Guest Marc Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 Hi, We are (trying) to make some music for a few years now. Some songs are sounding nice but it's not finished. Problem is that we have to much gear and mainly the lack of having the knowledge of eqalizing the tracks well. I've found it the most difficult effect to use. Is there anybody who can give some simple tips how to equalize your bass, leads, kick, hihat, snare, etc. When I listen to different Psy/Goa albums you always ask yourself how could this sound so bright and how did they place all the instruments in the right place of the stereo image and frequenty spectrum and your song does not. Thanks, Marc Q Factor www.mp3.com/qfactor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spiralix Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 there is probably no given way of equalizing things.. it all depends on good eq's and alot of training.. try to put the different elements in the song in different freqcy areas.. or else they will cover eachother, and it will sound messy.. and for example, youse lowcut filters on things that shouldnt be in the bass register... Or else it will make the bassline sound messy.. use the EQ to make the different sounds take only as much space in the mix that they need to have.... hope this will help you alittle.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spindrift Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 Yup, spiralix pretty much managed to put it down in a few lines. But one thing is that too much eq'ing can lead to a sterile sound. What happens when frequencies overlap is that the sounds can mask eachother and cause phase shifting. Of course this is a bit uncontrollable, and it's harder to mix sounds together that have a wide frequency range, but allways be carefull not to cut and trim all sounds on routine, or you might loose some 'magic' or whatever to call it. But in the bass frequencies beginners many times have leads that come in with load of energy in the low frequencies and get a very bad bass as a result....so the motto for me is again 'now the rules well to break them well' Also, find a frequency analyser and look at your sound in that, and compare with good sounding mastered and released stuff. You will both learn how to balance the frequencies in your mix across the spectrum, as well as noticing any sounds that peak to hard in certain frequencies. The best of course is to trust you ears and monitors, but looking at a analyzer can help you learn doing just that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Slidingtrancer Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 You can get awesome results phase shifting ur sound a little bit. The ear listens to the midrange, so most people are making tracks with lots of lows and mids. You just need a little extra on the 60-120 hz and some extra on the bassline in the midrange. Most people tend to overEQ the lower and midfrequencies and leave a lot of highs out. High is the most important to give it something punchy and magic. If you mess up lows it can sound muddy, but its not as bad as it can sound when people don't EQ their highs properly. Muddyness can even give it an underground sound, where a bad highsection can cause your eardamage TRUST UR EARS though, but don't go out listening the same track over and over again while mastering. Its best to do two sessions, one in the morning (preferably) and just make a master at what feels best (EQ wise). Then just turn all music off, read a good book and come back in the afternoon to hear your master, make notes and come back in the evening to do some extra stuff you noticed. There are some basics on EQing psytrance though, but the best way to master them is to experiment. There is a lot of information on the Net about EQ'ing... http://www.studiocovers.com contains a lot of information about EQing, Compression and more of the trix we need so badly to make our sound professional Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest etherdesign Posted September 27, 2002 Share Posted September 27, 2002 Studiocovers as Slidingtrancer mentioned above.. That is probably the best source for production FAQs and articles on the net, there is an insane amount of information there. Note it does not pertain to any one sort of music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marc Posted September 28, 2002 Share Posted September 28, 2002 Hi, Thank you all guys. We will try the tips out. What are the best EQ plugins we can use? Regards, Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spindrift Posted September 28, 2002 Share Posted September 28, 2002 My VST/DX favourites by far are the waves (REQ and new mastering ones) and sonic timeworks.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jikkenteki Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 While not 100% eq related in terms of turning knobs and sliding slider, one thing I personally recommend is that when making new sounds for a track, I find it best to do it while the track itself is going. I think everyone has sat down and made a sound they thought would be cool as hell in the track they are working on, only to find of it completely sucks with in the context of the track, quite often due to it overlapping other sounds eq-wise. Making your sounds with in the context of the track can save you alot of time and frustration over making a sound that is cool by itself, but then has to be endlessly tweaked to get it to work how you want it to in the track (which usually kills any life it had in the process). Of course as with anything in making music, this is just a guideline on not a hard rule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marc Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 Thanks again, What I was wondered about, do you immediatly enable the equalizer for every instrument from the start (f.e. directly limit the bass it's bandwith) or do you wait until a few instruments are layered? Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spindrift Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 I see the eq just as an extra tool for shaping the sounds, but good sounds don't any reshaping. My favourite bass synths for example, i don't need to eq, or hardly even compress, they just sound great anyway if i just use the built in filters to adjust it to fit the particular track I'm working on. Just like Jikkenteki said, you get better results by using sounds that fit together without harldy any eq. The unwanted frequencies in a bass synth sound would normally be the mid range, which anyway can be adjusted with the lowpass filter, especially if it has a adjustable slope. If you have a bass sound with the main focus in energy around say for example 70hz, and rather would like a more 'discoish' 100hz, you should may be think about making the tune in a suitable key for that freq. Like this: 65.406 C2 69.296 C#2 73.416 D2 77.782 D#2 82.407 E2 87.307 F2 92.499 F#2 94.999 G2 103.83 G#2 110.00 A2 116.54 A#2 123.47 B2 130.81 C3 138.59 C#3 Thats something you should keep in mind before you start your track though, and it takes a bit of experince to lear to know how the frequencies sound on big systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marc Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 Spindrift thanks again, You mentioned the bass. I found the bass one of the most difficult thing to create (see a previous message in this phorum) and let it kick in the mix. It's always to loud and mixed with the bass. I am working on Psy/Goa basses but I still don't have the sound I am looking for. What kind of instrument do you use for your basses? I tried the Pro 52 and my 303 and 101, did some equalizing but it still is not the Psy/Goa bass I want. Let the bass kick, Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spindrift Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 I use the creamware pulsar card, and have a 303 emulation there, which i think is fantastic. A real 303 should off course be nice, but as all analogue synths, especially when they get old, tend to get a bit unstable and untight, and many therefore can be hard to get a nice bass out of. Those 101's and 303's maybe sounded good still in the early 90's, but many i tried the last few years didn't sound very good. I tried the studio electronics SE-1 and ATC-1, which is mordern analouge synths, and give very nice results, little costly though. I don't rate any VSTi's for bass myself, but it sounds like there is something missing compared to the pulsar synths, but many people use reaktor for bass and like it. Also i got decent results with the logic synths. To separate bass and kick: Separate so you have most energy say at 100hz in the kick and 60hz in the bass. Be catious when putting bass notes on the same spots as kicks, maybe even avoid it all together. Adjust your release/decay settings and note length to minimise overlap. Also you could try ducking out the base when the kcik comes in using a sidechain compressor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nick Posted October 1, 2002 Share Posted October 1, 2002 peak, sweep, cut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest coriolis Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 you need to approach your music production more holistically. you shouldn't consider EQ the quick-fix way to getting a professional psy sound. eq, compression, effects, the original aural quality of your synths/samples, and lots more are all going to contribute to the overall quality of your production. here are a couple suggestions: - buy a pair of quality studio monitors. don't waste your time trying to understand EQ if your speakers can't accurately represent what your doing anway. this is the first step. you just can't mix without them. you're ears are blind unless you have a good pair of monitors. i can't stress this enough. once you get a pair, compare your mixes with those of professionally produced tracks. you'll hear exactly what you need to do. - unless you train yourself to have it, you won't have a good ear for hearing the wide, overall dynamic (loudness) and frequency ranges of your mix. you can work on EQing your bassline all day long, but when you add the rest of your mix it will be lost. don't get over-obsessed with any particular thing or frequency range - always try to hear things on the largest scale, on its sense of overal impact, then from there move downward into details. - focus on keeping a loud, clear, bright mix. most amatuer production is lacking in punch and clarity in the high midrange and high end frequencies. without this your bass isn't gonna be that punchy. its like cake without the frosting - it just isn't as good. - like people said above - don't make sounds compete for the same frequency range. - invest in some mastering plugins (the waves mastering plugins are superb, the t-racks mastering software is also very good). read the manuals several times and play around, eventually you'll get somewhere really exciting. theres more, so much more, but these should help you try some things out. if nothing else, at least a pair of monitors are going to let you actually hear what is going on. coriolis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marc Posted October 4, 2002 Share Posted October 4, 2002 Thank you all for those great information. I will work on it. Probably it's a good idea to create one day an information site and collect all those tips and reactions for creating dance music. Marc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Reflekshun Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Agreed, i also give a huge thanks to all the peeps giving out golden advice here! It's really useful information!! I got alot out of it.. _|reflekshun:::... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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