spectrum analizers and eq

[da hound]

allright people just want 2 know when im looking at an individual sound in the anyalizer how do i spot the most prominent freq of that sound is it were the sound peaks? and with 2 sounds lets call them a and b by cutting the freqs were a peaks on b and vice versa i give those 2 sound more room 2 breed?. any tips for spotting when 2 or more sounds are fighting for the same freq and methods of sperating them would be of great help i know i should judge by ear but im just tryin 2 understand eq and get around it cause i know that its poor mixing thats putting my tunes down

[Jay Pace]

The trick is not to overload your tunes with sounds all fighting it out in the same frequency range, and to try and balance your work across the spectrum.

Your kick and your bass will occupy some of the same frequencies, so it is recommended you pull out some of the kick frequencies from your bass, and maybe sidechain it to allow it to cut through more.

Snares, claps and other synths fill up your mid range, and cymbals and rides you high end. Try and pick sounds that add something new to the mix, rather than force similar sounds to live together.

If you have two sounds that have overlap take the bottom off one and the top off the other so that they sit together nicely. If they overlap too much try and structure your tune so that they don't play at the same time.

The ideal result is that your procutions sound full and rich.

I found it a lot easier to get good results once I started producing with space in mind, rather than trying to force my ideas to live together.

Try and keep an eye on what the parts of your track are up to, and fill in the empty space that way.

[rounser]

how do i spot the most prominent freq of that sound is it were the sound peaks?
I agree that there's usually too much freq information dancing around in front of your eyes to make any sense of it in real time, so another option is to view it statically (time on x axis, freq on y axis), and even make your changes statically.

Adobe audition -> open waveform you're interested in -> hit "spectral view" icon and zoom in on the pretty colours. As well as finding out for sure what the frequencies are doing so you can apply a conventional EQ and work out a precise freq and Q for what you want to do, you can do static EQ in there too with the marquee tool and then use of the Amplify/Fade effect.

[da hound]

cheers people :clap: :clap:

[Agility]

If you wanna see what's clashing via an Analyzer, put it on your master and solo the sounds and see what's clashing, I thought that'd be obvious. :p

Also, check out this new tool, I'd been dreaming of something for ages: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100215

[loopdon]

If you wanna see what's clashing via an Analyzer, put it on your master and solo the sounds and see what's clashing, I thought that'd be obvious. :p

Also, check out this new tool, I'd been dreaming of something for ages: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100215

yeah, i have been following it since the first version was out, but it causes evil crashes in fruity loops unfortunately. brilliant idea though :!:

[Mirsha]

how do i spot the most prominent freq of that sound is it were the sound peaks?
I agree that there's usually too much freq information dancing around in front of your eyes to make any sense of it in real time, so another option is to view it statically (time on x axis, freq on y axis), and even make your changes statically.

I've never really had a huge problem looking at sound real time. If you can change the length of time it holds the peak for with a marker it's easy enough to spot the overactive peaks. It's easy enough to spot when something isn't right as well, it's just a case of looping a small interval to actually work out where the problem lies.

[rounser]

If you can change the length of time it holds the peak for with a marker it's easy enough to spot the overactive peaks.
I'll give this a go. Which spectrum analyser are you using?

From my limited experience I suspect that the peaks aren't all that you're interested in, though; freq masking appears to happen in the release of say a bass and kick combination from what I've seen/heard in adobe (although that's the kind of thing that's relatively easy to listen for).