EQ Help Please

[SwurVe]

Hello, I am having alot of problems with EQ. Im not good at it at all. I read a post on it once saying to leave your mixer EQ levels just in the middle but I cant becuase then it sounds sooo muddy n not clear...i have a middle tone to a little higher pitched voice....i use adobe audition 1.5 n i have WAVES plugins if any of them deal with EQ maybe....I have a pic of my mic setup...I have it pointing a bit downwards cuse i heard thats better to do......The one pic is a closeup of my EQ levels n the other is far away with also the FX send levels which i keep in the middle....and the last pic is of my main mix slider.....

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY ACCEPTED PLEASE...im so stuck on this EQ thing n its making my mixes not sound very good

 

[NYMorningstar]

Have you tried singing through the other side of your mic? Even with a middle tone to a little higher pitched voice you should track with using as little to no eq and effects.

 

[SwurVe]

Cause i use parametric and graphic eq but sometimes it seems to make my voice sound muddy n not as clear....

 

[SwurVe]

Like for effects I just need some help too on maybe what presets to use in Adobe Audition for EQ n stuff....

 

[zaragemca]

Muddy sound,voice is related to lack of ,the mid- and high range eq.,,back set up of compression,etc. you should try to set eq. with a CD,or other source,untill you could hear everything crispy,clear,and them try the voice.

 

[SwurVe]

Cause i hear all these ppl talk about like rolling off eq levels n stuff...n i dont know where to do all that in Adobe Audition...like i know where the equalizers like parametric n quick eq n all that are but i dont know like what order to do them or what ones to do

 

[SwurVe]

n also one other quick question...the track i am doing right now i am using an instrumental from an Eminem Song.......will i still have to eq the instrumental so it blends with my voice better?


P.S. i also have the WAVES plugins so if theres any better eq stuff in there that someone knows of

 

[AlexW]

Which waves package do you have? Typically there will be an EQ plug-in. It might be 2-band, 4-band, 6-band; something like that. In any case, with the waves stuff you can usuall change the type of EQ for each band--either a standard parametric bell or sloped high pass or low pass. If you want to roll something off, use the EQ curve that rolls off (slopes down) in the direction you want. Then slid around the roll off point until you get a sound you like. You can also sweep a parametric bell type by raising the gain around 10 dB or so, narrowing the width (Q) and sweeping it across the frequency spectrum until you hear something you like or don't like. If it's a problem frequency that's muddying up your sound, once you identify its peak this way you can reverse the gain and cut it back.

 

[SwurVe]

I got the transform, Gold, Diamond, n Musicians one...there is some REQ 2 4 AND 6 BAND but none of them slope they just stay strait,,,,then theres like 10 band all the way to 1 band paragraphic eq and stuff

 

[SwurVe]

I just found a thing in audition called 250 HZ cut with LO END SHELF cut n it seems to take away all the muddiness...i dunno though if it makes the vocals too thin...maybe after doing that theres something i can do to boost em a bit more....also whats the best graphic equalizer to pick

 

[ryanlikestorock]

This is the most obvious downfall of the digital age. Here's someone who has the technology to download programs which can record and manipulate audio at quality levels totally unheard of 10 years ago and absolutely no idea how to do it.

I don't mean to make you feel bad... I just think you're going about this all wrong. Get out there with a 4-track cassette recorder and a couple sm57s and see what you can come up with. I promise after even a week of practicing your tracking and mixing on a shitty Tascam portastudio, you'll hit the ground running when you start using those Waves plugins.

Otherwise, study EQ like you'd study for a driving test. Learn every button, listen to every fader. Try 10 different EQs and LISTEN to everything. Figure out what you like and what you don't like about each one. Read every essay you can find about EQ and how different parameters are applied to every instrument. People are giving this information away all over the place.

 

[SwurVe]

ive been reading up on eqing now for a long time n ive experimented alot n it was just today that i found an article about that 250 hz cut thing on an article n i found it in audition n it says cut at 250 to get rid of muddiness n i did n it seemed to...n really i dont even use the WAVES plugins at all...i use mostly whats on audition....i just got the waves plugins from teh tech ed teacher at our school

 

[ryanlikestorock]

Instead of noting that "250hz is muddy", try to hear exactly what 250hz sounds like. Boost the hell out of it and listen to it. Now boost 350hz, then 450, then 550... listen to them all. They can all be "muddy", depending on the source.

The problem is that those frequencies can also be the life of your mix. If you take them all out, there's no lower mids left and all the power is gone. It's definitely best to listen so hard and so much that your understanding of the frequency spectrum goes beyond words to describe them. Listen to every frequency band with extreme intensity until phrases like "where do I cut?" sound ridiculous when people ask them.

My two cents.

 

[mixsit]

... It's definitely best to listen so hard and so much that your understanding of the frequency spectrum goes beyond words to describe them...

The keys to the highway..

 

[AlexW]

And for the record, all of the waves EQ's are "flat" when you pull them up. You have to set the boosts and cuts manually by moving around the little colored dots. 2-band, you get two dots to play with. 4-band=four dots, etc. The Ren-Eq's are pretty good, so it would make sense to spend some time and learn how to use them.