I did this because..... Tips on EQ'ing
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Posted on May 01, 2013 11:10 am
Hippie
Rockstar Vatican Assassin
Member Since: Mar 20, 2009
I want to open a discussion about EQ'ing. Not sure how many of you would be interested - but the idea is to provide 2 guitar tracks (short 2 min samples maybe) panned left and right and each person take a stab at EQ'ing it to their taste and make comments on why they did what they did. There's a few vids out on YouTube, but they're not very intuitive nor do they really provide us noobs the explanation behind the work. It's like.. do this and this and this... done. Well, most of us don't have the same plugins nor do we hear what they hear in the vids (to hear the distinction) cause YouTube destroys the sound clarity.
That said... anyone want to take part? I think it would be a good excersize.. very informative to new readers.. and the tracks would be available for download for [them] to toy around with based on our perceptions. Think of it like homework... same assignement, but each person has different method of writing out the answer. Does anyone think this would be useful (besides me)?
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May 02, 2013 08:52 am Not sure I have time to participate, nor understand the end game...I mean, EQing tracks is a matter of preference to some degree, and can vary a great deal with the surrounding tracks, so, EQing only a single instrument without the context of rest of the song would be sorta tough.
May 02, 2013 10:57 am I participated in something similar where 12 mixing engineers balanced 3 faders (Drums, Bass and Guitar) as quick as they could. The different results were interesting, and the more professional mix engineers results stood out.
Bring it on! Though I'm with dB that without the context of a song, I'm not sure how relevant the results will be.
May 02, 2013 11:04 am This discussion reminds me of a guitarist I used to be in a few bands with...always developing "his sound" outside of practice and it would be this huge, full, wonderful sound (to his credit), but he never considered how this big full sound stepped on bass and drum frequency ranges and in practice it would just turn to mud...
HippieRockstar Vatican AssassinMember
Since: Mar 20, 2009
May 02, 2013 02:49 pm Yeah... I suppose you guys are right on the 'need to have all the instruments.' I guess I was just looking to narrow down the scope so that the focus was on a single instrument (if say the drum tracks or bass weren't that good of quality, I wouldn't want us to EQ the guitar to match the badness of it all).
When you look for vids on YouTube, they're all using whatever tracks they have available..... so even though it gives you insight, it may not apply to your own recordings (if that makes any sense). The idea here was that everyone's using the same track and putting their own spin on it. So the information is all relative because we're working from the same material. I dunno... maybe if enough people respond, its worth trying. Otherwise, I'll let this topic die a slow death! Ha!!
May 02, 2013 02:53 pm I try to never myopically focus on a single instrument when mixing, it's always in relation to the whole mix...that being said, I see your point, that just isn't typically how I work.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
May 03, 2013 07:05 am One thing we could do, (and I think I've seen it done on occasion on other forums) is to host our own internal mix contest or, well, maybe contest isn't the right word for it since it wouldn't really be a competition.
Basically one of us (preferably one of us with a band) would record a song, provide the tracks to us who want to participate, and we would do something like create a group on soundcloud or something to share the finished mixes.
We could state what we used, what we did, our general thoughts on why and how we do things, waxing philisophic, and just basically share and learn.
Someone could create a soundcloud group for HRC (if there isn't already one that is) and use that as the share point. We'd have to create a tagline to use for the title of the upload though, so we know what we're looking at. HRC-Mixfest-songname-my-mix or something like that.
I think it could totally be doable with some organization and planning. And the basic soundcloud accounts are free.
