Guitar EQ High Frequencies help

[Marcello]

Hi Guys I have finished my "home" mix and did a Master with LANDR (online tool for mastering)

I have noticed that when I listen to the track from my headphones it seems quite ok, then when I listen it from the car I can hear a bit too much High Frequencies that are somehow disturbing,  comparing it with other songs from some similar artist.

The high frrquencies come from the guitars, do you usually Low Pass Filter (cut highs) the guitars? If yes how much roughly?

Could someone be very kind to have a listen and tell me if the track is very high in frequencies? or if there is any disturbing frequency on the guitars? or too muddy? I have cut some mids around 700 hertz already, or even if the mix is too wide? Thanks

Here's the track, please listen to the last distorted part.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gWxTEkOuU4A6LNvrSHBLZu-K_-MIy8aF/view?usp=sharing

Edited May 20, 2021 by Marcello

[Heinz Hupfer]

HI:)

From a fast look I can see (and hear) too much at 2,2 - 4,7 kHz. Sounds very harsh!

Nothing there from 7 - 20 kHz. Perhaps add some Cymbal Swells and Crashes or a high Synth or an Accoustic guitar.

It's a MP3, they are cut at 15 kHz and do not sound good (unless they are at least 240 kBit converted). Always make a Wave or flac.

A bit too much round about 330 Hz, at the end a bit too much about 250 Hz.

 

For E-Guitar I mostly do a Hicut (with Resonance) at about 2,5 kHz, for sure not with Accoutic Guitar.

 

Greetz;)

Bassman.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Heinz Hupfer

[Bajan Blue]

As Heinz said, very difficult to tell on MP3 because of the low quality but I would EQ those guitars before I did anything else - and then I would never use LANDAR!!!!!

Depending what you have in your plug in Arsenal I am pretty sure you could do a better job than LANDAR

Cheers

Nigel

 

[Marcello]

LANDR is online mastering tool that is automatic, you just drop your track and it's mastered, I didn't buy the full version now but I will, so I can master in WAV.

LANDR works great, I used a reference track from Envy for the master.

I'm recording at home, so can't be *****ed hiring a mastering engeneer.

ANyway, overall how it sounds to you? I'm not that much of an expert

Edited May 20, 2021 by Marcello

[Marcello]

7 minutes ago, Bajan Blue said:

As Heinz said, very difficult to tell on MP3 because of the low quality but I would EQ those guitars before I did anything else - and then I would never use LANDAR!!!!!

Depending what you have in your plug in Arsenal I am pretty sure you could do a better job than LANDAR

Cheers

Nigel

 

How does it sound to you overall?

Edited May 20, 2021 by Marcello

[Wookiee]

This is not meant to sound as harsh as it might but I think you need to get your mix right before you consider mastering.  Mastering is something that is done for finalising something to fit the medium and intended context it is not mandatory.

A quick analysis in Youlean shows me a red line across the top which means it is in a permanent state of clipping and the strings in the background, I assume they are strings, sound more like square waves than strings

Most Streaming sites would not allow something with -5.4 LUFS you have,they lie around the -14LUFS.

As noted above LANDR hum questionable.

The last thing I would ask is why do you think your tracks needs mastering?

[Marcello]

4 minutes ago, Wookiee said:

This is not meant to sound as harsh as it might but I think you need to get your mix right before you consider mastering.  Mastering is something that is done for finalising something to fit the medium and intended context it is not mandatory.

A quick analysis in Youlean shows me a red line across the top which means it is in a permanent state of clipping and the strings in the background, I assume they are strings, sound more like square waves than strings

Most Streaming sites would not allow something with -5.4 LUFS you have,they lie around the -14LUFS.

As noted above LANDR hum questionable.

The last thing I would ask is why do you think your tracks needs mastering?

As I said I'm not an expert, but i cut the high frequencies at mix level, everything over 8k hertz, at mix level nothing is clipping, there might be some peaks in some guitar tracks at maximun -2dbs , what you are saying is that the Master track is clipping, so speaking about the overall volume of the Master which is too high?

To me when I listen to some of my reference album tracks, the volume is exactly the same.

It might be possible though that LANDR AI algorithm pushed the high end too much because I gave him a reference track. Now I have changed the mastering, seems better to me, what do you think? 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-YJaSKiP_fOO8JcKO_94QDOqAduLt1lJ/view?usp=sharing

[Wookiee]

Just now, Marcello said:

LANDR AI algorithm

Which one did you use?

[Marcello]

5 minutes ago, Wookiee said:

Which one did you use?

I used the reference track option from LANDR, you drop your track, then a reference track and it applies the same EQ to your track, and boom, done.

Of course you have to feed him with a good mix.

If the final master doesn't sound good to you you can try uploading different reference tracks that you like, then listen to the different veersions and compare.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Marcello

[Wookiee]

1 minute ago, Marcello said:

to feed him with a good mix

You do realise there is no Him or Her it is just a computer algorithm and if you do not pay I suspect it is the lowest quality algorithm too.

For any real comparison you need to publish the pre LANDAR mix.

[Marcello]

This is the mix (Not Mastered)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12l7wh6Nrken01P-DP8AdZ-PzrxO_Yn2p/view?usp=sharing

 

So you can compare it with the LANDR one, this is exactly what I fed to LANDR.

[Marcello]

2 hours ago, Wookiee said:

You do realise there is no Him or Her it is just a computer algorithm and if you do not pay I suspect it is the lowest quality algorithm too.

For any real comparison you need to publish the pre LANDAR mix.

I have uploaded the mastered version in cakewalk, together with a FLAC format reference track I used from a well known artist.

It doesn't clip.

Both songs have a maximum peak of -0.0 dbs 

I have used the youlean meter plugin, probably the same you are using.

Just upload whatever artist song and you will see that every bloody song is in red but still below 0dbs so it's normal

 

And by the way, as you can see comparing the mix with the master, there is a HUGE difference and improvement.

so LANDR  AI does quite good even without ears, maybe not the same level as a mastering engineer, but definitely good enough, it also depends from the mix.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Marcello