Attention to Frequencies

[sune mc]

I've been writing, and recording music for a long time and always approached it from the melody, harmony, and rhythm. I'm learning that EQ and mixing are important considerations as well.

What I'm wondering now is whether anyone begins a tune from a set or grid of definite frequencies. Is this the more professional way to go?

[deadly_habit]

i have general guidelines for where i want certain sounds to sit (kick, snare, hats etc) but end of the day it comes down to what the ear says sounds good

[rendr]

i have general guidelines for where i want certain sounds to sit (kick, snare, hats etc) but end of the day it comes down to what the ear says sounds good

My ears tell me to kill people.

[manray]

No chance. Soon as you start thinking "my kick needs to hit at 100hz and snare at 500hz" it's gonna start sounding like a formula.

Just use what sounds good.... and use a spectrum analyser for backup

[macc]

What I'm wondering now is whether anyone begins a tune from a set or grid of definite frequencies. Is this the more professional way to go?

Christ on a bike

When it is done right, it will fit together all by itself. No charts or analysers or eq, or anything. Just music

Sorry for the hippy response

[deadly_habit]

What I'm wondering now is whether anyone begins a tune from a set or grid of definite frequencies. Is this the more professional way to go?

Christ on a bike

When it is done right, it will fit together all by itself. No charts or analysers or eq, or anything. Just music

Sorry for the hippy response

hippy

[rendr]

No chance. Soon as you start thinking "my kick needs to hit at 100hz and snare at 500hz" it's gonna start sounding like a formula.

Just use what sounds good.... and use a spectrum analyser for backup

x2, it's always nice to have a consistent sound so that people will know, 'hey that's a manray tune' (for example) when they heard it. But every song requires different settings, for instance instead of a snare high passed at 500 Hz you might want to high pass it at 120 Hz to get a really fat sound and maybe you don't even want to high pass it because you layered it up with a 45 Hz Sine wave.

Imo, starting out with a set of filters can only lead to restrictions in your sound, sure it takes longer without a pre-set but what matters at the end of it is how your tune sounds.

[sune mc]

Glad to see such passionate responses... particularly when they're in favor of my opinion

I do have to wonder though, are any of you who have replied getting any club play?

That's my goal and while personally I absolutly despise formulas one has to wonder if perhaps the formulas I'm hearing about have a lot more to do with the limitations of larger pa's/systems... and let's not forget lathes/phonographs, which from what I understand can't even deal with any frequencies over 10K.

So, while from a strictly ideological stance, I agree with what seems to be the concensus here, I'm asking a technical question and hoping for a technical response.

[ecliptic]

Some formulas tho are pretty much essential if your playing out on a loud rig. For example get rid of sub frequencies that you don't really need, such as high passing hats so there's space for the bass/kicks etc..., and little tweaks like this can help your sound stand out from the crowd.

Ps... I dont know what im on about

[rendr]

Some formulas tho are pretty much essential if your playing out on a loud rig. For example get rid of sub frequencies that you don't really need, such as high passing hats so there's space for the bass/kicks etc..., and little tweaks like this can help your sound stand out from the crowd.

Ps... I dont know what im on about

Sound pretty spot on.

Rough guide: Cut everything below 30Hz, and everything above 17,000 Hz

These little tweaks will allow you a bit more space in the mix and let you push the volume up that little bit more without the need of a compressor.

Hi Hats: I tend to low pass Hi Hats at around 12-15k Hz and only high pass if they have activity in the sub bass region. They shouldn't be loud enough to have an impact on Kicks and Snares (with most tunes)

[hugh]

my new favourite tip i picked up from a mate is to get an equaliser, put the gain on full and move the frequency about. This should highlight areas of dodgy frequencies, then simply turn the gain into reduction. an simple PEQ equaliser is good enough for this. It's a great way of getting rid of clashing mid to high range frequencies

[beerz]

my new favourite tip i picked up from a mate is to get an equaliser, put the gain on full and move the frequency about. This should highlight areas of dodgy frequencies, then simply turn the gain into reduction. an simple PEQ equaliser is good enough for this. It's a great way of getting rid of clashing mid to high range frequencies

ye i do that with basslines.....wen u scan across the frequency's u sumtimes find a reli loud annoying frequency that just sound horrible, so gets the treatment it deserves and gets the shit reduced out of it.

