[ddots-l] Re: 2 questions

  • From: "Mike Christer" <m-christer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:53:31 -0000

At the end of the day, it's a case of experimentation/experience...
I had a tutor at college, who'd simply say, boost 125 Hz at such a point, 
ant take down such and such at 400Hz, and he'd be bang on the money, every 
last time...

If you know a particular instrument/sound has a nasty edge to it, you've got 
to try and isolate that frequency, by cutting and boosting different 
frequencies at certain points, until you isolate the offending article.
When you reckon you're in the "ball park" for that awkward tone, you can 
focus in on it using the 'Q' ctrl!

Peeps often get confused with the 'Q' ctrl, not really understanding exactly 
what it can actually do/assist you with.
If you think of some kind of umbrella, when you increase or widen, the Q, 
you are focusing in on a particular frequency, and a certain amount of it's 
neighbouring frequencies.
so, by virtue of that, when you widen the Q even more, you begin to include 
more of the frequencies around the one you wish to focus on in the first 
place.
Therefore, when you tighten up the Q, you can very often focus in on the 
exact frequency you wish to get rid of  , then simply cut it's level!
Before I lost my sight, I used to do it with a hardware mixer, and it was a 
lot easier and quicker, than with a software app, a hardware graphic E Q 
would be better still!

You've got to find out about which specific instruments/sounds occupy which 
frequency bands, and then the process of isolating a nasty tone, on a snare 
drum, for instance, will be a lot less of a labour of love, and actually 
become an exciting part of the creative process!
Also, you'll begin to learn how to make certain sounds, either  cut thru or 
sit back in the mix, etc.

I'm sure there are a lot more peeps on the list, who know a lot more than I 
do, but to the best of my knowledge, I'm talking sense!


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: neville
  To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 10:11 PM
  Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 2 questions


  I hav used the bans in the inspector, what I'm talking about is how do you 
determine which frequencies your looking for?
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Omar Binno
    To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 1:38 PM
    Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 2 questions


    In the inspector pane, you scroll up and down through the bands. There, 
you'll see things like "band freq = 240hz" and "q = 0.6."

    Omar Binno
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: neville
      To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
      Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 12:51 PM
      Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 2 questions


      How do you find those frequencies? I have messed around with the 4 
bans in the inspector, but I haven't had any luck with finding frequencies. 
I have managed to fit the bass or kick in the mix quite nicely, but I find 
that I loos some of the punch.
        ----- Original Message ----- 
        From: Stacy Bleeks
        To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:36 PM
        Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 2 questions


        Hi Nevil.

        What i do to maintain the punchiness of a kick drum or guitar or 
whatever the sound might be, is to ue integrity of the original sound 
though.
        What do I know about integrity though? (smile)
        se compression.  i have fine tuned the compression settings for 
things like vocals, kick drum, snares etc. and the right ratio of gating 
will have these sounds fit nicely in the mix without having them sound to 
squished or distorted.  The right compression will make a kick drum sound 
warmer or fluffier if you like.  Too much though and it sounds like caca.

        i remember an interview with Butch Vig (Nirvanna and Garbage 
producer).  he talked about using compression on the entire mix.  He said 
something about this technique makes his stuff sound better for peeps 
listening to his stuff with a boom box.  I think he was half joking but it 
still makes sense at the same time.

        As for the noisiness.  I guess you could E Q some of it out if you 
zoned in on the right frequencies.  or, you could use something like 
GoldWave which has some noise reduction effects that I have used with some 
success in the past.  Too much noise reduction could compromise th
          ----- Original Message ----- 
          From: neville
          To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
          Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:05 PM
          Subject: [ddots-l] 2 questions


          I have 2 questions for all you experts.
          1 How do you find unwanted frequencies and remove them? How do you 
get the most out of a kick drum or a bass guitar if it's too boomy sounding? 
I wouldn't want to remove all the low frequencies, because then it would 
sound flat, but at the same time I wouldn't want to overpower the mix.

          2 How would I remove hiss from a loop that I downloaded? I would 
like to get the most out of these loops, but some of them are messy 
sounding.



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