Frequency grouping?

[Tony Maserati]

Originally Posted by bassman

Hi Tony,

I read an interesting interview in Mix magazine where you mentioned your technique of splitting the signal of instruments/vocals and treating the seperate elements of the split signal with different EQ/compression.

Could you elaborate on this a little?

Many thanks



Are you talking about filtering the side-chain? Just clarifying.....

BTW, dig your multiple summing bus rig. Lotsa flavor!

-bassman

Dear BM
I do EQ the side chain if I happen to be using a sidechain. But as that article and certainly the video will suggest, I'm referring to actually 'separating' the signal into different tracks, then EQing them differently in the same way a crossover separates signal. Once thyre on sep tracks (and chosen freq splits) I eq and compress depending on what I need...

There was a Ricki Martin track I mixed a while back that had a bass I couldn't get to 'speak'. The prob was the bottom freqs were to floppy and uncontroled but the mids were fine. I split the signal in two. One track I filter to be all bottom, then gated it with the other track where I had filtered it to be all mid and top. Since none of that floppy stuff was in the second track the gate opened and closed nicely getting rid of the 'floppiness' from that low end

It also allowed me to compress the bottom to compliment the mids and hi's. The overal effect was a tight bass with plenty of bottm end!!

Don't try this without serious knowledge and repect given to PHASE!!!!!!!

I'm typing this on my phone (xuz my folks don't have internet). So I don't even know what I wrote.... Hope it makes sense!!!
T

[Jules]

Note: "Split the signal" means work with two separate, exact copies of it. Then processing them separately in different ways . (duplicate track in Pro Tools will give you a 2nd copy, or if you have a patch bay with 'parallels' or 'mults' you can get more copies there)

There were several posts following Tony's tip above asking if multi band compression (plug in or hardware) would do the same job. The answer is - No, it wont do the same job - that would only do a multi band compressor job. Yes multiband compressors can be very useful to tame difficult to work with sounds but the set up Tony is referring to is a far more advanced and custom designed technique that gives better control (like the ability to fade up one of the processed signals in a verse or down in choruses etc....) Its worth spending time experimenting with yourself - This is a good example of advanced mixing tricks that mixers develop..They very often work with duplicate tracks - process them very differently and the final sound is a blend of those separately processed tracks. A mixers 'skill shot'.

As Tony says phase is essential - so go study up on it (but not in this Q & A forum)

[Tony Maserati]

Originally Posted by Jules

Note: "Split the signal" means work with two separate, exact copies of it. Then processing them separately in different ways . (duplicate track in Pro Tools will give you a 2nd copy, or if you have a patch bay with 'parallels' or 'mults' you can get more copies there)

There were several posts following Tony's tip above asking if multi band compression (plug in or hardware) would do the same job. The answer is - No, it wont do the same job - that would only do a multi band compressor job. Yes multiband compressors can be very useful to tame difficult to work with sounds but the set up Tony is referring to is a far more advanced and custom designed technique that gives better control (like the ability to fade up one of the processed signals in a verse or down in choruses etc....) Its worth spending time experimenting with yourself - This is a good example of advanced mixing tricks that mixers develop..They very often work with duplicate tracks - process them very differently and the final sound is a blend of those separately processed tracks. A mixers 'skill shot'.

As Tony says phase is essential - so go study up on it (but not in this Q & A forum)

Hey Jules,
Thanks for that clarification. I reiterate, my techniques are specific to how I look at and creatively manage sound. Each engineer would best serve them self to come up with techniques that work for them. My technique was developed to satisfy the low-end requirements of the music I mix. If you're working on material who's parameters are different, create techniques that help you accomplish the goals set out by that genre.

t