Frequency Masking: 3 Ways to avoid any issues!

[Music] [Music] hi and welcome to a new tutorial i got a request for doing a video about frequency masking so here we go if you follow this video carefully chances are high that your mixes will improve quite a lot in future as this is an often overlooked issue which can have a very big impact so that people who deal with this matter too superficially don't fall into the other extreme and try to fight this phenomenon at every turn i'm afraid i have to go into detail so please bear with me hopefully it will all make sense in the end nevertheless if you get bored by some details you already know use the timestamp links in the description to skip certain parts first we need to clarify the different terms we have to deal with so that we all speak the same language many people are using the expression frequency masking and means something bad an issue which has to be solved or better avoided but is that really the truth so what is frequency masking for example this or this or this [Music] if you have listened to identify any errors or bad behavior and you didn't found any don't worry there weren't any how can it be if frequency masking would be a mixing mistake and i give you examples with no mistakes present because frequency masking belongs to our music like sold in the soup without frequency masking our music would sound flat boring lifeless and sterile and at the very end it isn't avoidable and shouldn't be avoided at all you're confused i say better now than any later but let's start at the beginning again i asked the question what is frequency masking i've got here a simple sine wave which everybody can clearly identify if i layer now a second sine wave which happens at the exact same frequency [Music] there's just a single tone hearable we cannot identify anymore that there are two tones playing in my example the louder tone masks the quieter one and make it basically disappearing for our hearing this is frequency masking in its essence if two tones are playing at the same frequency the louder tone masks the quieter one or if they are equal in volume they melt together to a single tone and are not longer identifiable as separate tones anymore in music this isn't necessarily something bad quite the opposite it helps our songs to jail together to be well balanced and give a smooth transition between different instruments just have a look at the frequencies of just some drums playing there is not a single gap the whole spectrum is already occupied by just the drums the sub brings it up even more not to speak about the mid bass there are already huge parts of the frequency spectrum maxed out without having any melodic element plane but it works nevertheless let's add an arpeggiator and a pad sound which together take a lot of space in the frequency spectrum too with side chaining and just some basic low cut these two sounds alone cover the whole range from 100 to 20 000 hertz but you know what it works anyway [Music] every single element in the mix is clearly missing if i mute it what means that it's clearly identifiable i cannot even imagine how many frequencies the single sounds in the mix are masking from each other but it works nevertheless so frequency masking isn't a general problem nor is it avoidable or desirable to avoid at all it makes music sound pleasant and as one fitting piece if you don't plan to make music out of a few sins playing just single sine waves all at different pitches and octaves there is no chance to avoid frequency masking at all nevertheless we have seen that a sine wave playing at the same frequency on top of another can make the quieter tone disappear for our hearing with this huge amount of overlapping and because of that this huge amount of frequency masking why does it work here anyway why are all of these different sounds clearly identifiable despite being masked to this huge amount the answer we can find in acoustic instruments and how orchestras are made up whoever thinks that everything came about by chance and without a plan behind it i have to disappoint now even if every single member of an orchestra is playing every listener is able to identify the separate instrument sections and even single members playing of a certain section but the listener will notice too how well these different instruments complement each other and jail well together without any eq any compressing or any mixing in general an orchestra gives us many answers and tips we need to know to avoid any issue related to this whole topic especially the choice of instruments here some strings and brass playing the same notes in the same octave they are overlapping completely but you can clearly hear when one is missing they are clearly identifiable but they jail together to a huge giant sound that really flatters our ears and this is because these instruments have different timbres a different tone color the strings have their tonal emphasis in the lower regions of the spectrum even if i cut the highs quite a bit you can clearly tell they are still strings [Music] while cutting the low end steals them their tonality completely [Music] with the brass instruments happens exactly the opposite their main focus their characteristics why we are able to identify them as brass instruments is in the higher part of the sound they are just smiling when i cut the low end but i destroy their sound completely when i do the opposite [Music] so many sounds can happily coexist if i combine instruments with different tonal qualities with different timbres even if huge parts of their frequencies overlap and mask each other this means on one side the term frequency masking is too unspecific too broad to describe the problem which many people actually mean when they are speaking about it but this means too that we can have indeed a problem if we are not able to use just sounds with different timbres and have to layer sounds which fight against each other let's call this issue which is an issue indeed frequency clashing with frequency clashing i mean the exact situation if different instruments not only share the same frequency range but really have to fight for the same dominant frequencies which defines their tonality their main focus the problems which can occur in such situations are in worst case face issues especially in the low end over important sounds not being present as they should up to making the whole mix muddy undefined and not clear enough these are the top three ways to fix such problems fix number one the arrangement this example song i loaded here i explain in detail in my from vocal to song series if you haven't seen these i put the links in the description a perfect example for unwanted frequency masking respectively frequency clashing is the interplay between the acid sound and the vocals look at the frequency analyzer how much the vocals and the acid hits overlap in their spectrum [Music] [Music] but there you are to lead if you ever wondered why i always put whenever possible the asset hits in the spaces between the phrases of the vocals frequency clashing is one of the answers let's look a bit more in detail i repeated the important part two times in the first part the acid hit sits in between in the second part it plays together with the vocals shine for me what do you think sounds better more clear better to separate the assets from the vocals same here [Music] it's not that the assets cannot be heard anymore but giving them their own space makes it easier to hear them and helps to balance the whole mix this first way of fixing or avoiding frequency clashing is the easiest but most effective take care of your arrangement if you already have to use sounds which fight against each other at least try to give them