EQing/Mastering tip for fellow begginers...

[John Vella]

I stumbled upon an Eqing trick that has REALLLLY helped me out. I am by no means an expert like many on this board, but this tip *might* be a help to newbies struggling to get their master levels eqed properly with the right ratios of lows, mids, and highs.......

Ok first of all, take a techno tune (off vinyl or CD) that you feel is *very* well produced... Be it a tune by Glenn Wilson, the Anxious, Marco Corolla, DAVE the DRUMMER... whatever... Just make sure it's a similar musical style to your current prodcution you are testing it against....

Now play it on your system.... Next, remove one part of the EQ from the mix at a time... (meaning first listen to the track with only the bottom end turned ALL the way down while the mids and highs are normalled (at 0 dB), then do the same with only the Mids missing, and then finally take out only the highs) Listen to how much of the track is comprised of each type of sound... Listen carefully to see how much is left of the track when the various freqencies are removed.... You will probably notice how well balanced it is... where none of the frequencies are OVERLY dominant in terms of the overall sound. (of course the low end seems the most dominant because of the kick, but you will notice that there is still plenty of elements remaining in the other frequencies....)

Now on the exact same sound system, put your own track to the same EQing test and compare it against the vinyl.... If you are a begginer at this techno business, you might be suprised (and rather disgusted) to see how poorly your own tune does against this test.... Meaning, you will find that most of your total sound is stuck in one or two regions rather than being balanced nicely thru the entire spectrum.....

You can also do this same test against the vinyl with basically anything you wanna test for....

how do the kicks sound? Is yours ridiculously louder than the one on the vinyl? Does yours lack the lively sound seperation of the model track?

Obviously you won't match these great tracks right away, or perhaps never.... But at least if you strive to be like them (IN TERMS OF QUALITY--ideas are your own to put on the table) then your works quality will only get better.....

I hope this made some kind of sense...

I just know this is helping me alot and I thought I would try to help someone out the way people on this board have helped me....

PEACE

-JOHNNY

[Barely Human]

Good advice mate :D :D :D

[DJZeMig_L]

Also try freefilter by steinberg or some other similar software... choose a track which has a very similar sound/ style... with this software u press learn then u play the model track, meanwhile the software will take an average of each freq. (across 32 bands). Then u do the same 4 yer track... now use the morph button 2 get an increasing close eq. balance 2 yer model track!!!.... this is no life savior but I gives u a feel 2 the right tunning and also to yer ears natural tunning.

There is other software that will do the same, jus can't remember they're name... but I think there is something by Izotope... in theory the more bands the better and the more accurate.....

Z

[MARKEG]

i think johnny, in you're own way, you've stumbled upon the secret of eq and found a way to start to understand it.

eq in your track is the single most important way to making a full sound.

(BTW thanx for saying we have a full sound .. hehehe)

listening to the tracks and understanding why you like them is something i spent years doing. it's so much more obvious to me nowadays what is a good track and what is a bad track and it's all about the eq spectrum (as well as the tracks feel of course :])

keep going johnny. devote your life to this shit and you'll make it. it seems like you're doing a fine job already... and thanx loads for sharing your ideas.... this will help alot of ppl...

[miromiric.]

mark can u show me the visual of spectrum how it should look like ?

just make a printscreen and post it here please :)

[MARKEG]

well i use a hardware sa,, so i can't print it out. aorry m8. i';ve tried to look at a software sa and it does look v different to ours - dunno why

i just know that you've got to see the pattern with you're fave producers records and try to equal/better it.

[loopdon]

Another thing on could try is a plugin called:

'Space Boy' by elevayta

What do you do when you have two audio sources, with similar spectral content, and you would like to mix them in a balanced way so that each of the individual parts can be heard?

Normally you may spend hours fiddling with the EQ of each source to find the dominant spectral components. Having done this you then need to tweak each EQ until a suitable balance is reached. All the time being sure that a constant volume is achieved.

Using the similar, innovative, communicating plug-in technology used in 'Clone Boy', 'Space Boy' makes it possible to perform this, normally complex, EQ process in a matter of minutes using just a few sliders.

'Space Boy', as the name suggests, provides the means to analyze, in real-time, the spectrum of one audio source and make a 'space' in the spectrum of another (target) audio source. Not only this, but the ever changing relationship between the different EQs of each source is automatically accommodated in real-time. This means that EQ adjustments are made only when needed.

Features:

Real-time FFT based spectral convolution.
Unique plug-in pair (and more) communication.
64-Bit processing throughout.

http://www.elevayta.com/

[Mindful]

i do this sometimes myself johnny and never thoght of it as a production technique will do from now tho cheers ;)

[Scott Kemix]

Really interesting stuff this, like the techniques alot, very inspirational........ :clap:

[tocsin]

I've had some fun with the Freefilter plugin. More through using not so similar tracks though. A print I captured from a Crystal Method track has sometimes worked really nice when morphing some 200+bpm stuff to it.

[Dave Elyzium]

Freefilter can be a bit hit and miss in my personal opinion....excellent advice though johnny im gonna try this out myself ;)

[Dave Elyzium]

oh and also thanks for sharing! thats what this board is all about ;)

[Evil G]

this is a good tip. i'm a fan of doing things the hard way (manually, by ear, etc) but there is an interesting looking plugin for the TC Powercore called Assimilator that is supposed to do this automagically.

[Basil Rush]

Another thing on could try is a plugin called:

'Space Boy' by elevayta

[b]What do y
http://www.elevayta.com/

This does weird things to pads if you mute the source ...!

[curly]

have just used free filter for the first time, I am impressed with the results and shows up my short commings in my mixes. Thankyou for the tips. keep them comming.

[loopdon]

Another thing on could try is a plugin called:

'Space Boy' by elevayta

[b]What do y
http://www.elevayta.com/

This does weird things to pads if you mute the source ...!

i'll give that a try, did you find it any good, basil?