Syntronik: Taming ear hurting mids / highs

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Syntronik: Taming ear hurting mids / highs

Postby randyfreemire » Sat Apr 07, 2018 6:38 am

I have to admit, i’m usually one of the first to complain about mids and highs at a concert or on a recording. Dont know exactly, anywhere from about 2k to 10k, it can really hurt to listen to. As a reference point, most sounds from other keyboards present 1/2 to 1/3 as much pain in my ears. I can imagine its the nature of analog synth sounds to have unlimited high end on some sounds.

I’ve encountered screeching mids/highs with a great number of the Tones, and I need to figure out a way to tame the mids/highs without diminishing the sound quality too much.

I did the obvious, took a Brass patch that I liked (Meissa) but that was too screechy from about E4 (above middle C) on. I applied, one at a time, two different eq’s trying to cut as little as possible. Whether I used 2 EQs or 1, what was listenable to me drastically altered the sound quality, it was 60% as dramatic and dynamic the sound had been. This was to be expected to some extent, but I didn’t think it would be that drastic. But at least it no longer hurt my ears...

Then I started again with the original patch and tried moderating the Cutoff (LPF), going from 3:00 to around 1:00. Once again, trying to diminish the screech without destroying the sound. Then i applied moderate EQ. This had about the same result as the above paragraph, it wasn’t completely the same sound, didn’t like it as much.

Then I went thru all the filters, sweeping each, looking to see if any of them had a sweet spot where most of the clarity came thru but wasn’t so punishing on my ears. Was surprised / disappointed that it made almost no difference, could barely hear a difference from one filter to the next, the M came the closest, but the difference was pretty subtle. I kept resonance at a neutral 9:00.

I’m more familiar with workstation keyboards and stage pianos, don’t have a lot of background with VA sounds, so further tips on adjusting the synth or fx to address this problem would be appreciated!

Randy
Last edited by randyfreemire on Sat Apr 07, 2018 10:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Syntronik: Taming ear hurting mids / highs

Postby Peter_IK » Sat Apr 07, 2018 8:33 pm

The filters should have an auditory effect on the sound. I suggest working with IK Support as it sounds like you are not experiencing the expected/typical behavior with Syntronik. They can be reached at http://www.ikmultimedia.com/contact-support/ios-apps/
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Re: Syntronik: Taming ear hurting mids / highs

Postby randyfreemire » Sat Apr 07, 2018 10:06 pm

Peter,
Thanks for replying, I will contact Syntronik support as you suggested.

Yes, was surprised, i thought sweeping the cutoff using the different filters would have a dramatic effect on the sound, but the sound was close to the same from one filter to the next. I assume keeping the resonance at 9:00 is a neutral setting. Keep in mind i was only doing the high end, from about E4 and above, using a sound that is prone to excessive high end, a brass patch called Meissa.

Like I said, am not that VA synth savvy and was hoping that besides EQ and the cutoff/resonance filters, that there was other parameters to explore in order to tame the mids/highs without too drastically altering the sound.

Randy
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