Bob,
I brought up legitimate questions and points, and were relevant to the thread. I also wanted to see just how much you knew...considering that article you linked to doesn't help anybody out with anything at all. "EQ to fix masking." Oh geez, now why didn't I think of that?
The fact is, Bob, you were steering ripingitar in an irrelevant direction and then not taking him there very quickly, at least not in public. And my questions were on point as they dealt with seperation issues and followup questions brought up by your advice to fix his problem with some kind of general EQ.
So, OK, on to ripingutar's problem. I agree with frasierhutch that a proper answer would require hearing the mix. But barring that, guesses can be made:
- Pan the bass and kick a few degrees apart, each side of center.
- Then pick which one of those two you want to steer the beat and slide that track about 5-8 milliseconds ahead of the other, This will have the combined effect of making the kick phychoacoustically sound a tad louder than the bass and seperate them enough in time to make them distinct sources without adversely affecting the beat. Slide the kick forward to make the beat more forceful and anthem-like, or keep the kick where it's at and slide the bass back for a more funky-bluesy feel; whichever you prefer to taste.
- Pick which one of the two you want to have a sharper attack to it and adjust your comressor to slow down the attack a bit, and maybe try a small EQ boost somewhere around 4kHz to enphasixe either the pick strike or the batter strike, depending on the track.
- EQ the other rhythm instrument (not the one you gave the 4k boost to) to emphasize the low bass somehwere around 80-100Hz to give it a bit more "boom". This is optional, and depends upon the quality of the track. But play with that a bit and see how that works out. Don't overdo it nevertheless.
- As far as the guitar, that you chould take a parametric EQ and sweep looking for the dominant resonant frequency that you can throw a couple of narrow-Q cut at to sweeten it's overall sound. Getting rid of the resonant mud will help lift and seperate it from the LF rhythm section.
All the above are YMMV - use one or use many or use none - and just thrown out there as general prescriptions that maybe you could use. But without hearing the track, it's impossible to narrow down properly.
How's that Bob? Now, do you mind answering my questions because I am legitimately curious and maybe we all can learn something. It's up to you to determine where we learn a new/old technique or whether we learn that you're just blowing smoke up our skirts in an attempt to drum up some bedroom-based mastering on a cracked copy of Waves.
I'll accept a good, well-considered answer either way. Please, no more Scott McClellan imitations; those are so a month ago
.
G.