Jeff Evans
There may be another approach which could interest anyone after some high frequency emphasis. It uses the concept of creating a setup within your DAW that emulates what the Dolby A encoder used to do in the old days for tape machines. The original article is based around Cubase but it applies to any DAW of course and can be adapted easily. Apparently they used to feed certain things through the encoding side of a Dolby A noise reduction system in order to create emphasis on the treble part of the spectrum. This approach is nicer than EQ and exciters as well. It creates the HF emphasis using a set complex of filters and compressors. It can be used on mixes and on individual things that may need some HF emphasis. This approach is a single ended system. With Dolby A the tape also played back into the Dolby A decoder to bring things back to normal but this process is only using it one way eg encoding only. 

Danny Danzi

Jeff EvansI am not a fan of either the Aural Exciter or the BBE as well. They are essentially bad things especially when applied over a whole mix. I think on individual elements of a mix they could work but it all gets back to if you are doing your job properly it could be argued that they are simply not necessary. 

My feelings also, Jeff. I had them both here...still have the BBE. Neither does anything that I can't do with a good eq eventhough I know they work differently than an eq. gswitz: You know me brother....my new quote for my students: "Less is always more. Unless more is absolutely, and without question needed, stay with less". I seriously think you may be over-thinking and over-processing. Just remember...and honest when I tell you this, it's true....if you can't make something sound grand with nothing, you've already lost. Not a single sound gets printed here that needs to "become" something due to using special tools. I don't use any magic tricks to make things sound the way they do other than very subtle things that make that 5% difference here and there. I can give you a raw mix or 5 right now that has 0 processing going on. If you heard the mixes, of course you'd hear where there would be things that need enhancement. But notice the word I used there...."enhancement". Most times, when you print something correctly you don't have to sit there and become a surgeon while attempting to polish a turd. The only time you should be doing that sort of thing is when you are purposely using a sound for effect purposes that will need some elbow grease and experimentation to get it where you need it. If you don't like your sounds from the track stage to where they make you smile....you stop right there and improve your tracking stage. Honest when I tell you....you should be able to get results that make you smile from ear to ear with eq, compression and proper panning. Anything else you add...just sort of dresses/polishes everything up a bit. Nothing should be used as a crutch and never buy into hype. When you get the right sounds printed to where that smile hits you from ear to ear and you've not done a thing yet....you'll remember me and this discussion and will really smile. When you and I worked together....I said it then, I'll say it now....I thought you had the making of a pretty good engineer considering what you had to work with on that project. However, some of it was over-kill. In my opinion, we have all the tools needed in Sonar to do anything we need with the exception of certain personal preference type plugs. Even without them, the differences are subjective and of a very small percentage. The last thing you want to do is add lots of bottom or a harsh presence. That's what those things do in my opinion. You think they are making a difference when in reality, they are...for the worst. The reason being? We as humans are "excited" (pun intended lol) by highs. Why? Easy....volume increase. We gravitate towards that every time. I've sat and watched my collegues, students and friends preview plugs that are being sold to where the only real change is a boost in volume or a drastic eq change. Right away, we move to that light. We also are all in love with bass. The more bass, the better. We wish we could allow sub low rumbles or 30 Hz to be in our mixes no matter what style of music we are messing with. I've seen it my entire life. Add in things that add bass, and we've yet again, destroyed and degraded music. Keep in mind, there's nothing wrong with using these pieces in places where they may be needed. But they always seem to get abused. Rule of thumb....when you can (and this isn't directed at you when I say "you") record and mix with limited processing and win, then you can dive into the processing end and allow it to come through in moderation. If you listen to the great tracks created years ago....raw was in with a little bit of coloration. If you remove the pre's etc...you're still left with the core of the band. Take any classic rock band that had talent and remove the studio gizmo's...what do you have? Right....9 out of 10 times, the band sounds exactly the same. To me, this is where people need to be in the engineering field. We have so much hype sold to us...so many gizmos...side-chaining, p-comp, all this other crap....all it does it push an inexperienced engineer right out of his zone further. It's like being forced to run when we can't even crawl or walk yet. How good can you record something in your studio? How good can you make it sound with eq, panning and the right compression without all the over-processing and limiting? When you can smile there while keeping it consistent, you've won brother...you've won. These other things are nice for enhancement AT TIMES.....but if you're not happy coming out of the gate, nothing you will buy will get you where you need to be. Track it right from the start....if you can't, that's where you need to be saving your money. Save for stuff that allows your initial print to be as accurate and robust as possible. Honest when I tell you....it won't come from an Aphex, a BBE or anything with loads of bass :) -Danny

Jeff Evans
 
I am not a fan of either the Aural Exciter or the BBE as well. They are essentially bad things especially when applied over a whole mix. I think on individual elements of a mix they could work but it all gets back to if you are doing your job properly it could be argued that they are simply not necessary.
 

gswitz
Great advice as always, Danny! I'm not spending. I'm trying to listen to others and to recordings and see what can learn.

Thanks for chiming in. I'm still working on that band recording from June. Man, sixteen tracks counts as freaking hard to mix! I did another five track in the mean time for Listening break.

The band keeps asking for more bass and I find it frustrating. I don't want to make a mix I wouldn't listen to.