{"id":4460,"date":"2019-12-11T07:46:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T07:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/soundid-reference\/blog\/?p=4460"},"modified":"2019-12-11T07:46:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T07:46:59","slug":"five-ways-to-de-harsh-your-mixes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonarworks.com\/blog\/learn\/five-ways-to-de-harsh-your-mixes","title":{"rendered":"Five ways to De-harsh Your Mixes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ages ago, when digital audio starting gaining some steam, detractors complained that it sounded sterile and\/or harsh. In many cases they were right.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analog equipment, like tube and transformer-based preamps and consoles, typically improve sound on its way to tape. Also, the tape itself helps tame transients and sibilance, smoothing harsh frequencies and softening transients.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, analog to digital converters and digital recorders faithfully record and reproduce whatever you put a mic in front of, with very little change in sonic color. So for engineers with an established analog signal chain, recording to digital formats meant that if your signals contain a lot of harsh frequencies the audio would be recorded and reproduced in its full splendor, including any and all harshness. Bright mics and gentle sibilance that sounded reasonable on tape didn\u2019t sound so good on digital recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past two decades, digital converters have improved and we have re-thought our signal path choices to record audio that retains the warmth and naturalness of the original signal. Lately, though, there has been an explosion of inexpensive microphones and affordable recreations of vintage gear that allow us all to purchase a variety of recording tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, sonic contributions of inexpensive gear often include harshness in the high frequencies due to cheap capacitors and poor headroom as well as a lack of the good kind of harmonic enhancement due to transformerless designs and, again, poor headroom. Simply compare almost any of the inexpensive modern U87 \u201cclones\u201d to a 1970s Neumann U87 and you will quickly understand that the 10% advantage in audio quality of the real U87 is well worth the extra zero in the price tag. Like everything, the last 10% of audio quality is hard (and expensive)\u00a0 to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, plugins provide tools we can use to help tame any harshness: de-essers, dynamic EQs, automatic resonance removal software, and even some saturation plugins. The latter type of processor can be used to soften harsh transients and achieve that sought-after \u201canalog sound.\u201d

Before we move on, one word of advice. While mixing and mastering, avoid listening to boosted or soloed harsh frequencies for longer than a few seconds at a time, especially if you\u2019re using headphones. These frequencies fatigue your ears unbelievably quickly, making it much harder to trust what you hear without frequent breaks to reset your hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I. EQ<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Fabilter Pro-Q3 <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a known fact that there is a reciprocal relationship between the perception of low and high frequencies. While it may seem obvious at first to simply raise frequencies that seem shy or lower frequencies that seem to loud, performing the reciprocal movement will sometimes create a more pleasant and natural tilt. For instance, dip the lows and the whole song will sound brighter. The opposite stands true as well: if the song sounds harsh you may lower the highs, but also try boosting the low mids a bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use a medium-to-wide Q and take care so sure you don\u2019t introduce any boxiness. This technique works best on acoustic genres such as jazz, folk or classical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

II. Dynamic EQs<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Dynamic EQs behave somewhere in-between an EQ and a compressor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MeldaProductions Dynamic EQ\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dynamic EQs works only when the level of a chosen frequency crosses above or below a user-defined threshold. Let\u2019s say a singer sounds great across a whole song, but whenever she belts, her voice becomes a bit harsh. We could apply a normal EQ to dip the harsh frequencies, but that would result in the voice sounding a bit dull when she\u2019s not belting. Alternatively, we could manually automate the EQ as needed, but that\u2019d be a waste of <\/em>time. The dynamic equalizer automatically boosts or cuts a specific frequency band to maintain a consistent frequency balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, we can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n