Forgive me for the clickbait title...
Per the advice on the board here about creating loud mixes, I went back to my mixes and went all OCD on the low end part of the mixes. I did not blindly put a HPF on things, but listened to every track, and then added appropriately either a HPF or a shelf to instruments for which the very low end is not needed (I checked below 100hz). I am using the PAZ Analyzer to visualize the frequency peaks across the spectrum, and definitely it verified that I was pretty stacked up on the low end, and my changes had the desired effect of lowering the stack/peaks on that spectrum. The extra headroom also allowed me to better define my kick drum and add some "punch" to it, as well as actually add some very low end to the vocal to give it some deep resonance.
The result to the overall mix, however, was remarkable. It certainly got "louder" (or shall I say, gave me headroom), but now my higher frequencies are too loud. It is as if the higher low end was attenuating the high end, and now it is too loud. Is this how it works? If I then go and reduce those frequencies that seem too loud, am I not just right back to where I started?
Thanks for your thoughts - I am relatively new at this.
Per the advice on the board here about creating loud mixes, I went back to my mixes and went all OCD on the low end part of the mixes. I did not blindly put a HPF on things, but listened to every track, and then added appropriately either a HPF or a shelf to instruments for which the very low end is not needed (I checked below 100hz). I am using the PAZ Analyzer to visualize the frequency peaks across the spectrum, and definitely it verified that I was pretty stacked up on the low end, and my changes had the desired effect of lowering the stack/peaks on that spectrum. The extra headroom also allowed me to better define my kick drum and add some "punch" to it, as well as actually add some very low end to the vocal to give it some deep resonance.
The result to the overall mix, however, was remarkable. It certainly got "louder" (or shall I say, gave me headroom), but now my higher frequencies are too loud. It is as if the higher low end was attenuating the high end, and now it is too loud. Is this how it works? If I then go and reduce those frequencies that seem too loud, am I not just right back to where I started?
Thanks for your thoughts - I am relatively new at this.
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