Run an EQ over a CD/MP3

S

Sarpi

New member
Hi Everyone,

I'm about 20 years out of date so I figured it was safest to start in the newbies section.

I just found an old CD that my band and I recorded about 20 years ago. We recorded in analogue and mixed down to CD in one pass so the CD and MP3's of that are all I have.

Now the problem (the biggest one anyway) with the tracks is that there are far too much high frequencies in the cymbal mic so the whole time I'm listening to it, all I can hear is chsh chsh chsh. I'm sure uneducated or first time listeners wouldn't notice it so much but it's always bothered me with this particular recording.

Now I have no equipment anymore, no software, just a laptop (without a CD drive hahaha, leave this problem to me) and what I'd like to do is run an EQ over the entire recording in an attempt to calm the cymbals.

Is there any software out there that is not too expensive or free that can do this? I thought about inserting a software EQ but all my searching so far just finds EQ's for output. I want to record the result to MP3 so I can put the songs up on soundcloud for a bit of fun.

Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance.

Adam.
 
Reaper has a good choice of EQ and it's free to try as long as you want (and only around $70 if you decide to buy).

You could download the trial, import your CD or MP3 files, run the EQ and then save a new copy and only pay money if you decide it's a useful tool to keep.
 
Save your processed audio as wave file masters. Soundcloud and many other services do their own compression, and your music will sound much better if you upload wave files. Reverbnation does have file size restrictions that make you upload mp3, but you can always use your wave files as the source to generate mp3 files when needed.
 
If it's an audio CD (vs MP3), you'll want to "rip" it to an uncompressed (aka non-lossy) format, like WAV or AIFF (Mac). Whatever ripping software you have on the computer already (WMP, iTunes) will have a setting to let you change the format from the default, compressed type of file (WMA on Windows, AAC on Mac, or MP3 on something else) to either of those non-lossy file types. Do that first so you have the best starting place for the audio files.

Alternatively, you can use free software like Audacity, and Import the CD tracks, one at a time, into it, and then Export in one of those non-lossy file formats. If you check the box to "make a copy" of the file as it's imported, it will create a AIFF or WAV (depending on your OS).

Once you have the originals off of the CD you can put those into something like Reaper or GarageBand (or even Audacity) to try different EQ settings to address some of those things that are bothering you. Re-export as WAV/AIFF once you have something you like better and upload those to SoundCloud (e.g.). They'll be larger, but you'll always be able to recover the file from there, and the service compresses the file (a lot) for streaming, regardless of the format you upload, so starting with uncompressed is generally better.

You might upload the originals and ask for some tips about EQ or other effects at online forums like this one, since you're starting from scratch.
 
Now the problem (the biggest one anyway) with the tracks is that there are far too much high frequencies in the cymbal mic so the whole time I'm listening to it, all I can hear is chsh chsh chsh... [snip]
Click to expand...
This reads like it may be a case where once you have the wav (cd) imported into a DAW and have explored eq options, to look at multi-band compression or dynamic eq.
They could be helpful if it's a situation of something in a specific frequency band poking up out of an otherwise good tone balance.
 
mixsit said:
This reads like it may be a case where once you have the wav (cd) imported into a DAW and have explored eq options, to look at multi-band compression or dynamic eq.
They could be helpful if it's a situation of something in a specific frequency band poking up out of an otherwise good tone balance.
Click to expand...

This makes sense thanks.
 
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