Niches eq out carving

[mixsit]

Ok, so do some you do 'eq sweeps on a lot of your tracks? As sort of a general working routine to see what's lurking around back in there? When I'm looking at a mix it seems like it's hard enough to keep things in perspective- shifting back and forth from zoom mode' to global' for example.
This could be just the way my head works, seems like this would be quite a lot of side trips. Not to mention how out of whack your ear (perspective again!) can go after listening to these extreme tones -and the time after each to get back to 'global'.
I can see; Ear training -definitely! Zeroing in on question spots-
But what I'm missing is going around 'looking of strangeness/hot spots' one track at a time vs say, listening to the mix, or groups of tracks within the mix, tackling 'what's in the way', in context.

 

[Ford Van]

I will not EQ something unless it absolutely NEEDS it. I will try volume and pan adjustments with everything before I resort to eq. I will even add some reverb, or delay with eq on it to see if that helps first.

But if I do need to eq, you have to figure out how it needs to be eq'ed? High pass? Low Shelf? Notch? High Shelf? Low pass?

Once you have that, you can then figure out easily what adjustment needs to be made by using "sweeps".

I don't spend too much time with the instrument in solo mode. Yes, it helps me isolate some frequencies, but at the end of the day, that track needs to sound good IN THE MIX, NOT BY ITSELF!

 

[pandamonk]

I will not EQ something unless it absolutely NEEDS it. I will try volume and pan adjustments with everything before I resort to eq. I will even add some reverb, or delay with eq on it to see if that helps first.

But if I do need to eq, you have to figure out how it needs to be eq'ed? High pass? Low Shelf? Notch? High Shelf? Low pass?

Once you have that, you can then figure out easily what adjustment needs to be made by using "sweeps".

I don't spend too much time with the instrument in solo mode. Yes, it helps me isolate some frequencies, but at the end of the day, that track needs to sound good IN THE MIX, NOT BY ITSELF!

Very true.

 

[legionserial]

I will try volume and pan adjustments with everything before I resort to eq.

Ditto. In fact I'd rather not use anything at all if I can avoid it. Why use EQ, reverb etc etc, until you know it needs it? Every mix I do, I start with pans and volume and that's it. My hope being that I don't have to EQ. I mean, if it's not neccessary, then it's just an extra bunch of screwing around you have to do. If I can get it sounding pretty decent without all of that, then I know I've done a good job tracking.

Of course, that's never the case, because I suck at pretty much everything I put my hand to. So I end up spending a fair amount of time screwing around, resetting everything, screwing around some more and then either leaving the thing dead in the water and never going back to it, or half-polishing a turd and making do with it, and just making sure I never listen to it again.

 

[Reggie]

It is pretty rare that I actually end up recording things on tracking day EXACTLY perfectly for the mix. Sometimes it is due to the live sound bleeding through and affecting what I think I am hearing, and sometimes it is just due to the kids' crappy tone/equipment. When I mix, I don't really blindly sweep around to see what is going on; usually I have at least a rough idea of what I don't like about the sound. First I see if I can make a cut or two or a filter to improve things. If it is still a little blah after that, I will see if I can make it sound cooler with a boost here or there. Except for testing some initial cuts, most of this is done with the full mix playing. But in order for it not to sound like one big mess of things needing fixed from the get-go, I usually work in a progression of drums (takes me forever sometimes), then bass, then gtrs, then vox, then adding pretties like reverb etc. Keyboards? what are those?


FWIW, IMO, YMMV

 

[NL5]

I will not EQ something unless it absolutely NEEDS it. I will try volume and pan adjustments with everything before I resort to eq. I will even add some reverb, or delay with eq on it to see if that helps first.

But if I do need to eq, you have to figure out how it needs to be eq'ed? High pass? Low Shelf? Notch? High Shelf? Low pass?

Once you have that, you can then figure out easily what adjustment needs to be made by using "sweeps".

I don't spend too much time with the instrument in solo mode. Yes, it helps me isolate some frequencies, but at the end of the day, that track needs to sound good IN THE MIX, NOT BY ITSELF!

Great Post.....

 

[PhiloBeddoe]

My hope being that I don't have to EQ. I mean, if it's not neccessary, then it's just an extra bunch of screwing around you have to do. If I can get it sounding pretty decent without all of that, then I know I've done a good job tracking.

Yep, the quality of the recorded tracks has everything to do with whether eq or anything else is required. The reality is probably that your tracks are not all perfect though and eq can help. If you have the means, then try like hell to get a great sound tracking.

Sometimes if there is an obvious problem with the raw sound of a snare, guitar, or whatever, I will work with it in solo for a while. Maybe you have a drum room mic rumbling and muddying up everything, time for a HPF perhaps. Maybe you have a super fizzy guitar. Time for LPF or High shelf. I guess you could call this corrective eq'ing.

Then there is creative eqing. If you want a metal kick drum sound for example, you're probably not going to get it by sticking a mic in the kick and leaving the recorded track as is. God bless you if you do. Your recorded sound might be fine, but it might not be what your looking for. (Well really you'd probably use a sample if you were doing metal, but that's another topic)

If the individual sounds are ok but there are some conflicts in the mix, I'll try to pinpoint where the conflicts are and eq from there. This is usually a pretty minor adjustment. Panning is great, but sometimes fixing a conflict by panning doesn't translate everywhere as well because the stereo imaging probably isn't as good in other listening environments as in your studio. For example, sometimes if the bass and guitars are conflicting, I'll put them in mono and try to get them out of each other's way. Then when you pan them out it really opens up.

Just some random thoughts.

 

[danny.guitar]

I work on the track in solo a lot.

Before hitting the solo button, or actually, right after listening to the mix to see what track is causing problems, and what probably needs to be done to it (too much bass? EQ. Muddy? EQ. Not enough depth? Reverb/EQ Levels wrong? Automation/Compression.).

I solo the track. At that point I open up the EQ or whatever i need.

I make the adjustments based on what I heard before. Unsolo the track and see how it sounds. If it's terrible, I start over on it. If it just needs some tweaking, I keep it UNsoloed and work with it like that.

A pretty logical/common sense process...

Although I find myself going back and changing it as more tracks are added to the project.

And more importantly, this assumes you just can't get the sound right during (re)tracking.

 

[pergatorydude]

I will not EQ something unless it absolutely NEEDS it. I will try volume and pan adjustments with everything before I resort to eq. I will even add some reverb, or delay with eq on it to see if that helps first.

But if I do need to eq, you have to figure out how it needs to be eq'ed? High pass? Low Shelf? Notch? High Shelf? Low pass?

Once you have that, you can then figure out easily what adjustment needs to be made by using "sweeps".

I don't spend too much time with the instrument in solo mode. Yes, it helps me isolate some frequencies, but at the end of the day, that track needs to sound good IN THE MIX, NOT BY ITSELF!

I doubt that I could have said that any better!

 

[TexRoadkill]

I keep my EQ pretty simple. I usually end up with a bit of low end roll off or a notch out of the 200hz range. If something needs a bit more or less edge I'll mess with it around 2-3k. If it needs a little more or less air I'll do some high end shelving around 8k and above.