Questions about the PAZ analyzer

[nwright]

So, I don't know a whole lot about this, but I used it last night. Seems pretty intuitive, but it leads me to more questions...Sorry to be such a newb.

Anyway, after looking at the mix as a whole, 90-125 Hz seems to be the dominant frequency range, and easily the reason my mixes can get muddy...Mind you this is WITHOUT the bass guitar being tracked and no vocals, either. Just guitars and drums. Anyway, I'm already running C4 on the guitars for low mids. I know everything is personal taste, but I'm liking running the C4 on the whole mix as well on the 90-120 Hz range. Is this a stupid or ill conceived way to do things? I'm sure I could control some of it by activating another band on the C4 plug in on the guitars, maybe I should do that and leave the drums alone, or should I use it on the drums as well?

And, then when I finally do get the bass tracks done this weekend, will the 90-120 Hz compression be a bad thing with the bass tracks as well?

I know, I know, it's all personal preference and up to taste, but when listening to well produced albums by Andy, Colin Richardson and Zeuss (my current stateside producer of choice), this crowding and muddying up of the lows/low mids isn't there, but the sonic wallop is. I'm just too much of a newb to figure out how to combat it without losing the punch and thickness of that low end.

Sorry for the long post. It seems the more I learn, the more I buy plugins, but yet I still don't have a grasp on them. For me, there is still DEFINITELY a place for real producers! But, I'd like to learn some good practices and techniques.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

If you're really a newbie, stay away from multi-band compression on the master bus... my 2 cents...

 

[nwright]

Haha, funny you should write that. I'm learning this the hard way. I've tried all kinds of multi band compression and I'm not happy with any of it!

I'm totally at a loss on how to get rid of the "mud" but still leave the thickness and I know those low mids are what's causing it. When I listen to professionally done stuff, and most of the stuff on here, I don't hear that "crowding" of frequencies, but yet the sonic thump is still there.

 

[egan.]

This goes to Brett's point, but trying to eliminate mud w/ a multiband is a losing battle. You need figure out what is causing the mud and work on that w/ eq first....or go back to tracking. Try high passing individual tracks etc.

 

[006]

egan is right. The C4, or any multiband compressor, is really for fine-tuning when placed on the master bus. You can't just throw a bunch of tracks on a project, not deal with them seperately, and then just expect one magical all-in-one plug-in to come along and fix it all. I mean, with multiband compression being used that way, you can get the mud out of the drums...but then it's still there/worse on the guitars or bass...or vice versa, or any variable you can think of. You have to deal with mud at it's source, individually. Using a multiband compressor on anything seperately is really just to "put the icing on the cake", so to speak. Like Andy's C4 settings for guitar. I'm sure the guitars sound badass already, but that little extra control with the C4 and the guitar's low mids just tops it off, yanno?

~006

 

[nwright]

I see what you mean. I have dealt with the individual tracks as best I know how, but I still can't get it to where I want. I know I have the tools, just not the knowledge. Although I think I've come a long way since I've posted this. I've logged quite a few hours messing with it, and I'm getting closer. Sorry to post things like this, I'm obviously looking for an easy way out, lol. Hopefully in time I'll have some nice mixes...This is my first attempt at a "real" recording, so to speak, so I'm learning as I'm going.