KVR Audio

Joey222 · Post by **Joey222** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:51 am

Was just wondering if there are any plugins that will zone in on a particular frequency. For example I am here with a vocal and guitar recording and there is a part of the recording where just the guitar plays and then the vocals come back in, I would like to just play the guitar loop and zone in or scan the frequency so that only that frequency is heard. I know there is denoiser and such but was just curious if there are any plugins or software like that in general?

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:54 am

try taking an EQ and giving it a very narrow Q and then just put it where you want it. are you trying to isolate the frequencies that bother you or are you going for a special effect? either way, you should be able to do what you want with any EQ (unless i'm totally misunderstanding you).

Joey222 · Post by **Joey222** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:56 pm

Oh Okay? I just thought maybe there was a plugin out there that does it for you. Okay thanks for your answer.

To be honest I was thinking somewhere along the line of mastering? I just thought maybe there was a plugin that can scan the frequency that is being played and isolate just the frequency so that it sits in the mix

allofdrab · Post by **allofdrab** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 6:13 pm

I agree with michael2's suggestion that an EQ may solve your problem,
but it also seems like you may have been asking for something a bit like SoundHack's +spectralgate which I use a lot for similar types of tasks, though I haven't used it for guitar/vocal mixes per say, which may be another matter.
There's a demo.
http://www.soundhack.com/spectral-shapers

If you try it, I'd be interested to know how it worked for you.

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 7:46 pm

Joey222 wrote:Oh Okay? I just thought maybe there was a plugin out there that does it for you. Okay thanks for your answer.

To be honest I was thinking somewhere along the line of mastering? I just thought maybe there was a plugin that can scan the frequency that is being played and isolate just the frequency so that it sits in the mix

i think I get what you're saying: you want the guitar portion of the audio to be more prominent than it is. i would do it with an EQ if it were me. if you get something else to do it for you, you'll still have to know what you want and where it should be applied in the EQ spectrum. if you use presets you run the risk of making it worse. I know this from much personal experience at making really awful mixes.

try googling a video that will show you how to sweep EQ with a narrow Q. you're basically sweeping across the frequencies listening for the awful frequencies (or the good ones). it's pretty obvious once you have a go at it. turn the crap down a bit and you should be good, or find the sweet spots in the guitar track and turn them up a hair. but be careful that the acoustic isn't stepping on your vocals (they may share some EQ characteristics).

Joey222 · Post by **Joey222** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 8:36 pm

Okay I see. I will play around with eq then. I just thought the way how technology has come so far there was an easier way of doing this, My mind was thinking that when professionals mix and master records that there was a tool that would automatically isolate that particular sound to its own band or frequency. Didn't know that this had to manually be done with eq.

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:06 am

Joey222 wrote:Okay I see. I will play around with eq then. I just thought the way how technology has come so far there was an easier way of doing this, My mind was thinking that when professionals mix and master records that there was a tool that would automatically isolate that particular sound to its own band or frequency. Didn't know that this had to manually be done with eq.

you can start with something like an acoustic guitar preset, but it will still have to be tweaked. your guitar and mic and the mic'ing techniques all add up to a unique sound, so if someone else made a preset, they would have had a unique sound as well (which would be different than yours).

i would focus on a part of the song where just the guitar is playing and figure out what's going on that you do or don't like. there are a lot of EQs now that have a real time visual display, so you can actually see the difference between the solo guitar and the vocal/guitar blend. check out this page and it will show you more info on how things are typically divided on the EQ spectrum. can give you an idea of what range to start in.

http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/04/eq ... l?spref=fb

allofdrab · Post by **allofdrab** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:50 am

michael2 wrote:check out this page and it will show you more info on how things are typically divided on the EQ spectrum. can give you an idea of what range to start in.

http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/04/eq ... l?spref=fb

Wow! Not my thread, but, just wanted to say that.

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:59 am

allofdrab wrote:
michael2 wrote:check out this page and it will show you more info on how things are typically divided on the EQ spectrum. can give you an idea of what range to start in.

http://djfrobot.blogspot.com/2010/04/eq ... l?spref=fb
Wow! Not my thread, but, just wanted to say that.

wish I could take credit.

Joey222 · Post by **Joey222** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:53 am

Wow this is a very interesting topic altogether. Learning so much about music and how it is produced, my idea of mixing and mastering was totally not the way I imagined. I seriously thought all these years with pro tools and such that the eq's would of automatically done it for you.

The way I pictured it was the engineer would typically want each sound respectively in its own frequency and I assumed that software would have made this process easier. I seriously thought that the engineers were using some kind of tool to automatically isolate or filter the instrument in its own zone and then they used eq to make it sound thicker or thinner. Had no idea that eq was done %100 MANUALLY.

