EQ- Are you a Cutter, or a Booster?

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:33 pm

lightandmind wrote:Thanks Tony, your a pretty swell guy, ya know?

That's gonna go straight to his head.

allbaldo · Post by **allbaldo** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 6:05 am

Often cuttin', rarely boostin', and if boostin'... not by much for the most part.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:55 am

lightandmind wrote:
cut more than I boost. I was once told "cut and re-gain."
That's only during tracking, right?

It's kind of a general thing. A starting point for tracking or mixing.

lightandmind wrote:Thanks Tony, your a pretty swell guy, ya know?

Aw, shucks

lightandmind · Post by **lightandmind** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:58 pm

How might one go-about adding gain during mixing(analog)?
Inserting a preamp?

thethingwiththestuff · Post by **thethingwiththestuff** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 2:26 pm

i think most people would agree to use the fader first.

you can also turn it up using the makeup gain on a compressor, plugging it into a pre-amp or line-level amp for effect, make multiple instances of a track and treating them differently...

the idea basically is, say you have a "dull" kick drum, not a lot of 1-2k to make it "poke out". bringing the fader up by itself might help it poke through, but then you'd have too much low end. so, you could boost narrowly around 1.5k. or you can cut with a wide Q from 200hz-400hz or something, and bring the fader up, resulting in more click and not too much low mids.

lightandmind · Post by **lightandmind** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 3:55 pm

Good stuff, fader gain is always simple enough.
Question: Say you have a signal that you want to use, for example, an outboard parametric for cutting, and the mixer EQ for slightly boosting the good stuff- which should be done first, cut or boost? Whats a good order to put them in the signal chain? (ex: mic-pre-outboard-mixer, mic-pre-mixer-outboard [thru insert],etc.) All suggestions appreciated-

dokushoka · Post by **dokushoka** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 6:49 pm

while I'll typically have well over 100 cuts in a mix, I might have less than 5 boosts.

Slider · Post by **Slider** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:34 pm

Looks like I'm one of the only boost-aholics here.
I love boosting with analog eq. Not as much with plugins.
I'd say on average my mixes have more boosting then cutting going on.

dokushoka · Post by **dokushoka** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 9:38 pm

are you mixing off tape?

themagicmanmdt · Post by **themagicmanmdt** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:16 pm

boosting 'transforms' the track. cutting keeps it the same.

mics, especially flat response mics, pick up, more or less, what's there. so, if you cut a certain frequency, you're usually doing it because something else dominates that range - or, it just doesn't sound good.

if you boost something, you're adding what wasn't there to begin with. this is intresting, but tricky.

use both. transform your audio so it sounds good.

tuggjohnson · Post by **tuggjohnson** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:09 am

I'm a catcher . . . whoops! Wrong Board!

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:51 am

lightandmind wrote:How might one go-about adding gain during mixing(analog)?
Inserting a preamp?

Fader, line trim if the console has or, or sometimes (esp on BD for me) a different freq on the EQ...

Slider · Post by **Slider** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:30 am

dokushoka wrote:are you mixing off tape?

Not anymore, but this is where I devoloped the habit.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 1:41 pm

themagicmanmdt wrote:boosting 'transforms' the track. cutting keeps it the same.

mics, especially flat response mics, pick up, more or less, what's there. so, if you cut a certain frequency, you're usually doing it because something else dominates that range - or, it just doesn't sound good.

if you boost something, you're adding what wasn't there to begin with. this is intresting, but tricky.

use both. transform your audio so it sounds good.

word.

bannerj · Post by **bannerj** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:23 am

doesn't it also depend on the particular eq and how it behaves?

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EQ- Are you a Cutter, or a Booster?

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