EQ Adding Noise?

R

rozsand

New member
Ok, I'm pretty new into this computer recording stuff and just using VST plugins through Audacity for my basic mixing/editing needs. The problem is, my mixes have all been sounding like crap and I think I just isolated the problem.

For some inexplicable reason, my EQ seems to be adding NOISE (I'd just been using the one bundled with Audacity). To test, I used the "silence" command to completely clear a few seconds of space before the start of my track, ran the EQ... and sure enough... there's a definite pump/hiss sound it puts in before any volume spike... and it's muddying up my final mixes. :confused:

Does anyone know of any good freeware EQ plugins I could try instead? I can only use VST, I'm afraid. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong... but I can't think of any reason an EQ should ADD anything new into the signal.


~ Nate "teh n00b"
 
mabye the noise is coming from somewhere else, and the eq is just bringing it out.........................................
 
rozsand said:
but I can't think of any reason an EQ should ADD anything new into the signal.


~ Nate "teh n00b"
Click to expand...

I would suspect poor programming. As you said - you started with a digitally silenced track - and when that was EQ'ed you got hiss - which means thats its not anything to do with the EQ boosting a noisey frequency - the EQ is just noisey itself.
 
the stock eq plug on my system is god awful.
If youre hearing noises before the song even starts.... just erase the waves up to the point that the song starts.

if youre still having noise problems..?
It must be the plug in.
Youll have to save some dough and buy a better one.

Heres a cheap one for vst that sounds great/ has a great compressor/and a gate. And its very cpu efficient.

http://www.wavearts.com/TrackPlug.html

good luck

:)
 
Yup. When you add eq you add noise so it's best to cut the frequencies you don't want and only add a touch of the ones you want. For example if you wand more middle, cut the bass and treble down.

As your EQ is particularly noisy, see if it happens if you cut the frequencies. It might be that it's just adding noise by being there rather than the actual process. If you see what I mean.
 
Subtractive EQing helped a bit... as well as simply using less drastic boosts/cuts across the board (there's no need to EQ lows/highs into oblivion if you can just slap on a HPF/LPF). I've been making more of my guitar/bass EQing on my head/amps rather than relying so heavily on my software. Lots of trial and error there. EQing drums still is my biggest problem... so for the moment I'm just using lots of "Silence" commands and reverb to cover up the noise.
 
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