Frequency of a given instrument?

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GrimmBrotherScott
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Frequency of a given instrument?

Post by GrimmBrotherScott » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:15 pm

Can anyone provide a link to, or create a table of the frequency ranges of the common rock instruments? I am speaking of bass guitar, electric guitar, drums (snare, bass, two toms, floor tome), most vocals, etc...

I think it would be an amazing tool for those of us who understand the idea of stacking a performance and the importance of frequencies in doing so.

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Post by The Gibbon » Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:02 pm

Try the book "Audio in Media" by Stanley Alten....A good sort of academic book that describes frequency relationships well.

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Brett Siler
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Post by Brett Siler » Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:25 am

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.vibrationdata.com/piano.htm
It has a piano keyboard, shows the notes and the frequecy of the notes.

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqfreq.php
This helped me out alot a few years ago. It has a frequecy and common instruments that take up those frequencies.

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Post by Cyan421 » Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:33 am

Ive seen charts exactaly how you discribe them. But i can remeber where. I know it was a pro audio book of some kind. I have a piano at the bottom and the ranges of most common instruments. I'll have to look around some more. I know its with all my stuff somewhere. That recordingwebsite link looks pretty useful.
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Post by joaquin » Sat Dec 03, 2005 5:22 am

InvalidInk wrote:Here are a couple of links:

http://www.vibrationdata.com/piano.htm
It has a piano keyboard, shows the notes and the frequecy of the notes.

http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqfreq.php
This helped me out alot a few years ago. It has a frequecy and common instruments that take up those frequencies.
Thanks!! :idea:

thethingwiththestuff
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Post by thethingwiththestuff » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:04 am

isnt there a huge chart like this at the beginning of bob katz's "mastering audio" or whatever its called?

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lee
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Post by lee » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:20 am


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GrimmBrotherScott
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Post by GrimmBrotherScott » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:06 am

Thanks for the valuable contribution. Sorry the thread is a beneath you. What was that last multi-platinum album you engineered/produced?

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Post by Professor » Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:27 pm

I think the first of those two links from InvalidInk qould be quite useful since you would just need to coordinate with that chart the lowest and highest notes for various instruments. That second link, however, frightens me a bit since each frequency listed has all kinds of suggestions for 'increasing' with very few suggestions for 'reducing', and generally subtractive EQ is going to be better for sculpting your sound.

There are lots of these kinds of charts available out there in recording books, and they're generally easy to find online with a quick search of 'instrument frequency ranges' or something similar.
The coolest looking chart is the Carnegie Hall one available here at the bottom of the page. It doesn't include rock instruments like guitar and bass, but you could kind of add those in yourself.

Image

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lee
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Post by lee » Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:36 pm

sorry, i didnt realize that you, and multi-platnium producers lack a sense of humor. is this the fascism message board?
maybe you should live under a rock if you dont want to be offended by one of the most beautiful and disgusting pieces of the human anatomy.
i've written the song that god has longed for. the lack of the song invoked him to create a universe where one man would discover inspiration in a place that god, himself, never thought to look.

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Post by herodotus » Sat Dec 03, 2005 2:20 pm


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Post by thunderboy » Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:38 pm

lee wrote:sorry, i didnt realize that you, and multi-platnium producers lack a sense of humor.
There is no platnium on my wall, and I don't see what a picture of a pair of buttocks has to do with a chart that relates musical instruments to their respective range of frequencies, either.

And I have a GREAT sense of humor.

jt
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Post by space_ryerson » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:00 pm

Maybe the frequency of the 'brown note'? I digress..

While maybe not exactly what you are looking for, someone posted this on the last version of the board which I find useful often:

Kick Drum

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Try a small boost around 5-7kHz to add some high end.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom to the sound
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area
5-8kHz ~ Adds high end prescence
8-12kHz ~ Adds Hiss

Snare

Try a small boost around 60-120Hz if the sound is a little too wimpy. Try boosting around 6kHz for that 'snappy' sound.

100-250Hz ~ Fills out the sound
6-8kHz ~ Adds prescence

Hi hats or cymbals

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. To add some brightness try a small boost around 3kHz.

250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Bass

Try boosting around 60Hz to add more body. Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz.If more presence is needed, boost around 6kHz.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area
800-1kHz ~ Adds beef to small speakers
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds high-end presence
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Vocals

This is a difficult one, as it depends on the mic used to record the vocal. However...Apply either cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the mic and song.Apply a very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.

100-250Hz ~ Adds 'up-frontness'
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds sibilance and clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Piano

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Apply a very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-1kHz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8Khz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Electric guitars

Again this depends on the mix and the recording. Apply either cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the song and sound. Try boosting around 3kHz to add some edge to the sound, or cut to add some transparency. Try boosting around 6kHz to add presence. Try boosting around 10kHz to add brightness.

100-250Hz ~ Adds body
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6Khz ~ Cuts through the mix
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8=12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Acoustic guitar

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off between 100-300Hz. Apply small amounts of cut around 1-3kHz to push the image higher. Apply small amounts of boost around 5kHz to add some presence.

100-250Hz ~ Adds body
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Strings

These depend entirely on the mix and the sound used.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250Hz ~ Adds body
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6hHz ~ Sounds crunchy
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Now In genereal, you may want to try these out.

