EQing specific frequencies

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cellardweller

cellardweller

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From the title of this post, you'd think I know what I'm talking about. I DON'T! That's the problem, and I'd like to correct it.

The problem is, I've read primers/etc. explaining how certain frequencies alter specific instruments, etc..
What I need to figure out is how to identify and control these frequencies, for instance, to decrease the "muddiness" on a guitar track.

I've played around briefly with the different EQ settings for individual track in N, but it's all greek. I've not been able to find a tutorial/primer which explains EQ's using the same terminology as Ntrack does. I've been plodding around a while hoping it would dawn on me, or I would find an explanation I understood, but alas, I have not!

I have looked on Audiomind, I downloaded the Ntrack pdf also, and still haven't found what I'm looking for...

Yes, I am dense and suffer from ADD...

!!!!HELP ME!!!!

Thanx...
 
hey, CD.

Terminology can be a pain. Let's see if we can break this down easily...

Open N's built-in EQ so we're looking at the same thing. By default, there are 3 bands active. They're represented by red dots. There's one down at 100, one at 2500, and one at 6000.

The simplist way to use this EQ would be to add additional bands (there's an Add New Band button) until all 20 are in use. Then click and drag them into a line.. all at 0dB.. all spaced equally left to right along the frequency spectrum... and all set to be a Band Boost/Cut (drop down box called EQ Type). With the EQ set up this way, you have 20 volume controls. Each control affects only a few frequencies (determined by it's position along the horizontal line).

If you play a track (piano would work well since it covers a very wide range) and slide the bands up and down, you should hear the volume of that narrow frequency range rise and fall.

How many frequencies each band affects is determined by the width of it's Bandwidth. Set a low Bandwidth (narrow), and the band will only affect a few frequencies. Set a high Bandwidth (wide), and the band can affect well over 7 octaves.

Many EQ tutorials use the term Q to define the Bandwidth. Bandwidth and Q refer to the same thing, but they're indirectly related. Small Q = large Bandwidth. I'm pretty sure that N's Bandwidth refers to octaves.

There are 5 diff types of bands:
- High Pass
- High Shelf
- Boost/Cut
- Low Shelf
- Low Pass

There are pretty standard terms across the industry. Here's what they mean:
- HP passes highs thru unchanged while cutting lows (rather abruptly) to zero
- HS passes highs thru unchanged while applying an adjustable amount of cuts or boosts to lows
- BC boosts or cuts just the band being adjusted
- LS passes lows thru unchanged while applying an adjustable amount of cuts or boosts to highs
- LP passes lows thru unchanged while cutting highs (rather abruptly) to zero

In N's EQ, you can slide all bands around to pick exactly which band you want to affect.


This help any?


tj
 
I will print this and take it home with me tonight.

This will help considerably, I'm sure!

Teej, you are a saint!

Thanx.
 
he is good isnt he....

speaking of eq, i play in two working bands, and we run sound from the stage, and i get to do it. While my peavey 31 band fls has lights that glow when feedback occurs, i have found a training aid. Its a 31 band eq on your pc, the will spit out a feedback, then you have to practice and learn whice band it is to pull down . kind of a hearing training program pretty cool
 
happy to help, CD. I'll add a couple more things...

In our above scenario we had all 20 bands active and lined up. If you were to drop the bottom 5 bands say.. -6 dB. That would be identical to setting a High Shelf band at -6 (all frequencies below would be cut the same amount. It kinda forms a shelf.

Use a High Pass to cut all lows out of:
- Guitars (around 150)
- Vocals (around 150)
- Kick (around 50)
- Bass (around 50)
- Snare (around 150)
- Keys (around 150)

You'll find that tracks gain clarity when you eliminate the 'mud' down low.



Dave,
That sounds interesting. What's the name? Is it available on the net?


tj
 
Teej,
Now darn it, don't go cutting all my part out of a quartet. Bass singers don't appreciate cutting out their part with a low pass filter. (fundamental frequency anyway)
:D
thanks
Larrye
 
haha.. Sorry, Larrye. Of course there are exceptions! I'm curious.. how low can you hit? What's the frequency of your lowest note?


tj
 
feedback trainer

this is the programa quichttp://www.niehoff.nl/NiehoffFeedbackTrainer.exe
 
Teej,

A couple of related questions, if you will???

How exactly do the red dots correlate to the 20 bands?

