Eq

S

SimonT

Member
How do you know what needs EQ'ing? If something needs EQ'ing?

What are you trying to achieve with EQ?

Would you EQ each individual track as well as the whole mixdown (mixdown when mastering that is).

Does a Spectrum Analyser or EQ need to be automatable? cause the one in Reason 7 / 8 isn't. The normal EQ is, but the Spectrum EQ isn't.

Thanks!
 
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Well, you usually hear if something needs to be corrected with an EQ. To get better at hearing if something needs correction it can be good to learn what different parts of the spectrum sounds like. Then you eventually feel like "nah there's to little there... woah too much there".

A good habit though is to always sweep a peak with a significant boost (but not too much, perhaps slightly more than +6 dB?) through the spectrum and find nasty parts and cut those, as well as finding sweetspots and boosting those if it sounds better. You can do this in several stages with different widths on the peak; a very narrow one for finding certain frequencies that may resonate and bring down the quality, a slightly less narrow peak for finding tight spots that muddy up the sound, and more wide peaks to tame the tone of the sound.

With EQ I'm trying to shape the tone of the sound so it's at its best performance, this goes for both getting a nice and clean sound, as well as shaping the tone to add more character and convey the emotion better.
Secondly I use EQ to separate sounds from eachother.
A good habit is to do EQ'ing in mono, and in context with the mix.

I would start by EQ'ing submixes if a sound is sent to it and see if that does the job, that way I may add fewer EQ's since I hopefully don't have to add an EQ to each channel if the job can be done in the submix, therefore saving time and CPU.
Then if a certain sound needs better shaping by itself or doesn't fit any submix, I'd EQ it individually.
I'd only EQ the whole track either when I'm mastering, or applying a temporary compensation-EQ (whenever that would be necessary).
 
Sorry but half of what you said there sounded like you were speaking in Japanese to me. Think I may just give up this music production lark. It's just doing my head in really. I am very creative musically and have good flare for writing songs, but production-wise, nah! Think I need someone to show me.

My mixes sound dead and lifeless. Need a lot of production and mixing work. I've been studying it for over 2yrs now and still finding EQ hard. I'm finding making my own sounds hard with ADSR. Gone through loads of videos. Nothing seems to be helping. I know I'm using Reason, just got 8, and some would say that's probably part of the problem, but I don't believe so. It can do anything Logic, Pro Tools and FL Studio can do, just sometimes takes longer and you have to work around.

Do you think not having decent monitors is a problem? I just have 20/20 KRK headphones and not great computer speakers, so have to mix with those. Am I perhaps not hearing things correctly like I would through professional 20/20 speaker monitors, and not having an acoustically treated environment?

Finding my white noise wooshes don't sound great sometimes, and I put a crash cymbal at the end and the ones that I have sound lifeless and crap. The ones in the Reason factory Sound Bank do. I got some 808 and 909 samples and they too sound lame and weak. Got a Vengeance House Sample Pack and amazingly, no crashes in the pack. Has Kicks, Snares, Hi-Hats, Claps, Basses, Effects, Toms, Electric Guitar loops but no Crashes as I can find.
 
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Yes seen that on Facebook. Does it cost to subscribe? Thanks mate. I need someone who makes deep house, house or trance maybe to show me how (from the ground up) to create a track really. I make a piano using the ID8 on Reason and it sounds ok, but don't know how to make it sound great. Do you layer it, what?

Just looked yeah, they'll all using Massive. Haven't got massive.
 
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SimonT said:
Yes seen that on Facebook. Does it cost to subscribe? Thanks mate. I need someone who makes deep house, house or trance maybe to show me how (from the ground up) to create a track really. I make a piano using the ID8 on Reason and it sounds ok, but don't know how to make it sound great. Do you layer it, what?
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Of course not, no fees for subscribing, it's just YouTube :)

I'm not that familiar with pianos, so I can't tell you how to treat them.

