EQ question: Where do I "cut" to remove "mud"?

[Sonika]

heh i wish more people from here were dnb heads knowning who kryptic minds and leon switch back when

Their DnB is alot better than their dubstep, maybe they'll go back someday

They are, I believe
They said their next album would contain "no dubstep"

[Lucifa]

212Hz

On a serious note, as well as attenuating the low-mids of your instruments if you are using reverb / delay sends try EQ'ing those as well for better definition.

When EQing reverb, do you cut it dependant on the source sound, or just carve out the typical problem areas? Like, would you say have high--passed reverb for hats then mid-rangey reverb for lead synths etc. ?

[Arvis]

I sometimes can get stuff to sound better by cutting somewhere between 200-250Hz.

[bassinine]

yeah, depends on what kind of sound you're trying to remove the mud from.

start with around 2k, like the big boys already suggested.

if you're trying to make a bass, for god's sake, don't do what i did for like 2 years.. and cut around 200hz. that really is where most of the meat of the bass sound is coming from, those low-mid freqs.

[nowaysj]

Why is it suggested to always cut and never boost? From the mixing books/tuts i've read it says that its a rule of thumb that you should cut more than boost. However i think its ok to boost things gently too. A more musical eq has an automatic q that gets wider as you boost, so can be used to give a gentle lift to a high end on a part. I watched a dubspot mastering tutorial where he boosted at 50hz and 100hz with a narrow q as the tune was in g. There's tons of times i've seen people boost.

It is like a battle in the engineer world, the boosters vs the cutters. As was mentioning earlier, different eq's have different sounds. Most eq's when they boost the highs, the resulting sound can be harsh and sound eq'ey, while other eq's will just sound good, everything will sound focused, shiny, without that knife edge. But any eq should be able to pull off modest boosts without too much trouble. Like everything with production, no free lunch, if you get one thing, you lose another, have to balance gains vs losses.

Side note: this is why I was suggesting when bringing an element into the mix that you set it at the right volume level, and then give it a boost in gain like 3 to 6db. Now you can carve it back with eq (and other tools) by cutting instead of boosting.

[Attila]

What's the difference between raising the volume fader and boosting the gain of a clip?

[Attila]

.

[Attila]

jesus christ i have no idea how this posted thrice

[nowaysj]

Personally recommend keeping your faders set at 0, or their default, and boosting the gain with trim or a gain utility. Those faders will come in handy later when mixing. There are other considerations, like what level your plugin chain is running at, but whatever. Best to leave those faders set.

[hudson]

I usually put a small dip around 400hz-500hz, I find that to be a pretty standard place for mud to sit.

[Attila]

Personally recommend keeping your faders set at 0, or their default, and boosting the gain with trim or a gain utility. Those faders will come in handy later when mixing. There are other considerations, like what level your plugin chain is running at, but whatever. Best to leave those faders set.

So they do essentially affect the audio in the same way?

[laurend]

Personally recommend keeping your faders set at 0, or their default, and boosting the gain with trim or a gain utility. Those faders will come in handy later when mixing. There are other considerations, like what level your plugin chain is running at, but whatever. Best to leave those faders set.

So they do essentially affect the audio in the same way?

Where do you remove the mud?

[nowaysj]

Personally recommend keeping your faders set at 0, or their default, and boosting the gain with trim or a gain utility. Those faders will come in handy later when mixing. There are other considerations, like what level your plugin chain is running at, but whatever. Best to leave those faders set.

So they do essentially affect the audio in the same way?

Yes, generally speaking digital gain is just digital gain. It is recommendable to get your sounds coming into your mixer at just about their right volume in the mix. There are any number of gain stages in the digital world, so it isn't so tough.

[Huts]

Why is it suggested to always cut and never boost? From the mixing books/tuts i've read it says that its a rule of thumb that you should cut more than boost. However i think its ok to boost things gently too. A more musical eq has an automatic q that gets wider as you boost, so can be used to give a gentle lift to a high end on a part. I watched a dubspot mastering tutorial where he boosted at 50hz and 100hz with a narrow q as the tune was in g. There's tons of times i've seen people boost.

Drums are the only thing I really cut rather than boost. Most other sounds get boosted, and my midranges lately (mainly reeses) get boosted like 10db in a lot of areas (large q's)

[MaZa1]

In some tutorial ( i think it was BIAB tutorial) the guy said that for those mid-basses the mud sits round 250-500hz and i usually cut round that area and it really removes some of the mud, depends what kind of sound u are eq'ing.

And if using sends, remember to eq those too, I'm using parallel compression and after adding that i was wondering the mud that appeared but then i realized that i have no eq on the send channel

[JTreeZY]

What's the difference between the Hz and the decible level. The EQ in reason looks like a graph with a the x axis as decible levels and the y as HZ. I just play around with it till it sounds ok.

[subfect]

at worst cut on sounds and gain up

Or boost and gain down (which I find easier)

[Sharmaji]

Why is it suggested to always cut and never boost? From the mixing books/tuts i've read it says that its a rule of thumb that you should cut more than boost. However i think its ok to boost things gently too. A more musical eq has an automatic q that gets wider as you boost, so can be used to give a gentle lift to a high end on a part. I watched a dubspot mastering tutorial where he boosted at 50hz and 100hz with a narrow q as the tune was in g. There's tons of times i've seen people boost.

It is like a battle in the engineer world, the boosters vs the cutters. As was mentioning earlier, different eq's have different sounds. Most eq's when they boost the highs, the resulting sound can be harsh and sound eq'ey, while other eq's will just sound good, everything will sound focused, shiny, without that knife edge. But any eq should be able to pull off modest boosts without too much trouble. Like everything with production, no free lunch, if you get one thing, you lose another, have to balance gains vs losses.

Side note: this is why I was suggesting when bringing an element into the mix that you set it at the right volume level, and then give it a boost in gain like 3 to 6db. Now you can carve it back with eq (and other tools) by cutting instead of boosting.

^ that's really good advice-- take heed.

nothing wrong w/ boosting at all, but most eq's are very forgiving when attenuating; not all are the same when you boost. some (cubase's EQ, i'm looking at you) are downright unpleasant when adding volume to a frequency.

you can get really, really surgical with cuts and you can get away with a lot of hi-q, very specific work; look at this: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep11/a ... t-0911.htm the last thing Adele's voice sounds in that tune is over-EQ'd, but the amount of EQ work on that is nuts.

with boosts, you're looking to make something MORE musical, not less-sucky-- do wide-Q boosts.

[subfect]

^ saw the mix room and shat myself *drool*