what are you guys doing with 300hz to 800hz

[Jason Poulin]

Hey folks, I find I'm mostly cutting these frequencies on no-matter what I do.


Anybody find these are fundamentals for boosting in any instruments?


If so, tell me your approach to it...


Thanks!



J.

[brochington]

Man, I'm right with you here. And is sucks because there is a whole lot of important stuff there on well recorded tracks. There is a fine line between "muddy" and "full". Most of my cutting in this range is done on Electric guitar parts. It also seems to me that this range is a bit lacking on a lot of newer pop albums.

[mtstudios@charter]

I boost 700hz to 800hz on bass all the time. On rare occasions I have had to boost 400hz on guitars. I usually do a lot of cutting at 300hz to 380hz, 500hz. Toms get the 500-800hz cut.

Blue Thumb Productions-Audio Production Facilities

[fastlane]

me too, I find I'm always cutting 400 to 800hz on guitars. Just a little though. Sometime on vocals too but it completely depend on the vocalist.

If it sound honky, cut. If not leave it be. If the mix sounds honky, first stop guitars and a gentle cut on the drum mix buss

[Old Cane]

"what are you guys doing with 300hz to 800hz"


Nothing! It wasn't me, I swear. I wasn't even in town.

[Mats]

Originally Posted by Jason Poulin

Hey folks, I find I'm mostly cutting these frequencies on no-matter what I do.


Anybody find these are fundamentals for boosting in any instruments?


If so, tell me your approach to it...


Thanks!



J.

It also depends on what gear you´re on. I don´t cut much in general and when i do it´s often just the low-end. I personelly like a strong low-mid/mid in a mix.

[Cellotron]

If things are overly resonant in those frequency areas you can get a very boxy, cluttered, ill defined and honky sound. BUT if you overly cut in this area you can easily loose the body and nice thickness inherent in a lot of instruments, especially male vox and guitar. 800Hz is also an area where the bottom end of a snare's "whap" can be.

I often like to refer to this frequency area as "meat." Too much meat leads to sonic "indigestion", not enough and things can sound thin and lack impact

One warning: if there is one frequency area that you always feel compelled to cut I'd check out what is going on with your rooms and monitors to make sure it is not hyped in this area.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[TheRealRoach]

Originally Posted by Old Cane

"what are you guys doing with 300hz to 800hz"


Nothing! It wasn't me, I swear. I wasn't even in town.

[structuredloud]

300-800hz is a very important octave (+1/2) in the musical register (it's most of the range of the high e string on a guitar). It also happens to be a region that ends up with a lot of "mud" when you mic vocalists and acoustic instruments very closely. Especially with mics on cardioid.

[Gravity8058]

Originally Posted by Jason Poulin

what are you guys doing with 300hz to 800hzH

J.

Hmm, not sure, I'll have to look at my Automixer Plugin to see what it's doing.
I usually set it to the "Static Pancake" setting which works well with my Virtual Rock Band software.

[Gravity8058]

Originally Posted by Old Cane

"what are you guys doing with 300hz to 800hz"


Nothing! It wasn't me, I swear. I wasn't even in town.

Darn, that's better

[C_F_H_13]

cutting mostly.

Heavy guitars always get a cut around 280-350, bass always gets a cut in the 400 range (after boosting around 200), and snares I usually cut about 500 a little too....

I agree that it's a tough area to work with...cause it's where alot of the power is.

[Jason Poulin]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

If things are overly resonant in those frequency areas you can get a very boxy, cluttered, ill defined and honky sound. BUT if you overly cut in this area you can easily loose the body and nice thickness inherent in a lot of instruments, especially male vox and guitar. 800Hz is also an area where the bottom end of a snare's "whap" can be.

I often like to refer to this frequency area as "meat." Too much meat leads to sonic "indigestion", not enough and things can sound thin and lack impact

One warning: if there is one frequency area that you always feel compelled to cut I'd check out what is going on with your rooms and monitors to make sure it is not hyped in this area.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Thanks for the reply guys!

One this, my room is top knotch treated... there's nothing offensive about it.

I will boost a lot around this area such as 200-250hz ie: snare meat and bass guitar top of resonnance.

But I just never find a use for anything within 300hz to about 800hz... sometimes There will be something I need from it but in mostly Rock/Heavy productions I work on, I like to cut them.

Yes Bass, snare can live here... ummm vocals sometimes in my experience... anything else, mostly gets the boot.






thanks again



J.

[Audio Hombre]

i remember reading an interview with some engineer years ago talking about recording with Frank Zappa and FZ sitting in his big comfy chair would say "more 300hz on that guitar!"

[picksail]

Jason,

I tend to cut those frequencies on guitars, bass and kick.

It seems I reserve it for the snare. Go figure.

Originally Posted by Jason Poulin

What are u guys doing with 300hz to 800hz, tell me your approach to it...J.

I'm figuring dinner and a movie and maybe I'll get lucky.

[Rick Sutton]

sometimes I'll add a little 300-400 to put some body on female vocals and once in a while to add weight to acoustic guitar.

[yeloocproducer]

If you're QOTSA you're boosting/ leaving these guys alone on guitars. Esp. 500-700. That's their signature (at least on all the previous albums).

Somebody said 800 is the bottom of the whap on the snare.... usually I'm looking for 200 ish on that. Maybe that's considered the "thud". In hip hop it's also sort of an interesting freq. range (800ish) to push or pull on the kick. You can cover some more real estate there by boosting, albeit a bit unnatural sounding. Sometimes that works. Vocals maybe a pull there, maybe not. Usually pulling some room resonance in vocals between 150-400. Some bass guitar usually lives around 700-800 for note definition as someone mentioned. Fender rhodes is nice between 300-700. Really depends on the arrangement and style of music.

