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instrument Frequency ranges------------------------------------------------------

---------------Kick Drum

Any apparent muddiness can be rolledoff around 300Hz.

Try a small boost around 5-7kHz to

add some high end.

Frequency Effect50-100Hz Adds bottom to the sound

100-250Hz Adds roundness

250-800Hz Muddiness Area5-8kHz Adds high end prescence8-12kHz Adds Hiss

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Snare Try a small boost around 60-120Hz if

the sound is a little too wimpy. Try boosting around 6kHz for that

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'snappy' sound.

Frequency Effect100-250Hz Fills out the sound6-8kHz Adds prescence

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi hats or cymbalsAny apparent muddiness can be rolled

off around 300Hz. To add some brightness try a small

boost around 3kHz.

Frequency Effect250-800Hz Muddiness area

1-6kHz Adds presence6-8kHz Adds clarity

8-12kHz Adds brightness

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Bass

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Try boosting around 60Hz to add morebody.

Any apparent muddiness can be rolledoff around 300Hz.f more presence is needed, boost

around 6kHz.

Frequency Effect

50-100Hz Adds bottom end100-250Hz Adds roundness250-800Hz Muddiness Area

800-1kHz Adds beef to small speakers1-6kHz Adds presence

6-8kHz Adds high-end presence8-12kHz Adds hiss------------------------------------------------------

--------------

Vocals

This is a difficult one, as it depends onthe mic used to record the vocal.

However...Apply either cut or boost around

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300hz, depending on the mic andsong.

Apply a very small boost around 6kHzto add some clarity.

Frequency Effect100-250Hz Adds 'up-frontness'

250-800Hz Muddiness area

1-6kHz Adds presence6-8kHz Adds sibilance and clarity

8-12kHz Adds brightness------------------------------------------------------

----------------

PianoAny apparent muddiness can be rolled

off around 300Hz.Apply a very small boost around 6kHz

to add some clarity.

Frequency Effect50-100Hz Adds bottom

100-250Hz Adds roundness

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250-1kHz Muddiness area1-6kHz Adds presence

6-8Khz Adds clarity8-12kHz Adds hiss------------------------------------------------------

----------------

Electric guitars

Again this depends on the mix and therecording.

Apply either cut or boost around300hz, depending on the song and

sound.

try boosting around 3kHz to add someedge to the sound, or cut to add sometransparency.

Try boosting around 6kHz to addpresence.

Try boosting around 10kHz to add

brightness.

Frequency Effect100-250Hz Adds body

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250-800Hz Muddiness area1-6Khz Cuts through the mix

6-8kHz Adds clarity8=12kHz Adds hiss------------------------------------------------------

------------

Acoustic guitar

Any apparent muddiness can be rolledoff 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.Frequency Effect

100-250Hz Adds body6-8kHz Adds clarity

8-12kHz Adds brightness

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Strings

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These depend entirely on the mix andthe sound used.

Frequency Effect50-100Hz Adds bottom end

100-250Hz Adds body250-800Hz Muddiness area

1-6hHz Sounds crunchy

6-8kHz Adds clarity8-12kHz Adds brightness

------------------------------------------------------------------

Low Bass: anything less than 50Hz This range is often known as the subbass and

is most commonly taken up by thelowest part of the kick drum and bass

guitar,

although at these frequencies it'salmost impossible to determine any

pitch. Subbass is one of the reasons why 12"

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vinyl became available: lowfrequencies

require wider grooves than highfrequencies - without rolling off everything

below 50Hz you couldn't fit a full trackonto a 7" vinyl record. However we doNOT recommend applying any form of

boost around this area without the useof

very high quality studio monitors (nothome monitors - there is a vast

difference between home nearfield

and studio farfield monitors costinganywherebetween Ã‚Â£5,000 and Ã‚Â£20,000).Boosting blindly in this area without a

validreference point can and will

permanently damage most speakers,even PA systems.

You have been warned!

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Bass: 50-250Hz This is the rangeyou're adjusting when applying the

bass booston most home stereos, although mostbass signals in modern music tracks

liearound the 90-200Hz area with a

small boost in the upper ranges to add

somepresence or clarity.

Muddiness/irritational area: 200-800Hz The main culprit area for

muddy soundingmixes, hence the term 'irritationalarea'. Most frequencies around here

cancause psycho-acoustic problems: if

too many sounds in a mix are

dominating thisarea, a track can quickly become

annoying, resulting in a rush to finishmixing

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it as you get bored or irritated by thesound of it.

