I am fairly new into recording. I understand many of the different concepts involved with regards to EQ, panning, compression and everything else. But I still need to take my mixes to the next level.
I had been working with a BOSS BR-64 for a year, and learned how to use it fairly efficiently. However, I just upgraded to a Yamaha AW16G recorder. It is much more advanced than what I'm used to.
I would love if someone could give me guidance as to when/how to implement EQ, compression and everything else effectively in my mixes.
Any help would be appreciated!
Cheers!
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It's all very relative to the song and the way they play it. Bu
It's all very relative to the song and the way they play it.
But as a general rule . . .
When mixing hard rock vocals, the more busy the instruments,
will often mean you need to compress the vocals more in order to
bring their over-all volume up to be heard over the guitars.
(generally speaking) If vocals start sounding squashed or
unnatural, then decrease the threshold.
Bass is one of those things you can compress the heck out of and
often get a smoother more consistent tone in rock songs.
I tend to go with at least 4 to 1 ratio and then set the threshold so
that I'm getting between 3 to 6 db of gain reduction.
I set the attack to between 10 to 20 milliseconds and the release
to 200ms or there abouts.
I find this gives a smoother bass sound.
If you're recording in a DAW my favorite compressor is Waves
Renaissance Compressor.
I dont compress kick drum unless he's hitting it REALLY soft and
then REALLY loud at various times.
Snare . . . you just have to mess with it . . . sometimes compress it,
sometimes not.
Fast attack, between 2 to 14ms and fast release . . .
between 20 to 50ms. Adjust the attack so that you're pleased with
the tone change that it gives you. Ratio probably 4 to 1 . . . and
threshold . . . just mess with it and trust your ears.
I tend to not compress rhythym guitars at all . . . but EQ . . .
as a rule, with a Hi Pass filter or graphic eq . . . dial out the low end
below 120hz . . . maybe 150hz . . . then blend the bass guitar in
and you'll find that the bass will fill in the low without creating mud.
if you want more bite on distorted guitars, add 1 to 5 db at 2500khz.
(2.5k)
Kick drum EQ . . . scoop out the mids around 250hz . . . usually alot
. . . you may have to completely dump this frequency or there abouts.
Add a little boost at 4k or 5k to give the kick that click sound which gives it attack.
Bass EQ . . . varies . . often dump around 300 to 250hz to remove
muddiness . . . boost around 90 to 120 hz to get it to sit nicely in
the mix without fighting with the kick drum. These two intruments
have to occupy their own frequency range without fighting each other.
Some very general suggestions to get you started . . . hope this
helps.
Thats alot of questions for 1 post. The best thing I can say is
Thats alot of questions for 1 post. The best thing I can say is to use the search function on this board. Many of the specifics (eg. what kind of eq for a snare drum...etc.) can be found and have already been discussed. If there is a specific problem that you can't find in old posts, definitely ask. That's probably not the answer you wanted, but its the best advice I can give given the question. Good luck.
Justin