instrument fighting for the same freq. space

ches1

ches1

New member
Hi everyone, it's been a little while since I posted here but I now have a question for yall mixing gurus:

when 2 instruments have a peak in the same frequency and it's causing the mix to sound "muddy" or just straight up bad, how do you point out wich one is gonna have the cut and wich one is gonna be allowed to live full????

here's what i have in mind:
the kick and the bass are both wonderful individualy but when combined the kick will lose it's energy and the bass it's fullness
or
when you have the snare and the hi-hats kind of like melting into each other

(I may have not chose the right adjectives, but it's pretty close to how I hear it)
p.s. I make rap music
Peace.
 
Retune the bass drum.

While most people have that problem, I have no issues with bass drum and bass guitar. However, distortion guitar playing power chords will completely cover up the bass drum, still trying to figure out how to carve out breathing room.

But yeah, I'd play with tunings with the bass drum. I usually hi-pass the bass drum at 55 hz, and the bass guitar at 65 hz.

As far as your snare and hi-hat clashing, that is very odd, do you tune your snare ultra high and are your hi-hats like 80 year old Zildjian K's?
 
ches1 said:
when 2 instruments have a peak in the same frequency and it's causing the mix to sound "muddy" or just straight up bad, how do you point out wich one is gonna have the cut and wich one is gonna be allowed to live full????

here's what i have in mind:
the kick and the bass are both wonderful individualy but when combined the kick will lose it's energy and the bass it's fullness
or
when you have the snare and the hi-hats kind of like melting into each other
Click to expand...
Since you're making your own music, the first place I'd look is the composition/arrangement. Are your tracks conflicting because they're more or less playing the same thing at the same time, and if so, is that *really* what you want?

Also, with some instruments, it might simply be a matter of changing up microphones/preamps. If you're running everything through the same mic/pre combo, on one of them change either the mic or the pre (or both) to give each track it's own tint.

As far as EQ, try a parametric sweep first; this will not only help separate the tracks, but can give you an automatic head start on figuring which track should get cut where and how to fit the two tracks together.

Also after the sweep, listen close to each track for two things: which one seems to be "leaning" one way or another, and add further gentle EQ to emphasize that lean (this is huge on guitars, but works for any two tracks), and second see which track would benefit most from better definition via a sharpening of mid-to-high frequency attack and apply that to that track only.

Finally, separate the tracks in pan space when possible. Especially with hip hop where a natural stereo soundstage is usually not required and a more abstract mix often prefered. There's nothing that says the snare and hats have to be close to each other, for example. The LF stuff like bass and kick usually benefit the most form being near center, but there's no law that says they both have to be panned right down the middle. Throw one 20% L and the other 20% right (just for example) if you need to.

Also with bass and kick, sometimes lagging one slightly in front or behind the beat by just a few ms can not only separate the two but can add a whole different vibe to the mix. If, or how well, this will work for any given composition depends entirely on the composition, but when it does work, it can work very well.

G.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top