Increase or Decrease "Harmonically Active" Frequencies

[outbreak525]

Been working hard on my EQ technique lately.
I've noticed each instrument I record (and it's different for everything) has it's own unique "harmonically active" frequency range.
What I mean by harmonically active is when you increase that specific frequency it gets insanely loud and almost blankets the sound in harmonic "noise" ...
I always thought this noise was a bad thing and something you always want to REDUCE in the EQ to get it to sound clearer.
What I've been noticing on professional CDs is that the mix engineer a lot of the time keeps that harmonic overtone-y sound in there quite loudly and it gives each instrument its' character. Basically it sounds like the notes are piercing through your skull.

What's everyone's technique surrounding these overreactive frequencies? Are they good or bad?

 

[deffpony]

This is a great question man. I too would like to hear peoples take on this.

 

[Kohugaly]

Also would like to hear/read opinions (and by that I mean Experience) of better engineers. Anyone Out There? Allmighty gods of mixing please respond!

 

[kool98769]

IMO, it depends on which part of the sound of each instrument you want to be the most present. There's no for sure answer. If you boosted one certain harmonic in every instrument, your mix probably wouldn't sound very clear, and would sound weird. That's just me speculating though.

 

[Manicompression]

I am no mixing god but i have logged some hard hours.
I can say with certainty you dont want to get rid of or attenuate these harmonically rich areas as an absolute rule UNLESS you are getting out of control peaks and spikes. Those will eat your headroom and cause you headaches. Its as easy as loading up a spectrum analyzer and watching out for those peaks.
Now you might choose to leave these harmonically rich areas untouched if they are not problematic. If they are peaking with palm mutes or whatever (this is not guitar specific) just throw a c4 / multiband variant on them or you can "poke holes" in them, I find both have a sonic signature.
My personal experience is that i prefer to leave as much intact as possible and attenuate with something that can do very small, very low q cuts (i like the stock reaper eq which you can download and use in any host). When I began spending hours on this forum reading through the old posts i figured if the c4 method was good enough for Andy it was def good enough for me, as his work is stellar and speaks for itself. But then i was checking out some of Splatt / March Hares mixes and he stated that he preferred just eq-ing this kind of stuff out. I gave it a shot and have to say its a bit more work but more natural sounding to my ears. Analyze, boost a q and sweep and then pull it out is the name of the game.

 

[Kohugaly]

Yep... sometimes I do it similarly, but I use Very-narrow-band compressor.... something like IQ4gui or I also saw people using waves C1sc ... It dips it out only when it's a problem and leave it there when it's OK. I'm just o beginner and I lack experience, so I didn't perfected my techniques.

 

[outbreak525]

So you're saying that these frequencies are very important in maintaining the instrument's character, and the only time I really want to reduce them is to get rid of EQ spikes that will clog my headroom?

 

[ForceTheTriggerSucks]

Yeah I usually sweep a tight peak through my eq to find these active areas and just start dicking around with it. I used to think it was a good idea to reduce these things because it seems logical that an area like that would be detrimental to the overall character of your instrument but rather it seems a lot of times, that area GIVES your instrument it's unique character. I don't have a rule of thumb for it though. Sometimes I end up pulling these areas down and sometimes I do the exact opposite. Whatever sounds good ya know?

 

[outbreak525]

Yeah I hear that. This was a huge discovery for me as I am still continuing to learn and understand the depths of the frequency spectrum.

 

[Manicompression]

So you're saying that these frequencies are very important in maintaining the instrument's character, and the only time I really want to reduce them is to get rid of EQ spikes that will clog my headroom?

Its not a rule, im saying the only time that i definitely remove frequency content is if it spikes or becomes meddlesome. Otherwise you may choose to leave it or subtract it or boost it or whatever as your taste dictates. Most of the time I personally will leave this kind of stuff at first and then see where my other instruments have meaningful content and then ill remove just a little bit of those areas, to avoid having to boost other instruments that may be getting masked. This is as the mix progresses though.

 

[greyskull]

It depends on where the instrument is supposed to live.

When cutting; you're generally either surgically removing (narrow q) something un pleasant, like ring on the snare for example, or 2.3 k on Dirty guitars; OR you're carving space out for other instruments who's body should live in the space you've made.

Each instrument has a space in the frequency spectrum, and you have to find where it should live.

 

[NSGUITAR]

Yeah man. Don't cut out certain things just because you're told so.. Sculpt the instrument to make it sound like the actual instrument you've recorded (So get rid of peculiar overtones you KNOW don't belong) and use your ears to make it sound just like what you're hearing in the room. Then add your compression and trans designers and whatever else you think it needs to give it a little character.

 

[outbreak525]

That's a bit of what confuses me.
When I record an instrument I am recording it exactly the way the instrument itself sounds.
Cutting frequencies typical gets rid of some type of character of the instrument no matter where it is cut.
So with that logic it's like why would I ever want to cut frequencies?
I understand everything needs it's own dominant place in the EQ spectrum,
the hard part is picking what goes where.

 

[Uros]

When you are recording an instrument, you don't record it with other instruments premixed (well, not typically), so that's why it needs cutting/boosting in the mix, because you don't hear the context while recording (ok, experienced engineers will use their experience, so that's why well recorded tracks usually require very little eq treating after they are recorded).

Every instrument has its freq range where it is most prominent/where its character lays. So, for ex. if you cut 60 hz and down from guitars, you will hardly ruin the guitars (although there are no strict rules), and will hardly 'get rid of some type of character' (you will only hear the difference when A/B-ing, but all other people will not).
Your last sentence is exactly the very definition of mixing, that's why it's called art

But, this should help, it's really well laid out
http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

 

[outbreak525]

Hahah and I love it. Thanks for the link man.

 

[Kohugaly]

yes.... uros is right.... sometimes lack of fundamental frequency is inaudible and some instruments like guitars and usually also vocals will not suffer if they are filltered out (except for bass instruments and some percussive,...). actually it's a good way to make some space because fundamental is usually also the loudest frequency. The character of most sounds lies in first 10-30 harmonics which are most prominent.

 

[kool98769]

yes.... uros is right.... sometimes lack of fundamental frequency is inaudible and some instruments like guitars and usually also vocals will not suffer if they are filltered out (except for bass instruments and some percussive,...). actually it's a good way to make some space because fundamental is usually also the loudest frequency. The character of most sounds lies in first 10-30 harmonics which are most prominent.

I think vocals is a good example of that. I usually end up cutting the shit out of the fundamental, because it's all the the harmonics that add the nice detail to the sound, ya know?

 

[outbreak525]

What do you mean by fundamental?

 

[kool98769]

What do you mean by fundamental?

harmonics are....well, harmonics of the fundamental frequency.
http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
Like, middle C on there is whatever.
and the harmonics of that are harmonics of the fundamental (middle C) ya know?

 

[Firaxis]

The human ear often uses the harmonics of a note to determine the fundamental even if it's not there! Getting rid of fundamentals is the easiest way to create space but it can make things thin quickly.