Can somebody tell me what went wrong in this mix?

[Pl511]

Hey guys. I've been working on a collab with Petra V on a cover of Fear Not This Night from Guild Wars 2, with her on vocals and me on piano, and in her mastering I can hear quite a bit of distortion and a sort of weird shimmer effect in the mix. I can't pinpoint exactly what's wrong myself, and I'd really appreciate it if people could help me fix up this problem. It's mainly audible in the piano at the beginning and end. Thanks guys!

https://soundcloud.com/listentopetrav/fear-not-master-test-1-0/s-Ru27P

[AngelsDen]

Sounds like a White Noise produced by the Reverb. I had the same Problem with the Pianissimo VST along with the build in Reverb mostly in the lower Frequencies.

[timaeus222]

Maybe you could try raising the low cut on the reverb to around 200Hz or higher? Then the reverb won't affect anything below that.

[ectogemia]

Yeah, those are reverb reflections. Common practice is to raise the low cut on reverb up to 350-500 Hz. It's not a rule, per se, but it's fitting for most situations. The vocals could probably use some low cut attention, as well. Leaving the low cut on a reverb plugin at the default setting is asking for a muddy mix!

edit: As an added benefit, getting rid of the low frequencies in the reverb would emphasize the higher frequencies which would make her voice sound more airy and ethereal, and that seems to be what you're going for.

Edited December 25, 2013 by ectogemia