"highs are higher and lows are lower"

[PhiloBeddoe]

is it possible to move an instrument that is high such as horns all the way to the bottom? also does this depend on what note u play or is it just the instrument when talking about this. (eg. playing strings with lower notes and playin strings with higher notes: does it matter the or note or is it just the frequency of that instrument) thanks

OK, I'll take a crack at this.

Any sound coming from an instrument is made up of a fundamental (like C5) and a very long series of harmonic frequencies, i.e. multiples of the fundamental frequency. For example, if you play A=440Hz on a piano it will also produce 880Hz, 1320Hz, etc. The amount of each harmonic varies with instruments and determines the timbre (characteristic sound) of each instrument. This is one reason why a horn doesn't sound like a guitar. They have a different 'harmonic series'.

So boosting 880Hz in the example above does not change the fundamental, it just boosts the harmonic. EQ does not change the fundamental note. A pitch shifter will change the fundamental and harmonic series though.

You might think that boosting fundamentals is a good idea, but often it's not. Sometimes fundamentals are even eq'd out but your brain reconstructs them. For example, a guitar can produce an 83Hz fundamental, but sometimes a mix is so crowded in that area that you might high pass at 100Hz. You will still recognize it as a guitar.

EQ is about making all the elements of the mix fit together. (It can also be used for an effect, but we'll ignore that for now.) In your example if you play a horn in a different octave, it might fit better in the mix or it might not. It depends on what else occupies the same space.

Instruments do generally have eq ranges that work for them and gravitate toward certain areas of the frequency spectrum, but it really depends on what other instruments are in the mix so there aren't very many rules. You probably won't want to boost 40Hz on a flute, for example, because it doesn't have useful information down there. If you are trying to make the flutes hold down the low end of your mix, it is just not going to sound good.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Robert D]

Congrats Mixaholic, you've just won the "most confusing question of the year" award.

Now that the question is perfectly clear (as mud ), I'll take a shot in the dark at it. "Fit in the mix" involves several variables, of which frequency is only one. Having said that, let's talk about frequencies and instruments. Most instruments cover a lot of frequency ground in just their fundamentals, and there's a lot of overlap between instruments within the frequency spectrum. Some instruments, like most keyboards, cover a huge portion of the audio spectrum. So, there is no neat and clear segmentation of the spectrum that says "bass is from here to here, then guitar is from here to here, etc." The more complex the arrangement, adding brass and strings, woodwinds, etc., the more things overlap. So, as Farview stated, it's really an arrangement issue first. However, you also need to bring time into the picture as you think about the arrangement. This is obvious, but sometimes you lose track of the obvious (I do all the time), so remember, frequencies only compete if they share the same space in frequency AND time.
This is not just a recording/mixing issue. It isn't even an issue that only concerns music that goes through mics and line ins into a mixer. It equally affects purely acoustical events.
Eq can be used to help clear the congestion for these bottlenecks, but they are much better prevented in the first place by way of arrangement. This is one of the main reasons that sometimes it's not just what you put in the mix that makes it work, but what you leave out.

Ok, to recap from your initial post..... There is no "frequency of an instrument", there's note's, and there's the harmonic content of those notes (depending on the instrument and how it's played). You can't "move" anything with EQ, you can only boost and cut frequencies where they are. You can, however, move frquencies by changing the arrangement, and you can also arrange things so that instruments share frequencies, just not at the same time.
Oh, speaking of moving things, don't forget another element of fitting things iin the mix. You can't move frequencies up or down with an eq, but you can move them left or right with pan. Competing frequencies occuring at the same time will compete less if thay aren't also trying to share the same space in the soundstage.

Hope that helped a little.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Arrangement is the most important part of the mix.

 

[Gandalf]

What you need is a giant capo. Put that on any instrument and it will squeeze the sound Up. I don't know how to go down, only up.

You need an anti-capo..... This is a capo that is made of anti-matter and acts in the exact opposite way to a normal capo