Friday, March 5, 2010

Techniques of 408 3

In class this week we continued the discussion on useful eq parameters to apply to our mixes.
  • 1.5 k - Either boost or cut to affect the 'head of the kick drum.' Boost to add clarity and pluck to electric bass. Cut to decrease dullness of some guitars.
  • 3k k - Boost to hear more attack on pianos. Boost to increase clarity and hardness of vocals. Cut to increase 'breathy' sound of background vocals. Cut to decrease slightly out of tune vocals/guitars (masks the 'beats' of a pitch). Boost for more attack on snare. Around this frequency is the cut off point for telephone bandwidth (use steep high pass filter and low pass filter.)
  • 5 k - Boost for more vocal presence. Boost for more attack(snare sound) on snare drum. Boost between 5-7 k for kick drum 'clicky' sound. Boost to increase attack of pianos and guitars. Cut to get rid of thin guitar sound.
  • 7 k - Boost to add attack on percussion instruments. Boost to give a more polished sound to a dull singer. Boost for increased finger noise on acoustic guitar. Cut-off frequency for de-essing on vocals. Boost to add sharpness or attack to pianos, guitars and synths. Cut-off frequency for AM radio bandwidth.
  • 10 k - Boost for more brightness in vocals, guitars, and pianos. Boost to increase hardness of cymbals. Continues the de-essing range (7-10 k).
  • 15 k - Boost for a brighter, more aggressive vocal sound.
A few considerations to keep in mind when applying eq: If a frequency is exaggerated when boosted, lower the boost a little so that phase doesn't become an issue and the frequency doesn't 'jump out' at the listener. If you want a hard vocal sound, apply compression with fast attack and fast release. Edit out the breathes so that they don't overwhelm the mix. You can also apply an eq and then heavily compress, the newly eq'ed frequency becomes more exaggerated (use this to if you want to achieve an aggressive and in-your-face sound.)

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