Hi Randy,
First of all thank you for the opportunity to learn from you.
I wanted to ask you how do you deal with high frequency? De-essing, eq, multiband compression? And lastly, do you normally use compression in your chain? What plugins/ hardware do you use for these purposes?
Thank you very much again for your time.
Hi Alvaro2,
Thank you for your questions. If you’re asking how I deal with excessive high frequency content, I use EQ, de-essing, and sometimes dynamic EQ to smooth it out… I’ll use EQ cuts at the frequencies that are poking out or harsh, usually with medium Q’s like 2.5 to 4, but depends on the song. Sometimes there are multiple frequencies that need cutting, in which case I’ll err on the narrower side in terms of Q. Sometimes I’ll use more than one de-esser, each targeted at a different frequency band. Sometimes I’ll use Soothe2 if the above methods are doing enough. I haven’t used multi-band compression much for this type of issue, but doesn’t mean it’s not a good method. I just choose a different approach.
Regarding compression in general, I don’t find it necessary unless the mix is severely lacking dynamic control on the individual elements. If this is not the case, and the mix is reasonably well controlled in a dynamic sense, I usually find that the limiter I choose is adequate. If it’s not adequate, I’ll use the Ozone multi-band for subtle moves to take the load off the lmiter, and for more aggressive moves I’ll reach for the Massenburg DRC-2, or very occasionally the UAD 670 or Vari-Mu.
Best Regards,
Randy