pro tool users, frequency response

would anyone like to share their knowledge of frequency response? what's the best way to make sure certain sounds in 'the mix' don't cancel eachother out?

check the phase

CHECK THE PHASE AND THEN COMPARE THE MIX BETWEEN STEREO AND MONO.
iF YOU CHANGE THE PHASE, YOU MIGHT HAVE NO PROBLEM IN STEREO AND IT WILL SOUND BETTER, BUT YOU WILL SEE THE CANCELLATION WHEN CHECKING THE MONO MIX.

sorry, what's phase.... a little lost

What does this have to do with Pro Tools?

It has to do with any recording on any system.

phase BASIC EXPLANATION.... picture two oscilating sine waves as an example. the oscilation goes up and down (semi circle up and semi circle down) If you record for example the same source using two microphones, placed at different distances, the up and down oscillations will be out of phase, arriving at the mic at two different times. If on one mic the oscillation is going up and with the other, the oscillation is going down because they are outof phase, the result will be flat cause the semi circle down will cancel the up semi circle. The result is cancellation. This is really a visual explanation though.

I think your question must have been more about eq if that was not the response you were looking for can you please rewrite the question so I can help you.

I think you might be talkin about eq and making sure you don't get a muddy mix. If so, think of your song as a building and each sound is a window, on a certain floor at a certain height etc.
You want each sound to sit in a place where it will not be masked by other sounds, so first position the sound. Your kick will be in the low frequencies and your bass too. If you boost the eq on 120hz for the kick and the bass you will get a muddy and distorted mix. Like with phase, if you boost two
frequencies (picture the oscillators) the (semi circles) will add up, giving you more amplitude (volume) to the oscilator. In fact it will double it.

So I use more the technique of subtractive eq... If you want the bass to be boosted at 300hz, take a little of that same frequency away from the kick so that they don't interfere and sound muddy . if you need more explanation, hit me with some questions

peace andy

good look....ok

could you break down what the 'khz', 'hz' and 'q' mean on the 4 band eq (pro tools)? and i notice that there are 4 parts or bands on the eq to the left, i think one is high end, one is mid and another is low end, so what's the other one? basically i'm just trying to understand the dynamics of the eq so i can really utilize it better.....

weezlemeez wrote:good look....ok

could you break down what the 'khz', 'hz' and 'q' mean on the 4 band eq (pro tools)? and i notice that there are 4 parts or bands on the eq to the left, i think one is high end, one is mid and another is low end, so what's the other one? basically i'm just trying to understand the dynamics of the eq so i can really utilize it better.....

What an eq essentially does is allow you to boost or cut certain frequencies
that you want. Frequency is measured in Hz. Low frequencies like bass being for example 20hz, which essentially means 20 oscilations per second. High notes go all the way up to 20khz which means 20000hz although our ear can only really hear between 20hz and 20000hz.
Hi frequencies will means more oscillations (20000 per second).

The reason that you have four faders is so that you can boost or cut the lows, the lower mids, the high mids and the high frequencies like cymbals etc. If you have a sound like a snare and want to make it more crisp. You can add some 500hz for example, and maybe cut some of the real low frequencies like 80 hz and below so it doesn't interfere with other sounds in the low end... these are just examples to illustrate... I hope it helps

q means the amount of frequencies from on each side of the centre frequency that you want to boost. If you have a high q, and you choose to boost 1000 hz, it will also boost from 980hz to 1020hz.... (think of a triangle) if you have a low q, you will boost from 800hz to 1200 so you will not boost a frequency that is so specific.

Listen to a sound and add the eq with a really high q. with a boost of 4 or 5 db. then move the frequency up and down (or across on PTools) and you will hear some nasty frequencies. then once you've found that frequency that sounds wrong, cut it to minus 3-5db and hear the difference.

hope this helps

Best regards

deaf mute

yeah yeah that helps--

so when u put the db(volume) up and it get's louder and more high pitch for example on the high fader and u didn't touch the khz, does that mean you just boosted the volume of the high freq but didn't change the freq?

and also could u recomend a certain amount of adjustment cuz i think sometimes i over do it. you know what i mean?

weezlemeez wrote:yeah yeah that helps--

so when u put the db(volume) up and it get's louder and more high pitch for example on the high fader and u didn't touch the khz, does that mean you just boosted the volume of the high freq but didn't change the freq?

and also could u recomend a certain amount of adjustment cuz i think sometimes i over do it. you know what i mean?

There is no magic formula but I suggest you sit down and test stuff.
JUST DON'T OVER EQ OR YOUR MIX WILL SOUND FLAT. AS I SAY, LOOK AT THE SPACES IN YOUR MIX... WITH PANING YOU CAN ALREADY FREE UP SOME SPACE, THEN WITH EQ YOU CAN ADD OR TAKE AWAY FREQUENCIES, AND WITH A BIT OF REVERB, YOU CAN GIVE DEPTH TO YOUR SOUND. JUST THINK THAT IF YOU BOOST TWICE THE SAME FREQUENCY YOU WILL GET DOUBLE AMLITUDE, WHICH THEN MEANS
DISTORTION AND MUDDINESS TO YOUR MIX....

Read what I said about the bass 300 hz. try it YOU Will see it works magic. if you boost the kick and the bass at 300hz it will sound muddy.
try the bass with a boost at around 300hz (play around to get the sound you like. if you don't like some of the click in the bass, take away slightly from the high mids like 2000hz. then take awy from the kick the frequency you have boosted on the bass and presto.

if you have any more questions, don't hesitate

how do a lot of producers/engineers get their kicks 2 sound so hard without sounding loud? that's the one ive been trying to master. you know, they sound really heavy and thumpy but they don't sound in your face. and if you know some tips about reverb i would like to ask you some things about that......

oh and thanks

weezlemeez wrote:how do a lot of producers/engineers get their kicks 2 sound so hard without sounding loud? that's the one ive been trying to master. you know, they sound really heavy and thumpy but they don't sound in your face. and if you know some tips about reverb i would like to ask you some things about that......

if you have a compressor, it usually has a side chain.. the side chain lets the signal pass trough it during the time the gate is open.... a lot of producers just patch a sub osciltator (40hz) and input it into the side chain... this means that when the kick sounds, the sub signal plays for the time the gate is open.... THe oscillator is a contstant signal... (I use the 40 hz test signal on my mixer).... you can only hear it though, when the kick is sounding....

Also a lot of it is donwn to compression.... if you compress your sound right
you can work wonders.....

andy

do you use protools 6.4?

weezlemeez wrote:good look....ok

could you break down what the 'khz', 'hz' and 'q' mean on the 4 band eq (pro tools)? and i notice that there are 4 parts or bands on the eq to the left, i think one is high end, one is mid and another is low end, so what's the other one? basically i'm just trying to understand the dynamics of the eq so i can really utilize it better.....

kHz= kilahertz, 10k=10000 hertz, 1k= 1000
q= bandwidth, the smaller the number, the wider freq. you are affecting