Classical music e.q.?

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Todd129

Todd129

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Hey guys--

I have some tracks of soloist and small ensemble classical that sound fairly decent without any e.q. adjustments and a touch of large hall verb.

What e.q. if any would be standard practice when working with this genre?

So far I have considered subtracting 1 db where the (very flat) mics show a modest rise, but I'm not sure if this is a standard thing to do. I don't want to screw the recording up just fooling around.

Any tips welcomed!

Kind regards, Todd
 
You eq something to get it from where it is to where you want it. It's a custom tailored process for each different recording.

Listen to professional recordings of a similar nature and compare them to your recording. Make eq adjustments on your recording to make it more like the professional recordings and/or make it sound better to your ears. You seem to already have a sense of how you want it to sound.

In most multitrack software the changes you make don't change the source file, they're just applied during playback. With some software (Audacity?) you need to tell it to leave the original file unaltered.
 
EQ is for ears, not for specifications!

The only EQ necessary would be to tame anything that the room adds/detracts from the sound. So, maybe if there's an annoying air-conditioning unit, you could do a little work on that, and if your microphone position wasn't ideal, then you might have some unwanted mechanical noise from an instrument that could benefit from a little subtle tweaking, but if it sounds good, that's it. By and large, a real orchestra or small ensemble have a balanced sound anyway, so there's little need to change it because then it won;t sound 'real'.
 
Thanks for your tips guys -- I'm pretty happy the sound that was captured and am just going to leave it alone as far as eq goes. ;)
 
To follow up with you

I did find some unwanted artist noise (a few fingerboard clacks) and a very weird thin sound (is something wrong with my mics?) on a couple of notes in a different passage. Is it possible for one of the guys from the board to quicky listen to these noises and point me in the right direction towards correcting it? If so, how can I best share a .wav so someone on the board can scope this out.

Many, many thanks.
 
generally you can try using automation to dip the fader at the parts when the noise starts, if you tried parallel compression, these noises will only come forward. Spectral editing might be an option, I use wavelab to remove noises and clicks e.t.c and it's surprisingly good, there are much better ones e.g. cedar but they are well outside of my price range.

At a guess the thin sound might be a phase issue, but just in one part, you could try cutting it in just that part and flipping the phase of the offending track but it might not work.
 
Thanks for your tips. Is there a tutorial you can point me to that deals with e.q. "Automation" in Cubase 7.5? i need help learning how I can apply the needed e.q. to only specific short phrases on the track...thanks
 
You can add an inserted eq in Cubase. Find an eq insert/setting that works for the part. Then just hit the 'Write' button and automate the 'Bypass Insert Button' on the inserted track. Play the track before you want the eq, and press the button when you want the insert added. Hit again to disable the eq. If you miss it, 'Edit>Undo'. Do over. Remember to click the 'Write' button off before you move on. That can get crazy if you forget...
 
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