Hi I wonder if you could help could you give me a list of some helpful frenquiences to learn that crop up as far as vocals, drums etc

cheers james

Hey

Welcome to the Blue Room!

This question has come up a few times before and there's a lot of things dotted around here and there that might help answer for you
Use the Google search function at the top of the page and you should be able to find what you're looking for. If you have any more specific questions after you've done that, then post them here and we can help out.

HTH
Chris

Few years old now but it still applies!

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/mar95/eq.html

I think there's another good one up there somewhere as well with a nice diagram showing what the frequency ranges of instruments are.

Here's a quick rule for EQing anything:

Step 1: Listen to the sound as you get it.
Step 2: Decide what's wrong with it, if anything
Step 3: Cut or boost in order to fix what's wrong



In other words, don't get too hung up on the idea that there are frequencies that will always be appropriate. Every voice is differnet, every mic is different, every acoustic is different, every FOH system is different, every monitor system is different. Whatever happens, anything you do should begin with listening, not refering to a notebook with frequencies written down that someone else has given you without hearing what you're hearing.

HTH

Good advice just some bloke.

There are too many parameters that make defining the perfect EQ possible.
Your own experienced ears are by far the best reference.

EQ each instrument/mic/drum kit/ (inc each drum mic) backing track/effect/ etc etc...... to your own taste.
Genre also has a lot to play here.

I'd always say listen to your ears first and don't go on just what the book says you should cut / boost any day.

But on the other hand if you're just starting out, there are fairly useful reference points so to speak that can help in getting the sound you're looking for rather than just randomly choosing.

cheers thanks very much, its just I mainly have problems with the kick, a lot of people have told me to mike t 2 inches from the skin inside, the front of the skin[where the pedal is] and the front of the kick drum outside both skins?

Well, that depends on the mic, and what sound you're going for. If you want to get a really solid 'woofy' sound then put the mic just inside the port, if you want a really clicky sound move the mic closer to the beater from inside the drum. Also experiment with pointing the mic away from the beater head slightly to see if that helps.

The other way of doing it is getting 1 mic to cover the woof and 1 to cover the click. Often, the clicky mic is a 58 or 57 and it can be placed on the beater side of the head, and the woofy mic may be placed in the port, then you mix between them. Experiment with reversing the phase on the 57/58 clicky mic to see if that improves the sound.

I realised that if you've got a good instrument, and you have good mic placement then you shouldn't need to use any EQ really. Obviously this is a bit naive to think this is ever going to happen regularly, however it is important to remember this when thinking about how to make that snare drum/guitar amp sound better.

M

What problems have you been having? Just not the right sound? EQ can help here of course, but there's absolutely no substitute for getting the position of the mic right in the first place. There's a few "good" positions that you can try that usually work quite well, but I've found I often need to move the mic a lot, even if it's just a couple of inches constantly, before I get the sound I'm looking for. Heck it might just be me, but I very rarely get the position exactly right the first time, and personally I think this is the most important thing to get right BEFORE eq comes into play. Otherwise you'll never get anything other than second best!
Another issue of course could be the mic you're using - what is it? I really don't like the sound from most of the cheapies I've seen, so if it is a cheap and nasty one your issue could lie there more than anywhere else.