Another way of getting rid of unwanted frequencies?

Sin_Beatz

New member
Hey yall!

I was just wondering if there's another way of getting rid of unwanted frequencies without using an EQ? I only ask as when EQing my basslines/808s.. theres that nasty frequency (around 90-100hz) .. but when i use the EQ to get rid of it.. my bass looses the umph. I always hear people use 808s etc.. and they seem to cut that frequency but still have the bassline hitting hard with umph.

P.S .. when i cut the frequency, i make the band real norrow so it doesnt cut loads of other frequencies aswell.

Thanks to any replies
 
Well, the only fool proof method is to not create/record/select unwanted material. Seems to be harder that it sounds. The magic is not in the mixing technique, its in the artist's head. Only great music ideas can sound "great", no way around.

Music is not a death block of stone that needs to be shaped during the mix. That's not how it works. You better spend an extra hour refining your recording/sound selection/synth programming and save 8 hours desperate mixing hell. :)
 
Some basslines tend to have nasty, highly resonant frequencies in some enviroments (mine for example) at certain notes. You should transpose perhaps a little up/down your bass before or after you EQ to find where it sounds the best.
Also try to bring the oomph back with a little compression.
Finally try to increase levels of frequencies just above your cut if you cut at 100 hz try to boost at 200-300 a little.
Don't forget that transposing a few semitones can make a HUGE difference at (heard) frequency spectrum, we are talking about bass with soundwaves at lowest frequencies;)
I sometimes have to change a scale of whole track just because the bass sounds bad in that... of course not a good idea when working with vocals, but in purely electronic mix this shouldn't be a problem.

To sum up: transposing, compression, combining EQ cuts with boosts at less nasty places. Experiment and see what works best for you.
 
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yeah.... the umph you're speaking about probably is right at the 90-100hz mark that you're cutting from lol.

Since the frequencies overlap... your only chance is to re-record without whatever unwanted sounds you keep getting.
 
word of caution which has been implied in the above but not actually mentioned - you may be eq'ing to correct a room acoustics problem rather than fixing a true mix problem - a lot of smaller rooms do have a resonant bump between 80Hz and 110Hz
 
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word of caution which has been implied in the above but not actually mentioned - you may be eq to correct room acoustics problem rather than fixing a true mix problem - a lot of smaller rooms do have a resonant bump between 80Hz and 110Hz

Yeah an untreated room will make mixing bass a ****ing night mare. Im in a 12x12 room....one of the worst possible rooms ever lol and I always have a very very hard time working with my 808's. Other bass sounds are a little easier cause it's like no, I know this is right im playing in key! Most people are in square rooms and bass will cancel eachother out and make freak sounds and all kinds of weird shit. I can't wait till I have enough to buy like 8-9 bass traps lol
 
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I'm trying to remember the last time I had to notch out any frequencies on synth basslines or 808 kicks. I've maybe had to do it once in the past 200 songs? I dunno if I've EVER had to do it. Then again, my room is incredibly well tuned. No room is PERFECT, that's impossible. Every room will have peaks and nulls in the low end to some easily noticeable degree. even million dollar studios. But the difference between an untreated room and one where you've thrown up a few bass traps and panels is huge. And the difference between that and my studio is like monster huge.
 
Use a kick on top of the 808 that way you can dip the unwanted frequency and still have the punchiness from the kick to have a more powerful low end.
 
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shameless self-promo again, huh - did you even read what chris carter or I wrote?

You offer a sound design solution to a mix issue that may not even be a mix issue as such but a room acoustics issue that the op is overcompensating for by eqing out the perceived problem rather than addressing it with room treatment.......smh rotflmfao
 
If you can control it at the sound generation stage its probably better to do that, but in the real world that's not always doable, unless you have a very simple synth preset and no phase interactions going on (which is a fairly small subset of the sounds most synths can actually do). EQing can work but the trouble is that it scales the whole area down, whether loud or quiet. Often the problem isn't that that frequency is loud, its that its sometimes too loud. Which is the case when a complex synth preset has stuff going in and out of phase. In that case a multiband compressor or limiter will give good results. You can tell a certain frequency range to never go over a given threshold while everything else is left untouched. You have to pick the timing settings though, as if they're too extreme you will introduce pumping or even audible distortion. I think in this situation you want to make sure you are only doing downward compression i.e. you are only reducing spikes. You (probably) don't want to be doing any gain compensation as that would make things worse; you'd make the average level of the problem area louder and make it a flat blob. You just want to handle the peaks.

This is true for a lot of complex synth presets, not just basses.
 
