Basic mastering question

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dwkman0117

New member
Hello, I am new to this, as you will see by my question...

I starting reading the book - The mixing Engineers handbook, and they refer to setting different recorded material (different instruments) to different levels? example - set 50-80hz a few db's??? I know this is a basic concept, but I am clueless on what they mean and where to set this - any help would be appreciated. I am using Cakewalk Homestudio...


Here is a link to my cover recordings.

http://www.swtestingsolutions.com/music/music_download_page.htm
 
dwkman0117 said:
...I starting reading the book - The mixing Engineers handbook, and they refer to setting different recorded material (different instruments) to different levels? example - set 50-80hz a few db's???
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I've got "The Mixing Engineers Handbook" also - what page are you on so we can understand your context...
 
kylen said:
I've got "The Mixing Engineers Handbook" also - what page are you on so we can understand your context...
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was at a book store 2 nights ago... It was a section where he was discussing the levels or numbers associted with each instruments. Bass drum, snare, guitar one, two... vocals... Sorry I don't have it in front of me.
 
This might not be exactly what you're talking about. But, if you scroll down to where he starts talking about "KIK" and then "Snare", etc...He gives you some starting guidelines. But, as always, you have to use your ears and not trust what works in paper all the time.
http://www.tweakheadz.com/perfect_mix.html
 
RAMI said:
I'm waiting for the movie.
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Aw, c'mon Rami, you know the book is almost always better than the movie! :D

Seriously, though, dwkman, it sounds like you're maybe getting tripped up on values for different frequencies? Stuff like 50Hz, 4kHz, etc. are referring to the different frequencies of sound, from bass to treble. Adjusting those different frequencies is done via the equalizer, of which you should have at least one or two available to you in Cakewalk as plug ins.

Whit you might want to do is take an evening with the graphic equalizer, using it on your assorted tracks, moving each slider at each frequency up and down (slowly), one slider at a time, and getting used to which slider - i.e. which frequency band - affects which part of the sound of each track. Do that for a couple of nights and you should have a pretty good rough handle on how the frequency spectrum from low bass to high treble breaks down by the numbers.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Aw, c'mon Rami, you know the book is almost always better than the movie! :D
Click to expand...

That's why I never read books. The only purpose of a great book is to ruin a perfectly good movie :p
 
What are you having a hard time understanding? Not all snare drums sound alike. All the other tracks in any mix aren't always the same, which will effect the desired sound of the snare.

You didn't think that all you had to do to be a recording engineer was memorize a bunch of EQ settings, did you?
 
Well it's like anything else - you want to know the rules or guidelines first - then figure out when to break them!

The guitarist learns the scales first as a technician - then the more gifted players go on to create music as artists - regardless of the confines and constrictions any particular scale might seemingly impose.

Same thing here, various instruments have general frequency boundaries or ranges. Various frequency bands have more or less general pleasing level and dynamic ranges. Assuming a track or instrument is captured in an already well-balanced fashion (recording - the basic building block of the mix) then the single track has to be combined with other tracks creating the more complex mix. The Art of Mixing...stick around there's a lot of good posts to search through on this forum concerning just that!

I think in the book you mentioned though they are probably discussing various common frequency ranges of instruments - general ranges. There's really no way to discuss db levels of any particular instrument or track without knowing the intended arrangement & hearing the other tracks in the mix.

Here's a Freq Range Guidelines Table:
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

You'll see this kind of stuff everywhere. The best thing to do is just sit down and listen as Glen said - listen to the various instruments on seperate tracks and changes that occur when you solo/mute them and also when you play with the level and/or EQ settings.

If you aren't sure you can record a well balanced sound yet (don't worry - it's the holy grail most of us try to shoot for) then go to one of the sites hosting mixdown competitions on the internet. At various times you can find raw tracks from Madonna, Peter Gabriel, etc to play with to get your studio calibrated a bit. You have to be able to hear the tracks as well as your changes to be able to mix it well. In other words if you're increasing a bass track 3db and you don't hear that change the balance of the mix then you've got to take a look at your monitoring situation, etc...

2cents
Good Luck!
 
kylen said:
Well it's like anything else - you want to know the rules or guidelines first - then figure out when to break them!

The guitarist learns the scales first as a technician - then the more gifted players go on to create music as artists - regardless of the confines and constrictions any particular scale might seemingly impose.

Same thing here, various instruments have general frequency boundaries or ranges. Various frequency bands have more or less general pleasing level and dynamic ranges. Assuming a track or instrument is captured in an already well-balanced fashion (recording - the basic building block of the mix) then the single track has to be combined with other tracks creating the more complex mix. The Art of Mixing...stick around there's a lot of good posts to search through on this forum concerning just that!

I think in the book you mentioned though they are probably discussing various common frequency ranges of instruments - general ranges. There's really no way to discuss db levels of any particular instrument or track without knowing the intended arrangement & hearing the other tracks in the mix.

Here's a Freq Range Guidelines Table:
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

You'll see this kind of stuff everywhere. The best thing to do is just sit down and listen as Glen said - listen to the various instruments on seperate tracks and changes that occur when you solo/mute them and also when you play with the level and/or EQ settings.

If you aren't sure you can record a well balanced sound yet (don't worry - it's the holy grail most of us try to shoot for) then go to one of the sites hosting mixdown competitions on the internet. At various times you can find raw tracks from Madonna, Peter Gabriel, etc to play with to get your studio calibrated a bit. You have to be able to hear the tracks as well as your changes to be able to mix it well. In other words if you're increasing a bass track 3db and you don't hear that change the balance of the mix then you've got to take a look at your monitoring situation, etc...

2cents
Good Luck!
Click to expand...


thanks for the good information - I am just looking for anything to get me rolling - I know there really isn't a blueprint for this - just guidelines...
Do you usually eq each track?
 
I EQ every track and usually leave it set to "0". Just kidding.
I have that book somewhere, and that's exaclty what is talking about. It wasn't meant so much as a guide to eq'ing as it was intended more to show where the main frequencies of a particular instrument lie.
 
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