I'm participating in a couple contests right now....one of em on soundcloud PureMix Gearfest 2013, doing a mix for Liza Colby's song, "Oh Baby" (which I submitted, and the next day, regretted since I don't think we're supposed to change our submission after sharing it, and I decided wasn't that happy with my entry, grrrr)
And the other being a small remix contest for the Dead Milkmen song, "Anthropology Days", which I'm still figuring out what I want to do with. I mean, I've done some basic things to it, and I'm thinking about adding a chiptune-ish synth track to it, but .... not sure. And, of course, I can't post it anywhere public until after the end of June once the contest is over. :P
Here's the contest link: www.deadmilkmen.com/remix-contest/
I'd post the Gearfest contest, but it's technically hosted by the vendor, Sweetwater. :P And that might be a little faux pas. But I can post my attempt at least:
I did go back and fix what I didn't like, and I've re-uploaded, but not shared it back to the group yet since I might make further adjustments before June 1st. I don't know if re-upping will disqualify me or not or if it counts as "multiple mixes" if I delete my first posting, and replace it with a final version before June 1st. :P But I'm going to do it anyway because I don't feel good having something up that I don't like. :P
May 04, 2013 01:23 pm That sounds like fun. Having one song out there and everyone's individual takes on the mix. I agree that if we explain what we did and why it would help "noobs" to understand better certain principals in mixing. I've got a Bayside cover I could share for everyone. It's one of my few covers that have vocals, so we could give it a proper go.
What say ye?
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
May 05, 2013 05:31 pm If we get a few of us on board who want to do it, then yeah, someone (me quick, quincy, whoever) can create the soundcloud group, and then go to town. The raws can be shared via dropbox or something, and we can just do the mix, upload to our own soundcloud, share it to the group, and put a link here to use the soundcloud feature of HRC.
This should just be a "do it and share techniques and reasons" rather than an ongoing thread like the mix critique, haha. Having a mini-contest or "master class" whatever you want to call it, will also help the participants grow as mixing engineers.
HippieRockstar Vatican AssassinMember
Since: Mar 20, 2009
May 08, 2013 04:57 pm Quote:
What say ye?
You know I'm game..... as this will help me as much as the noobs. Opinions matter!!!
May 09, 2013 06:10 am I'm down for a mix-masterclass!
I have heaps of tunes on my hard drive if ya'll need someone to supply, but it would be cool to mix something I haven't mixed before.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
May 09, 2013 12:28 pm Okay, I started the group on soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/groups/hrc-home-recording-connection
You can go to your profiles and join the group from there by searching, or go directly to the group to join. Thing about groups like this, is that anyone can join just by clicking the button or finding it.
So, I'll appoint us HRC forumites as moderators of the group once you get joined at least. Right now, it's a bit of an unofficial group, but if dB sanctions it, we can make it the official HRC soundcloud group and use it for various things.
May 09, 2013 12:57 pm I'd rather keep the content within HRC's forums, personally...not sure what I'd need to do to support that, but moving the conversation to soundcloud is a drag.
J-botByte-MixerMember
Since: Dec 04, 2007
May 09, 2013 04:05 pm Yep, understood. I didn't mean to suggest moving content and discussion to the soundcloud group.
But keeping it unofficial is fine too, and we can still use the group to share tracks to each other easily, and to host events like small contests or host master-class type things, collabs, etc. without creating 100+ post threads, haha!
May 09, 2013 04:30 pm This did spark an idea though, I really want to figure out if I can leverage soundcloud for HRC music hosting...rather than hosting it on my server...but integrating their audio in this site...
May 13, 2013 07:51 am Anybody got a tune in mind?
If you like anything from this list I'm happy to upload (will have to check with the band though!): http://soundcloud.com/arie-van-der-poel/sets/productions-1/
Otherwise gimme something fresh!
HippieRockstar Vatican AssassinMember
Since: Mar 20, 2009
May 14, 2013 10:27 am I think that song "Shakedown" would be a good one, if you're allowed to post the raw tracks. Has a little more to work with compared to some of the accoustic tracks.
Otherwise, I'd be more than happy to post something by Cynonyte (my death metal band). They all sound like crap already, so it would be cool to hear the variations of final product by all of you. I know the old saying goes "you can't polish a turd... " but it sure sounds like a fun challenge to me!!!
May 18, 2013 09:25 am Yeah, I can probably talk them into it. Would be keen to mix your band as well Hippie.
