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sparkle. If you’ve tracked in a small room where the low mids
are boxy and/or the midrange has a very aggressive, papery
sound, you’ll probably find that even when you tame the low
end below 250 and scoop out some of the hash between 400-
2k, you still have a tone that feels a little flat and lifeless. A
touch of Sheen can wake things up in a gentle, unobtrusive
way.
When it comes to processing the whole mix, Sheen is the
highest band on the Clariphonic that’s likely to affect any of the
frequencies people hear when listening on lesser consumer
systems, boomboxes, cheap earbuds, and computer speakers;
so if you’re referencing your mix on a system like that and it
seems to lack the polish of more commercial mixes, this is
probably the one to reach for. If your mix just seems flat out
dull , you may need Presence; but if it’s mostly there and just
wants some of that ‘special sauce’, Sheen can be just what the
doctor ordered.
Shimmer & Silk
Shimmer & Silk give you the top, the whole top, and nothing
but the top. I group them together in this manual because
they are the only filters that will not grab any harmonically
musical information at all, they just hook the edge of the treble
and put it wherever you want it. The shimmering wash of a
ride cymbal, the brush of a thumb on acoustic guitar strings,
the air in the back of a vocalist’s mouth… this is intimacy,
gentle and easy as she goes.
These filters are the very essence of smooth, it is nearly
impossible to cull an offensive frequency out of them. While it
is possible to go too far, to make things entirely too bright, it’s
unlikely you will ever cringe from the particular spectra they
energize.
Shimmer has a quality that I would describe as electric. It is
extremely airy, but still has some density and substance
compared to Silk.
