Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mogwailoveyou]

For the record I should probably not be in this forum. Although I am of "indie" background I am far from professional and am in fact, just a smalltime guy with a home studio and a passion for how music is made trying to craft out decent sounding indie rock on a college student budget (just buying a vibro-champ earlier this week nearly cleaned me out.) But i figured this would be the best place to learn since there are several extremely knowledgable people who have history making music that can give me advice besides "scoop the mids" and "compress compress compress!!" in an attempt to guide me into making the new 'tallica album. I've gotten quite a bit of the recording process down but one thing still evades me in my mixing... eq. as simple as it sounds i still have the most difficult time knowing where to start on what to lowpass, hipass, scoop, etc. I know how necessary it is in order to give track definition in the mix so I was just wondering if somebody could help give some basic (i know there's by no means a definitive guide) advice on where to begin in mixing (basic frequencies for instruments, etc.) thanks a lot.

[drumsound]

If you look around a bit you can probable find one of those "distorted guitars tend to peak and blah blah" things.  

I instead want to tell you to lay off the SOLO button.  EQ with the track playing.  The point of EQ is to make all the tracks play nice together.  Often inexperienced engineers will EQ in SOLO and get a really big pretty sound, then when blended in it doesn't work.  Often things will sound bad in SOLO but work great in the mix.

Good Luck!

[tiggie]

I'd say the most important thing is to learn to trust your own judgement as to what sounds good, and go from there. Have a play around and see what works. It's difficult to give much general advice...

[j.hall]

here is your GENERAL advice.....

these ranges are really rough....REALLY ROUGH.

20 - 40 = danger zone for a studio with poor acoustics.....you need a god sub to justifiably work in this area.

40 - 80 = low end.  if you can't hear it, or hear too much of it in your room, get some good headphones.  

80 - 150 = the beginnings of mud.  100 - 150 especially can make things nasty.

150 - 300 = mud, boxie......but be careful, if you cut too much out, the mix loses power and impact.

300 - 600 = chesty, if that makes sense.  keep in mind that around 500 Hz is the speaking voice of a bass guitar, but it can also be the HONK of a bass guitar.

600 - 1k = nasally.  you gotta singer that's sounding nasally, cut around 800 and see if it helps....also good to watch out for in some acoustic guitars.

1k - 3.5k = definition.  3.5k is a bit high for this, but whatever.  many things will enjoy a 1.5k - 2k boost for a little definition.  kick drum, bass git, snare......becareful how many things you try to jam in this region.

3.5k - 5k = the beginning of presence.  5k can add the appearance of loudness to the mix, but is also very fatiguing to listen to.  

5k - 8k = presence.

8k - 15k = sizzle

15k - 20k = air

key thing here is that these ranges are very ROUGH, people will chop up my list and redefine it all day.

you need to dive in and start hearing this stuff for yourself.  start figuring out what you like and don't like.

[mogwailoveyou]

thanks a lot j! i definately agree that i need to start hearing it for myself, it's just trying to find where to begin can be difficult and oftentimes i have trouble discerning which mix i like better (ie. is that airy, sparkling, or just noisy...)

[jlampson]

(see attached file)

I found this somewhere, and I'm not sure where, but it is very similar to J's post.  Again, these are just guides, and each mix presents its own unique challenges.

John

[jlarcombe]

See also "Mixerman's EQ characteristics description":

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&a mp;c2coff=1&selm=GHpQ5.7298%24Pb6.431145%40dfiatx1-snr1. gtei.net

J

[j.hall]

mogwailoveyou wrote on Tue, 07 September 2004 22:25

thanks a lot j! i definately agree that i need to start hearing it for myself, it's just trying to find where to begin can be difficult and oftentimes i have trouble discerning which mix i like better (ie. is that airy, sparkling, or just noisy...)

the key thing to remember is what i might call "air" some one else might call "sizzle".

i would describe certain bandwidths differently depending on how extreme the boost or cut is.....

a 3db boost at 18k might add a lot of "air" to a mix, but an 8db boost at 18k might be described as "washed out".

the point is.  you need to hear how the different ranges work together within a mix.  the hard part is yet to come.

listening to program material you love is really good to do.

but what you have to learn is what instruments need what in order to balance out the mix properly.  and by "properly" i only mean what you think is right to your ears.

hope this is helping.

[floodstage]

jlampson wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 02:45

(see attached file)I found this somewhere, and I'm not sure where, but it is very similar to J's post.  Again, these are just guides, and each mix presents its own unique challenges.  John

One of my favorites on that sheet was the one that said:

"You can't boost what isn't there in the first place"

heh heh !!!

[j.hall]

floodstage wrote on Wed, 08 September 2004 15:38

"You can't boost what isn't there in the first place"

and to that i smirked and said.......wanna bet?

[JPRisus]

I'll add one thing to J's excellent post...

descriptions of Hz will change dramatically when recording digitally versus analog.

anyone with a fair share of experience in both formats will know exactly what I mean.

[mogwailoveyou]

hmm howso? my rig is all digital (go figure) so all i know is to avoid the dreaded 0 db... but how do the frequency responses change from analog to digital, "warmth" aside.

[JPRisus]

mogwailoveyou wrote on Thu, 09 September 2004 03:42

hmm howso? my rig is all digital (go figure) so all i know is to avoid the dreaded 0 db... but how do the frequency responses change from analog to digital, "warmth" aside.

frequency response will change with every single piece of gear, but some more drastically than others. By no means am i an expert on this, but it's what i've noticed over time, so here goes: Analog tape machines, in general, tend to have a bump around 50-60hz, a pretty steep rolloff below that around 30-40hz, and a gentle smoothing effect on the upper midrange/presence area. This leads to more perceived bottom and an overall warmer sound.  Digital, while impacted by the hz response of the converters, is much closer to a flat Hz curve. The upper mids, let's say 3k-8k range, aren't smoothed in the manner that tape does so well, so they're more present and annoying. You might not cut that range on an analog recording, whereas you might dip it a bit on a digital project. You might also want to give your bass a little boost around 60hz or so, and roll it off below that on a digital project, whereas it may not be so obvious on analog.  These are just two things that i noticed after doing analog for a couple years and then jumping into digital. I remember a fellow AE telling me how he liked certain mics for digital recordings and others for analog regarding drum overheads... makes perfect sense to me now. He was compensating for digital's "perfectness".

[mogwailoveyou]

Just want to thank everyone for their help... using those general specs to begin with my mixes are sounding much much better than they ever did when I was just shooting in the dark.