Enhance Your High Frequencies With a Spectral Resonator

There are numerous techniques for enhancing or smoothing high-frequency sounds, such as hi-hats or shakers, and one exciting and creative approach is using a spectral resonator. The following tutorial will show you how to use it on your track.

As usual, we prepared a short sequence in our SoundBridge: DAW. It includes most elements of a full mix, including a shaker. This is the instrument we will process with the mentioned effect. Let's begin by listening to the whole mix and then the shaker solo.

A spectral resonator divides the spectrum of an incoming audio signal into partials. Then, it stretches, distorts, and blurs the output subtly or dramatically, depending on the frequency or note. MTransformer by MeldaProduction is one of the plugins capable of performing this task. Let's begin by placing it on the shaker's effect rack.

MTransformer as a Spectral Resonator

To begin, we've chosen the resonator preset, which can be selected on the left side of the MTransformer interface. This sets an effect with a 100% Wet mix.

We'll start by adjusting the parameters we have in front of us since the result is too harsh. First, we'll set the dry/wet parameter to around 60%, as we want to retain some of the original sound. The "Fineness" parameter next to it adjusts the resolution of the effects being applied. Therefore, higher resolution achieves a signal closer to the original, with fewer artifacts.

This section is followed by range low and range high sliders, which control the effect's low and high-frequency starting points. The modulation X/Y pad is shown below, along with a reverb effect called "Smearing." The higher the value, the more the sound smeared, which also causes reverberation.

Let's listen to our shaker sound processed, as shown in the image below.

The MTransformer gave our shaker sound new depth.

Lastly, let's hear it in the context of the whole mix.

If you liked this article on sound processing, here are some more on the same subject:

• Juice Up Your Sounds with Multi-Effects Processing
• Guitar Sounds Processing
• Get Creative with Your Vocals
• Create an Awesome Glitched Hi-Hat Sequence