I may not produce deep house or trance, but I do produce some kind of house and electro, so you can always ask me, and I'll do my best to keep it as understandable as possible.
 
SimonT said:
Think I may just give up this music production lark. It's just doing my head in really
Click to expand...

I bet every single musician/producer has felt like that at some point, making music should be fun so dont stress it, you sound like me and want to know everything NOW, and that just doesnt happen.

Listen to the pro's and try and copy the structure of the track ( intro/buildups/breaks/drops/outro etc.. )

And if your serious about making music then id 100% invest in monitors
 
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By the way, regarding the post I made that you didn't understand, maybe you could point out the parts or the words you didn't get and I'll try explaining them a little better. :)
 
SimonT said:
Do you think not having decent monitors is a problem?
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Yes. Having decent speakers/room/DA/and controller as well as developing your critical listening skills is paramount to making good eq decisions.

Nothing happens overnight and 2 years is not a long time to be going at it expecting professional results.

Some people excel at different aspects of the record making process, whether it's writing, performing, producing, recording, mixing or mastering. Try to concentrate on the thing that you're best at, and pick up what you can along the way.. spreading yourself to thin, trying to do too much or wearing to many hats can be counter productive. Good luck.
 
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Thanks Steefah. Sweep a peak at more than +6db. The peak of what? a particular instrument? I just had a go with the Spectrum EQ on Reason. I sort of understand what you mean. Sweep through the frequencies. Can hear it changing the sound but don't know what I'm tryna listen for. There's 4 elements to the spectrum EQ in Reason:- Low Frequency EQ / Low/Mid Frequency EQ / High/Mid Frequency EQ / High Frequency EQ. There's also a Low Pass and High Pass Filter, E Mode and LF and HF Bells. Presumable Low Frquency and High Frequency. This is on the Spectrum EQ/Analyser.
 
I'm not familiar with the EQ in Reason, but to explain the mentioned "elements", or filters in the EQ:
- Lowpass filter, cuts everything above the frequency you've set it to (sometimes also called a high cut)
- Highpass filter, same as above, but cuts everything below (sometimes also called a low cut)
- Bells (also called Peaks, which is more common to my experience), simply the standard EQ shape, you boost a frequency, and the shape of it looks like a peak with slopes on the sides.
- Don't know what you refer to with the low-mid-high-etc EQ's (the first 4 shapes you mention), but I suppose they mean the locations of 4 peak/bell shapes.
- The spectrum, I mean if you don't understand that yet, is the whole area of frequencies that us human beings can hear (20 Hz - 20 kHz).

Anyway, what I mean with sweeping a peak through the spectrum, is simply boosting an EQ spot (that is a peak or bell shape), and then sweeping it up and down on the EQ to more easily find spots that sound horrible, or spots that simply makes the sound sound better when it's boosted. This way it's easier to detect what you need to do to a sound.
This is a common habit, and applies to all instuments as uses for an EQ.
So boost a place on the EQ, and move it across the EQ very slowly, and you'll hear if a certain place sounds pretty worse when it's boosted, then you know you need to cut it a bit.

Then as I mentioned, you can adjust how wide the boost is, from covering a huge range of the spectrum, to covering only 1 frequency at a time. By sweeping on the EQ with different widths on the boost, you can both find horrible bigger areas on the EQ that you want to cut, as well as finding horrible specific frequencies that sound really bad.

And what I mean with the number ca +6 dB, is that if you use a less boost than that, it can be a bit hard to hear wether a certain area really is worse when sweeping up and down, while a much bigger boost is more likely to sound bad all over the place, making the process completely pointless. This number however is from my own experience, some people may prefer a bigger or more gentle boost, but for me this is the boost I usually go for (to be more exact it's more like +6 dB-9 dB).

I hope this makes a little more sense. :)
 
It's not all relative, train your ears, listen to professionally recorded music, then non-pro music, you'll start to notice the differences.
 
EQ can help position your individual tracks in the mix. Giving height, or taking it away. Be subtle though.
 
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