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EQ Questions

embellisher

Holy Ghost filled Bass Player
Supporting Member
Apr 18, 2000
22,086
8,729
Heber Springs, Arkansas
www.facebook.com
I am trying to clean up a live recording, and have a couple of questions.

What frequency do I need to cut to get rid of a boomy bass drum?

On one of the tracks, the bass is too loud. What is the best frequency to cut to deemphasize bass guitar?

On a couple of tracks, the female vocalist is too quiet. What is the best frequency to tweak to bring out her voice?

Is there any decent, freeware recording program that has a 2/3, 1/2, or 1/3 octave equalizer?

Thanks!
 
Ray Salamon said:
To answer the last one, Sound forge works for me. If not that, then Cubase. I use S.F. for my EQing though. I can't really help you with the rest of the parts.... can you do just volume adjusts on the individual tracks, or no?

Ray

No. It is a CD of a concert we did, recorded from the mixing console. They did a mix for us before they burned it, but it is a very crappy mix. I could have done it better myself.
 
embellisher said:
No. It is a CD of a concert we did, recorded from the mixing console. They did a mix for us before they burned it, but it is a very crappy mix. I could have done it better myself.
Ah. If you need a copy of S.F. I can uh, help *cough* PM me *cough*. That's excatly what I do, mix at the board and record, and use S.F. for everything. If you want like screen shots of the EQ section of it PM me. Heck, you got AIM, just drop me an IM :).

Ray
 
for the bass drum, cut around 250-500Hz.
for female vocals, u could try boosting frequencies between 1-3kHz. what type of eq r u using? wat program are u using? u'd be better using the faders to make something louder or quieter. but the boominess in the bass drum should be around 250-500Hz. hope this helps

Peace :bassist:
Chips
 
Is there any decent, freeware recording program that has a 2/3, 1/2, or 1/3 octave equalizer?

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
The big drawback to this program is that EQ changes must be rendered before you can hear the results.

Also N-Track (Invalid Link Removed) costs a bit, but has a really nice real time parametric EQ plugin, and a graphic EQ one.
 
Being as it is already a crappy mix I really don't think you are going to be able to do a whole lot.

A lot of times the mud of a Kick drum is right around 350

You may even try rolling off everything below 60 or 80, I know that sounds bad but sometimes it will tighten things up a bit.

Your quite singer may be in trouble. The problem with boosting the frequencies that the human voice is in, is there are a lot of other instruments in that same range. Guitar, lower register of cymbols and other over tones and such.

Multiband compression would probobly serve you well.