EQ - What to do?
This is a tutorial on eq. I will try to explain some things about eq and when to apply it.
When making music there are allways some sounds wich will need eq. Those sounds will often don't sit nicely in the mix. All sounds used will have to be spread around the spectrum actually. To achieve this you should use sounds with many different timbre's.
The spectrum of sound ranges from 20 hz to 22 khz.
But in real life ppl will hear 20 hz to 15 khz. Only ppl with an exceptional good hearing will receive frequency's that exceed 20 khz. Maybe even up to 22 khz.
Our instruments hang out in the following spectrum:
20 hz to 22 khz for digital instruments.
Digital instruments will create a full 10 octave response within this fequency range.
20 hz to 3/5 khz for acoustic instruments (guitar, flute, violin, etc)
Sound is usually devided into 3 parts:
Bass - 20 hz - 200 hz +-
Mid - 200 hz - 5 khz +-
High - 5 khz and up
But ofcourse the pro's will like to have some more definitions:
Lower bass - 20 hz - 80 hz
Upper bass - 80 hz - 200 hz
Lower mid - 200 hz - 500 hz
Middle mid - 500 hz - 2.5 khz
Upper mid - 2.5 khz - 5 khz
Lower high - 5 khz - 10 khz
Upper high - 10 khz - 20 khz
Note: The upper high will only be heared by ppl with supernatural hearing. When you remove this frequency most ppl won't notice it. But ppl with very good hearing will notice the detail when it's present.
With this frequency's you can now eq a sound the way you want. But don't forget:
IT'S BETTER TO CUT THEN TO BOOST ! ! ! !
So if you have a sound and you want the lower frequency's to be louder. Don't go boosting these up. But lower the mid and high frequency's instead. This will result in a much more clean sound with no more dynamics then the original sound. So no distortion will occur after defining the frequency.
You should add a compressor at the end of your eq chain. So the output will be kept in range
If you have the trouble of hiss (tape) you should cut all frequency's above 10 khz. This will eliminate the hiss
hehehehe:)