how to add clarity and shine to your mix?

[Tricky-Loops]

take the distortion plugins; in the past, it was not so obvious to use them, for example, in a drum bus to make drums "thicker" ; this is a recent concept .

no it isn't. perhaps it is for you.

this seemed obvious to me (distort, filter, blend) for boosting when i first had access to the tools to do so.

i implemented a "bass boost" plugin in 1999 using this plus some compression.

if you have a "good ear" you can identify this in music dating back to the 50s.

what's old is new again.

If I listen to songs of the 50ies of Italy, I don't hear any distortion. They sound all like Zucchero...

[Mister Natural]

Tone = Volume, and Volume = Tone

don't you guys find that just the slightest volume adjustment within a mix makes a HUGE difference ? For me, sometimes taking an instrument down in level makes it more clear, sometimes the relationship between two instrument's levels makes one or the other POP out.

peace

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Now I don't understand what a maximizer has to do with adding sparkle to a mix??

We are not talking about loudness maximizer (Waves L3 kind of things), Rather the sonic Maximizer by BBE Sound. Two very different things but yeah I can understand as soon as someone reads maximizer they may easily presume the former (Waves L3...etc.) type of processing is being suggested man

I can not be 100% certain on this one but if memory serves me rightly I think that BBE had the Sonic Maximizer out before loudness maximizer came about (well the term used for very heavy limiting )

http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic- ... fault.aspx
and on the about bit going since 1985 although I am not sure which year they released the first version of thier 'Sonic Maximizer', Im sure if you search youtube there will be plenty of before/after clips to give you an idea of what they do (for better or worse is down to personal preference obviously and youtube ain't exactly known for its stunning sound quality or even an sort of quality control!)

Dean

[Tricky-Loops]

Now I don't understand what a maximizer has to do with adding sparkle to a mix??

We are not talking about loudness maximizer (Waves L3 kind of things), Rather the sonic Maximizer by BBE Sound. Two very different things but yeah I can understand as soon as someone reads maximizer they may easily presume the former (Waves L3...etc.) type of processing is being suggested man

I can not be 100% certain on this one but if memory serves me rightly I think that BBE had the Sonic Maximizer out before loudness maximizer came about (well the term used for very heavy limiting )

http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic- ... fault.aspx
and on the about bit going since 1985 although I am not sure which year they released the first version of thier 'Sonic Maximizer', Im sure if you search youtube there will be plenty of before/after clips to give you an idea of what they do (for better or worse is down to personal preference obviously and youtube ain't exactly known for its stunning sound quality or even an sort of quality control!)

Dean

Ups, I really have confused the Sonic Maximizer with loudness maximizers.

I have read that the Sonic Maximizer can actually raise the HF, but does it really bring sparkle into the mix or does it just make the mix clearer?

[xh3rv]

I must try the plug version as they have a 'harmonic maximizer' also which could be really handy

I was less impressed by the harmonic maximizer, it feels more like a coloration tool, not without use but not the same level of versatility as the sonic maximizer.

I have read that the Sonic Maximizer can actually raise the HF, but does it really bring sparkle into the mix or does it just make the mix clearer?

On a mix, I wouldn't say sparkle, it's just clarity. I got turned onto BBE seeing Dave Gilmour is a user, and for something like a strat, the sonic maximizer can sort of take the 'quack' and smooth it into sparkle.

Of course for all I know they're both just smile EQs

[Giusmex]

thanx for the great suggestions here


i have understood that actually it depends on the selection of the souds, and i also have to understand what exaclty i mean for "sheen", and "sparkle"

1) according to you, an harmonic exciter used only for the highest frequencies ( i have izotope alloy and it has this option), doesn not increase only the lowest harmonics of a sound that already has upper freuency content? does this operation according to you contribute to the adding shine?


2) i don understand why the distortion plugins ( comprised the long-waited ubk 1 by kush audio...waiting for the vst release !!!) sometimes DO add sparkle to mixes.


any useful ( as always ) answers on these two points?

thanx mates

[SteveBurley2000]

Apologies if I have got the wrong end of the stick here (I haven't read all of the pages for this thread), but the BBE Sonic Maximiser does have a Waves equivalent.

Waves Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter, which works in a similar fashion to BBE SM also adds polish to a track or mix.

Both work really well, but I think the Waves plug in is better sounding (IMHO).

The Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter is about $148 at Waves Universe, but it was only $99 a couple of weeks ago, which isn't bad when you consider what it's based on.

Just wanted to keep the thread going is all....

[Dean Aka Nekro]

There are 'subharmonic' (which work on generating harmonics below the fundamental) devices such as DBX's 120 subharmonic synthesizer, The optical big bottom (name gives it away how it works on that one) and Lo Contour...etc. JBL did one alot like the DBX 120 IIRC and Obviously that type of processing is for the low end and manipulating below/around/above the fundamental mostly/as a rule of thumb.

Whereas the aural exciter and the process on BBE's sonic maximizer work on/around the frequencies our ears are most sensitive which happen to be where many source sounds upper harmonics of their fundamental frequency is. So whilst yeah its distortion in the case of harmonic exciters, It is mixed parallel and limiting is also applied as it is so easy to overload the (rather extremely side-chain IIRC) filtered distortion circuit which is mixed/blended back in to taste, Usually tuneable from around 1khz to 5khz roughly. BBE's 'process' does not excite via distortion as far as I am aware but rather changes/manipulates the phase/time above a certain frequency (again I presume its filtered quite abit but this time you do not get the option of mixing/blending in to taste, Just amount because of the phase/time meddling most likely?). I think of it more like a presence control personally.

Yada Yada, In a nutshell for "sparkle" I would reach for the Aphex device whereas for more cut through/presence "enhancement" I would go for the BBE instead. Best simple way of answering I can do Giusmex

Please do not take everything I have said as concrete though as its been along time since I looked into these things and my mind is not as sharp as it used to be

Best to all as always and please correct me where I am technically wrong

Dean

[kelldammit]

It all starts at the beginning, as you'd pointed out. good arrangement and sound choices will get you 90% of the way there. if your mix works in mono, you're golden, because it helps identify overlapping frequency problems and masking that stereo can hide. THAT'S where clarity comes from...everything having its own space.

As for "shimmer", if you mean the excessive treble boosting that's the trend lately, usually that's just a top-end boost on an eq, typically applied in mastering. if everything else is already working, that should do the trick. you probably wouldn't need much if you do it right.

compression and distortion are quick ways to get precisely the reverse effect if you're not really careful with them. similarly, try to avoid excessive compression or brickwall limiting on your master bus (unless you're LOOKING to add distortion/mud).

i've always steered clear of exciters because of the phasing thing, but they can be useful.

k