Eq, Eq, Eq... Help!

A

AumStudioBrian

New member
EQ has got me stuck right now. I know that this is going to be the next step in my mixing/mastering journey. I feel as if there are some tricks on EQ for a final mix, certian tracks like kick and bass guitar, ect???

One of my biggest problems right now is a classic problem: When I mix a song down on my studio monitors it sounds great. As soon as I put it in my car stereo system, the bass sounds like its going to blow up my whole system. So I'll turn down the bass guitar, but then the instrument is now too low, but the actual bass frequency is still blasting away...

I mentioned this problem while in Guitar Center one day and a couple of guys said "haha, son, someday I'll have to teach you about EQ."

Now I feel like I'm out of the loop?!!? I think I mix pretty well and get good sounds and good levels, but I feel this is an area where I'm just ignorant and I need tips to take me to the next level. Please help!!!
 
I have had this problem also. Particularly when I listen on a playback system with a subwoofer. IMHO, it most likely stems from the fact that you are probably monitoring on nearfield monitors with 5", or 6" or even 8" speakers, and those speaker just ain't gonna allow you to hear the very low and subsonic frequencies.

At the risk of being shot (or forced to participate in a political thread in the Cave), I have taken to simply rolling off everything below 35 - 40 Hz. Some purists will argue about that approach, but it seems to work for me. There is very little if any musical information in that range, and it should cure, or start to cure your problem.

The real problem has to do with not being able to hear at that level. However, the fix for that involves much more $$$$$$. :D
 
Or ,

If your using small nearfields and your actually hearing the bass the way you figure it should sound without a Sub. Turn the bass down until its not to your liking. Or if the woofer cone is moving a lot, turn the bass down until it stops.

These are just small steps to your problem, but I used to use them myself back in the day.

Malcolm
 
Well, the reason I'm thinking its more of an EQ issue and not a speaker or room issue is because when I play professionaly recorded music through my monitors, I get my music to sound about the same. That music sounds fine... right amount of bass,ect. But when played on a subwoofer, my music sucks and the professional recording still sounds great??? Sigh--
 
AumStudioBrian said:
Well, the reason I'm thinking its more of an EQ issue and not a speaker or room issue is because when I play professionaly recorded music through my monitors, I get my music to sound about the same. That music sounds fine... right amount of bass,ect. But when played on a subwoofer, my music sucks and the professional recording still sounds great??? Sigh--
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Thats because of the lower frequencies that your mixes are producing,, you cant hear them. the commercial CD's have already removed these frequencies. Thats why you dont hear them in your car.
 
well, i guess thats kinda my question... what frequencies are they getting rid of? What tricks do these pros use to EQ a great mix?
 
malcolm123 said:
Thats because of the lower frequencies that your mixes are producing,, you cant hear them. the commercial CD's have already removed these frequencies. Thats why you dont hear them in your car.
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Yeah, what he said. :D

That's what I told you above. You are not HEARING those frequencies on your monitoring system, and therefore you don't know they need to be removed. That is why I suggested a roll-off. This will remove those fequencies IF they are there. (BTW, if you didn't know it, a roll-off IS an eq adjustment.)
 
AumStudioBrian said:
well, i guess thats kinda my question... what frequencies are they getting rid of? What tricks do these pros use to EQ a great mix?
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There is no trick. They are simply monitoring on equipment that allows them to hear everything and then they are adjusting accordingly.

You, OTOH, are most likely working with budget equipment, so you need to use some workarounds. Rolling off the frequencies under 40 Hz is a workaround that should help with the uncontrolled bass in your particular case.
 
AumStudioBrian said:
well, i guess thats kinda my question... what frequencies are they getting rid of? What tricks do these pros use to EQ a great mix?
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Depends on the track. It's never just one sweep although you could get by with that.

I may get killed for this one but, use a Spectrum Analyzer. LOL
 
One thing i do to help w/ this is take a multi-band compressor and use it only on the frequinces below 200 and compress those quite a bit.
 
Axis said:
One thing i do to help w/ this is take a multi-band compressor and use it only on the frequinces below 200 and compress those quite a bit.
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Axis,
200 seems kinda high if you are using quite a bit Multi-band. Im not knocking your technique though. :)


MAlcolm
 
yea it might be for most i get some boomy kick drum sometimes though :) plus thats around the frequency pops on the vocal mic occur for me
 
There is some good information so far in this thread. There are a couple possible factors:

It could be the room especially if your mix room is small. What happens with the bass in an acousticly bad room is that the bass plays tricks on you. IT can make some bass frequency way too lound and other frequencies disapear. These are the toughest (and usually most expensive) problems to fix.

What kind of monitors are you using? If you are mixing on speakers that do not go below about 70 hertz (like Yamaha NS 10s) you will really know what you are doing.

One of the reason all commercial CDs get mastered is to deal with these problems. If you are just doing demos it is not really a bad idea to cut off a bunch of low end. I know some great sounding commercial albums where mixers chopped off almost everything below 75 Hz, but I would suggest starting with more modest cuts. Try using a high pass filter at about 55 HZ and see if it helps.
 
have u use the EQ frequency "visual mesasurment"?

Look at left up place
you see
"HOME RECORDING.COM" ...the picture in the bottom.....is the answer
you to have pay attention on the EQ meters
sometimes our ear can be foolish...but meters won't...they speak the fact
so make sure u got ur EQ meters "Closed to flat"
like this
- ---------------

never like this
_____--___ _ _ _ _ ------_ _ _ _ _ _--- - _ _- - - - - - - -
 
Ronan said:
What kind of monitors are you using? If you are mixing on speakers that do not go below about 70 hertz (like Yamaha NS 10s) you will really know what you are doing.
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I'm am monitoring on Event 20/20bas monitors. I run Pro Tools with Waves Plugins, so EQ can be kinda tricky since I'm using plugins vs. outboard gear. Plugins are really easy to use and very handy, but in some instances they are almost more confusing.
 
AumStudioBrian said:
I'm am monitoring on Event 20/20bas monitors. I run Pro Tools with Waves Plugins, so EQ can be kinda tricky since I'm using plugins vs. outboard gear. Plugins are really easy to use and very handy, but in some instances they are almost more confusing.
Click to expand...

I am using the same speakers. I don't trust anything below 50-60 Hz on them.

Once again I suggest you simply roll off everything below 35-45Hz.


Or invest in a subwoofer. It's your money.
 
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