Topic: To Equalize or Not

[thirdeye99]

I have one general issue/question, and one more specific one:
Post-editing my recordings is frustrating the hell out of me.
Overall I'm very satisfied with my 4061 mics and R-09 recorder. The recordings are all clear and detailed and there is nothing major wrong with them, but they have been coming out somewhat flat and mid-range dominant. Just a little bit of EQ when playing them back in Foobar and Winamp makes them sound significantly better & damn good. So, I have spent hours EQing them Adobe Audition 1.5 or Wavelab trying to replicate that 'sweet spot sound,' to a point where they sound good on my headphones and Bose desktop speakers. Burn it to disc, and stick in a different playback system (car, etc.) and it sounds nothing like it should - too much bass and/or high end, etc.

So I'm slowly coming to the disheartening conclusion that without a high end playback or studio monitoring system to EQ with, attempts at EQing are worthless because playback systems differ so dramatically. So what sounds good with one set of speakers or headphones, will sound too bassy or trebly in another. I plan on trading and torrenting most all of my recordings, so the last thing I want to do is ruin an otherwise decent recording for someone else with EQ.
But there must be a way to subtely EQ to make a recording sound better universally. I just know that a little bit of EQ can really make the recordings significatly better.
I record mostly rock and fusion shows, and they all seem to need some high end increase, a bit of mid decrease, and sometimes small low end boost.

So, question 1 (general): what are others' thoughts about EQing recordings where there is nothing major wrong? Do you simply leave it to the listener to EQ based on his/her specific preferences and playback system? Or do you try to do something before distributing to try to give it more of a dynamic sound? 

Question 2: several of my recordings have the kick drum too prominent/punchy in the sound. What are your thoughts on taming/softening its impact in the sound?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

Ryan A   

[guysonic]

I have one general issue/question, and one more specific one:
Post-editing my recordings is frustrating the hell out of me.
Overall I'm very satisfied with my 4061 mics and R-09 recorder. The recordings are all clear and detailed and there is nothing major wrong with them, but they have been coming out somewhat flat and mid-range dominant. Just a little bit of EQ when playing them back in Foobar and Winamp makes them sound significantly better & damn good. So, I have spent hours EQing them Adobe Audition 1.5 or Wavelab trying to replicate that 'sweet spot sound,' to a point where they sound good on my headphones and Bose desktop speakers. Burn it to disc, and stick in a different playback system (car, etc.) and it sounds nothing like it should - too much bass and/or high end, etc.

So I'm slowly coming to the disheartening conclusion that without a high end playback or studio monitoring system to EQ with, attempts at EQing are worthless because playback systems differ so dramatically. So what sounds good with one set of speakers or headphones, will sound too bassy or trebly in another. I plan on trading and torrenting most all of my recordings, so the last thing I want to do is ruin an otherwise decent recording for someone else with EQ.
But there must be a way to subtely EQ to make a recording sound better universally. I just know that a little bit of EQ can really make the recordings significatly better.
I record mostly rock and fusion shows, and they all seem to need some high end increase, a bit of mid decrease, and sometimes small low end boost.

So, question 1 (general): what are others' thoughts about EQing recordings where there is nothing major wrong? Do you simply leave it to the listener to EQ based on his/her specific preferences and playback system? Or do you try to do something before distributing to try to give it more of a dynamic sound? 

Question 2: several of my recordings have the kick drum too prominent/punchy in the sound. What are your thoughts on taming/softening its impact in the sound?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

Ryan A   

Those who work professional recording engineer jobs may mix and equalize with excellent playback equipment, but also have to put the recording through 'consumer' grade systems to test the result. 

Suggest investing in a set of Sony MDR-SA3000 phones with very flat wideband response that replicates the best studio monitors, try different equalizations as before for best results with the phones, then try on different playback systems.  I suspect your equalizations will be much closer to working with this formula.

[Jhurlbs81]

Here are my two cents:
If there is nothing major that is wrong I would leave it be.  Your definiton of what sounds good my differ from my tastes.  Now if the recording is unuseable, say the bass was really thick, a high-pass filter of some kind may be the only way.  So it is up to you, a standard rule-of-thumb is if you EQ, make a note of what you did in the text file. 

Jesse

[Bart.VL71]

I record mostly rock and fusion shows, and they all seem to need some high end increase, a bit of mid decrease, and sometimes small low end boost.

I agree, and that's the way I always EQ. Always sounds better on any equipment.

[nic]

bear in mind, a cars acoustics will ALWAYS increase bass response

[Ed.]

Who did you make the recording for, yourself, or for others?  If my recordings don't sound good enough to stand on their own, I don't release them for the most part.  If I have to eq them to sound good to my ears, then I do...I taped it, and I'm the one listening to it, I should get to do whatever I want with it for my listening enjoyment.

