Track Muddiness

[tcatzere]

What's the best way to clean up "muddiness" in a track? Are there some key frequencies that should be attenuated -- or boosted?

Tom

[HarBal]

Mudiness is caused by low frequencies masking mid's and hi's. It may be confined to a small region of the spectrum or it may be a broad scale thing. It all depends on the context and what the spectrum is telling you. If everything basically looks ok in the Har-Bal spectrum but the track sounds muddy then trying using the low shelf tool to bring the LF down slightly by bending it down from a high mid position, say 700Hz. Bring it down gradually until it starts sounding clear.

Cheers,


Paavo.

[tcatzere]

Paavo,

So, if the track looks pretty well balanced in HB and I do as you say -- use the low shelving tool -- will this not take the "guts" out of my track? It seems like if you start attenuating the mids and lows, you begin removing the fullness and everything starts sounding pretty thin.

Nonetheless, once that's been done, is there a way to determine where the culprit frequencies are, so you can start building things back up around the problem frequency area(s)?

Tom

[HarBal]

Tom,

Did you actually try it or are you just guessing the outcome. I'm only suggesting cutting slightly. That is, setting the low shelve knee at around 700Hz and adjusting so that frequencies down at 50Hz are cut by say 2-3dB. That is a very gentle slope. The point is it changes the overall relativeties of the highs and lows and a pretty significant way. Try it and see before deciding that it is going to remove the guts.

Cheers,


Paavo.

[tcatzere]

Paavo,

Great advice -- it really seems to work!

By the way, on a slightly different subject, how exactly do you read the left hand vertical scale (i.e. , "x +10dB"). I guess what I'd really like to know is if hypothetically I wanted to pull some frequencies down by 2dB, how would I determine that?

Tom

[HarBal]

It means take the number on the axis scale and multiply by this figure to give the actual dB scale value. That is, if the number next to a given tick mark is 2 and there is a x +10dB on the next to the axis label then the value is 20dB.

If you see a letter next to the d in dB then there is an Engineer multiplier applied to it. That is, if you see something like +10mdB that means the multiplier is 0.01dB so the axis scale tick makr of 2 would be 0.02dB in that case.

The engineering multipliers are:

f = 0.000 000 000 000 001
p = 0.000 000 000 001
n = 0.000 000 001
u = 0.000 001
m = 0.001
k = 1000.0
M = 1000 000.0
G = 1000 000 000. 0
T = 1000 000 000 000.0

You're only likely to ever see the 'm' engineering multiplier though.

Cheers,


Paavo.

[tcatzere]

Mudiness is caused by low frequencies masking mid's and hi's. It may be confined to a small region of the spectrum or it may be a broad scale thing. It all depends on the context and what the spectrum is telling you. If everything basically looks ok in the Har-Bal spectrum but the track sounds muddy then trying using the low shelf tool to bring the LF down slightly by bending it down from a high mid position, say 700Hz. Bring it down gradually until it starts sounding clear.

Paavo,

It's amazing how well this works to clear up some of these issues. I do have a followup question, however. If after making these adjustments, the track sounds like it could use some more bass, what procedure should be used for adding some bass back without recreating the problem that was just corrected by reducing it?

Tom

[HarBal]

You could try changing the slope at which it rolls at the bottom end using the shelving tool. That is keep the knee of the roll off where it is but just lift the content below the knee. That should raise the extension of the bass without introducing significant masking so it shouldn't add mudiness unless you do some extreme processing.

You could also try shifting the knee of your control of the bass in the original operation to a lower frequency. That is, instead of say 600Hz try pulling it down from 300Hz or 200Hz downward. Experiment a little and you should find out what works for the track in question.

Cheers,


Paavo.

[tcatzere]

That is keep the knee of the roll off where it is but just lift the content below the knee.

Does this mean all of the content below the knee, or just some of it -- just certain frequencies?

Tom

[HarBal]

All the content using the low shelf tool.