Steve DB`s Q&A production workshop

[Buttman]

Ah yes I do that with PAZ Freq Analyzer sometimes.. But I dunno if it really helps me.

[loopdon]

make use of reference tracks u like and

a) are similar in style
b) work nicely in the environment you intend them to be played (club i guess)

2.
try and get a different (better) analyzer than paz. i suggest voxengo glisseq. make a snapshot of the part of the track or track itself you want to reference too and overlay it over the spectrum of your track. that should enable you to see where your spectrum is lacking/exxagerating frequencies compared to the reference.

try and fix the errors on a track basis, don't try to eq everything or anything on the master channel, meaning: if the bass region doesn't look right --> eq the track channels that carry the bass region, i.e. bass+kick, don't boost or cut the bass on the master!

or even better: use volume control and instrumentation to fill/cut the regions that differ between your spectrum and the reference one. if you'd need to use a to radical eq otherwise to assimilate them.
you want to make the similar, not 1:1 copies of each other.
use a *.wav file to reference to. possibly from a (bought) cd. not an mp3, no vinyl-rip, no mp3s burnt as wavs onto a cd. a pink-noise file as a reference can hint you at a generally pleasing way to eq. your sound. i won't go into detail here and advise you to read up on this in the free izotope mastering guide on their homepage. it's the part with the -6db rule.

inform yourself about

- har-bal
- aams (advanced auto-mastering system)
- voxengo curveeq
- izotope ozone

try to put them to good use if you see they help you.

hope this helps, back to steve :)

[stjohn]

Ah yes I do that with PAZ Freq Analyzer sometimes.. But I dunno if it really helps me.

but PAZ is just an analyzer innit?
check out www.har-bal.com

its a deadly little program. it can help you spectrally balance your track so that you optimise the chances of a balanced response on different soundsystems.