Saxophone First Aid needed

[4dBrooklyn]

Hello Mastering Experts

I need some help from some experienced ears...

I'm mixing a piece that includes an alto saxophone track that is mildly distorted. I think either the pre was too hot or the mic itself clipped. The saxophonist has a very edgy/reedy sound anyway, which is fine, but some of the louder notes are just too dirty.

I've tried notch eq to take some of the offensive freq's down, but I'm not getting what I need. Here are links to a portion of the unaltered track at 24/96, and 24/48 for the less patient. And 16/44.1 for the rest...

Anyone have time to listen and comment?

[blaugruen7]

being a saxophonist and hearing that example not too loud on my monitors i can say you, that i havent heared distortion in your example. :-)
i only hear an alto player who sings into the sax during playing which "distorts" the sound.
i would play the example to the saxophonist and ask him if this is him.

[4dBrooklyn]

thanks for listening. its not distorted most of the time, but there are a few peak notes that I think definitely are. He's heard it, and doesn't have a problem with it. But its his album and I want the alto sound to be as strong as possible. (Of course...!)

[4dBrooklyn]

maybe what I'm hearing could be better described as compression of the mic diaphragm...? its a U67

[Waltz Mastering]

If the distortion or unwanted noise is recorded onto the track you can reduce it but not eliminate it completely. Try compressing the peaks or go in and automate the level on the peaks to reduce them.

TW

[bob katz]

I'm on my laptop so I can't easily listen to your files.

I've used several approaches to dealing with these types of distortion. And usually a combination of a few approaches in series, each set to "moderate", is better than trying to get it all with one.

---- Renovator, manually softening the distorted high frequency sections with 1 to 3 dB of gain reduction. This can be the most transparent, because it's only in the chain when you need it, but also the most labor intensive

---- Weiss DS1-Mk2 (or 3! because that has M/S and can be more selective) set for 1 to 3 dB of reduction at the frequency of interst

--- A nice sweet tube compressor like the Pendulum OCL-2, can sweeten or take the edge off of your sax


And so on. Combinations of these methods can work "miracles."

BK

Originally Posted by 4dBrooklyn

Hello Mastering Experts

I need some help from some experienced ears...

I'm mixing a piece that includes an alto saxophone track that is mildly distorted. I think either the pre was too hot or the mic itself clipped. The saxophonist has a very edgy/reedy sound anyway, which is fine, but some of the louder notes are just too dirty.

I've tried notch eq to take some of the offensive freq's down, but I'm not getting what I need. Here are links to a portion of the unaltered track at 24/96, and 24/48 for the less patient. And 16/44.1 for the rest...

Anyone have time to listen and comment?

[5down1up]

have good experience with the c1 sidechain mode to remove the " car horn " sound.

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by 5down1up

have good experience with the c1 sidechain mode to remove the " car horn " sound.

Actually I prefer the split mode to the sidechain mode of the C1. In the sidechain mode, say you set it for some high frequency. Then any high frequencies in the saxaphone will take down all frequencies at once. But if you set the C1 to split mode, then the narrow band of high frequencies you choose will be the only band that will be affected by the threshold. But yes, I agree, that the Waves C1 in moderation will make a good distortion reducer for this material. Don't set the attack too fast, try 100 ms. or so, and probably a release time around 150 to 250 ms. And 1 to 3 dB of GR, if you can get away with only 1 dB and combine the C1 with the other methods combined, then you can have a fairly innocuous distortion removing (or softening) circuit.

BK

[5down1up]

@ bob . and yes, i was talking about split mode.

[4dBrooklyn]

thanks guys

good tips all around - I'll try the C1 / hardware tube compressor combination. Since I have those on hand...

I appreciate it!

[5down1up]

check this out :

Dave Pensado's Plug-In Secrets

good luck