Mid-range: 800-6kHz Human hearingis 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. Thisis

because our voices are centred in this

area, so it's the frequency range wehearmore than any other. Most telephones

work at 3kHz, because at thisfrequency

speech is most intelligible. This

frequency also covers TV stations,radio, and

electric power tools. If you have toapply any boosting in this area, be

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verycautious, especially on vocals. We're

particularly sensitive to how thehumanvoice sounds and its frequency

coverage.

High Range: 6-8kHz This is the range

you adjust when applying the trebleboost

on your home stereo. This area isslightly boosted to make sounds

artificially

brighter (although this artificial boostis what we now call 'lifelike') whenmastering 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 around12kHz

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can make a recording sound morehigh quality than it actually is, and it's

atechnique commonly used by therecording industry to fool people into

thinkingthat certain CDs are more hi-fidelity

than they'd otherwise sound.

However,boosting in this area also requires alot of care - it can easily pronounceany background hiss, and using toomuch will result in a mix becoming

irritating.|Compression|

The basicsCompression basically explained: the

reason people ask about compressionmore than anything is because they

find it the hardest concept tounderstand or hear. A basic

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explanation I heard when I firststarted was thinking of compression

like an automatic volume control,when the audio is loud it gets turneddown and when it's soft it gets turnedup. This means sharp signals are now

curved and fading signals are nowpicked up and last longer. It also

means smoother sounds and fatternotes. AB

Soft knee, hard knee

Unless you have a softwarecompressor or a really high-endmodel, you won't be able to choose

the setting. You simply have to decidewhether to get a soft knee compressoror a hard knee one. Try to buy a soft

knee compressor as it will be usefulon practically everything without

crushing the sound. Mostly used onvocals and mixes, it means a larger

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amount of compression can beapplied, while hard knee compressors,

which can be heard working, will betypically used on bass. It is more of anaudible effect than soft knee. AB

Yours is a UreiKate Bush was rumoured to have two

compressors across her vocals: theinfamous studio compressor Urei 1176

one on its flat-out setting (all ratiobuttons pushed in) and another added just in case any peaks got through. It

sounds crazy, but the 1176 is famousbecause of its super-soft character onvocals, and on this high a setting shewould have had every breath picked

up by the mic and every peaksquashed. This gave her a unique

sound. AB

VocalsVocals are one of the hardest and

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most dynamic sounds you may comeacross. My advice would be to try and

catch the peaks in the song. Use softknee, set the ratio around 2:1 (butmaybe as high as 6:1 for voiceoversand spoken word), attack to 0.09ms,

release to 100ms then adjust thethreshold to catch the loudest parts of

the song, so you get about 8dB of reduction.

Get what you pay forSoftware compressors are fantastic

now and the built-in compressor inEmagic's Logic has done the job forme on many vocals now. However, Istill went out and paid for a classic

compressor like the hand-wiredperfection of the all-valve Chiswick

Reach. This put across the outputs of Pro Tools is amazing. A lot of moneycompared to software, but the sound

is worth every penny. AB

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The beat goes on

Drums can be transformed bycompression in a mix. On a snare try asoft knee, use a ratio of 4:1, a long

attack and a little longer release, thenadjust the threshold to just grab the

first couple of dB of reduction. Now try

adjusting the attack shorter, and thethreshold higher to adjust the soundto fit the track, the R&B type of snap

or the pop type of slap. AB

Stereo lowOld-school engineers often use thetrick of sub grouping the drums to astereo pair then applying a stereocompressor to achieve a pumping

sound. AB

It's for everyone... Think of compression as just as

important a creative tool as reverbs

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and delays. It's not just an engineers'tool.

...and for everythingPretty much everything will sound

better with a little compression, thewhole sonic from bass drums to flutes.

DH

Take care on tapeAlways remember that, if you're

committing to tape, then err on theside of caution. Remember you can

always add more if you want to, butit's impossible to remove. DH

Try and try againDon't be afraid to experiment and, aswith all things audio, 'use your ears!' If

it sounds good to you, then it must beright, regardless of what the manual

says. DH

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The basic rule Yes, yes, it's been said before, by

many people, but you can never havetoo many compressors! DH

Double your moneyInstead of putting a whole sound

through a compressor, a neat trick isto split it to two channels, heavily

compress one of them and mix thatwith the uncompressed channel. This

works particularly well on drum

sounds and can be applied to, say, anindividual snare drum or a stereosubmix of the whole kit (or some of its

constituent parts). The compressedversion of the sound can be tweaked

to make it pump by setting an

appropriately short release time andcan then be added to the

uncompressed version to get a moreexciting and dynamic rhythm bed. TC

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Multiband

When working with a sound sourcewhich covers a full (or at least large)frequency spectrum, such as a

complete mix, normal compressorstend to introduce a 'pumping' effect.

