My overheads treatment video

[mickrich]

I have got a few compliments lately on the sound of my overheads.
I thought I would do a quick video of how I generally treat them on a live kit.
A lot of people here are used to working with SD2 etc so this may be useful.

I did this at home on senny hd250 headphones with logic's built in plugins.
I would normally work on Focal Twin monitors and use Sonnox eq for cuts and A&H ZED-R16 for high boost and waves CLA76 compressor for this in the studio but it should give an idea of how I work.
I used Kevin Talley's Crystal Mountain cover for this demo.
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...contest-death-crystal-mountain-cover-dis.html

There is no commentary on the video so a quick overview.
Overheads are solo'd at the start then the rest of the kit is brought in later.

Step 1
"seek and destroy" notching to get rid of resonances. Basically a boost and sweep with a narrow Q to find resonances then cutting them. All sounds in the real world will have several ugly resonances that cloud the sound and "fizz" or "hum" away in the background. Killing these will add great clarity to a mix.
I use this same technique on every sound in a mix.
Always a good idea to put a limiter on the master before doing this as big narrow boosts can kill your ears!!
Lower volume too. I cannot stress this enough!!!!

Step 2
Compression. Basically I try to let the attack of the cymbal through then suck back the shell decays a bit then let the tail of the cymbals come back up. Peak compressor with hard knee, medium attack, fast release usually works well for this. Sweep the attack time until you can hear the transient just getting through.

Step 3
Add a bit of "explosive" reverb. I selected the reverb before I started rather than going through the loading process during the video. I add just a touch of this to take the edge off the sound. Level is set so you don't notice it until you turn it off. VERY subtle.

This is the first time I have done a video like this so I hope it's ok.
Right click to download.
Michael

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2133088/MICKRICH_OVERHEADS.mov

 

[botus99]

It would be nice to hear the overheads themselves in the video instead of just mouse clicks.

 

[Trevoire520]

Step 1
"seek and destroy" notching to get rid of resonances. Basically a boost and sweep with a narrow Q to find resonances then cutting them. All sounds in the real world will have several ugly resonances that cloud the sound and "fizz" or "hum" away in the background. Killing these will add great clarity to a mix.
I use this same technique on every sound in a mix.

Gonna have to try this out myself, I do it on guitars plenty but never really tried it on anything else, I remember Ermz mentioning he does it on overheads for his mixes aswell.

Lower volume too. I cannot stress this enough!!!!

+1 on this, I've noticed recently that I can hear ugly resonances in guitars MUCH better when the volume is very low.

 

[mickrich]

It would be nice to hear the overheads themselves in the video instead of just mouse clicks.

whoops.
Macbook mic was mixed into the quicktime capture.
Fixed now.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Same link.

 

[luismars]

I only do it when it's way too noticeable, does it work the effort if it's going to be buried under tons of samples?

 

[aviel]

i never tried this on SD 2 overhead because i was sure they were captured in a super treated room with no resonance. i guess this is thie biggest bullshit i have ever said

 

[mickrich]

I only do it when it's way too noticeable, does it work the effort if it's going to be buried under tons of samples?

If every sound is clear, the mix will be clear.
All these resonances add up, even if they don't seem like much on the individual tracks.

i never tried this on SD 2 overhead because i was sure they were captured in a super treated room with no resonance. i guess this is thie biggest bullshit i have ever said

SD2 has a static "ssshhh" that I always pull out when mixing midi drums using it. Can't remember the exact frequency but sweep a narrow cut around 800-3k and you will find it.