Break it to make it…
Charlie uses FabFilter’s Pro-L limiter to highlight problems in the bad version. “I’ll whack a limiter over it, to bring the level up, and you can hear the mix fall apart. The good version doesn’t get as loud, but you can hear the bad version starts ‘farting’ on the low-end – that area is where you get a lot of problems with distortion. I’d want to start taking things away now, to fix the problems this limiting is bringing out; whereas the duller mix isn’t getting as hurt by the limiter, so you can push it a little bit more and bring things out rather than pull things away.
“You don’t want to start messing with the dynamics of the track too much, as you’re changing the producer’s original vision. I ask myself, ‘does he want that hi-hat so bright and spiky? Was that a creative choice, or was it just a mistake?’ My approach is to make it how I’d want to hear it, which is my taste of what’s ‘right’.”