Sliding these up or down replaces or supplements the knobs on the mixer main panel? If it replaces them, should I leave the three knobs on the mixer main panel at center?

20 "bands" are present, but only 9 red "dots"???

Should these red "dots" be spaced so as to cover the entire "window" from left to right?

Do you have to create these additional "controls" every time you load a different song?

Thanks for the info You've supplied. I've come further in my understanding from your 1 paragraph than all of the other stuff, including the manual, combined...

You da' man.
 
Gospel,
I'm glad you're finding AudioMinds helpful. :)


CD,
Each red dot IS a band. There's a button labled 'Add New Band' that will add a new red dot everytime you click the button.

The fact that you can drag that band (dot) left or right, to whatever frequency you want, means that in most cases you don't need 20. If they were locked in place (like a hardware EQ), you probably wouldn't use all of them anyway.

Does that make sense?

This more indepth EQ replaces the 3-knob EQ on the mixer. If you open the 20-band EQ, then ignore the knobs on the mixer.

In my analogy, I mentioned spacing the 20 bands left to right across the entire frequency range. I explained it this way so you'd get the idea of how the thing works. If you do this, you'll basically have a software version of a hardware EQ. I think this type of EQ (bands locked at set frequencies) is called a Graphical EQ. But the software EQ that comes with N is a Paragraphical EQ (i think i have this right). Anyway, it's much more flexible because you can drag the bands left or right and assign them to any frequency you like.

So with a hardware EQ, you might not use three-quarters of the bands. With a Paragraphical EQ, you just activate the number of bands you need, and drag them to the frequencies that are giving you trouble.

Also (unlike a hardware EQ) you can change the type of band. Imagine a hardware EQ with the bottom 5 bands lowered by 6 dB. You can do the same thing in the Paragraphical EQ by using a single, hi-shelve band. Activating and lowering a single hi-shelve band automatically lowers all the frequencies below it. The result (visually) is a shelf or stair step.

Is that helping?

As for loading these settings for new songs, i have mixed emotions about this...

- You can save settings within the EQ for use in other tracks/songs
- But it's easy to get locked into a pattern of using similar EQ settings for dis-similar tracks.

Ya gotta be careful about assuming a set of EQ settings that sound good on one track will sound good on another. The idea is to trust your ears, not your eyes. Same is true of compression, verb, everything.

But yes, you can save settings.


tj
 
Another "Copy-paste-print". Yes, that helps immensely as usual.

The only thing I can't get through my thick skull is that you seem to suggest it is possible to have twenty "bands" or "red dots" on the frequency range display, while I've only been able to place 9 there. What am I missing? The number with the up/down arrows above the freq. range display I've maxed out @ 20, but still only 9 "red dots" below that on, what I'm calling the "freq. range display".

I cycle through the number of bands, it will max out, say at 13. I click "add new band" then it will go up to 14, but without the addition of another "red dot" on the freq. range display. I'm probably placing too much emphasis on these "red dots", but I just want to make sure I understand this process and how to manipulate it for better or for worse.

Thanx.

(I hope the above was coherrent enough to be understood!)
 
AHhhhhhhhhh... i bet the new bands are piling up on top of each other, CD. N tries to spread them out at first. But eventually, all new bands are placed at 18k. If you don't move the previous new band, the next one is placed right on top of it.


tj
 
Kewl, that should be easy enough then!

I gigantic Thanx again Teej!!!
 
Teej,
Sorry, to take so long to answer you. I don't go that low as far as go. I can sing a low C, which is about 65hz.

Larrye
 
Yo Teej,
Thanks for the mini-primer on high pass filters. WOW, what a difference! Cutting the bass guitar @ 50 even made a difference in what I thought were intonation issues with the vocals. Who'd a thunk? A conflict of frequencies?
However, cutting @ 150 for the vocals took some of the body out of my voice. So, I guess that I'll have to dive back in and fiddle around (no, I don't play violin, but my boy does :D ).
Thanks again,
Bill
 
Sure thing, Bill. Glad it was somewhat helpful.

150 is just a ballpark figure, bud. Each voice is different. What i do is:
- Solo the track
- Enable a hi-pass
- Sweep it from left to right until i've cut too much
- Sweep back to the left a touch
- Note the frequency.

Then, i repeat the process while listening to the whole song (vocal not soloed), and note the frequency. Usually, picking a spot about halfway between these two figures is a safe bet.

Bottom line.. 150 isn't a magic number. Trust your ears.


tj
 
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