frequency help

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mixaholic

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i did a little experiment with a frequency chart. i downloaded some acapellas and viewed them on the frequency chart and saw how they looked (most of them hardly had anything left under 100hz). i tried to take my vocals and lower it by -18 db at 100hz just to test if the frequency chart will read it but it hardly even decrease on the chart but i can hear a major difference in my vocals. why is this happening? even when i roll-off at a certain frequency, it hardly changes on the frequency chart. is there some eq's that can just completely take out the frequency of you're choice? i'm using waves paragraphic 10 and RenEq and viewing them with the waves frequency analyzer.
 
mixaholic said:
is there some eq's that can just completely take out the frequency of you're choice? i
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Not to disrespect you but, wouldn't that be a filter instead of an EQUALizer???
 
i'm just using an example. it happens with an equalizer too
 
basically what i'm askin is how do you keep a frequency at a certain level without it ever rasing pass a certain level? when i cut certain frequencies by alot and go check the frequency chart, not a whole lot changed but i can hear a difference.
 
mixaholic said:
basically what i'm askin is how do you keep a frequency at a certain level without it ever rasing pass a certain level? when i cut certain frequencies by alot and go check the frequency chart, not a whole lot changed but i can hear a difference.
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This isn't my area of expertise... but.. This sounds like multiband compression....Oh well.. I'm watching this thread... maybe i'll learn something
 
From what I can gather, you're trying to do a narrowband compression
However, doing it by lookign at a "frequency chart" isn't really waht you should be doing.

There are a couple of questions that you should always ask about any spectral analysis.

Firstly, and most importantly, how is it weighted? Are you getting a "true" reading, or is it weighted in some way? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighting explains the different weighting curves and how they apply. If you're using something like an A-weighting, then you're not likely to notice much change at all around 100Hz, as this is fairly low on the rating scale, hence large dBFS changes only show up as small changes on your readout.

Secondly, is it a peak, RMS or average reading? If it's a peak reading, then you're not likely to notice much difference unless you really EQ that frequency.

Also, you've got to think about how you're actually analysing the signal- is it a RTA, or just an overall analyser?


But my main question is why you'd want to do this? the 15 dB cut that you get on most EQs should be more than enough, as opposed to cutting a specific frequency out totally... And why are you trying to match up your vocals to that of something that you've downloaded?

Narrowband compression/limiting can come in handy to soften problem frequencies, but it sounds like all you want to EQ your singal, not compress it.
 
thanks for the feedback yall. CPL i never wanted to cut 15 db out of my vocals i just wanted to see if it would read on the frequency chart to see if it was workin correctly but you pointed out something.........it was a peak reading so i guess that's why i never saw a change in the chart. i wanna do the narrowband compression that you are talking about. i'm trying to just keep certain frequencies steady without hardly moving up and down all the time (just keep them in one place).
 
do you know of any plugin that i can use to do narrowband compression?
 
mixaholic said:
do you know of any plugin that i can use to do narrowband compression?
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There are countless multiband compressor plug ins available. Just do some searching.

Or are you looking for a free one?
Check here:

http://www.kvraudio.com
 
By the way, I just re-read what you were trying to do. If you want to lower everything under a certain frequency you should not do a basic cut at 100 Hz, you should do a High Pass at 100 Hz, or a low shelf to cut below 100 Hz.
 
yeah i just need one that can do narrowband compression. thanks
 
If you want to keep a frequency "steady" then yu'll also need a narrowband expander.
An expander works in an opposite way to a compressor- it increases the volume of everything below the threshold (as opposed to decreasing the volume of everything above the threshold).

A compressor and expander, when used in unison, can "hold" a signal between their thresholds.
 
Are you sure that you had the 'frequency chart' inserted after the EQ? If you cut 15db at 100hz, you should notice it on the graph.
 
Farview said:
Are you sure that you had the 'frequency chart' inserted after the EQ? If you cut 15db at 100hz, you should notice it on the graph.
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i was thinkin the same thing.
 
yea farview i did have it inserted after the eq. i see a little difference but not a whole lot. i viewed other comercial acapellas in the analyzer and i see how they look just to experiment with the chart and when i make a big cut it frequency, i hardly notice it change that much. and i'm not reading it's peaks i'm reading it in realTime. i'm tryin to keep 100 hz and below real low while have the other frequencies high. i'm not using this setting tho i just want to see if it will show up on the freq chart. i even tried to use a multiband compressor and i put some crazy setting like -80 threshold and a high ratio for anything below 100hz and it changes a little (real little) on the chart but it changes dramatically in the sound it self like it has no bass so why is it still high in the freq chart?
 
Why don't you just stop paying attention to the "chart". This sounds like the easiest approach to me. ;)
 
thank you all for the feedback :D . i guess i just have to do what sounds ok to me. i just tried to use the comercial acapellas as a guide..............so i'm going to focus on the sound itself now :cool:
 
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