Remove "harsch sound"?

If some different notes are sticking out, I recommend you try a multiband compressor.

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In general it is always preferable to fix any problems as early as possible: changes in the instrument/samples/arangement before volume automation before processing with plugins before mastering.
In the case of the EpicChoir, if possible I would try to work with the instrument, maybe it has velocity dependent sample switching, and lower velocity samples have a more fitting sound.
Only if that doesn’t work, go on to process at the track level with plugins and EQ.

IMHO there is no need to buy overly expensive plugins like the mdweq unless you have money to throw away (or prefer the workflow). Depending on the Cubase version you already have some solid tools which can solve your problems.

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Thanx! I have listened carefully now and the deesser destroys the beauty of the choir, no doubt. I will do as you suggest, use velocity and/or cc-data for the mastervolume to take the level down on the loudest notes. I realize that heavy use if plugins is something, at least in my case, to be avoided. I have natural sounds and they become distorted.
I have downloaded the 30-day trial of the EQ-plugin. I dont have unlimited money so I will check it out if its worth the dough. I have nice vst-instruments and dont want to go cheap on other plugins but I understand that money is no guarrante for good results. I have seen pros at spitfire audio being unable to here if its Valhalla or Seventh Heaven Pro when testing reverbs blind…

MDWEQ6 is a bit of a ripoff at its price, it’s just a basic digital EQ. Frequency comes for free with Cubase and is a much more advanced and modern plugin. It does everything MDWEQ6 does and much more.

Frequency also lets you solo what you’re EQing (“Auto Listen for Filters”), and also features Notch filters for scanning for and fixing problematic frequencies.

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Would also consider free trial of Soothe 2.

I find it very helpful as a vocal (and other) “de-harsher”. Presets seem to get me surprisingly very close to the sound I wanted to hear.

Note Mid-Side (and L/R?) Options.

Takes a little time to get up to speed with it, but though I’m still on the learning curve it still helps me a lot.

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Thanx!
I have downloaded the trial. Its to soft effekt for my needs, but its probably a good plugin.

Thanx!
Its a djungle with all these plugins, I will check out Frequency.

I have used that but I got some strange latency?

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I think it perhaps is nice to yor signal, you always distort the signal with any plugin and this is often less so with good qualty software.

Very important to realize: good quality software is not necessarily expensive (and expensive software is not necessarily of high quality).
If a plugin in today’s market costs 200 bucks, it is most likely a strategic decision of the vendor to position the company in the “pro” market, or that they can offer “90% off” sales on Black Friday. Very rarely it is because the plugin in question is actually innovative and has no direct competition, like Soothe did for some years. For most very expensive plugins there are usually excellent (sometimes better) alternatives in the sub $100 range.

And then there’s freeware available that rivals the most expensive plugins. Don’t fall for the fallacy that “more expensive “ = “higher quality”.
In my experience the right decisions will outperform any quality differences that may or may not exists between processors anyway.
Just my 2c…

(But I freely admit that I like buying new shiny toys/plugins, too :wink: )

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Can turn the Depth dial way to the right, switch to hard mode, and drag the nodes way up high … “too soft” would still apply?

Yes, usually, multiband anything has quite some latency. It is not suitable for recording (and overdubbing).

It seems like a good low latency eq is what you need.

For the OP, I was not suggesting a purchase since he asked such a general question about “Q.” I used MDWEQ6 as an example because I think it’s the best sounding EQ when using extreme Q/s (an exception might be the GML 8200 but never used it) compared to 3 others… Frequency, F6, and ProQ3. My guess is the OP would find Frequency work fine with notch filtering…

When doing surgical EQ George Massenburgs MDWEQ6 and the UAD MDWEQ simply sound more transparent or less artifacts when pushed hard…at least with solo acoustic piano/guitar. It isn’t obvious to me. But when comparing in Wavelab (using a couple solo piano and guitar samples) with the analyzing tools, then the delta file, my eyes confirmed what I previously thought. So I disagree with your assessment that it’s just a “basic digital EQ.” I think Massenburg, the creator of parametric EQ, is still pretty sharp when it comes to clean sounding and precise EQs. And he isn’t a fan of developing EQ features which is why his is so basic. But it just sounds good to me.

As far as price, especially in this current market with a race to the bottom, it’s always best to wait for a sale. I think I paid $150 for it, and prefer it over any others for tight Q’s and how clean it sounds. A more extreme example is Plug In Alliances BX Refinement. My guess is few pay “list” price. And I agree with Fese, the correlation between quality and price when it comes to plug-ins in general is relatively weak.

All 3 I mentioned sound excellent. But once the MDWEQ5 was released, and after years of using the UAD MDW I got anal, and after lots of listening, did a comparison. Every day use, I use ProQ2/3 over F6 or Frequency, but that is mostly because ProQ was first and over the years I have just stuck with that tool for general EQ because I feel I know it well…it’s a comfort thing.

Anyway, long rant over. For Rolf_Noren1, use Frequency. If a time arrives when Frequency isn’t working, then figure out the problem and use another tool if necessary.

Is the problem that you’re distorting?
Digital sound will clip and immediately distort as soon as you hit the red line.
You can prevent this kind of clipping by putting a brick wall limited on the master output (and frequently also on certain channels/busses.)

Another thing to look for is speaker vs headphone vs listening room. If it’s harsh on heaphones, but OK on speakers, perhaps it’s a resonance in the headphones.
If it’s OK in one room but not another, perhaps it’s room modes.

I’m not saying these are the problem, but they sometimes do come up, and are important to manage if they do!

Thanx, I did say that there is no absolut correlation price/quality but I have bought both chep/free/expensive and to large degree you get what you are paying for. The free vst plugins are rarely impressive, my Hans Zimmer Strings at more than 500usd is crazy good sounding.
But EpichChoir is only 29usd and also impressive, both spitfire labs.
I think a good quality EQ will distort the signal less, you can meassure this.

The sopran choir at 2 short peaks was distorting, I have lowered stereo out. The quitarr is not.
But a brick limiter can be good, I have too much dynamics.

Its very possible I overdid it or used wrong parameters, this is new tools for me.

Spitfire Audio, not Labs, hi, hi

And people have. It is good to keep in mind that digital parametric EQs all “sound” the same unless they’re trying to emulate something analog and by that introduce distortion in various ways.
What differs between them are features, functions and user interface.

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Yes, this plugin is awesome and can even save full mixes that have weird frequencies in it, but then I’d never go past -4 db or it starts to attenuate the rest of the spectrum like a LPF.

For individual bright instruments it works really good too ! Like it says, it removes the harshness and sounds more natural than a de-esser or EQ, in the way that it doesn’t attenuate a defined frequency range by a fixed amount but works selectively.