KVR Audio

bryzar · Post by **bryzar** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:48 am

Hi Guys
I have been following Izotope's "Mastering Month" with interest as I have Ozone 6.
The narrator on the subject talks of how he sometimes deals with equalization with gains or reductions of 1dbm within the spectrum of the final mix.. I experimented with this using the whole spectrum and different EQ settings eg Bell, Blaxandal, Hi pass etc and be buggered if I could notice any noticeable difference. I think around about 2.7 dbm was when I noticed any noticeable change of tone/equalization etc.
Are my ears inferior / deficient ???
Any feedback you be helpful.
Cheers
Bryzar

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:09 pm

does your monitoring chain allow for such changes to be heard? i.e. do you have good room, good speakers, etc.?

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:27 pm

In my experience, when you are clearly hearing the changes made by the mastering equalizer this often means that you've gone too far.

Make a slight boot at 4-5 KHz and a slight cut about 250 Hz. Seems that nothing has essentially changed. Then you disable your eq - bam, the song suddenly becomes duller and the bass loses clarity and definition. This is how it usually works.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 12:28 pm

For that reason I gave up using EQ by ear. While I can usually tell there is a difference, it's hard to say if it's actually better or not. You don't want to spend half an hour adjusting something that is indifferent for final effect.

bryzar · Post by **bryzar** » Mon Aug 17, 2015 1:01 pm

Thanks guys
I will take on board all of what you have said and put into practice.
It makes sense that when both slight cutting and boosting etc creates the desired effect/outcome. I will also
consider my monitoring chain ( I have Yamaha HS8's) but my room could do with better acoustic treatment, I have bass traps
etc but I might have made the room a little too "dead" for mids and highs but I do monitor at low levels.
Its still early days for me on the learning curve!
Thanks once again.
Bryzar

camsr · Post by **camsr** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 10:31 pm

DJ Warmonger wrote:For that reason I gave up using EQ by ear. While I can usually tell there is a difference, it's hard to say if it's actually better or not. You don't want to spend half an hour adjusting something that is indifferent for final effect.

This is not a good habit. EQing solely by spectrum analysis is a trap. You would do much better to use nearfield monitoring to hear subtle EQ changes.

musicofeel · Post by **musicofeel** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 1:31 pm

in my experience practicing and developing your ears will make you hear subtle changes, but with combination of what everybody else were so kind to share with you here, Speakers, Setup, A/B testing, and then always practice listening for changes when you touch a button in any of your equipment or a plugin if that your setup.

never neglect making EQ decisions by ears, because the ears are the ultimate judge, with time they will reveal more than any electrical component like analyzer, analyzers don't show emotions and effects on the brain, it shows dry data, which is excellent in some way, but it only give you more clues about what to LISTEN to.

My ears!!