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learning to eq and shtuff.
StoreTags: stupid, am, i, yall
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People who enjoyed reading this: daswesen, Jetsom, skab, mrk087, airliner, PAWEL, Otterfan, bla, sAMsKi, opticecho, subset, tapirA, Plissken, Zanf
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i've been making em for a few years, and pretty much all my mixes suck, i think. for a long time i focused 75% on the notes being played, and not so much how it sounded.
I've been trying to get better at all this lately, but I don't feel like i'm making substantial progress. i've listened to so many mixes on here that sound real crisp and clear, prestine even.. but i don't know how to attain this. i'm getting frustrated. It's not like I haven't read a ton of crap about it, i have. I just feel like i'm missing something.. some way of looking at it.
yesterday i spent a few hours tweaking a 4 bar beat i had going.. trying to get it to sound right. i guess i had some success.. maybe. i'll post it up for critique when i get some time tomorrow.
I own a pair of Fostex PM1 mkII's.. so i can't blame it on not having good monitors. maybe i'm just stupid in this way?
what are some basic concepts to remember. | |
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edited: Feb 10 2007
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Zanf
People have sid that I seem to be good at isolating sounds in my mixes so I'll tell you what I do. Lately also, I have been reading all of the 'mix rescues' in sound on sound [also check out the new section of top mix engineers spilling the beans: link ] . they post the original audio clips as well as the processed ones so you can hear what the guy does.
So, to what I tend to do:
With each sound i try to sort it so it has its own channel on the board [drum hits have their own channel, etc]. I then tend to solo and go through each channel, performing any basic necessary EQing like low cut on snares & hats so as to remove any potential rumble/unwanted noise from those tracks.
Ill then sweep again through each sound and try to tune the EQ so that each sound has its energy zone brough out and then start layering tracks together to make sure their 'zones' dont impact too much on each other. With this I mean like Kik & snare then hats, etc then maybe just kik, snare & bass, then just bass, melody & perc and varying combinations of such.
Once they all sit together then Ill play around with what i want effected and then replay with all the layering again to make sure that the effects dont stand too proud or wash over other sounds 'zones' too much [unless intended].
Something thast was said in this months SoS mix rescue was that if the guy tries to do somehting with EQ and it isnt happening in 10 mins then it wont be through EQ alone that will make it work and so time to think laterally. [in the article, he detunes a snare track by a couple of semitones and finds it alsmost hits the sound he is after almost exactly].
Hope some of this helps.
edited: Feb 10 2007
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Zanf
Also there is a jdg old blog about EQing tips that is excellent reading/advice. Ill try to dig a link out for it.
Edit: found: link
02/10/07
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skab
i second all that zanf said, plus, having a good EQ plugin really makes a difference. computers still aren't very good at EQing, compared to a good mixer or EQ rack, and you have to shell out some money to get a good software equivalent of a reasonable hardware EQ.
the actual volume of each sound is also very important, even the best monitors in the world won't acurrately reflect what you are doing with an EQ if the volume is too high or too low.
DSP can have drastic effects on sound, and with many plugins out there, both free and commercial, the processed sound loses a lot of key frequncies, compared to the original. try going through your plugins with the same loop and do some A/B comparisons. A frequency display plug will help show what is being added and subtracted.
I often listen to tracks that I think have good, crisp, clean production and try to undrestand what makes them sound that way. Often it is something as simple as space and timing. Classical composers used this to great effect - they knew that when the whole orchestra was playing at once, certain details are lost - you can't layer too much together and expect everything to be clearly audible.
02/10/07
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saemskin
maybe you just need to work on picking elements that go well together instead of forcing them to gel with eq or comrpession.
....
eh?
02/10/07
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sAMsKi
hey mr.volcano. Thanks for starting this blog, cos I want to know all this stuff too. I don't think my tunes sound very muddy on the whole but the sort of quality that astroid got in his satan tune (for example) is way beyond me. So, yeah, I guess that supports what has been said about choosing sounds that work well together and probably not too many of them (as I used to do). I also use panning quite well I think but I have never used EQ, except for minor tweaks in Cubase itself - ooh, and fuck loads (again all in Cubase) for mixit53  So, I am going to go and try using all the stuff mentioned above. I am lucky enough to have a good desk with good EQs, so I am hoping I will be able to produce stuff that sounds super tight now...well, when that's the aim anyway.
ooh and thanks to everyone for the detailed replies!! great to get to know how other people work!
02/10/07
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monkvolcano
thanks for all the great tips doodz. i will do my best to internalize them.
one major thing i've been wondering about is: when do i want resonances, and when do i not want resonances.
what i mean by this is, lately i've read some stuff saying that you should try to eq out any resonant peaks in a sound. but isn't it the resonant peaks that give a snare it's crack? and kik it's punch? this is confusing.
Zanf- this SOS mix rescues! of course.. dur.
saemskin, what you said is also a very big aspect.
thanks again yall.
02/10/07
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tooth
Zanf definitely knows what he's talking about, his tracks have a nice clear airy production. I'm shit at it, I don't even really know what a compressor does and I'm just not motivated to learn that side of things, it bores me but I'm sure I'd benefit greatly from knowing about it. I guess I probably use such simple sounds and almost no reverb that it doesn't matter.
02/11/07
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monkvolcano
that's refreshing to hear actually tooth.
02/12/07
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Japes
There's a really good thread on the planet-mu board, espcially a bit posted by Dolphin (of Deathchant, Ninja Columbo etc.) which talks about compression and EQ in great detail. It's by no means definitive, but it definitely helped me to understand EQ and compression:
link
I really rate Greg Dolphin's production in general, especially his downtempo shit.
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