Picking out offending frequencies.....

[bryan_kilco]

This seems to constantly be an issue with me. I'll sweep my EQ to find the bad frequencies in, for example, a guitar track.....But it almost seems that EVERY frequency is bad/offending when boosted +12dB. Some obviously poke out a bit more than others, so I guess this is what I should be after? It just seems, to my ears, that the entire sweep I do sounds bad and it makes me .

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

I understand what you mean.. it's tough to explain as well.. and to learn..
If you play the recorded guitartrack in it's context.. and you feel something sounds bad.. then sweep until bad, gets worse.. then you know that you can cut there..
But this is mostly for surgery.. but that's what you're after, I'm guessing..

 

[Skinny Viking]

if it helps, usually anything I'm looking for over 1000 I do with the track soloed out ... anything below that I do with the mix playing to give it context. This is only for cutting though

 

[Fandus]

i was about to ask something to do with this too....

i often find by the time i've cut out all the offending frequencies, the guitars are left sounding somewhat phasey. anyone ever experience that? what am i doing wrong?

 

[Trevoire520]

Don't start sweeping until you know what you're looking for.
Listen to your guitars in the mix and when you hear a frequency that's annoying you solo your guitars and sweep your eq until you find it. Then bring the gain back to 0 and switch off solo so you can make the cut in the context of the mix.
Making frequency cuts in solo can cause you to drastically cut a frequency when you might only need to pull it down 2-3db to make it disappear in the mix.

 

[Trevoire520]

i was about to ask something to do with this too....

i often find by the time i've cut out all the offending frequencies, the guitars are left sounding somewhat phasey. anyone ever experience that? what am i doing wrong?

This is probably down to over-eq'ing (too many bands and too much cutting) caused by eq'ing the guitars in solo. Try and use as little eq as possible.

 

[amarshism]

ill often hear a freq that bothers me, often i know the area it is in so will go in with a broad boost to bring it out, then boost more whilst sharpening the q to really find where that whistle or scratchiness is coming from and then duck it

 

[schust]

This is probably down to over-eq'ing (too many bands and too much cutting) caused by eq'ing the guitars in solo. Try and use as little eq as possible.

this constantly plagues me. it's really important to listen to the guitar (and bass for that matter) in the context of the song before doing too much cutting/boosting. i find a lot of times i start focusing on the 2k-~4k fizz crap and over-cut to the point where the guitar sounds muted and dull. what sounds good solo'd doesn't always sound good in the mix.

 

[AEL89]

I think this is a bad way of equalising. There's some good advice here already for how to approach cutting offending frequencies

 

[schust]

I think this is a bad way of equalising. There's some good advice here already for how to approach cutting offending frequencies

you think "what" is a bad way of equalizing?

 

[Nimvi]

For the reasons you mentioned I prefer to sweep with a surgical cut instead of a boost.
For bothersome high frequencies, I stop the track for a couple of seconds, to reset my ears a bit, and when I start it, I usually notice the offending frequency right away, because it really bothers me. I then drag a semi-tight notchfilter over the area where I think the frequency is, and when I hit it, it gives me an instant soothing feeling, as if I just pulled a needle out of my skin. After that I try if I can make the surgical cut a bit tighter, so I can single out the offending frequency a bit more, without losing the good stuff. Sometimes a simple bell-cut works better than a full notch too.

For low/mid frequencies Im usually a bit less drastic. What really helps me here is to imagine the mix in front of me like a painting between my speakers. I try to see where every part of the mix resides on that painting and how big it is. If I have trouble "seeing" a part of the mix, I try to figure out why that is. Usually I notice at this point that a part of another instrument is overlapping it too much. I then use a not-too-wide cut on that overlapping instrument in the area where i think it's poking over the masked instrument too much, and drag it around until the other instrument becomes clearly visible on my "painting". After that, I adjust the Q and amount of the cut until both instruments are like I want them to be. It's sometimes an almost visual process to me this way. I realise it sounds a bit weird, but try it. It might help you

Frequency training really helps for all of this by the way. For example, EarPlugins Tune is a nice and free plugin that can help you become much better at recognising frequency spikes and holes.