Spectrum Analyzers

[Masticore]

Hey all. After reading another post I want to ask about spectrum analyzers. Im pretty sure Im not the only one missing out on this tool. Want to know the basics on one.

1. What to be looking for.
2. What the colors and the position of those colors mean.
3. What to do with that information once it is derived.

Also, do I throw it on individual tracks? Buses? Or just on the master? Thanks!

 

[Fox Mulder]

1. Mold your sound and just evaluate using an analyzer. Look for clashing frequencies - clashes in the lows and lower-mids are the major culprits and they eat up lots and lots of headroom, makes your mix loose clarity. Make sure you have them well separated. Higher-mids and highs can be masked and/or compensated. Don't pay much attention there (highs/higher-mids). Just use your ears, but do look for spikes that seem awkward, especially for saturated stuff like heavily distorted 'rhythm' guitars. When it comes to other stuff like piano and maybe a plucked acoustic guitar or even distorted solos, spikes are natural. The spikes are probably the notes themselves. Download this: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2uaosb

2. What particular analyzer are you referring to?

3. Again, download this: http://www.sendspace.com/file/2uaosb

4. Use it on everything but judge from your ears.

 

[Masticore]

Thanks for the info and the cool guide for bass and kicks! That definately helped me, Im using qspectrum and the standard one that comes in reaper.
Will start doing some comparisons and what not to get familiar with the vst.