Topic: EQ suggestions needed!

[depp91]

Hello guys,

last weekend I made a concert tape that I'm very proud of. Only thing that needs addressing now is EQ because although I have already lowered the low end and raised the mids and highs, it still sounds very "dark".
I'm using the "Voxengo Marvel GEQ" plugin in Audacity, it's a 16-band graphic equalizer.
I'm totally new to this and a bit afraid of worsening the sound instead of improving it. I do like bassy recordings (and loathe overly bright, thin, brittle sound), but in this case I find it hard to get the sound I'm satisfied with.
Can anyone have a look at one of the songs from the recording and make suggestions what to do?

So these are two songs from my recording:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/e3x7uhexwxkbr74/03.+Handshake+Drugs.flac/
https://www.mediafire.com/file/7f25g9myfiomqhz/15.+Either+Way.flac/

Thanks for the help!

[aaronji]

First, listen carefully to the raw recording and identify the issues ("no cymbal splash", "too boomy", etc.). Then slide each slider all the way up and down while playing back. You will very quickly hear which frequencies/instruments are affected, and how, by each slider. Tune to taste. Sometimes, you can fix a problem by changing multiple bands. For "dark", for example, you might want to decrease some of the lower frequency bands a bit, while increasing some of the higher frequencies a little. I tend to avoid the middle of the frequency spectrum, as that is where most of the audience chatter  lives and it is also where a lot of the music is; there can be lots of unintended consequences when you EQ in that range (not that it can't be helpful sometimes).   

[Gutbucket]

Good advice.  Also, play around with smoothing out the initial graphic EQ curve that results from the exploratory process Aaron describes.  Adjust the nearby sliders in combination with one of interest to form more of a smooth curve rather than an abrupt jump from slider to slider.   Boost and cut as needed, but a relatively smooth curve between those target regions will tend to produce more natural sounding result.  Playing around with that for a while to find what works best.  Generally, the less steep the slope is between boosted and cut regions the better when seeking an overall adjustment of tone rather than targeting more frequency-specific issues.

The ultimate extension of a smooth curve trend that most broadly effects overall tone of that is a "tilt EQ".  There are EQ's specifically designed to do that, but you can somewhat emulate one with the graphic EQ you are have.  As long as you are happy with the result you've arrived at so far which is targeting specific frequency ranges, rather than change how that EQ is set, open a second instance of the EQ plugin placed after the first one.  That way your adjustments so far will be preserved and the second EQ instance will be making additional overall adjustments to tone in a very broad way.  To emulate a tilt-EQ with a graphic equalizer, arrange the sliders so that they form a flat line sloped up or down slightly rather than being horizontal.  Not a curve at all really, just a single line through all the sliders.  To make the overall sound "less dark", make the line lower at the low-frequency end than the high-frequency end.  You essentially have two variables in play when adjusting it: How steep the line is; and where it crosses the 0dB gain point somewhere in the middle.  Start with the crossing point at 1kHz.  The resulting "EQ curve" will look something like a teeter-totter / sea-saw with the 0dB gain fulcrum point in the middle.  The line probably won't need to be overly steep, a slight constant change across the entire frequency range is be quite effective in shaping overall "darker/brighter" tonality.

Use the first instance of the EQ plugin to make region specific corrections. On that one you may want to play around with curves in the low frequency region which  shape the low frequency content in more specific ways that reduce boom or thickness without overly chopping off all good low frequency content, make subtle wide curve adjustments in the midrange to improve clarity (wide curves in this most sensitive region can avoid the problems Aaron mentions), and make whatever specific high frequency corrections are needed.  Use the second EQ instance to make overall darker/brighter tonal adjustments.

The above is just one way to go about it - but is a useful method which I think will get help get you closer to the sound you are looking for.

Edit- FYI I've not yet had a chance to listen to the examples. 

[goodcooker]

I downloaded Handshake Drugs. Listened with my Sennheiser HD280 headphones. Sounds great. I wouldn't change a thing. I certainly wouldn't call it "dark".

[rumbleseat]

I struggled with EQ for years until I installed Voxengo's Span frequency spectrum analyzer.
https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/
I started EQing my recordings to be "flat", but they still didn't sound that great. So I asked myself, "what do really good recordings look like?"
I've attached an example of Steely Dan's song Aja - It's not flat. (obviously, other musical genres may look different than this...)
So take a look at the frequency response of Handshake Drugs at the 3 min mark.  Doesn't look at all like Aja.
I quickly tweaked it with a parametric equalizer (and I recommend that you get a plugin for one).  Image attached.
And there's an image of the equalizer curve.
Finally, I attached the "corrected" audio MP3 sample (original from 2-4 minutes).  Most of the corrections boost the volume, so of course, this version will sound “better”, but you get the idea.
All of this can be done visually, but from here, you can start to do the critical listening and tweak the kick drum, bass, vocals, snares and cymbals to your liking.
Hope this helps!