Focusrite saffire EQ - anything similar?
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- KVRist
- 175 posts since 5 Oct, 2005 from Liverpool
Tried this and it is a great tool for people who are not that good with eq. For instance, you can choose say Piano as a preset, and then it offers up tweakable buttons for "Mud" "Air" "Prescence" etc. It does this on all the other instruments too. That's an absolutely great idea, and I wondered if anything similar is available on any other eq's? (the focusrite demo is restricted and out of my budget)
Glassback's personal whipping boy.
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- KVRAF
- 6242 posts since 26 Sep, 2003 from right here, as you can see ...
simple: not really a that good idea, as _every_ instrument sounds different, so the result with such preset-behaviour is a very vague thing, nothing, that provides the best result possible, which is what you allways should get, especially with eq that is absolutely necessary ...
regards,
brok landers
BIGTONEsounddesign
gear is as good as the innovation behind it-the man
brok landers
BIGTONEsounddesign
gear is as good as the innovation behind it-the man
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 175 posts since 5 Oct, 2005 from Liverpool
I know that. All presets need tweaking of course, but, I find that the saffire idea offers a lot more pointers than the usul eq prestes that are just instrument based per se.
I think the saffire is a very intelligent eq, and I have seen nothing else like it yet.
I think the saffire is a very intelligent eq, and I have seen nothing else like it yet.
Glassback's personal whipping boy.
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Lawnmower Of The Damned Lawnmower Of The Damned https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=29783
- KVRian
- 850 posts since 16 Jun, 2004
I've tried out the Saffire and was very surprised by how decent the presets were. I tested everything from acoutic chords to blues to modern rock to dropped A black metal. I was able to improve the sound very quickly on each of them, which is extremely impressive considering the array of guitars and amps I used.
However the Saffire EQ is not particularly amazing by itself. It's pretty smeary and the phase shifting can be very annoying. I'd suggest getting a good linear phase EQ (I would have suggested Firium or Equim, but some douchebag just bought the rights and doubled the prices
) and reading some tutorials on EQing.
For instance, when using an electric guitar preset the first thing it does is cut all the extremely low and high frequencies. Depending on the mix it's usually a good idea to cut everything below 80-180 hz on the guitars in order to let the bass and kick drum cut through. Also, most guitar cabs have very little output after the 4,000 to 6,000 hz area. Therefore one can safely assume that the sounds above that point are not important to guitar tone, but will detriment your cymbals and hi-hats.
Like I said, as good tutorial on EQing would help you a lot more than the Saffire EQ, even though the EQ's presets are pretty competent.
Another thing that can be extremely useful is to pull your CD collection over to your computer and load up a frequency analizer. It really helps to see what other people are doing with their mixing, especially the ones who really know what they are doing.
Get an idea of what the common frequency curves are in different genres, as well as the dynamic range. Of course, there's no reason to stick to those curves religiously, but it's still more flexable than using presets in an EQ.
However the Saffire EQ is not particularly amazing by itself. It's pretty smeary and the phase shifting can be very annoying. I'd suggest getting a good linear phase EQ (I would have suggested Firium or Equim, but some douchebag just bought the rights and doubled the prices
) and reading some tutorials on EQing.For instance, when using an electric guitar preset the first thing it does is cut all the extremely low and high frequencies. Depending on the mix it's usually a good idea to cut everything below 80-180 hz on the guitars in order to let the bass and kick drum cut through. Also, most guitar cabs have very little output after the 4,000 to 6,000 hz area. Therefore one can safely assume that the sounds above that point are not important to guitar tone, but will detriment your cymbals and hi-hats.
Like I said, as good tutorial on EQing would help you a lot more than the Saffire EQ, even though the EQ's presets are pretty competent.
Another thing that can be extremely useful is to pull your CD collection over to your computer and load up a frequency analizer. It really helps to see what other people are doing with their mixing, especially the ones who really know what they are doing.
Get an idea of what the common frequency curves are in different genres, as well as the dynamic range. Of course, there's no reason to stick to those curves religiously, but it's still more flexable than using presets in an EQ.
Excuse all the blood.