[macc]

Be very careful with that approach it is useful at times, but not the be all and end all 'answer'.

You will often find you end up cutting in different places to where you would if you chose to cut from the word go. This is sometimes because you find areas where the mix contains more energy - this energy is usually there for a reason. Be careful you're not doing more harm than good to the part/song

You are also often likely to deafen yourself to the problem you were trying to fix in the first place And if you're sweeping like this without having identified a problem beforehand - that is, without having a specific reason to do so - you would be well advised turn off your eq and (re)start listening.

You don't HAVE to eq. Be conscious of why you're doing it and what you're trying to sort out when you're doing it. Hear problem, fix problem. Scanning about without a defined objective is a dangerous game

Hope this comes across as it is intended

[direct feed]

my general rule of thumb is just watching out for clashing freqs. you can do pretty much whatever you want as long as two things arent playing in the same range. then you get mud. Remember that advice for cutting below 30 and above 17 is for mp3's. You will have a pissed off engineer if he goes to cut vinyl and all that is cut away for him already... 20hz, its making a comeback as a feeling!!!

[ecliptic]

You don't HAVE to eq. Be conscious of why you're doing it and what you're trying to sort out when you're doing it. Hear problem, fix problem. Scanning about without a defined objective is a dangerous game

Agreed! I only eq when I have to, not because somebody told me that its a good idea to

[andm]

I'm completely new to production, so I apologise in advance if I'm making no sense at all.

I understand that when different things share the same frequencies the sound gets muddy, however sometimes thats unavoidable, no? Even if I low-cut my kick and high-pass my snare, they would probably still share some of the same frequencies. Do I just have to make sure that they don't peak at the same frequencies and some it's okay if the less loud frequencies are shared?

[ecliptic]

I'm completely new to production, so I apologise in advance if I'm making no sense at all.

I understand that when different things share the same frequencies the sound gets muddy, however sometimes thats unavoidable, no? Even if I low-cut my kick and high-pass my snare, they would probably still share some of the same frequencies. Do I just have to make sure that they don't peak at the same frequencies and some it's okay if the less loud frequencies are shared?

Yeh, pretty much, but im sure somebody can give a better answer, i have only been producing for 3 years

[macc]

There's nothing wrong with things overlapping If you ask me, it's what makes a fat mix rather than a sterile one, carefully managed overlapping.

See, errr, pretty much all music ever made before the internet told you otherwise for reference

If things do, and it sounds alright - think, good bass player, well tunes drum kit - it sounds the nuts and you need touch nothing.

If they do and there is a problem or two then careful eq - think interlacing fingers - will fit them together.

If they overlap and it sounds shit, no amount of eq will help.


There's this thing on the net it seems about having to hack all your sounds to bits at all costs to make sure there isn't a fraction of a dB left at 199Hz in your snare or whatever . That snare will sound much shitter than one allowed to speak naturally. All processing has a cost (I seem to be saying that a lot these days).

[monotic]

Interesting thread.

I once tried making a tune without touching EQ to see how good I could get it to sound. It's an interesting exercise. And the results were much more 'produced' sounding than I expected.

[deadly_habit]

There's nothing wrong with things overlapping If you ask me, it's what makes a fat mix rather than a sterile one, carefully managed overlapping.

See, errr, pretty much all music ever made before the internet told you otherwise for reference

If things do, and it sounds alright - think, good bass player, well tunes drum kit - it sounds the nuts and you need touch nothing.

If they do and there is a problem or two then careful eq - think interlacing fingers - will fit them together.

If they overlap and it sounds shit, no amount of eq will help.


There's this thing on the net it seems about having to hack all your sounds to bits at all costs to make sure there isn't a fraction of a dB left at 199Hz in your snare or whatever . That snare will sound much shitter than one allowed to speak naturally. All processing has a cost (I seem to be saying that a lot these days).

yea but you make drumfunk
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