It's "modern" and very popular to cut mids, but that whole register is super important to a "full" sounding mix to me and one of the toughest to get right IMO. If you have a wide, uncluttered but full stereo image in this register, you're mix is going to sound BIG. I like mids.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Rick Sutton

sometimes I'll add a little 300-400 to put some body on female vocals

Same. Out of the last 3 F vocalist's I've recorded, I recall adding a bit of 300 in there

[Jason Poulin]

all good stuff folks!

[Killahurts]

I'm cutting there too. Especially 300 - 500.

But I'm saving it for mixing, because it's a balance thing.

IME, when you put a lot of instruments together (almost any kind of instruments), there's a build up in that range. And somebody already mentioned close-micing/proximity effect.

Normally I don't do automation of EQ's, but lately I been thinking about trying it out, to see what it can do for me arrangement-wise.

[Realtugs]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

One warning: if there is one frequency area that you always feel compelled to cut I'd check out what is going on with your rooms and monitors to make sure it is not hyped in this area.

Top tip.

Not saying in Jason's case...just in general. It can be a very good indication something's not right with your setup.

[NOCCA]

What am I doing?

Nothing/Cutting/Boosting

Depends on what the track needs.

[Jason Poulin]

Originally Posted by NOCCA

What am I doing?

Nothing/Cutting/Boosting

Depends on what the track needs.

[slaves666]

I cut a lot out of there......500 kinda sucks......you need something in there to make things sound full, bottom of toms seem nice there.

[NOCCA]

Originally Posted by Jason Poulin

Oh specifics?

Well one particular vocalist with one particular mic needed a boost around 300hz for some body.

Another vocalist with a different mic needed some boost around 700hz for some bite.

The first vocalist with that same mic needed no eq on a different track.

One kick drum that I recorded with one mic needed a cut around 500hz.

Another kick that I recorded with a different mic needed a cut around 400hz.

One snare that I recorded needed a cut around 600hz to get rid of a ring.

Another snare needed a boost around 700hz to emphasize a ring. (both snares with 57s)

One guitar cab that I recorded one mic wanted some 500hz. (why I duno just sounded good).

Another guitar cab that I recorded with a different mic didn't want eq. (he told me so)

Yet another guitar cab with yet another mic needed a cut at 300hz to eliminate some mud.

One bass that I recorded into a certain DI needed a boost at 700hz for edginess.

Another bass that I recorded with the same DI needed a cut at 500hz for roundness.

Another bass that I recorded with a different DI just needed some compression to make it happy.

Sometimes my overheads need cuts at 500hz or sometimes none at all.


What I'm saying is that there is no "standard". If it sounds right, it is right.

[planet red]

I find with good sounding tracks I hate cutting in that area. If the mix sounds congested I start turning stuff down and adding a little top end to make it cut back thru and maybe a little bottom if the top end makes it sound thin.

I always loose too much power when I cut mids. I feel like the mix doesnt sound as solid and together and makes the instruments sound unnatural.

Controlling the top and bottom and using the fader can get me that modern scooped sound without loosing all the size and power in the mids.

[indie]

700hz is my "go to" boost frequency for Triangle solos.

[Jason Poulin]

Originally Posted by NOCCA

Oh specifics?

Well one particular vocalist with one particular mic needed a boost around 300hz for some body.

Another vocalist with a different mic needed some boost around 700hz for some bite.

The first vocalist with that same mic needed no eq on a different track.

One kick drum that I recorded with one mic needed a cut around 500hz.

Another kick that I recorded with a different mic needed a cut around 400hz.

One snare that I recorded needed a cut around 600hz to get rid of a ring.

Another snare needed a boost around 700hz to emphasize a ring. (both snares with 57s)

One guitar cab that I recorded one mic wanted some 500hz. (why I duno just sounded good).

Another guitar cab that I recorded with a different mic didn't want eq. (he told me so)

Yet another guitar cab with yet another mic needed a cut at 300hz to eliminate some mud.

One bass that I recorded into a certain DI needed a boost at 700hz for edginess.

Another bass that I recorded with the same DI needed a cut at 500hz for roundness.

Another bass that I recorded with a different DI just needed some compression to make it happy.

Sometimes my overheads need cuts at 500hz or sometimes none at all.


What I'm saying is that there is no "standard". If it sounds right, it is right.

that's better haha



II agree with what you're saying... I need to listen more of what I can make with the track rather than quickly just cutting and moving on to the rest.



Btw, I've been using the Mackie 824's which I didn't really like and last week we upgraded to the Focal Twins6 BE with the Focal Sub6BE... I think this may help alot! I hear way more.


J.

[bgrotto]

With guitars, I like to start by cutting around 1.5 k. If that doesn't sound awesome, I actually BOOST 700 Hz.

I also find myself boosting 500-800 on snares, and often cutting around 315.

Bass often gets an 800 boost, particularly if the guitars didn't. But sometimes I boost around 1 or 2 k instead.

Kicks get BIG cuts in the mids, almost always. Unless it's jazz stuff, then I like to boost 600-800.

Vox get cut arond 300 and/or 600 pretty regularly.

Toms get cut all over the place.

I dunno. I guess the point is, the better I get with dealing with the 300-800 Hz stuff, the better my mixes get.

There's a lotta detail in that area, and just defaulting to cuts there can make your mixes sound bland.