Low-mid frequency pile up ? (1 Viewer)

[cyclotron]

Hi all,

Haven't posted here in yonks but I'm doing some mixing at the moment and a lot of tracks are coalescing in the low-mid range. Any tips for clearing these out ? Usual suspects...guitar/bass/keyboards are involved and I'm trying to pan these to make space and interlock the eq's by cutting narrow bands but lots of fundamental tones seem to be in the same range...any tips on making the mix less muddy would be greatly appreciated, ta !!

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

High pass filter them sonsabitches.

 

[GO]

You have to make choices.Its a battle down there and not everyone can win.Decide on the dominant sound and carve the others around it.
Also,many narrow eq cuts will distort the overall timbre..this mightnt be a bad thing but it usually is.I'd go with hi passing things until they sound shite and back off a bit.I'd also try lo passing and inserting some kind of exciter to replace the uncontrolleded hi frequency sound with more manageable focused tones.But only use this on one element as its tiring on the ears if overdone.
I'd also try using m/s processing to totally carve out the mid channel of the mid range stuff,therby creating that all important place for kijk and bass to live but maintaining timbre on the external stereo field.
Plus I'd try positioning competing elements at different depths by judicious use of delay which has the added benefit of creating depth.

Most of my mixes are fucking rubbish though ,but these are the things I try.

 

[pissypants]

Probably not applicable in your case, but consider the arrangement of the song in the first place. Could a keyboard / guitar part be modulated into a different register - like up or down an octave, to clear space in the mix?

 

[GO]

Probably not applicable in your case, but consider the arrangement of the song in the first place. Could a keyboard / guitar part be modulated into a different register - like up or down an octave, to clear space in the mix?

This is actually the best tip of all!

Something I've really being looking into.A good arrangement will mix itself.Write the dynamics in to the song

 

[ann post]

maybe pipe them all through one graphic eq type thing and turn down the annoying bit.

 

[cyclotron]

Probably not applicable in your case, but consider the arrangement of the song in the first place. Could a keyboard / guitar part be modulated into a different register - like up or down an octave, to clear space in the mix?

Yeah, that seems the best way to go about it alright - deciding on the map of the mix before you go near recording anything and having really good mics to record with. I've been trying to be more conscious of this lately but with so many instruments sharing the same range, it's still hard to make them all audible and avoid mud. Panning seems to help tho.

 

[cyclotron]

Also,many narrow eq cuts will distort the overall timbre..this mightnt be a bad ing but it usually is.I'd go with hi passing things until they sound shite and back off a bit.I'd also try lo passing and inserting some kind of exciter to replace the uncontrolleded hi frequency sound with more manageable focused tones.But only use this on one element as its tiring on the ears if overdone.

Cheers ! I find that cutting eq's just seems too harsh a solution - like you end up removing the very thing you liked about the sound in the first place...and delays and reverbs seem to just add more mud - even though I love them so much that I tend to overuse them ! But I haven't used passing or exciter plug-ins at all so I'll have to see how these work out.


I'd also try using m/s processing to totally carve out the mid channel of the mid range stuff,therby creating that all important place for kijk and bass to live but maintaining timbre on the external stereo field.
Plus I'd try positioning competing elements at different depths by judicious use of delay which has the added benefit of creating depth.

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[Cormcolash]

Hi-passing the shit out of certain things has done the job for me at times, I don't really get a big problem with this sort of thing though. Then again recording heavier punk etc. sort of stuff you wouldn't need to worry about it so much.