50Hz

1. Increase to add more fullness to lowest frequency instruments like foot, toms, and the bass.

2. Reduce to decrease the "boom" of the bass and will increase overtones and the recognition of bass line in the mix. This is most often used on bass lines in Rap and R&B.
__________

100Hz

Increase to add a harder bass sound to lowest frequency instruments.
Increase to add fullness to guitars, snare.
Increase to add warmth to piano and horns.
Reduce to remove boom on guitars & increase clarity.
__________

200Hz

1. Increase to add fullness to vocals.
2. Increase to add fullness to snare and guitar (harder sound).
3. Reduce to decrease muddiness of vocals or mid-range instruments.
4. Reduce to decrease gong sound of cymbals.
__________

400Hz

1. Increase to add clarity to bass lines especially when speakers are at low volume.
2. Reduce to decrease "cardboard" sound of lower drums (foot and toms).
3. Reduce to decrease ambiance on cymbals.
__________

800Hz

1. Increase for clarity and "punch" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove "cheap" sound of guitars
__________

1.5KHz

1. Increase for "clarity" and "pluck" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove dullness of guitars.
__________

3KHz

1. Increase for more "pluck" of bass.
2. Increase for more attack of electric / acoustic guitar.
3. Increase for more attack on low piano parts.
4. Increase for more clarity / hardness on voice.
5. Reduce to increase breathy, soft sound on background vocals.
6. Reduce to disguise out-of-tune vocals / guitars
__________

5KHz

1. Increase for vocal presence.
2. Increase low frequency drum attack (foot/toms).
3. Increase for more "finger sound" on bass.
4. Increase attack of piano, acoustic guitar and brightness on guitars.
5. Reduce to make background parts more distant.
6. Reduce to soften "thin" guitar.
__________

7KHz

1. Increase to add attack on low frequency drums (more metallic sound).
2. Increase to add attack to percussion instruments.
3. Increase on dull singer.
4. Increase for more "finger sound" on acoustic bass.
5. Reduce to decrease "s" sound on singers.
6. Increase to add sharpness to synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic guitar and piano.
__________

10KHz

1. Increase to brighten vocals.
2. Increase for "light brightness" in acoustic guitar and piano.
3. Increase for hardness on cymbals.
4. Reduce to decrease "s" sound on singers.
__________

15KHz

1. Increase to brighten vocals (breath sound).
2. Increase to brighten cymbals, string instruments and flutes.
3. Increase to make sampled synthesizer sound more real.

And this too might help:

Low Bass: anything less than 50Hz

This range is often known as the sub bass and is most commonly taken up by the lowest part of the kick drum and bass guitar, although at these frequencies it's almost impossible to determine any pitch. Sub bass is one of the reasons why 12" vinyl became available: low frequencies require wider grooves than high frequencies - without rolling off everything below 50Hz you couldn't fit a full track onto a 7" vinyl record. However we do NOT recommend applying any form of boost around this area without the use of very high quality studio monitors (not home monitors - there is a vast difference between home nearfield and studio farfield monitors costing anywhere between ?5,000 and ?20,000). Boosting blindly in this area without a valid reference point can and will permanently damage most speakers, even PA systems. You have been warned!

Bass: 50-250Hz

This is the range you're adjusting when applying the bass boost on most home stereos, although most bass signals in modern music tracks lie around the 90-200Hz area with a small boost in the upper ranges to add some presence or clarity.

Muddiness/irritational area: 200-800Hz

The main culprit area for muddy sounding mixes, hence the term 'irritational area'. Most frequencies around here can cause psycho-acoustic problems: if too many sounds in a mix are dominating this area, a track can quickly become annoying, resulting in a rush to finish mixing it as you get bored or irritated by the sound of it.

Mid-range: 800-6kHz

Human hearing is extremely sensitive at these frequencies, and even a minute boost around here will result in a huge change in the sound - almost the same as if you boosted around 10db at any other range. This is because our voices are centred in this area, so it's the frequency range we hear more than any other. Most telephones work at 3kHz, because at this frequency speech is most intelligible. This frequency also covers TV stations, radio, and electric power tools. If you have to apply any boosting in this area, be very cautious, especially on vocals. We're particularly sensitive to how the human voice sounds and its frequency coverage.

High Range: 6-8kHz

This is the range you adjust when applying the treble boost on your home stereo. This area is slightly boosted to make sounds artificially brighter (although this artificial boost is what we now call 'lifelike') when mastering a track before burning it to CD.

Hi-High Range: 8-20kHz

This area is taken up by the higher frequencies of cymbals and hi-hats, but boosting around this range, particularly around 12kHz can make a recording sound more high quality than it actually is, and it's a technique commonly used by the recording industry to fool people into thinking that certain CDs are more hi-fidelity than they'd otherwise sound. However, boosting in this area also requires a lot of care - it can easily pronounce any background hiss, and using too much will result in a mix becoming irritating.

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Post by KennyLusk » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:45 am

lee wrote:sorry, i didnt realize that you, and multi-platnium producers lack a sense of humor. is this the fascism message board?
maybe you should live under a rock if you dont want to be offended by one of the most beautiful and disgusting pieces of the human anatomy.

Thanks Lee.

I enjoyed the link with my sunday morning coffee actually. Cheers!

Didn't see any "cinnamon" buns though. :rofl:

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Post by inverseroom » Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:21 am

thunderboy wrote:And I have a GREAT sense of humor.

jt
And a nice ass!

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