via translucencecs in this VSE thread:
"The way to do it is to EQ your kicks with very little sub. It gets lost because it's inaudible.
The way to make a kick drum really SPANK in a mix is to kill the lowest sub completely, boost low audibles and some high frequencies. For use on the ES-1, try EQ-ing your favourite kick sound before sampling it or copying it to a memory card and on to the ES.
For a quick and easy example, using a 10-band graphic EQ (it approximates to something that a lot of people have), try the following values:
30Hz - as low as the value can go (I use a setting of -36dB)
60Hz - boost by 1-2dB
125Hz - boost by 2-4dB
250Hz - boost by 2-4dB
500Hz - cut back - I use a setting of -3dB
1kHz - cut further back - I use about -5dB
2kHz - boost by 3-5dB
4kHz - boost by 4-6dB
8kHz - boost by 6-8dB
16kHz - leave at 0dB
You'll need to approximate these for other numbers of bands, or parametric EQs, etc. If it helps, draw a curve on raph paper to see what this shape looks like, then apply that shape to your EQ module/unit/software/plugin.
Also, you may find that the boost a 4kHz drowns vocals out, so you may want to tweak that band down a little.
BTW - these may sound like weird values to use, but seriously, TRY it!"
Friday, April 27, 2007
5 comments:
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you shouldn't pay any attention to this. its the used car salesman approach to getting a good sound. if you HAVE to use eq then you have done something wrong or you have made a bad choice of sounds.
ReplyDeleteif you get to sample the sound yourself its all about mic choice, placement and room acoustics. if you are using a pre-existing sample or synth tone then use everything you have that can directly alter your source before even touching an eq. env’s, filter’s, vca’s, lfo’s everything but eq. then the next thing you should reach for your COMPRESSOR. if you don't understand how to use a compressor in place of an eq LEARN!!! then go to using high and low pass filtering if you must and then go to eq as a last resort. and then if your dealing with synthetic sounds the chart listed in this post doesn't mean anything to you at all and should be ignored because every sound is different.
i find it very strange and discouraging that so many people spend all their effort, time and money learning and using synthesis and then make horrible recordings and use the lowest possible standards to do it. of course there is something to be said for lo-fi style but that is not what i’m talking about. i see too many $5000 synths and terrible sounding recordings. and most eq’s the average person has access to are not good at all, especially graphic eq's they are the worst of all. inexpensive eq’s introduce terrible phase issues, cheap amps, noise, distortion, use crap components you would never let into a synth, etc… bypass them all if you can and you will not regret it. and by the way i’m no gear snob, this is quite the opposite i’m telling you how to get better sound without getting really expensive gear.
oh and don’t forget about reamping.
Wow... a 'smile' on the EQ. Who'd a thunk it.
ReplyDeleteI mean, besides Fletcher, Munson, and about 4 generations of bar-band sound men?
And the geeks in the AV Club.
And my mom.
...and even she knew to avoid 'boosting' like the black plague.
I have to agree. The point to getting a good sound of any sort rests in the programming of the sound in the first place. Even something relatively fixed in programmability such as a TR-606 kick can benefit from careful levelling (this includes using a compressor/limiter) before cutting loose on it with an EQ.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there's something sort of strange about the idea of discussing this on such a list as this. It would seem to me that with most people here, the reaction to a weak sound would be to attack it through some additional programming, instead of just relying on some fixed (and dubiously reliable) filters as a quick beef-up. If a kick sounds weak, try something unusual. Try counterintuitive things. If anything, electronics gives one an empirical approach that allows one to tamper with sonic elements for hours on end to try and create something DIFFERENT. Slam the hell out of something with a compressor. Jam a signal through a processor or two (or twelve).
I think it was Brian Eno that said that the first thing he does with synth manuals is to throw them away. That could easily be said for 90% of the cookie-cutter advice out there about 'how to record'. When I was taught in university classes how to record drums back in the early 1980s, we were schooled that everything had to be carefully isolated, damped, hermetically sealed, and so on on its individual track. I thought that was bullsh*t, and more or less proved it by creating a drum sound that blew everyones mind by putting a crap SM57 in the kick of a kit that was set up in a tiled kitchen space off of the university's studio, and then miking everything else with a single pair of AKG 414s way up near the ceiling while telling the drummer to 'lay off the cymbals'. As for technique, this exercise would've gotten me an 'F'...had the sonic results not borne the method out.
Point being: develop your own methods. Some ideas might work for some people, but that's some people. You're someone else...so use YOUR ideas and experiments.
eq charts are dumb because spectral content varies between samples. that's pretty obvious, right?
ReplyDeletewow i was expecting to get bashed. nice to see some people actually care about recording as well.
ReplyDelete"eq charts are dumb because spectral content varies between samples. that's pretty obvious, right? "
you would think so wouldn't you?