EQ during tracking

[Light]

Do you think perhaps this is not such a good thing for a beginner to be doing though?

A pro will probably know pretty quickly when they've got the best mic for the job and when that mic is in the best position to record it's source etc. And like xstatic they'll probably know alot of the gear they're using inside out (not to mention the quality of that gear).

I think as a beginner I'm better off doing as they say rather than as they do, certainly in this case.

Well, he usually uses a Neve, and Berklee's studio A has an SSL 4000 E. He is usually in rooms that sound good, and Berklee's studio A room sucks ass. Of course, any professional engineer is deeply familiar with the basic concepts of any console (they are all, in their basic design, exactly the same, after all). But it was decently not his favorite console or room.

But that is not really my point.

My real point is simply this. The big name will frequently say things in public that have little to do with how they actually work, such as "never EQ during tracking" or "never use dynamics during tracking."

Or the really big lie, "NS-10's are great speakers."


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[glynb]

I try to steer away from making decisions according to what anyone else thinks.
I mean, these things are so personal and there's never a right or wrong, but only a successful song.

The best is trial and error. Try it first. You'll end up learning more about your gear, about your preffered sound and about your own ears that way.

"just do it".....

In principle you're right when it comes to artistic decisions. However, there are practical problems for which 'rules' come in handy as they help you to avoid making the same errors over and over and you can benefit from others experiences. Take one example, a 'boomy' acoustic guitar, there are tried and trusted methods of avoiding this at tracjking time if you learn from the advice of others, avoiding a crappy sounding acoustic guitar isn't an artistic decision as such, its a 'technical' one.

Digressing further, avoiding 'plosives on the vocal is another technical thing, not aritstic. I could see a situation where an artist might actualy want plosives on the vocal, but that would be very unusual!

I know we're disussing EQ here, but there are some basic things which apply across the board regardless of artistic intent/genre, don't you think?