Mixing/ Mastering... mostly EQing

B

buryher17

New member
I'm trying to find some sort of "cliff notes" on really good ways to EQ and fix up my recordings. I want to find a good tutorial on more towards vocals (keep in mind it typically screaming). Does anyone have any links? I have read several links, i have the recording book for dummies, several other small books but nothing has completely gave me the step to step to getting it to be perfect.

:rolleyes:
 
perfection is a pretty tough thing to measure up to.

if you're home recording, you had better set your sights more on "meh...good as it'll get"
 
Step #1: Drop the phrase and idea of using mixing tools to"fix up my recordings". Do your tracking in tracking, not in mixing, and do your mixing in mixing, not in mastering.

G.
 
These are horrible answers.
The goal is to make our home recordings as good as possible, not settle with all this "meh" nonsense.
You don't want to overprocess during tracking either, you'll have less options in mix down.
You do want to use the right mike, especially for vocals, to get the most out of the tone of the singer.
use reductive eq to get the tracks out of each other's way, lowpass/hipass,
then solo and focus on bringing out the sweet spot of your tone by adding eq, or taking out bad frequencies in your mid's. low q or bandwith produces cleaner results.
You can have a full sound that will be muddy and if you roll of eq it will actually sound clearer in the mix.
If your tones are harsh try processing through analog effects or a tape player, 2 track tape is still analog.
 
morning lights said:
These are horrible answers.
The goal is to make our home recordings as good as possible, not settle with all this "meh" nonsense.
You don't want to overprocess during tracking either, you'll have less options in mix down.
You do want to use the right mike, especially for vocals, to get the most out of the tone of the singer.
use reductive eq to get the tracks out of each other's way, lowpass/hipass,
then solo and focus on bringing out the sweet spot of your tone by adding eq, or taking out bad frequencies in your mid's. low q or bandwith produces cleaner results.
You can have a full sound that will be muddy and if you roll of eq it will actually sound clearer in the mix.
If your tones are harsh try processing through analog effects or a tape player, 2 track tape is still analog.
Click to expand...

you seem to be reading half posts. how does "make our home recordings as good as possible" not mean "good as it'll get"

you also may not have seen the original post of "I have read several links, i have the recording book for dummies, several other small books"

how do you think he's read books upon books that discuss eq, but you would be able to sum up everything with 7 sentences?

i say the prognosis of his problems lies in his contentment with the quality of mic, preamp, room, and vocal performance and not whether he's notched and boosted correctly.

those all being variables that undoubtedly are sub-quality to a non-home (professional) studio.
 
Figure out what you don't like, and that's your EQ setting. Credit goes to whoever said that on this forum (southside maybe?), it's the best way to approach EQ.
 
he's read for dummies and some small books.
some books i've seen suggest minimal eq-ing as a rule.



i don't agree with this, many great-sounding recordings employ heavy use of eq. including additive eq.
i think a lot of difference lies in the experience and number of individuals working in a studio environment, as opposed to the expensive gear.
if a guy working at home has the same knowledge and experience, he can get something a lot better than "meh".
 
minimal eq is good if your lost or new, but remember that many of the "big boys" use copious eq and compression.

some general advice (ducks flames)
cut lows, don't cut mids, add hi end sparingly.
 
a guy who knows what he's doing can do more with $400 than a tool with 4 mil.
who hasn't heard a lo-fi recording that still sounded great?

it's about craft not high end equipment. it's called homerecording.com not "you have to pay big for high-end studio or, meh.com". if the guy has radio shack gear, so what?

the goal is to make the most with what you've got, which is a lot, given the power of plug-ins.

have fun eq-ing, bury her...
 
are you completely blind to the gap of difference between "perfect" and "as good as it can get"

how is "as good as it can get" naysaying negative crap?

you people are just little mousetraps ready to snap
 
Without knowing what you're listening "to" vs. what you're listening "for" no one can tell anyone anything about EQ'ing.

