.
Would you care to elaborate as to how you tweak your verbs.
Do you gate/eq your sends also. Things like that.
Thanks