Since RU-vid has removed the option to add annotations, I'll have to post any edits/clarifications in the comments from now on... bummer. I wanted to clarify that frequencies under 80hz are not useless frequencies in all cases. It's quite the opposite in something like a kick drum, where the fundamental can be as low as 40hz. However, in the case of most stringed instruments, including bass, these sub low frequencies often don't contain any meaningful information and can end up causing a lot of woofiness and a general lack of clarify in your mix. The amount of low end you should or shouldn't remove really depends on the source audio and the context of the instrument in the mix. Sometimes I don't filter any low end out and sometimes I'll filter out as high as 200hz or more.
thanks so much for actually explaining about taking out the whistling sounds. I always see producers do those green 'dips' on the EQ and they never explain why! You explain it so well.
Awesome video dude. I studied a degree in music tech and it's been years since I put it into practice. This is as I was taught but much more concise and practically explained. Liked and subscribed.
This has been extremely helpful. I am a beginner in recording, just bought a mic and I didn't like what it recorded. Having identified and removed those annoying frequencies just made it come to life, thank you so much. Also the compressor and the stereo stuff has been really useful for someone like me, who has not done this before.
Thank you for making it so easy to understand. You know the literal meaning of explaining a thing to a beginner. Teaching is not showing off what you know, it’s all about making others understand what you teach them. Thanks again. Huge shoutout from Sri Lanka.
Man great job my friend, taking complexity and making it understandable and and helpful…you are a really good teacher…I play pretty much exclusive acoustic and this is super helpful
Just.. Thank you.. You explained minimal Eqing so well, and your compression explanation was just amazing. I didnt know that I needed to makeup the compressed signal I was taking out.. (give me the dunce hat I know) Thank you man, I really appreciate it.
...hi Jay, 1st time i get your tutorial man, i got the LPX and I am coming from Cubase LE%, and I am excited brother. I wanted to thank you for your good explanation. Appreciated! I like and subscribe.
This video was Incredibly helpful to me! Especially because you are using logic, so many people doing vids in pro tools, and because I'm a beginner I needed to see it in the same daw I'm learning in which is logic.
Ive never attempted to EQ before. you've showed me things I've never heard before and taught me so much (p.s. I'm writing this Half way through the video lol)
great comment about van halen sending reverb to another channel. Zeppelin used it on the acoustic on "Babe I'm gonna leave you" as well. great tutorial, Jay
Instead of bussing to an aux track, can you achieve the same mix (dry guitar on the left and effects on the right) by doubling your acoustic guitar? That is putting EQ and compression on a guitar track panned left and reverb on a different guitar track that is panned right?
That's good stuff, but I hear my vocals in the right because guitar is panned in the left I guess, even though my vocals are in the centre. Is there a way around that?
I wonder if youtube videos have their own filter/eq settings because the sound sounds a bit dull compared to how bright an acoustic guitar usually sounds. I am not saying it sounds bad but I read a comment below where you recorded this pretty much in the same position as i always record my guitar and with a LDC just like you yet on this you tube video the sound is like the tope end and low end has beed reduced.
Hey Adam! Thanks for the comment. I can assure you that while RU-vid's audio isn't perfect, it would not audibly change the EQ of the video. That's just how the recording is! There are many factors to why one recording might sound duller than another: the guitar, the room, the microphone and position, the age of the strings, plectrum used, etc.
Let me just say this Jay. This is the first time I even witnessed those frequencies of acoustic guitar in my mix. MAN, what an eye opener. I had to play it back over and over again to see if I made some kind of setting causing that irritating ring. This video tutorial is simply amazing. Thanks so much for the insight and opening my ears to the frequencies that need to go away. :) One question, if the frequency if very very subtle after taking them out, should a person still try to get rid of the very subtle ones?
Hi John, glad I could help! The more you listen, the more ringing frequencies you'll hear. You can't remove them all, nor should you try to remove them all. What's important is that you're only EQing out the ones that are most distracting. When it comes to surgical EQ such as this, it's best to do as little as you can get away with! :)
Thank you! It was a Taylor acoustic guitar with a blue spark condenser microphone pointed at the 12th fret about 1 foot back. I believe it was recorded on a Presonus Audiobox. A very budget preamp but as you can hear it recorded very cleanly.
Every guitar is different, so keep experimenting until you find the sound that's in your head! Don't be afraid to boost a lot of high end. I like to do a high shelving boost with a Pultec style EQ (Logic has a free one) and then continue to boost afterwards - if it needs it - with a more surgically placed bell filter on a standard digital EQ. It's also not a bad idea to try compressing before and after EQ. Point is, experiment! Make sure you're not mixing too loud though, and also make sure to take breaks. It's very easy to add too much high end if your ears are fatigued after a long mixing session.
Hey! You may be able to get away with taking a DI track of a single coil electric guitar and then using a match EQ plugin on a sample acoustic guitar track. Add a touch of chorus and some room reverb and you'll probably have a rather convincing acoustic sound. I've never actually tried this so let me know how it goes if you try it out!
I don't, but the process is very similar! You might just need to remove a bit more low end than when you're dealing with guitars. Around 120hz is what I usually end up with. Remove frequencies that make the singer sound muffled or stuffy, usually between the 250hz to 450hz region, and gently boost around 2k to improve clarity if you need to. Be careful when boosting here though because our hearing is most sensitive at around 2k so it's very easy to over do it. The compression is mostly the same; generally 3-6 db of reduction, a 4:1 ratio with a medium attack and quick release works 90% of the time. If you need the vocals to be really upfront, add a second compressor with the same settings. Hope this helps :)
Jay Crafton Thanks Jay. Hope you make more videos. Your instruction is spot on. I just finished mixing my first song, it’s a cover of ‘Hotline Bling’. I’ll be posting it on my channel tomorrow and would love your feedback if you have time to listen.
No problem, thank you! It's been over a year since I've uploaded, mostly because I was starting to feel like there may be too many tutorials already out there with valuable information, but I suppose there's always room for another perspective. If I have the time I would consider uploading tutorials again. Also, it's great to hear you're making and releasing music! That's the best practice there is, and it never ends.
Great question! In general, acoustic leads are very dynamic and you really don't want any notes getting lost in the mix. Because of this, I tend to compress lead lines much heavier than a rhythm part such as the one shown in the video. My chain generally looks something like: EQ, gentle compression, saturation, medium compression, EQ, and then sometimes another compressor after that. The key is to not let one compressor do too much of the work. Build the compression up gradually and spread the work. Although, there are some exceptions where I'll pick one compressor to do the heavy lifting, such as an 1176, and/or driving a saturation plugin, such as True Iron, until it starts losing bottom end, and then backing it off just slightly. Just gotta trust your ears!
I am using Monitoring headphones connected to my focusrite 3rd gen audio interface. I really couldn't hear the difference at around 6:02 . I like a nightmare, LOL. noooooooo!!!
I don't believe Apple provides an official way of doing it, but if you do a quick google search you'll see that there seems to be many ways of getting around that.
