EQ-Matching experiment

omonoiatis9

New member
I am pretty much a beginner when it comes to mixing or mastering. My gear consists of a guitar, a computer and a guitar preamp that I plug onto the computer. No microphones used, just direct recording. As far as software goes, I use Nuendo, and I've lately started toying around with Ozone, in particular the interesting EQ-Matching feature.

As a beginner what I do for "Mixing Practice" is import a real, professional mix in Nuendo, then record all the instruments myself from scratch and try to get as close as possible to the real mix.

Well, one day I got bored and decided to cheat and see how close I can get using EQ-Matching. So what I did is I took an isolated sample of the real guitars in the track, used it as my EQ source, and matched it onto my guitar tone for the same riff (using the same riff is important if you want to get a close match). But that won't do it cause the song isn't just guitars. It's drums, it's bass, etc. However since I couldn't get isolated parts of drums or bass to do the same, I just picked a part where everything is playing and matched it onto the same part of my mix.

Here are the samples:

[Professional mix of the song]

[My cover, trying to copy with EQ matching]

[A and B comparison], both playing together towards the end


And [This is as close] as I could get before using any EQ matching



Thoughts?
 
I am pretty much a beginner when it comes to mixing or mastering. My gear consists of a guitar, a computer and a guitar preamp that I plug onto the computer. No microphones used, just direct recording. As far as software goes, I use Nuendo, and I've lately started toying around with Ozone, in particular the interesting EQ-Matching feature.

As a beginner what I do for "Mixing Practice" is import a real, professional mix in Nuendo, then record all the instruments myself from scratch and try to get as close as possible to the real mix.

Well, one day I got bored and decided to cheat and see how close I can get using EQ-Matching. So what I did is I took an isolated sample of the real guitars in the track, used it as my EQ source, and matched it onto my guitar tone for the same riff (using the same riff is important if you want to get a close match). But that won't do it cause the song isn't just guitars. It's drums, it's bass, etc. However since I couldn't get isolated parts of drums or bass to do the same, I just picked a part where everything is playing and matched it onto the same part of my mix.

Here are the samples:

[Professional mix of the song]

[My cover, trying to copy with EQ matching]

[A and B comparison], both playing together towards the end


And [This is as close] as I could get before using any EQ matching



Thoughts?

How about you stop fucking about with technology and start making music?
 
How about you stop fucking about with technology and start making music?

Well I'm about to blow your mind with yet another rhetorical question, but how about you don't bother commenting on a thread if you have nothing to say that contributes to the discussion?
 
Well I'm about to blow your mind with yet another rhetorical question, but how about you don't bother commenting on a thread if you have nothing to say that contributes to the discussion?

I AM contributing. If you don't want to take my contribution on board, then that's your decision. I, personally, don't think that buggering about with some mindless EQ matching function is contributing in any way to the creative activity of making music, and I am communicating my opinion to you.
 
I AM contributing. If you don't want to take my contribution on board, then that's your decision. I, personally, don't think that buggering about with some mindless EQ matching function is contributing in any way to the creative activity of making music, and I am communicating my opinion to you.

Last time I checked, we were on the "MP3 mixing clinic" sub-forum. For your information in case you're not familiar with the term mixing: "In sound recording and reproduction, audio mixing (or “mix down”) is the process which commences after all tracks are recorded and edited as individual parts. The mixing-process can consist of various processes but are not limited to setting levels, setting equalization, using stereo panning, and the addition of effects."

In fact, some "mindless EQ matching function" to discuss is about as pertinent to the subject of audio mixing as it gets. In fact you could even argue that a mixing forum has nothing to do with songwriting. I think you should better head over to this subforum if you think EQing isn't related to what this very subforum is about.

And like I said before, if you have nothing to contribute to the thread's topic in question, keep your edgy passive-aggressive rhetorical questions that you present as "contributions" to yourself. Or at the very least spare the moderators some effort and read the forum's rules

"Deliberately posting something controversial that one could reasonably assume would cause disruption is NEVER permitted. It wastes mods’ time and it wastes members’ time, while also diminishing the value of the content available on HR, which ultimately is meant to help people improve in their craft. Posting a differing opinion, in a determined stubborn or aggressive manner, simply to start a disruption or attack anyone who doesn’t share your opinion is NOT permitted. Opposite opinions are not against the rules and are encouraged, but trolling for disagreement and arguments is against the rules."

There, even spared you the effort of clicking.
 
I gotta side with Omon here, Bubba. He's got a specific goal he's trying to accomplish vis-a-vis creating music. He posted his results and asked for feedback. It's eminently applicable to the forum at hand.

Anyway, back to the original topic. I can definitely hear a difference between your tone, and the original. With this genre, it's all about being over-driven and squashed, so I'd say they're similar quality results. (Being unfamiliar with the original, if you played back one for me in an hour, I probably couldn't say for sure who's version it was.)

So what does your mix consist of then? I didn't quite follow from the OP.
Two guitars with the EQ-matching FX chain, bass, and EZ-drummer?
 
So what does your mix consist of then? I didn't quite follow from the OP.
Two guitars with the EQ-matching FX chain, bass, and EZ-drummer?

Close. Two dry guitar signals, with an amp simulation insert, then the EQ-matching insert.
For bass I don't have an actual bass guitar so I was stuck with using a midi bass. I used Trilian. No EQ matching here since I couldn't get isolated bass samples
I programmed the drums with Superior Drummer 2.
The second EQ-match was applied to the entire mix, in an attempt to make the bass and drums stick as well.

I agree the tones do sound different still. My tone sounds a bit more.. honky i'd say? Probably has a lot to do with the fact that a different guitar produces different sounds across different frets on the neck, which is something that EQ matching can't account for unless it was dynamic and constantly changed for different regions of the neck.
 
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