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making sounds more pleasent to the ears

I find all of my sounds, no matter how much work I put into the EQ, compression, modulation, texturalization, etc.. they all sound pretty harsh to my ears... they literally sound "fatiguing" like they want to conk me out in the head or something!

I listen to a lot of productions here and elsewhere and find some really remakable sounding music, regardless of level of production... complete beginners to the experienced. The sounds always seem quite sweet, so I wonder if I'm missing something simply fundamental here...

I try eq'ing out harsh frequencies, compressing, adding some upper harmonic grain, touches of reverb, phaser, delays, stereo width, etc. Some textures and modulation, downsampling, lofi, analog. Basically try to put a lot of work into individual sounds as elementary as claps and hats.

While they sound good enough technically to me, my ears don't quite agree with them.

Have absolutely no idea whats going on... the sounds just seem too harsh... pads, leads, claps... even when I quiet them down to -24db and below so I can barely hear them, they sound too aggravating.

Any help super appreciated... just can't seem to get out of this sound design rut and really focus on arrangement!

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...1&forumid=48&s=

your probably eqing too much.

Maybe you picked the wrong sound to begin with.

Or maybe you're using monitoring that's hyping the bottom end, causing you to overcompensate by hyping the top end.

post an audio example of your work.

Re: making sounds more pleasent to the ears

quote:

Originally posted by ClearWater I try eq'ing out harsh frequencies, compressing, adding some upper harmonic grain, touches of reverb, phaser, delays, stereo width, etc. Some textures and modulation, downsampling, lofi, analog. Basically try to put a lot of work into individual sounds as elementary as claps and hats.

Are you sure you tried enough analogue?

maybe you don't have enough sidechain

Re: making sounds more pleasent to the ears

quote:

Originally posted by ClearWater While they sound good enough technically to me, my ears don't quite agree with them.

You need to explain this a little bit

Seriously though, you need to go back to the synth and the oscillators and the filters. If you can't make an awesome sound using those and a bit of delay, you're doing it wrong.

Maybe you have the wrong VSTs too? Some sound "harder" than others.

Re: Re: making sounds more pleasent to the ears

quote:

Originally posted by evo8 quote: Originally posted by ClearWater While they sound good enough technically to me, my ears don't quite agree with them. You need to explain this a little bit

I think what he's saying is that everything is in its place and can be heard, but the sounds themselves are too harsh.

I'm wondering if it's a case of using too many sounds with too much resonance - that can become very fatiguing very quickly and sound very harsh, especially when you start layering sounds that are rich in resonance.

Re: Re: Re: making sounds more pleasent to the ears

quote:

I think what he's saying is that everything is in its place and can be heard, but the sounds themselves are too harsh. I'm wondering if it's a case of using too many sounds with too much resonance - that can become very fatiguing very quickly and sound very harsh, especially when you start layering sounds that are rich in resonance.

Yeah that would do it. OP needs to post some audio so we can have a listen

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