It's like trying to explain subtle shades of blue to a blind man with red glasses on.

Learn your tools, learn how to listen, do what the mix is telling you. It's that simple.
 
cello_pudding said:
are you completely blind to the gap of difference between "perfect" and "as good as it can get"

how is "as good as it can get" naysaying negative crap?

you people are just little mousetraps ready to snap
Click to expand...

nice going dude, you haven't said one positive thing about home recording this whole thread.

i say stack one-band eq over 4 band eq over 1 band eq /process/compress limit
if your music is good cello pudding won't be able to naysay it.
 
morning lights said:
a guy who knows what he's doing can do more with $400 than a tool with 4 mil.
who hasn't heard a lo-fi recording that still sounded great?

it's about craft not high end equipment. it's called homerecording.com not "you have to pay big for high-end studio or, meh.com". if the guy has radio shack gear, so what?

the goal is to make the most with what you've got, which is a lot, given the power of plug-ins.

have fun eq-ing, bury her...
Click to expand...

thank you. i agree i was just askign for some suggestions. I have nice equipment. I have an alesis multimix16 usb 2.0 running on a fast new computer, at2020 mic or vocals (until i buy the rode NT1A next week), i'm using a studio projects pre that sounds really nice, and i'm buying a joemeek pre this week as well. I have a plethora of plug ins that are extremely nice from the waves ren. package to the izotope ozone 3. All I wanted to know was what people cold suggest as a help, no need for arguments.
 
I'd like to re-state what I was trying to say earlier, as I believe it was rather mis-construed:

Having all that gear and tools are great, but as was said, if you don't have the expereince of technique, they won't help all that much as you might think.

Frontload your effort and energy. By this I mean that #1 in importance is your performance, and a close second is the quality of your tracking (recording). This doesn't mean throwing all your gear and plugs on the recording; this means spend the time and effort into getting the quality of your recorded tracks as high as you can and/or at least as close as you can to what you want to wind up with. "Fix in the mix" is a quasi-myth.

Sure the Big Boys often use a lot of EQ or compression or reverb during mixing, but more often than not it is to build upon what's right about the tracking, not try to fix what's wrong with it. If your track sounds like shit, it will likely keep at least the aftertaste of shit all the way through the process, no matter what you do to it.

And, just like a great engineer can make better recordings with a lavelier mic and a portable casette than a monkey can with a Schoeps and an Amek, a great performer/performance will sound great on a scratchy 78, whereas an average performance will only sound average even on the cleanest SACD. Don't press that Big Red Button and expect to keep what comes out until you have the song down backwards in your sleep and you have a take that just has energy or emotion dripping off of it. Start with that, and the rest will almost take care of itself.

G.
 
buryher17 said:
I'm trying to find some sort of "cliff notes" on really good ways to EQ and fix up my recordings. I want to find a good tutorial on more towards vocals (keep in mind it typically screaming). Does anyone have any links? I have read several links, i have the recording book for dummies, several other small books but nothing has completely gave me the step to step to getting it to be perfect.

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

In my opinion, you should turn off the EQ altogether and try a recording with only mic placement annd instrument settings. You should take 1 song and spend about a week on it getting every track to sound the way you want. Don't stop until you get the track as good as you are capable of using everything you can except EQ and compression.

You will get far more out of this than ten thousand posts you read.

Some pros use EQ, some use compression and some use niether in tracking. The main reason most repeat the "no EQ during tracking" is because the quality of EQ blocks in most cheaper mixers are bad at their jobs. Keeping the EQ out altogether is desireable to the home reccer because they mainly add noise and phasing more than EQ. The top mixing boards and outboard EQs don't have these problems and I know that many pros use plenty of EQ during tracking. The good EQs just don't introduce the problems that the cheap ones do.

And, subtractive EQ has the exact same problems as additive EQ. Same phase problems. Rumors are that subtractive EQ has less phasing, but it is not true.

Good luck and try the experimenting until you get it. That is the only way tp iron out your recordings.
 
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