EQ question

[reverieman]

I am done recording and have come to the mixing stage once again. I have a greater understanding of EQ theory than I had before, and I am getting a much better balanced mix overall... My one problem is clarity. See I cant figure out if it is the monitors or the room, but it sounds clear in the room, and muffled in a car, or home stereo. So I tried bringing in a refference CD, and then compared... I started to try to EQ the mix (while mastering) and comparing to a paz analyzer. I cant quite catch a good frequency for clarity/crispness without it sounding to harsh and thinning out the mix. Is there anyone who has a similar problem or solution? The mixes are not muddy. Am I aiming for my mixes to just sound clear and even, and gain the clarity and crispness at mastering, or is this something that I should be worried more about when I am mixing. Once again it sounds very good through the monitors, but so far away when it is in a car or on a home stereo. help!

[Kryst]

I'm not an expert, but I think you should finish mixing, THEN go about trying to master it. As I've been learning, I've been keeping EQ III on my guitar tracks (and other tracks) right in the mix, then when I come up to needing the Master Fader, I add another EQ III onto the inserts on that and tweak everything for a final time right there. Again since I'm not a pro, I'm not sure what others would say about this, but personally in my testings I've found it seems to liven up everything just a bit more! And of course, you then use compression and all those other plugins on the Master that you'd normally use... but since we're talking EQ's, I'll leave that for others to tell you.

As for the comparing to another CD, that's definitely a good idea. You know what else works, IMO? A few things, try listening through headphones. In the mixing process, I wouldn't worry if they're studio headphones or discman headphones, as long as you're used to how they sound with regular CDs. Once you feel you've mixed the crap out of something, mastered the hell out of it, then grab a CD-RW (RW, not a normal CD-R) and burn the song onto that (Not recommended for long-term audio care...). This way, without wasting a CD-R, you can take the CD-RW to your car, play the song and listen to it, do any comparisons there, then go back into the studio and tweak the song in different ways. And because you used a CD-RW, you can keep using the same disc over and over again to compare future mixes.

The reason not to use CD-RW for long term is because the files kind of fade off the disc, sometimes completely losing the song(s). But the song(s) should last long enough to compare (I'd say you'd have at LEAST a month of safety).

[JFreak]

it sounds clear in the room, and muffled in a car, or home stereo.

D/A conversion is the most likely reason if your mixes translate badly. You didn't say what converters you're using, but if it's anything less than what HD-interfaces have, it's not enough. If you're mixing through LE hardware, you will need a 3rd party converter. 002 converters running at 96k sound "decent", but that's the best LE hardware can do. You can get much better results with quality converter upgrade alone, and that goes with whatever monitors you have and however you have tuned your room. It's like "unveiling" your mix if you put in a pair of Apogee converters for example.

It's not how much you eq your material. It's how well you can trust your equipment. If your mixes sound good where you mix it, then your only problem is getting it sound as good elsewhere, so forget tweaking the eq if you're satisfied with what you hear from your monitors.

[reverieman]

Where exactly do the converters affect the mix?

[albee1952]

While I agree that converters will affect the final, I think you need to back up and consider some much more basic things before you worry about that. First, monitors. Crappy speakers make for crappy sound. While some engineers that are highly experienced, can "learn" crappy speakers and create a good mix anyway(damn those NS=10's), a lot of us need to have accurate speakers. Second, room treatment. A set of great speakers in a bad room will still sound inaccurate. In either case, inaccurate monitoring will result in mixes that do not transfer to other systems well. For instance, if your speakers are weak in the low end(or your room has low end troubles like 80% of home studios) you might be adding EQ trying to make the bass sound good. Now when you play that on another system that has good bass responce, your mix sounds bass-heavy. Maybe your tweeters are a little too hot so you EQ the top end to sound smoother. Now on another system, your mix sounds dull. Starting to see the pattern? I highly recommend that important mixes go for mastering by a pro(or at least by a fresh set of ears, listening to good monitors). Mastering is part art and part science and although I have done several projects(due to budgets) I still prefer to farm it out. I certainly applaud you trying as its the only way to learn. You made a good call by using the PAZ analyzer but you could also try importing a wave from a commercial CD and see what that analyzer looks like with a recording you like. Just don't expect awesome results until you have invested a ton of time. My 2 cents-great converters will put that last polish on a project that is near-perfect.