MAH BOIII WHERES6!!! how you doing dawg??! <3

---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 PM ----------

yeah man if you wanna remove unwanted frequencies, do some youtube lessons on using a 7 band eq or a parametric eq. and compress when youre finished.
youtube whatever you wanna learn, forums are great, but youtube is a free classroom full of professionals SHOWING you how to do what you need to do.
 
Youtube is also chock-full of non-professionals showing you what they think they know, so tread carefully :) More often than not, a set of good ears and some common sense is all you need to do the right decisions (and that's the way it should be). No need to overthink this.
 
Youtube is also chock-full of non-professionals showing you what they think they know, so tread carefully :) More often than not, a set of good ears and some common sense is all you need to do the right decisions (and that's the way it should be). No need to overthink this.


by the same token, you can watch 3 or 4 of the same tutorial from different users/producers and see whats what. we can ALL afford college mate.
 
yeah, maybe, but if you watch 4 different vids and not one of them agrees with the other what should you believe?

An even worse case: what if three of them agree but they've got it wrong? If you do not have access to your own professional to set you straight you may well end up doing and believing something that is going to make your productions worse rather than better.

this is why getting a technical background in the discipline by studying with seasoned professionals is important to begin with.......add in your professional reading (by which I mean recognised magazines/journals and books in the field, not some half-baked blog-post) and you come close to being able to pick the poor sources of information - takes years not minutes and won't happen at all if you are not prepared to say that you need to learn wht the pros know to be true as opposed to accepting what some 14 year with fl says is true....
 
yeah, maybe, but if you watch 4 different vids and not one of them agrees with the other what should you believe?

An even worse case: what if three of them agree but they've got it wrong? If you do not have access to your own professional to set you straight you may well end up doing and believing something that is going to make your productions worse rather than better.

this is why getting a technical background in the discipline by studying with seasoned professionals is important to begin with.......add in your professional reading (by which I mean recognised magazines/journals and books in the field, not some half-baked blog-post) and you come close to being able to pick the poor sources of information - takes years not minutes and won't happen at all if you are not prepared to say that you need to learn wht the pros know to be true as opposed to accepting what some 14 year with fl says is true....

find a trusted professional on youtube continue to watch their videos
that's what I do
I find them through here
like
Chris Carter
Modern Mixing
etc...

PRESSURE IRAN TO SAVE CHRISTIAN PASTOR Petition Sign Now!!!


-Coach Antonio
 
yeah, maybe, but if you watch 4 different vids and not one of them agrees with the other what should you believe?

An even worse case: what if three of them agree but they've got it wrong? If you do not have access to your own professional to set you straight you may well end up doing and believing something that is going to make your productions worse rather than better.

this is why getting a technical background in the discipline by studying with seasoned professionals is important to begin with.......add in your professional reading (by which I mean recognised magazines/journals and books in the field, not some half-baked blog-post) and you come close to being able to pick the poor sources of information - takes years not minutes and won't happen at all if you are not prepared to say that you need to learn wht the pros know to be true as opposed to accepting what some 14 year with fl says is true....



WHY are you arguing the point? if it doesnt sound right then look up more tutorials! no point sitting on your arse in front of your computer and NOT doing it, ESPECIALLY if you cant afford to go to school and learn it there!! where else will you learn? it teaches skill and motivation.

you can find people with reputable channels (such as FL Guru - im pretty sure FL Studio pays him to make instructional videos) and you save those channels and compare the vids.. what YOU are arguing, is laziness - if you cbf doing further research after something doesnt work the first time then maybe music production isnt for you....

i feel like youre telling me to give up because i learn from youtube? i cant afford college because i live out of home and work full time and cant afford not to be at work 5 days a week. and you know what the cost of living in sydney is like..

im actually '23 year' by the way - and here's something i cooked up from scratch in less than 3 hours last night. say what you will, your negativity is your worse enemy.

Catfish (FINAL) by SKERRICK on SoundCloud - Hear the world

^ everything there, i learnt from youtube.


dude, if you can find me a bunch of 'seasoned professionals' that want to spend their weekends/spare time with me, ill be all over the opportunity like white on rice, but you cant, so either i dont learn from ANYWHERE or i get motivated and teach myself through watching youtube tutorials.
i live in sydney mate and i know for a fact its damn near impossible to support yourself, pay the bills and study without any sort of external help.
so honestly man, take your condescending tone and quick little quips elsewhere hey.

in terms of professional reading, im frequently on the forums of soundonsound.com (hugh robjohns, mike senior etc are admins and will answer virtually ANY question - look them up to see their career accolades) and warbeats.com as well as here.
i also have about 40something editions of futuremusic magazine.
oh, and ive been at this for just over 2 years. so yeah, i guess you really hit the nail on the head there with the character profiling.. ;)

PEACE.
 
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