When you find yourself with tones that are rough around the edges, these techniques can prove to be more useful than simply EQing the offending frequencies.

The polished state of pop music makes it easy to forget that many sounds are naturally harsh in timbre, specifically in the 2-5 kHz range.

Left uncontrolled, electric guitars, square wave synths, poorly recorded vocals, and much more can make a mix feel grating and tire the ears.

We often instinctively judge the audio quality of songs based on the articulation of the upper midrange since it’s where our ears are most sensitive, making harshness a crucial quality to control.

For these reasons, let’s look at five ways to smooth out some of the rougher signals we’re likely to encounter in a mix.

1. Tackle Low Frequencies First

By design, many microphones emphasize low frequencies the closer you move toward the source. While this proximity effect can be desirable on bass instruments, it also complicates mixing by tacking excessive lows onto signals that don’t need them.

A similar issue persists, even if you stay completely within the the digital world. To entice our ears with pleasing warmth when browsing through presets, many VSTs include deep bass tones—even if they aren’t central to the overall sound.

This all means that the more we add to a mix, the muddier it gets, and for many new engineers, the instinctive response is to boost highs to compensate. But this only makes the mix brighter on top, while ignoring the root of the issue: excessive low-end content.

A more effective approach is to roll off lows on instruments where these lowest frequencies aren’t necessary. This will make the upper mids and highs naturally bright in comparison without the need for much additive EQ. Once you have the low end controlled in this way, gently boosting the highs on just one or two instruments will usually provide the vibrancy you want.

2. Mix in Context

A mistake many engineers fall into is mixing in solo for extended periods of time. It happens quite naturally: You solo a vocal to more carefully hear an issue, solve it, and then proceed to enhance the 2-5 kHz range because it sounds more lively this way. Reality hits once you pull up the rest of the mix. What seemed like a simple tweak to produce a more exciting vocal has—in the presence of guitars, cymbals, and synths where the same thing was done—turned the entire song into a harsh mess.

The simple remedy is to make changes to individual tracks in context, using solo mode for only brief moments. While it will take some time to hear your mix moves this way, the decision to do this will serve you well, especially when considering instrument roles.

This goes for containing the edge in tones as well. If you hear harshness from a synth in solo, but not when it’s tucked behind massive guitars in the mix, there’s no need to EQ it into pristine condition. Your attention is better suited to smoothing out those up-front leads where resonant peaks and unpolished timbres pose a greater threat to listeners’ ears.

3. Reduce Processing

We love plugins. Everyone loves plugins. But inserting too many plugins on a track is one of the easiest ways to introduce unwanted harshness. Stacks upon stacks of vintage EQs, tube amplifiers and anything meant to introduce harmonic distortion, can lead to overcoloring a mix, especially if they are overdriven or arranged with other effects in an unflattering way.

In a mix that’s taken a turn toward brittle textures, investigate the effects chains you’ve set up on each track. Are there five plug-ins on your drums? Another three on your guitar? A saturator on the master buss? Bypass them all and see if this smooths things out. If it does, turn each plugin back on separately until you hear that harshness come back, then adjust the culprit’s settings accordingly or remove it.

Taking routine breaks is an easy way to catch plugin pileups before they get out of control. You’ll be surprised at just how much you notice after taking 10 minutes away from the mix to reset your ears.

4. Go Dynamic on Live Instruments

On elements that don’t develop much over the course of a song, a static EQ will be enough to remove harsh frequencies. But EQing live instruments with changing dynamics poses a different challenge. A cut to tame a sibilant note in one section might remove too much or not enough in another.

In these scenarios, you’ll be better equipped with a dynamic EQ, which allows you to cut (or boost) a selection of frequencies whenever they pass a given gain threshold. On a scratchy snare that has a resonant peak now and then, a static EQ would alter the the sound every time it were played, whether or not the overbearing resonance was there.

You can use automation on a single EQ or split the problematic hits out to a new track and EQ them differently there, but these are time intensive tasks that make for messy DAW sessions. A properly set dynamic EQ simplifies all this by taming the snare only when the issue surfaces.

Learn more about dynamic EQ in the SonicScoop article Dynamic EQ Tips from the Pros: How it Works and How 4 Top Mixers Use It.

5. Try an Exciter Instead of EQ

When you receive a harsh-sounding guitar recording, it’s common to reach for an EQ to smooth out the edges. But after you’ve filtered out the lows, dialed in a midrange cut at 3 kHz, and trimmed the highs, the sound might become dull.

Switching to a dynamic EQ or multiband compressor can help, but if there are many cuts and lots of activity, you can get an unnatural, pumping effect.

If you need to make significant cuts and find yourself with a dull sound, you can revive the guitar with a harmonic exciter plugin, like Waves’ Aphex Vintage Aural Exciter instead, which will generate more satisfying upper harmonics based on the now-reduced frequency response of the guitar.

But wait—couldn’t I just use a second EQ to boost? Sure, but an EQ will only increase the gain of selected frequencies—likely the same ones you cut in the first place—bringing us back into brittle territory. An exciter will instead create new higher frequency harmonics based more on the new, smoother signal you are feeding it.

6. De-ess Vocals and Instruments

De-essers are most commonly used to remove nasty high-frequency consonants on vocals, but they are equally useful to clean up harsh-sounding instruments, like electric guitars and drum overheads, as well. Unwanted ringing in wind instruments and digital synths can be removed with de-essers too.

Similar to the scenario described above, if your attempt to soften a rough instrument with EQ only makes it sound muffled, remove the EQ and try a de-esser instead. Most de-essers offer the option to reduce all signal above a specific frequency, or those within a narrow frequency range lower down in the signal.

As you slide through the spectrum to determine where you want to attenuate, you can use the “listen” mode on the de-esser mode to preview only those frequencies you’ll be reducing to be sure you’ve dialed in on the right zone.

Summing it Up

Of course, the best approach to avoiding harsh sounds is to not record them that way in the first place! But when you do find yourself with tones that are rough around the edges, these should prove to be some useful alternatives to simply EQing down the offending frequencies, which can leave you with a dull and lifeless signal instead. Do you have any of your own favorite tricks that we missed? Let us know about them in the comments below.

Daniel Dixon is a music producer and writer who lives in Montreal, Canada.

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