When we compose orchestral music we can use a variety of instruments. All beautiful instruments! But some of them can have certain harmonics that are too much. Your mix gets unbalanced. And you end up with a dissatisfying result. No need to! In this video I show you how you can control these harmonics.
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Multiband compression to tame harmonics
I’ve been working on an orchestral hybrid trailer track recently. In the intro of the track (which starts really quiet) I had some trouble to get the cello sit well in the mix. Certain harmonics (around the 200Hz) were too much in comparison with the other frequencies.
So I fixed that with a multi-band compressor. In this case the FabFilter Pro MB plugin. With a little bit compression in the low end I controlled the harmonics to end up with a consistent sound. And a better orchestral mix result!
Dynamic EQ to get similar results
I also could have used a dynamic EQ to control it. Such a plugin has a similar effect like a multi-band compressor. You can even get more precise with dynamic EQ in taming certain frequencies.
In the video I show you both to get a good idea what to do and how it works.
[…] they get that little bit of analog flavor that we all love. On the double basses I’ve used the Fabfilter Pro MB compressor. One of the tricks that Tom Holkenborg, also known as JunkieXL, told us in his masterclass. Since […]