Spectrum analyzer question.

[threshhold2]

I am trying to improve the tonal balance of my mixes----and trying to use the Spectrum analyzer for this purpose.
The problem is, that no matter which recorded track i am trying to "analyze", and whether this is guitar vocal or synth --- the analyzer's graph always indicates too much "lows". Even if i cut some lows using the gaphic EQ, there is not much change in the graph.Is there something i a missing here or doing wrong?

 

[JCM900]

The best spectrum analyzers are on the side of your head.
If you try to balance with a meter, it will almost always end up sounding like ass.

 

[lpdeluxe]

I don't think you'll have much success doing it after the fact. The mix sounds poorly balanced because instruments/vocals are fighting each other. Maybe you have a kick drum and the bass line in the same frequency range, for example. This is solved by EQing the individual tracks so that they are distinct. Using the spectrum analysis is like stirring mud with a stick...it's still mud when you're through.

There is a lot of material on mixing and how to emphasize different aspects of each sort of instrument, such as the attack of the snare drum, or reducing the click of a picked bass. I don't know offhand of any websites, but a search will probably turn something up -- I'm old enough that the charts I have are in books.

 

[threshhold2]

ok----i got the idea.

thanks for the hint

 

[lpdeluxe]

Good luck with it. Audition has so many cool features that sometimes we lose track of the basics.

Right now I've got an hour and 36 minutes from a lecture loaded into Audition that I've got to condense down to 80 minutes, the length of a CD. It would be a nightmare with tape...but I can trim off the beginning and some of the end, and seamlessly cut out snippets ("er, what I mean to say, that is") and get it down to the prescribed length. Gotta love digital.