Need Upper Frequencies Help Desperately

[thecontrolcentre]

Wouldn't I need a reference track that was similar to the track I'm creating? It makes no sense to compare my track to something that doesn't have relatively the same instrument composition. And then, unless I was intimately familiar with that track, how would I even know?

Goes without saying, surely? That's the point of referencing.

[wagtunes]

Okay, this is what I did and this is where I am now beyond totally confused.

At the end of my chain on my output buss, I have a limiter. I just played the track back and watched the db meter on the output buss and it peaks at 0 db.

I then took Fabfilter Pro-Q and put it at the end of the chain after the limiter. I then played the track back making note of where the graph on the EQ peaked at.

Just below 2K it peaked at almost 12 db. The rest of the track, somewhere between 3 and 9 depending on the frequency. I then solo'd the tambourine and it peaks between 9 and 12 db at around 5k.

So what do I do from here? How do I get the tambourine to be heard in the mix but not too loud? What do I do next?

[wagtunes]

Wouldn't I need a reference track that was similar to the track I'm creating? It makes no sense to compare my track to something that doesn't have relatively the same instrument composition. And then, unless I was intimately familiar with that track, how would I even know?

Goes without saying, surely? That's the point of referencing.

So I have to go hunt for a piece that's similar to mine? What if I don't find one? Then what?

In the meantime, can somebody please read my post above and direct me from there?

[thecontrolcentre]

Wouldn't I need a reference track that was similar to the track I'm creating? It makes no sense to compare my track to something that doesn't have relatively the same instrument composition. And then, unless I was intimately familiar with that track, how would I even know?

Goes without saying, surely? That's the point of referencing.

So I have to go hunt for a piece that's similar to mine ?

I didn't say that ...

[wagtunes]

Wouldn't I need a reference track that was similar to the track I'm creating? It makes no sense to compare my track to something that doesn't have relatively the same instrument composition. And then, unless I was intimately familiar with that track, how would I even know?

Goes without saying, surely? That's the point of referencing.

So I have to go hunt for a piece that's similar to mine ?

I didn't say that ...

Wait a minute. You just said "Goes without saying" to what I said above, which was I need to find a similar track. Well do I or don't I?

[whyterabbyt]

Wouldn't I need a reference track that was similar to the track I'm creating? It makes no sense to compare my track to something that doesn't have relatively the same instrument composition. And then, unless I was intimately familiar with that track, how would I even know?

Goes without saying, surely? That's the point of referencing.

So I have to go hunt for a piece that's similar to mine? What if I don't find one? Then what?

well, since its going to be a guide to solving a larger issue (your hearing of higher frequencies) rather than finetuning, the amount of similarity doesnt have to be that high, IMO.
And in terms of educating your expectations, you could use multiple reference files (by genre and/or instrument content) as long as you get an appreciation for the before/after visually and audibly, informing your production/mixing in future.

[wagtunes]

Wouldn't I need a reference track that was similar to the track I'm creating? It makes no sense to compare my track to something that doesn't have relatively the same instrument composition. And then, unless I was intimately familiar with that track, how would I even know?

Goes without saying, surely? That's the point of referencing.

So I have to go hunt for a piece that's similar to mine? What if I don't find one? Then what?

well, since its going to be a guide to solving a larger issue (your hearing of higher frequencies) rather than finetuning, the amount of similarity doesnt have to be that high, IMO.
And in terms of educating your expectations, you could use multiple reference files (by genre and/or instrument content) as long as you get an appreciation for the before/after visually and audibly, informing your production/mixing in future.

Thanks for trying to help. I really do appreciate it.

Here's what I can't believe. There are lots of people in this industry who are advanced in age and, to some degree, have lost the upper frequencies of the hearing. I'm sure there are people right here with the same problem.

What do they do? How do they compensate for this? I can't believe that everybody who has upper frequency loss who does this for a living throws up their hands and says "Oh well, time to retire."

We live in an age with incredible technology. There has to be a way to compensate for this.

[thecontrolcentre]

Hearing Aids?


More seriously, do you have good monitoring? I remember you saying you mix using headphones a lot (?) ...

[wagtunes]

Hearing Aids?


More seriously, do you have good monitoring? I remember you saying you mix using headphones a lot (?) ...

I bought pro studio monitors (Yamaha) but don't have a treated room so it was a waste of money. I listen both through them and through headphones in order to get the stereo spread I want just so.

[fluffy_little_something]

Play your mixes at half the speed, so the high-frequency stuff becomes audible to you.

[thecontrolcentre]

Play your mixes at half the speed, so the high-frequency stuff becomes audible to you.

You still recording to tape, fluffy?

[BertKoor]

Reference the spectrum of your mixes against pink noise spectrum.

I have absolutely no idea what you just said.

Pink noise sounds like all frequencies are evenly loud. But this is what the spectrum of pink noise really looks like:



Here's the spectrum of a song with too pronounced highs:


So the average spectrum of the whole song gives you a clue what frequencies are over- or under-represented.

[wagtunes]

Reference the spectrum of your mixes against pink noise spectrum.

I have absolutely no idea what you just said.

Pink noise sounds like all frequencies are evenly loud. But this is what the spectrum of pink noise really looks like:



Here's the spectrum of a song with too pronounced highs:


So the average spectrum of the whole song gives you a clue what frequencies are over- or under-represented.

Yes, I understand that now. But the video I watched doesn't helped because, ultimately, he turned down the sliders of each track until he couldn't hear the track anymore. That doesn't help me since it is my hearing that's the problem. So the pink noise method still won't work for me for upper frequencies.

[fluffy_little_something]

Play your mixes at half the speed, so the high-frequency stuff becomes audible to you.

You still recording to tape, fluffy?

In some audio players one can change the playback speed. Windows Media Player for instance:
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data ... ider_2.jpg

[wagtunes]

I tried something else. I took the EQ on the output buss and brought up the brickwall high pass preset. I then solo'd the tambourine and moved the cutoff from left to right until I could no longer hear the tambourine. It turns out that I could hear it right up to about 4k but at exactly 5k, where there is lots of information showing on the graph, I can't hear it at all once I move the slider there.

So my hearing isn't as bad as I thought but everything from 5k up I can't hear.