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Gear / Technical Help => Post-Processing, Computer / Streaming / Internet Devices & Related Activity => Topic started by: fandelive on March 06, 2016, 03:39:29 AM

Title: Need advices minimizing too bright cymbal sound
Post by: fandelive on March 06, 2016, 03:39:29 AM

Hello tapers,

I recently pull out a great sounding tape. I'm pretty happy with it, but the cymbals sound way too bright to my tastes at some points.
Sounds like bad mp3 compression artifacts, too much sparkling.

Here's a 10 seconds mp3 sample (320kbps) : http://cmlien.free.fr/ts/cymbal.mp3 (http://cmlien.free.fr/ts/cymbal.mp3)
...and here's the wav version for quick testing : http://cmlien.free.fr/ts/cymbal.wav (http://cmlien.free.fr/ts/cymbal.wav)

This was recorded 24/48 and then dithered (triangular) to 16/44.
Can the dithering process affect the cymbals sound in a bad way ?

I'm just starting EQ'ing my recordings, so I rely to this cheat sheet : http://www.cheatography.com/fredv/cheat-sheets/eq-tips/ (http://www.cheatography.com/fredv/cheat-sheets/eq-tips/).
It states cymbals can be sizzled by playing around 7.5 > 10 kHz and clanked by playing around 200 Hz.
But even an extreme cut around those frequencies doesn't change anything, so I guess I'm missing something...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks !!

Title: Re: Need advices minimizing too bright cymbal sound
Post by: hoserama on March 06, 2016, 10:48:48 AM

One of those cases when looking at something in spectral view helps. There's sharp spikes between 5.5k-6.2k for the cymbals. So you could do an EQ cut there. Or (what I would more likely recommend) using a de-esser tuned to that range, or just a regular multiband compressor. De-esser would probably do it--it's designed for taking out sibilance but works in the same principle. Lowers that frequency range once it reaches a certain threshold.