Thats kind of how I see it.  I always save an untouched master copy as well.

[corsair]

I always release un-eq copies of my masters... Since everybody's taste differ, I rather the other party eq it to their liking, and distribute un-mastered versions of the shows.

[wbrisette]

Because I multi-track only and have to create a two channel mixdown, I will eq, compress, limit, x, y, and z. However, I do it with a pair of Earthworks Sigma studio monitor and if the post processing is done correctly, the recording will sound great anywhere. The flip side of this is you have to be VERY careful not to over do it just because you can. In some cases it may seem like black magic to get the eq/mix correct, and sometimes I swear it is... My point is, with practice and the right equipment you can do it, but you have be very careful not to overdo it.

Wayne

[bishopthomas]

In the studio world this is called "translation," or how your mix will translate in the real world.  You will either have to get used to how your mixes translate or buy a new monitoring system.  The reason Yamaha NS10's are so popular in recording studios is because if the engineer can get a good sounding mix on them then it will probably sound good on most anything.  It's not because they are great sounding speakers or have a flat response.  With enough practice you'll get used to those Bose speakers and know what it will sound like on other systems.  It may not sound great on the Bose, though, so just beware of that.

By the way, for live 2-track recording I try to never EQ the main pair.  If it doesn't sound good then it's either the mics, preamp, placement, room, source.  I'm a bit of a purist, but I like to capture the way it sounded to me at the time.

[BC]

I say just leave the recordings unedited. You have very nice essentially neutral sounding mics, let the tape reflect how it actually sounded at the venue in the spot you were taping from.

[emalvido]

Ahhh
Moreless same situation, when I hear my taping directly from my M1 via KOSS headphones, they sound 
But when I hook my M1 to my audiphile 2 stereo channel, (tubes, kimber kable , biwired speaker cables) the bass sounds kind of "bassy" so its heard very urgh!! compared listened via headphones.
Now whn you listen to a normal CD in the stero sounds awesome!
Ed 

[JaffaDaHutt]

I select a piece of studio/officially released live music (that is similar to my recording) and listen to it on my monitoring set up then try an A>B comparison between that and my recording. This does not always help but it does give me an idea as how my set up differs to that of the original engineers.
I always keep an unedited/eqed copy as well.

Cheers all

JdH

[BobW]

I say just leave the recordings unedited. You have very nice essentially neutral sounding mics, let the tape reflect how it actually sounded at the venue in the spot you were taping from.

Agreed, for many reasons.
EQ for playback only

[Church-Audio]

I have one general issue/question, and one more specific one:
Post-editing my recordings is frustrating the hell out of me.
Overall I'm very satisfied with my 4061 mics and R-09 recorder. The recordings are all clear and detailed and there is nothing major wrong with them, but they have been coming out somewhat flat and mid-range dominant. Just a little bit of EQ when playing them back in Foobar and Winamp makes them sound significantly better & damn good. So, I have spent hours EQing them Adobe Audition 1.5 or Wavelab trying to replicate that 'sweet spot sound,' to a point where they sound good on my headphones and Bose desktop speakers. Burn it to disc, and stick in a different playback system (car, etc.) and it sounds nothing like it should - too much bass and/or high end, etc.

So I'm slowly coming to the disheartening conclusion that without a high end playback or studio monitoring system to EQ with, attempts at EQing are worthless because playback systems differ so dramatically. So what sounds good with one set of speakers or headphones, will sound too bassy or trebly in another. I plan on trading and torrenting most all of my recordings, so the last thing I want to do is ruin an otherwise decent recording for someone else with EQ.
But there must be a way to subtely EQ to make a recording sound better universally. I just know that a little bit of EQ can really make the recordings significatly better.
I record mostly rock and fusion shows, and they all seem to need some high end increase, a bit of mid decrease, and sometimes small low end boost.

So, question 1 (general): what are others' thoughts about EQing recordings where there is nothing major wrong? Do you simply leave it to the listener to EQ based on his/her specific preferences and playback system? Or do you try to do something before distributing to try to give it more of a dynamic sound? 

Question 2: several of my recordings have the kick drum too prominent/punchy in the sound. What are your thoughts on taming/softening its impact in the sound?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.

Ryan A   

I think trying to eq thru Bose speakers is going to be very hard GS suggested a good pair of headphones I think that's a good place to start.. Not all of us can afford really nice studio monitors.. So headphones can be a much cheaper way of getting a good reliable reference.

[John Kary]

Listen to as many different types of music as you can on your playback system to learn how they respond.  Listen to music you've heard 1000 times and "know" how it should sound.  Mixing on headphones is great, but fatiguing to the ears and it's difficult to hear phase issues unless you know what they sound like.  I know we're all on a budget here though