EQ'ing

[DJ Corbzy]

Right y'all I have been informed by the Big Mr EG that I need to look into EQ'ing and learn more about it etc etc.

Anyone who has any tips/links to tip sites/comments...anything, please post it here!!

If you would like to specifically comment on the EQ'ing in my tune that I have recently done then you can download it here:
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/music5/corbzy/new.corbz.mp3

Any help or comments really appreciated.... :D

[Dan.T.]

nice bassline corbz! ;) ;)

[DJ Corbzy]

Hahaha!!

Little bit of assistance from the Jonboy!! :D :D :P

What you up to nowadays Mr T? We shud have a mix sometime mate! I got loadsa shithot new tunes and promos....Yarr!

:D

[Barely Human]

I dont know what to say really when it comes to eq'ing, becuase it is a skill that will build up over time. The basic idea though is to make each part of the track stand out on its own frequency's so the sounds dont get blended together.

[Louk]

Play the bit you are eqing on its on (solo bey).. eq it
put it with the rest of the tune - if you're happy keep it if not change it...

thats all I can suggest its simply playing by ear.

Louk

[Louk]

but then again I cant eq for shit :)

[baptismo]

Hahaha!!

Little bit of assistance from the Jonboy!! :D :D :P

What you up to nowadays Mr T? We shud have a mix sometime mate! I got loadsa shithot new tunes and promos....Yarr!

:D

hahahahahahaha, you git! little bit of assistance? uve blagged the sample!!! :D:D:D

With eq'ing, there seems to be a very fine line between eq'ing a sound so its bright, sparkly and stands out in the mix and it being too harshly eq'd... I think you may need some half decent monitors before you can seriously notice this line corbzy mate.....
I found it hard to mix tunes on my absolute 2's, and have only really felt like im getting on top of eq'ing now ive got me mackies...

But anyhows, general advice: Go balls out on the eq'ing, but remember too keep an edge of smoothness to each sound... search for the frequencies of a sound which you can pump up, yet it not take away the space in the mix which other sounds fill. What mark said about painting a picture is a wicked way to look at it...

[DJ Corbzy]

Cheers people, I spose listening to my tunes through either Sony Headphones or shitty pc speakers isnt going to help....

Thanks for all the advice, will be taking it into my brain bank....

[epidemic001]

if u cant afford new speakers and youve got a midi system of some sort why not connect your pc up to it. It may not be perfect but its far far better than pc speakers.

Oh and something ive found really helpful aswell is to hook up yur decks to the pc so that you can play everthing out of the same speakers (your production & a vinyl) you can then compare it all an then you'll notice how shite your last 2 months worth of work sounds compared to the latest Gas release or whatever :wink:

I'm not saying your stuff is shite by the way, but when I done that i realised how weak as fck my stuff was. :?

[DJ Corbzy]

cheers for the tips mr epidemic...much appreciated :D

[epidemic001]

No Probs big guy! :D

[Stormtrooper]

EQing, imo, is all about subtraction and the layering of sounds, rather than addition.
IE - trying to make something that isnt that phat in the first place into something that is very phat by using EQ.

All EQing does is make certain frequencies louder or quieter, so it stands in good reason that if you EQ the nutz out of a kick drum that the rest of the track will sound weak in comparison, so what do we all do? EQ the rest of the elements to compensate, all we'll get here is a louder, all be it slightly more mangled, version of your original source signals.

Layering say, a kick, reduces the amount of EQing required simply because your original sound will be beefed up by the 3/4/50 more kicks youve stuck over it!
notice how in the mix, when the next tunes kick drum comes in over the previous tracks, how ****in bangin it sounds!
unless the mix is victim to the disapearing kick phenomenon, (2 kicks that are very similar in sound/frequencie range phase each other out when layered together) bummer. :shock:

Its taken me half an hour to type that so it wasnt incoherent ramblings so i'll stop there. :?

[DJ Corbzy]

Is that Stormtrooper as in worked with Dave Spinout on Nu Energy tune Stormtrooper?

[WEZ]

Pratice make you better , not perfect , no-one is !

[Basil Rush]

As someone said about it is all about subtraction.

If you can, always cut rather than boost, it just sounds so much nicer, and when you have 50 tracks all running with eq boosts in them it all tends to sound pretty nasty. If your lead isn't bright enough try taking away some bottom rather than adding top.

it's also helpful if you have a half decent eq to start with, if you aren't sure if yours are any good, compare them with the waves plugin's which are pretty good, though blatantly if you've got a powercore card get the oxford eq plugin...

Cheap analogue desks sound particuarly nasty usually when doing big eq boosts. you can do a 16db cut on them fine, but add more than about 6db and it can start to get evil.

Kicks and basses frequently get fatter when you cut about 6db somewhere between 300 and 800 hz

[Sly One]

Quickest tip that'll give you somewhere to start from...

If you have two parts that are clashing with each other (say, you can hear your lead fine, but when the Big Epic Pad (TM) comes in, the lead seems to get buried unless you have the pad really quiet), you need to work out what is making the parts tick.

In the case of a pad, it will wash across a large frequency range, cos that's what it does. Pad the mix out. Hence the name ;) A lead, on the other hand, will usually have a fairly confined active frequency range where it does its shit. So basically what you're getting is that the pad is doing too much in the same frequency range as the lead.

Run an EQ in line with the lead, start at the lowest frequency and quite a high Q, and a fairly sizey dB boost.

Gradually raise the frequency and listen to the sound change. Generally at some point the "main" bit of the lead will suddenly jump out at you. move it around this region and you'll be able to demarkate the lead's main frequency band.

Make a note of this, bypass or disconnect the EQ, then run an EQ in line with the pad.

Apply a bell cut around the frequency range where the lead lives, so that the pad no longer has much presence there.

Fiddle around with this a little more and you'll siddenly find that the lead and pad "fit" with each other far better. You can apply this method of working (with varioations) in most circumstances.