Gong!

[horacejesse]

In a recent instrumental effort I used the only gong that is on my guitar synthesizer. The unit has this gong by itself and also as part of the gamelon sp. They call it Asian gong.I have had the arrangment for this piece in my head a long time. A gong is imperative. I could have hoped for a more metallic tone than this one has. It is quite bassy, not very metallic and wavers quite strongly through its slow period. The period length decreases as the pitch goes up.The gong has to be quite prominent in this piece and that is where I am apparently running into trouble. When I get the gong as prominent as I want it my speakers seem to distort at higher volumes. There is no distortion in the recording itself. Though what happens sounds a lot like digital distortion, it isn't. The notes may just be too big and low. I think they just shake the room or something and people will figure it is distortion when it isn't. At a moderate volume there is no hint of this problem.I have tried equalizing the gong every way I can, even with the bass all the way off, in my attempts to make it behave at high volumes, but nothing has worked so far.Maybe someone has enough experience in this area to educate me as to what the heck is going on. Like I say, I am 100% certain there is no distortion in the recording itself. And since I am mixing the piece pretty low and without any compression there is no true distortion in the mix either. So what is it and where is it coming from? I need that gong loud and I need it clear even at high volumes. I have no idea at what volume screeners listen. If they listened at low volume they might find this piece acceptable, but I figure if it does it only at high volumes something still must be wrong. But I don't know for sure.Does anyone have suggestions?At the moment I cannot put the piece up for inspection, but that could change soon.

[edteja]

You might try compressing the gong, then it will sound louder without actually being louder, and perhaps not distort in the speakers. Just a thought.

[mazz]

Remember that EQs also have a "feature" called cut. Many times cutting frequencies from other elements of the mix will open up space for the desired "lead" instrument or voice.In this case, you may need to back off lower midrange frequencies of pretty much every other instrument in your mix besides the lead gong. This will allow you to have the gong stick out without actually having to turn it up more. Also, as you know, gongs have a huge frequency range. You may want to choose what range of frequencies make your gong sound most "gong-like" and cut all other frequencies out of the gong by quite a bit. This would still give the ear the clue that it's hearing a gong without having the gong eat up a whole bunch of the frequencies of the mix. Sometimes in mixing you have to take a little bit from everything to make them all fit into the stereo picture frame. Good luck,Mazz

[horacejesse]

Thanks to everyone for some great ideas. I can't wait to get back to the studio. I may soon be living in it, which is what I am trying to arrange so that I can live in the middle of the equipment. Right now I am too spread out geographically with a traditional studio in one town, an office in another and a residence in still another. I manage to spend about thirty hours a week in the studio. I can't get to that gong until Wednesday.