Still a little confused about mastering a bit. I also assumed that mastering was done digitally. My question is, when you are mastering a record is that also done MANUALLY by ear or is that digital. Digital in terms of the mastering tool scanning and looking for each sound and spatially dividing the bands or frequencies in each perspectives zone

michael2 · Post by **michael2** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:42 am

i know noooothing about mastering. I have been there for a few records when it was done and the guy loaded up our music and proceeded to painstakingly listen and twist dials without even looking. he made it sounds 1000 times better. i think that is one of those things best left to the pro's. guess they had to start somewhere though.

you have the right idea about sounds/instruments generally having a space where they go. not quite so cut and dry once you get into it (they tend to overlap in some areas), but that's the gist of it. just jump in, you'll quickly get the idea if you spend a little time on it. not like i'm any good, but what I know I got from this forum, watching videos and reading articles and tons of experimentation. i find it a lot of fun to learn how to do things, so the tweaking is half the fun.

Joey222 · Post by **Joey222** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:22 pm

michael2 wrote:i know noooothing about mastering. I have been there for a few records when it was done and the guy loaded up our music and proceeded to painstakingly listen and twist dials without even looking. he made it sounds 1000 times better. i think that is one of those things best left to the pro's. guess they had to start somewhere though.

you have the right idea about sounds/instruments generally having a space where they go. not quite so cut and dry once you get into it (they tend to overlap in some areas), but that's the gist of it. just jump in, you'll quickly get the idea if you spend a little time on it. not like i'm any good, but what I know I got from this forum, watching videos and reading articles and tons of experimentation. i find it a lot of fun to learn how to do things, so the tweaking is half the fun.

Okay I hear you. Thanks for the info

Joey222 · Post by **Joey222** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:47 pm

In general overall this is a very interesting forum. Comparing this forum to others I have posted in relating to audio, I'm starting to realize and understand why the music industry is in such the decline its in. Its not an industry its more like a fest of people not really knowing anything about audio which I find interesting. Hope no one takes offense but I'm coming to the realization that there are just a lot of people in the audio world that just don't have knowledge or are skills as they should like withing the film industry.

I have posted various questions in other forums VERY TECHNICAL relating to audio and was baffled by the responses I got. When ever I posted a question I either got a response that just seemed like the person really didn't know what they were talking about or didn't get a response at all assuming no one had an answer because my question was either too technical or difficult to answer.

I know I'm going off topic here but I feel that this should also be added in. A while back a friend asked me to do a very tedious task relating to video editing and I wasn't able to do it because I didn't have the proper knowledge, however I was able to ask and post questions withing the filming industry and got not only answers but they went out of the way of telling me why "do it this way BECAUSE!". Same thing when I had to learn a whole new language in programming, whenever I posted in forums it just seemed that people knew exactly what they are talking about and they helped me a great deal.

Here in the audio field, it just seems there a lot of people who don't know what they are talking about and just visit the forum maybe to just answer a few questions that just seems easy to them.

If you want, I would invite anyone to go back and do research and history on me regarding posting in this forum. Please look at my past post so that you wont view me as A TROLL AND HAVE A SENSE THAT I'M JUST A SERIOUS PERSON LOOKING FOR SERIOUS ANSWERS!

I just find it weird how 300+ people have viewed this thread and I only get a couple of responses. THAT IS JUST WEIRD TO ME!

zArt · Post by **zArt** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:39 pm

Hi Joey.
Offtopic:
"I just find it weird how 300+ people have viewed this thread and I only get a couple of responses. THAT IS JUST WEIRD TO ME!"

I read your initial post and because i had the same answer as the guys that posted after and before i read it, i didn't bother to answer.
If you want everyone's opinion you can create a poll, although in this particular case wouldn't be useful, i hope you get my point.

Ontopic:
With a Frequency Analyzer you can check the range of frequencies of the guitar
and then use an Eq like the guys wrote before.
And you can use a Multiband Compressor also, check this out: http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mix ... mastering/

allofdrab · Post by **allofdrab** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:53 pm

Yah, I just want to add that there are a hell of a lot of KVR members who know an incredible amount about working with audio. Many of the members here have this knowledge because they've been doing it for years, are actually developers of the plugins, hosts and software that get talked about, and/or actually do work in audio for a living. Don't dismiss this forum based on your one post which was answered very well by micheal and who to his credit was quite open about his experience level nonetheless. In fact, no one here, or on any other forum, knows everything, and I for one appreciated michael's remark that he too did not know everything (well he referred to mastering; but you get my point). Still, that doesn't make his response to your initial question any less accurate or knowledgable. The whole point of this forum as a whole is for us all to share what knowledge we do have with each other. 300+ people looking at this thread and not responding in it is nothing - KVR gets a huge amount of traffic, but really, it also likely means (as zArt mentioned) that your question was answered well. Also, compared to some other forums I've been on; it was answered quite quickly! Also, I would say, based on my experience with KVR, and the amount of knowledge being shared here that the music industry is thriving; especially because we have a forum like KVR. Welcome!

Are there any plugins to listen for and zone in a particular frequency?