I am learning about mixing and mastering and recently saw the SPL EQ ranger plus on Plugin Alliance and it got me thinking.
Are there any books out there that provide key frequencies per instrument for mixing and maybe common boost/cut frequencies for mixing and mastering?
I dont just want to learn the basic freq ranges, but also the common frequencies.
Best book for EQ 'cheat sheets'?
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- KVRAF
- 3835 posts since 5 Mar, 2004 from Millicent Australia
Attractive but not a good plan at all.
Sure, read a bit about the perception of sound across the frequency spectrum, but the moment you are using a cheat sheet, you are - as the name says - cheating. To borrow from a Country song: "I cheated me right out of you".
Sound is complex and surprisingly situational - as in every song is a bit different so applying formulas without any sense of understanding Why will deliver poor results more often than not. You cannot mix by numbers. Ok, you can fool yourself, but a real audience knows. They may not know you mixed by numbers, but they feel the broken Scene & Story in the Song.
Advice:
1. Read one of these things. The pic with the balloons is decent. Deffo avoid anything AI as the bots scrape popular answers, not correct answers so esp in music matters they are mostly very wrong.
2. Close the book and put it under a rock at the end of the garden so you can't be tempted.
3. Open your DAW with a well-mixed, good-quality song. Despite your ego preferences, maybe something like "FM" from Best Of Steely Dan (the planted cars) as that is solid.
4. Instance an EQ, preferably one without too much fru-fru, a) Bypass and take one freq knob and move it from one position to another, b) set Active, c) feel the difference. Tempting to scan but that fills your brain with other things like comb filtering/phasing when you need to build a "muscle memory" spreadsheet of how different freq areas feel.
5. Set 6kHz with 3dB boost and feel the extra sparkle.
6. Set 120Hz (narrow Q) and adjust til you feel Punch (not bass) but Punch.
7. Set 240Hz and drop 3dB, noting how the piece clears a bit.
8. Keep at it. 5 mins and done isnot the way. You need to do over and over. A snare hit is also a good one to really hear how you can dramatically change the sound perception with even one boost.
9. Again you may need to adjust for this song, but that is the learning here, not rigid formulas which is what happens when you sit there with a sheep-sheet open - making your decisions for you blindly.
Sure, read a bit about the perception of sound across the frequency spectrum, but the moment you are using a cheat sheet, you are - as the name says - cheating. To borrow from a Country song: "I cheated me right out of you".
Sound is complex and surprisingly situational - as in every song is a bit different so applying formulas without any sense of understanding Why will deliver poor results more often than not. You cannot mix by numbers. Ok, you can fool yourself, but a real audience knows. They may not know you mixed by numbers, but they feel the broken Scene & Story in the Song.
Advice:
1. Read one of these things. The pic with the balloons is decent. Deffo avoid anything AI as the bots scrape popular answers, not correct answers so esp in music matters they are mostly very wrong.
2. Close the book and put it under a rock at the end of the garden so you can't be tempted.
3. Open your DAW with a well-mixed, good-quality song. Despite your ego preferences, maybe something like "FM" from Best Of Steely Dan (the planted cars) as that is solid.
4. Instance an EQ, preferably one without too much fru-fru, a) Bypass and take one freq knob and move it from one position to another, b) set Active, c) feel the difference. Tempting to scan but that fills your brain with other things like comb filtering/phasing when you need to build a "muscle memory" spreadsheet of how different freq areas feel.
5. Set 6kHz with 3dB boost and feel the extra sparkle.
6. Set 120Hz (narrow Q) and adjust til you feel Punch (not bass) but Punch.
7. Set 240Hz and drop 3dB, noting how the piece clears a bit.
8. Keep at it. 5 mins and done isnot the way. You need to do over and over. A snare hit is also a good one to really hear how you can dramatically change the sound perception with even one boost.
9. Again you may need to adjust for this song, but that is the learning here, not rigid formulas which is what happens when you sit there with a sheep-sheet open - making your decisions for you blindly.
Benedict Roff-Marsh
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com