[JFreak]

Where exactly do the converters affect the mix?

Indirectly. You can't mix without monitoring what you do, and converters play very important part in the monitoring chain. So the converters affect to the decisions you make while mixing, and if another pair of converters makes the stuff sound different -- well, with that converters, you would probably made different choices.

Once you get good converters (assuming you already have good monitor speakers), your mixing decisions will make your mix translate better between different systems.

[JFreak]

a lot of us need to have accurate speakers.

Exactly. But let me tell you that accurate speakers do not make accurate monitoring, if the conversion is not accurate. You will need to get everything right before it is right. Weakest link, you know...

Second, room treatment. A set of great speakers in a bad room will still sound inaccurate. In either case, inaccurate monitoring will result in mixes that do not transfer to other systems well.

Again, well said. However, one cannot compensate crappy converters with a great room, but one can try to compensate crappy room with lower listening levels (when room sound does not play so important part). Converters are the first link in the monitoring chain and therefore play a very important part. Garbage in, garbage out. If latter link gets garbage, the only thing possible is to try to not introduce more garbage. But it will not take the garbage away.

(The same thing with recording chain: the earlier parts of the chain are always the more important ones. You cannot get a crappy song shine no matter how good-sounding mic you use. Or you cannot get a good bass sound if you're recording a crappy bassist. You get the idea.)

My 2 cents-great converters will put that last polish on a project that is near-perfect.

I'd say great converters will put a great start for the project. Polish and perfectness comes from the mixing decisions.

[mrufino1]

Better converters and better speakers may (and usually do) help, but more importantly (and cheaper), learn what you have. Listen to your mix and try to figure out where and how it sounds different. For instance, if you notice your mix is really distorted on tiny speakers and seems "stuffy" maybe you have too much low end. One trick to getting "more" low end is to cut low end and turn up volume. For instance, use a high pass filter at 30 hz or so to cut out rumble, then turn up the fader. Dave Pensado said in an interview regarding eq on bass- turn up the fader then get rid of what you don't want on there with eq rather than just turning up the bass knob, and it does make sense. Anyway, just listen to your mix and pay attention to the things you hear and you start to learn how to make things translate. As you get better and situation allows, get better tools, but remember, better tools only make things easier, you still can do the best with what you already have. Hope that helped.

[Sebastien Richard]

I have spent 5.000 on my mix environments in the past, demoed speakers I cant even pronounce, all kinds of crap. Although all of these people are right, my breakthrough, after falling short on several mixes, was to relax. Thats right, take a few days and relax in front of your speakers, don't mix anything and listen for as long as you can stand. As a freelance Engineer, I can count on nothing other than my reference CD's and I always spend at least an hour and a half just listening to a room on my first day. This is free and will most likely produce the best results for your growth and the quality of your mixes.
By the way, with PT LE you should stray away from putting things on your master buss.
-s

[Keniko]

If I may ad my two cents. Reading the previous posts I would say everything stated is correct. There are so many issues that effect the mixing pocess and a few were mentioned in these posts. You should learn to mix on the equipment you have. I have Alesis Monitor ones and yes I would love a new pair of monitors but I can create great mixes from them because I know what to listen for. What I would do is do a mix of your song and burn that mix and a professionally mixed song thats close to the instruments used in yours and compare the to. Are vocals clear,guitars blended, kick punchty...etc. Your best equipment is your ears. Again, better converters,monitors,etc will make a mix Definetly sound better but I think to you need to learn how to balance and blend everything with what you have. You'll sound that much better when better equipment is more relevent. Sorry, better equipment is always more relevent. I hope you get what I mean.