Treble Frequency way too high...

[f18mech]

Hello all, I have a notorious problem with my CD recordings from Pro Tools containing way too much treble, even when I turn the high down on the equalizer plugin and turn the master track eq down, my "s"s on my vocal track sound like their sawing logs, how can I turn the high's down on the master to make a pleasant sounding CD recording, rather than putting my listeners through torture? Thanks


John

[lemix]

Hello all, I have a notorious problem with my CD recordings from Pro Tools containing way too much treble, even when I turn the high down on the equalizer plugin and turn the master track eq down, my "s"s on my vocal track sound like their sawing logs, how can I turn the high's down on the master to make a pleasant sounding CD recording, rather than putting my listeners through torture? Thanks

John

f18mech,
Good general, "can of worms" type of question..
If it hurts, you have done something incorrectly. I can think of three main areas:
1) in the initial recording..that would of course be the combination of the performer;acoustics;choice and tweaking of the equipment. Lack of experience and/or inaccurate monitoring plays a major role here !
2) while processing/mixing/mastering your audio. Even a great sounding track can be destroyed by over processing, not obeying basic principals, or just using crappy plugs/outboard equipment.Lack of experience and/or inaccurate monitoring plays a major role here !
3)..you've guessed it :Lack of experience and/or inaccurate monitoring !

With vocals in particular..the voice itself, and the microphone play the biggest part.
De-essers are the usual remedy (to some degree..)

Can you post a raw vocal and a final vocal sample ?

best of luck,
a

[f18mech]

OK, well I am e newbie at professional recording, so all of these apply to me, especially because I am using low end equipment - just a CAD M37 going strait to the MBOX, and a Marshall amp going from the emulated out(which simulates micing the cab) strait to the MBOX, so I am relying soley on ProTools for my mastering and effects. It seems when I play the session in Pro Tools it sounds great, but when I bounce to disk and burn the CD, it goes to crap - I love the way the vocals sound in Pro Tools but like I said going to the disk it takes a wrong turn somewhere...

[f18mech]

OK, well I am e newbie at professional recording, so all of these apply to me, especially because I am using low end equipment - just a CAD M37 going strait to the MBOX, and a Marshall amp going from the emulated out(which simulates micing the cab) strait to the MBOX, so I am relying soley on ProTools for my mastering and effects. It seems when I play the session in Pro Tools it sounds great, but when I bounce to disk and burn the CD, it goes to crap - I love the way the vocals sound in Pro Tools but like I said going to the disk it takes a wrong turn somewhere...

[lemix]

It seems when I play the session in Pro Tools it sounds great, but when I bounce to disk and burn the CD, it goes to crap - I love the way the vocals sound in Pro Tools but like I said going to the disk it takes a wrong turn somewhere...

Well..how and where do you listen to the burned CDR's ???
Have you tried to re-import into the session and compare ?
Which burning application are you using ? Are there any "enhancement" features enabled there ??
Also..what processing are you applying to the vocal track ?
See..there could be many reasons for "going to crap", that's why I've asked you to post a raw PT recording of the vocal and another one ripped off the bounced CD.

a

[f18mech]

ok, I'll try to post a copy of the vocal, it ok except the treble for the whole song seems way to high(I am playing these on my car stereo and they are still high compared to the other CDs), I think I have a mastering problem though because even when I bounce them down to 44.1/16 the songs seem to take on a high treble character, and the vocal esses are so high they crackle, any how maybe I'll take a course on some mastering. On the vocals i am using 7band eq, compressor/limiter dyn3 at 3:1,and D-verb at 24%. Then on the master I am running compressor at 1.5:1, and 7band eq. Maybe some suggestions as to what other plugins I could use or what settings I could apply...thanks I'll see about posting that vocal, I don't have an MP3 encoder so this could be challenging...

John