cubase sx EQing help

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manontheside

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Can someone give me a snapshot of what their EQ settings look like when recording an acoustic guitar??? I need a good reference, I don't know if i'm WAY off or not. Does anyone know any good books/videos/websites on this topic?
 
I'd recommend not only keeping your EQ settings flat, but keeping EQ out of the chain altogether when recording acoustic guitar.

Instead work a bit with mic placement to get the best "natural" sound you can in the tracking. If you want/need to apply some light EQ in the mix stage you can, but you'll at least have a clean and best-sounding source track from which to work.

As far as mic placement, if you're recording someone else, have them play a bit and literally move yourself and your head around to listen for closest to the kind of tone you want. Find a spot or two and try some tracking with the mic in those placements.

In general, though, try not miking the sound hole directly, but instead mic just above or below it to get a full-bodied bass sound. Roll off below 50Hz or so if it's too boomy. For a sharper, more honky tonk sound mic behind the hole. For a crisper, cleaner sound move the mic up the neck a few frets.

HTH,

G.
 
hmm well i tried miking it flat, but when i EQ them, the difference is night and day. When I EQ, I can get a completely different sounding guitar. Could it be the preamp I use? A 1-channel presonus tube blue? I heard some good things about the fishman aura.
 
Firstly, I'd recommend staying away from using the Cubase builtin EQs altogether as they're not really that musical sounding, specially on something as prominent as acoustic guitar.

Secondly, presets/snapshots would be pretty useless to you, unless you're going for the same exact tone, and the other person used the same guitar player, playing the same guitar, in the same room, into the same mic which was setup exactly the same way, same pre and same soundcard, and was monitoring through the same monitors.

It would be better if you posted a clip and stated exactly what it is that you're not satisfied about. Then you'd get more meaningful advice than something like "cut 6dB at 376Hz with a Q setting of 2.3"

Snapshots on EQs, compressors and limiters are the most useless and ultimately are more harmful than anything.
 
I usually don't eq my acoustics, except maybe to roll of the low end around 60hz or so. Doesn't help much, does it?

EQ is *very* specific. You just have to play around with it and see what it does. Set the Q very narrow and sweep around through the frequencies until you find something you DON'T like, then cut that frequency a bit. Its very dependent on your instrument, mic, room, even performance. A snapshot of my settings wouldn't mean anything.

Have you tried moving the mic around? Mic placement usually does a better job of capturing a good acoustic sound than trying to create it later with an EQ. The preamp probably isn't helping you out a whole lot, but its probably not hurting you that much either. I'd suspect your mic placement then your mic before the pre, actually.

And there aren't really any "right" EQ (or any other) settings. If it sounds good it is good, no matter how subtle or crazy the settings are.

Take care,
Chris
 
I don't see what SEEING how someone eq's something can make a bigger difference than LISTENING to your own set-up.
 
manontheside said:
hmm well i tried miking it flat, but when i EQ them, the difference is night and day. When I EQ, I can get a completely different sounding guitar. Could it be the preamp I use? A 1-channel presonus tube blue? I heard some good things about the fishman aura.
Click to expand...
Nowhere have you yet mentioned the mic you're actually using; that will probably have a larger effect than the preamp itself. That pre is servicable enough; it should give you enough room to be able to hear a big difference by working the mics.

In order from most important to least important in the signal chain for this situation (more or less):

1. Guitar player
2. Guitar model and condition
3. Microphone placement
4. Microphone selection
5. Preamp selection
6. DAC quality
7. Signal chain quality
8. Everything else

Noisewreck hit it on the head in the second paragraph of his post when it comes to the usefulness of EQ presets or recipies.

And I'd reiterate to take it even further and skip the EQ during recording altogether. With complex acoustic instruments like acoustic guitar and human voice, you are really better off getting the best sound as possible with as few black boxes in-line as possible. You can always EQ or otherwise process later after its recorded if you really want to, but no amount of EQ can make a bad acoustic recording sound good.

BTW: Re-string and re-stretch your strings before you hit the record button. There is no excuse for recording with old strings.:)

G.
 
EQ'ing is a 4 step process
1. Listen to what you have
2. Imagine waht you want
3. Figure out the difference between the two
4. Set the EQ to the difference

That is all there is to it. It is the same thing with anything audio. If you figure out the difference between what you have and what you want, determine what equipment will affect that change, and set it to do it, you have done your job.
 
Jason is absolutely right. It's the same for compressors, limiters, reverbs, and any other processing gear, too. It takes learning the gear and the sounds to know how to figure out step #3, is all.

With that in mind, perhaps these general figures regarding the acoustic guitar might give you some signposts. The numbers are not necessarily spot-on accurate, just general guides. The driving is still up to you. ;) :

~80Hz fullness
~80-100Hz sound hole resonants
~240Hz body
~2-5kHz presence

G.
 
Sorry scrubs. I didn't realize, i'll keep that in mind :) but thanks everyone for the help, i'm just getting impatient with my sound. I know i just need to get it right myself
 
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