Larry Rutledge
Fest Master
I came across the following tips, which are credited to Jay Rose (author of Producing Great Sound for Digital Video). These tips have been helpful to me and I thought they may be useful to someone else as well.
If you're in a hurry, these ideas can help you get started, but don't treat the settings as gospel. Every track is slightly different, and every equalizer contributes its own sound.
If you're in a hurry, these ideas can help you get started, but don't treat the settings as gospel. Every track is slightly different, and every equalizer contributes its own sound.
- Strengthen an announcer. Cut off everything below 90 Hz - those frequencies are just wasting power. Then try a gentle peak (3 dB, Q = 7) around 240 Hz for warmth, and a simliar boost around 1.8 kHz for intelligibility. A sharp dip (-18 dB, Q = 100) around 5 kHz can help sibilance.
- If there's no voice, you can make the music sound exciting: boost the bass notes (6 dB, Q = 7) around 100 Hz, and add a 6 dB high frequency shelf around 3 kHz.
- Actual telephone conversations are cut sharply at 350 Hz and 3.5 kHz so the phone company can squeeze more calls down a digital line. But an equalizer's filters at those frequencies may be too gentle. Try moving the settings closer, such as 500 Hz and 3.2 kHz - and if you're using a filter with enough sections, stack two cutoffs at each end. A sharp peak (10 dB, Q = 100) at 1.2 kHz can also help by adding the characteristic metallic feeling.
- Tune out hum or whistle. The best way to adjust a very sharp dip (maximum attenuation and Q) is to turn it into a boost first. Set it for +12 dB, and sweep the frequency around the noise until you hear a definite peak - most equalizers will distort or crackle at the right setting. Then turn the attenuation all the way down. This is much more accurate then relying on the front-panel calibration or trying to hear the subtle differences as you move a dip around.
- Reduce distortion. If a natural sound doesn't have many harmonics, such as an acoustic guitar, you can often clean up bad recordings by applying a sharp high-frequency cutoff filter. This not only eliminates hiss, it also reduces the artificial harmonics that a bad analog recording can generate. Start with the equalizer as low as 5 kHz, and then slowly raise its cutoff frequency until the recording doesn't seem muddy.