This is because the lower frequencies

which tend to trigger the compressorwill normally be doing something

quite different to the higherfrequencies, yet the compressor willattenuate the entire output by the

same amount. Multiband compression,as the name suggests, uses acrossover to split the full-bandwidthinput sound into smaller bandwidths

which are then compressedseparately. The results are then mixed

back together, the result being amuch louder,tighter mix which doesn't

pump or sound squashed.

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Sidechain The sidechain, or key, is the signal

within a compressor which is used tocontrol the output level. It is when thissignal exceeds the threshold that

compression is applied to the mainsignal running through the unit. A lotof hardware compressors (and some

of the better plug-ins) have externalsidechain - or key - inputs so you canuse the characteristics of one soundsource to compress another. In this

way you can, for example, use a kick

drum track to make a synth pad pumpin time with the music. AC

De-essingUsed mainly on vocals, this is a

technique for reducing the level of

sibilant sounds ('s' or 'sh', etc) whichare significantly louder than the othersounds associated with speech. The

problem areas of these sibilant sounds

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tend to be above 7-8kHz,so reducing amicrophone's volume when these

frequencies are encountered is theorder of the day. Take an auxiliarysend from the vocal channel, feed itthrough an equaliser and then intoyour compressor's sidechain input.

Insert the compressor into the vocal

channel. Then use the equaliser onthe sidechain to boost the sibilant

frequencies. You'll need to be able tomonitor the sidechain in some way,as, as with all things, using the old

shell-likes is the only way to go. Listento the main vocal channel todetermine the best settings for thethreshold and ratio, but use a fast

attack and release time to make theeffect as transparent as possible. AC

GuitarsOverdriven and distorted guitar

sounds rarely need compression as

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the process of overdriving themintroduces a fair amount of

compression anyway. Clean andacoustic guitars are a different matter.For that classic, funky, clean sound,

use a fairly low threshold, a ratio of atleast 3:1, fast attack and quite a slow

release. Add a touch of chorus or

flanging to add the extra icing on thecake. Strummed parts, electric oracoustic, are better with a higher

threshold, the aim being to reduce thevolume of the transient parts of the

sound (the strums themselves) whilekeeping a steady overall level. Asever, use your ears! AC

BassOne of the best uses for a compressor

is on bass sounds - get a solid, steadyfoundation to your track, and the rest

will stand up beautifully. Probably.Optimum settings vary here, as much

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depends on the type of bass sound -synth, electric, acoustic, etc - but as a

general rule, use fast attack andmedium release times, a mediumthreshold and a ratio of between 3:1

and 5:1.

Have an idea

I realise all those dials and buttons are just calling you over to start fiddlingas soon as you plug the compressorin, but have some sort of purpose

first. Are you trying to make the sound

more punchy, more smooth or justkeep it under control? Listen and thinkbefore you leap. ST

On the attackI try to have the attack up (ie, not at

its quickest setting) a little on mostthings if possible; guitars, for

example, really benefit from extra'front'. Many recommended

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away as you'd like, then compressingthe return may give you the control

you're after. STPre- or post-EQ

The difference between having thecompressor before the EQ section orafter it can be drastic. When learning

about compression, try both optionsand hear the way the compressoraffects your EQing, and vice versa.

|Reverb|

when i mix music. i do not use reverbas a mix tool, only as a special effect.

so i went and stole this: (pls add yourown tips)

1. Reverb creates the illusion of space, but in doing so it also 'smears'the stereo localisation of the original

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sound source, just as it does in reallife. If you want to maintain a specific

stereo placement for one or moresounds in a mix, consider using amono reverb effect and panning thereverb to the same position as the

original dry sound.

2. Reverb is very useful for makingvocals sound more musical and formaking them sit with the rest of themix, but adding too much will have

the effect of pushing the vocals back,

rather than allowing them to takefront position. Experiment with pre-delay values of 60-100mS to helpcounter this, and also try using a

reverb patch that has a lot of earlyreflections, as these help reinforce the

dry sound. You can learn a lot fromlistening carefully to records you liketo see how much and what type of reverb is used. Often it's rather less

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than you think.

3. Bright reverbs can flatter vocals,but may exaggerate sibilance. As an

alternative to de-essing the vocals, tryinstead de-essing the feed to the

reverb unit, so that sibilance isremoved before the reverb is applied.

4. Reverb is probably the mostimportant effect in the studio, so don't

compromise by using a low-qualitysoftware reverb plug-in just becauseyou're short of processing power. Usea good external hardware reverb unitif you have one, otherwise choose amore powerful software plug-in to

treat the vocal track in non-real time. This may involve off-line processing or

doing a real-time 'bounce to disk' of the vocal track in isolation, via the

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plug-in.

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