their own point in time whenever possible another very common mistake especially new producers do overcrowding the project try to keep your project clean and simple whenever possible at the same point in time of the project it doesn't matter how many different sounds are playing after each other but avoid layering five different sounds when three or perhaps two would have been already enough don't get me wrong i don't want to say you should stop any layering to get interesting textures and effects but if you run into trouble if it starts to sound muddy and unprecise before trying to fix the problem in a different and most likely more destructive way you should first consider if taking out one or the other layer couldn't be the better option as always there's just one golden rule as much as needed but as little as possible of course there are situations where fix in the arrangement isn't possible for example having a pet playing where you need a piano for a little melody on top a piano is a quite weak sound and isn't very assertive it gets lost easily behind others in this example the piano is a bit hidden behind the pad sound especially the low notes [Music] a very simple fix which i like to count into the arrangement side of things is to simply try different octaves to place the notes in [Music] playing the piano one octave higher gives the sound so much more presence and makes it clearly distinguishable from the pad sound perhaps you've got now an idea why many songs especially down tempo ones with lots of drones and pads use a piano in very high registers to play some sad slow melody on top another example is very common in trance to avoid frequency clashing for layering different mid bases on top of each other this would be a standard rolling mid bass but instead of letting the second base layer play the exact same notes [Music] which results in a lot of frequency clashing i invert the notes from the second layer that they always play one octave apart from each other [Music] the result is much more clean and solid than the pure layering so apart from cleaning the project in general and put sounds to the right point in time the note sequencing is a very easy but effective way to avoid clashing at its source fix number two spacing if everything mentioned before doesn't help respectively isn't an option because of creative reasons we can again look at our example for an orchestra setup the different string sections as mainstay of the whole orchestra are spreaded widely over the whole horizontal space this isn't just to create some stereo effect for the listener but as well to avoid that sections which are playing similar notes and have the same timbre are panned differently to make them more distinguishable the same effect is available to us and can help sometimes to bring out instruments which would otherwise hide each other [Music] this helps quite a lot but please double check the mix in mono as there the panning is summed back to the middle you have to decide if you can live with the mix in this case i wouldn't recommend this option for important sounds which need to be clearly hearable no matter if someone listens in stereo or mono but for sounds which are less important why not fix number three volume and frequency restrictions with the first method i think everybody is familiar with and uses it on a daily base at least the kick as most important factor in most genres is used to duck nearly every other sound out of the way when it hits as the effect shall only happen in this short moments sidechain ducking is the most effective method where is no other sound no other frequencies can clash with the kick another positive side effect sidechain ducking can drastically improve the groove of the song and is often more exaggerated than used sparely but volume docking cannot be used everywhere and when it comes to frequencies the eq will be mostly the tool of choice there are tons of different methods how to set an eq curve for avoiding frequency clashing and equally many tools one could use for this job which i cannot demonstrate all in order not to go beyond the scope of this video the simplest method would be the use of a static eq the aim is to get the piano more into focus without completely destroying the sound of the pad i personally prefer to cut more than to boost as boosting prominent frequencies can easily create spikes which limits my overall headroom afterwards for the whole mix these spikes would give me trouble afterwards when maximizing the whole song as they could start to distort too early before i reach my wish loudness i can make my life easier by taking out frequencies from the pad and pronouncing the important frequencies of the piano just a little bit [Music] this way i can even lower the volume of the whole piano and keep the spikes one or two decibel lower than before it works well but i still got a problem by using a static eq i changed the sound of the pad permanently which is perhaps not wished i would recommend a static eq just in situations where you either want to restrict the masking sound anyway and permanently or in situations like layering where both sounds always play together and one never happens without the other in my situation here i like the pad better without the restrictions and i just want to change it for the moments when the piano plays i leave the piano eq as it is now but i change the pq2 for the pad sound to an dynamic eq tdr nova in this case i sidechain the piano track to the pads one and set up the sidechain in the plugin now i don't do any changes to the eq permanently but just use the dynamic feature which ducks my set frequencies just when the piano hits [Music] [Music] perhaps even a bit more the path keeps all the time its normal sound and just changes when the piano plays and overtakes the main role anyway [Music] no piano no change in sound [Music] in the low end there can happen a lot of phase issues which are just as much due to the problem i made an extreme example here even with sidechain ducking already present the phase of the low frequency jumps all over the place i don't want to kill any bass frequencies permanently but only when the kick hits so let's try again with a dynamic eq i already made the sidechain in the mixer and just completed in the plugin my kick is tuned to a so i have to remove the base frequencies in the 55 hertz range [Music] the result still isn't perfect but much much better and more stable than without [Music] going any further would more and more kill the whole base and that isn't what i want either please for everything we have talked about today the less noticeable your changes are the better you did the job as it's about fixing problems and not creative sound design not every place where frequency masking or cures needs to be fixed rather the opposite this is a prime example for less is more frequency clashing can be a problem and needs to be treated wherever it stands in your way this can really take you a huge step forward to a clean and balanced mix but please don't fall into the other extreme and hunt for problems which are perhaps visible in an analyzer but not noticeable at all if it is not broken or perhaps just in theory without any practical impact you don't need to fix it the risk is too high that you destroy more than you improve i hope this video gave a bit of an insight and some ideas as always stay tuned and thank you for watching you

Channel: M.o.R FL Studio Tricks

Views: 702

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: FL Studio, Image Line, Tutorial, M.o.R FL Studio Tricks, Music Production, Frequency Masking, Frequency Clashing, EQ, Dynamic EQ

Id: gyP5eltaw44

Length: 25min 17sec (1517 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021