Too much low mids..Room issue?

[jangoux]

Hello everyone,

For a lot of time, I've always felt the things I record on the place I work on lacked punch, thickness and at the same time, brightness. I always put the blame on myself, thinking it was some crap I did, like mic positioning...but on the last few recordings I noticed a trend: Everything has A LOT of stuff going on between 300hz and 800hz. For example, I compared some stuff I did to Melb_Shredder's Nickelback cover (on the rate my mix section) and to get similar results, I need to use a hi shelf boost (around +6 @ 4k) a wide scoop between 300 and 800 (it clears A LOT of cloudyness, on some sources I need a 10db scoop to make it sound 'right') and, often, a nice low end hi shelf boost.

So...the question is: do you always have problems on the low mids on ALL your sources and have to place some very big cuts to make your tracks sound right or the place I work on has a huge acoustic issue going on? Btw, this room is around 6m "almost square" (I know, problem starts there...), the ceiling is around 2.5m high, wooden floor, bla bla bla..

Ivan

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I have the same problem, mostly with my guitars. I am going to blame it on the room and the looseness of the low end on my BX8a's. With the guitars though, no amount of eq can fix it, so I equate it to being the room.

That's not the culprit of the cloudy low end. Its the bass. I can't get the bass to be present and natural without it having a stupid amount of low mids that add up with the guitars and wreck everything. Soon as the bass is muted the whole mix is perfect. Check the bass guitar and see if its not the offender. In my case its because I have a cheap bass that provides very shitty mid low-heavy DI's.

 

[53Crëw]

I'm in the same situation. I've been having to scoop out -8dB@330 Hz on guitar. I was debating whether it was the Recto cab's fault, or the small room.... If I boost 4kHz, things get too harsh and fatiguing, so I try to cut around 330 instead. I think I'll try a different location in the room, or a different room.

 

[Trevoire520]

I was considering posting a similar thread actually. Low mids seem to really fuck me up on my guitar tracks pretty regularly. 300-500hz is a bit of a problem are for me in particular. But cutting too much makes everything really thin. Think I need to build some bass traps for my room.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Can I just say.. low mids are a HO! to get right. Low end, yes, ridiculously hard, but that low mid punch you expect is very temperamental to say the least. It's all about Bass/ Guitar relationship, but that's also after the fact of having some decent guitar reamps/ tracks etc. From there once you have a decent relationship with the Bass/ Drums going, then I drop the guitars in.
I find yes, mostly there some low mid build up in my tones. I'm cutting a fair bit anywhere between 200-800, just depending on the amp/cab/ mic etc. I find I get a fair bit of 100-150hz build up, not too bad at 180-250, but 250-800 is just not fun. I think it's best to eq with the guitars in the mix. Start with your HP/LP then if there's any wide/ deep cuts in the core mids where it's too blankety I guess??

Then from there work on those low/ low mids. Remember to clear up your 80-200hz so that the guitars have body but aren't competing with the bass. Then from there you should have just your low mid build up. I always have a C6 running on guitars, ALWAYS!!!! It helps immensely to be honest, always fixes them up at least 70%. Not Sneap setting though, but they ARE fantastic to use.

I do some cuts while everything is in the mix until they guitars sound cleaner, but not THINNER so to speak. So that's all I have to say on the matter, I'm no great representative of guitar tones, but I think I'm starting to get the idea

 

[Trevoire520]

Bump. Would like to hear some more opinions on this. Particularly from the more pro guys who seem to get amazing tones with absolutely no eq.

 

[The StabbinCabin]

Bump

 

[Firaxis]

All I can add is that if you have a small room it's going to resonate at those frequencies we don't like! Pretty sure what the floor and wall materials will make a difference just like drum recording. I know having the amp pointing directly at a wall is going to create more shitty reflections too.

There is such a fine line between awesome, punchy fat mixes and shitty muddy mixes :|

 

[aramism]

i have the same issue and find myself cutting consistently in the 200-600 depending on the source. it's just an issue in smaller rooms. you can do as much acoustic treatment as you want with lows and mids there is just the physical restriction where it can never be ideal. acoustics will just help manage it. the best thing to do it just know your room and know how things react. referencing mixes also helps sometimes for tonal perspective.

 

[tempe]

I used to have a similar problem with guitar tracks I got from my studio, there was just a absolute crap load of 450Hz, sometimes requiring a 6dB cut. We recently moved studio and now the problem is gone as our tracking room is much larger. Don't you just love acoustics, you're close micing a guitar cabinet from usually less than 6 inches away and STILL you have room issues.

 

[crillemannen]

Well i always have to cut the lowmids and i have a great room. I think there is to much information going on there naturally in the cab. And as some people already has pointed out there is the relationship between bass guitar and guitar and it is difficult as hell to get right.

If you cut to much your mix will sound to thin and leaving to much lowmids you will cloud your entire mix haha. It is haaaard to get it right!!!

Some engineers seem to scoop the bass allot and just leave the low-highbass left, like Andy and Colin. Check out Studio fredmans production on Adept latest album. On that mix you can really hear the awesome lowmids (around 300hz) in the bass adding a tone of body to the mix.

Practice makes perfect im afraid.