EQ Matching every instrument for your first song

[WhiteShadow]

I'm terrible at home recording and everything entailed therein.

I was wondering if its a legitimate endeavor to find a song/album in which you really like the sound/mix, and EQ match every instrument so you can be sure you're going to have a good sound/product?

Would this even work?

 

[FormerlyKnownAsMaddnotez]

I'm terrible at home recording and everything entailed therein.

I was wondering if its a legitimate endeavor to find a song/album in which you really like the sound/mix, and EQ match every instrument so you can be sure you're going to have a good sound/product?

Would this even work?

I suck at recording so don't listen to me but I would say no. Unless you are using the same instruments and hardware it wont be the same source and would sound different either way.

With that said Ozone makes some really awesome eq/mastering presets.

 

[RaceU4her]

you mean A/B'ing your mix against other songs?? i have a whole list of songs i use to compare my own mixes with.

 

[Monkey Man]

you mean A/B'ing your mix against other songs??

Na mate; he means "capturing" the EQ settings via software.

I'd say don't do it 'cause every mixing situation is different, but no harm in trying I s'pose.

 

[easstudios]

It’s a bad idea and will make things worse ultimately. Just stick at it, and ideally focus on improving your monitoring environment (room treatment, good speaker stands and positions). Most of your problems are probably related to how accurately you’re able to hear rather than anything else.

 

[WhiteShadow]

It’s a bad idea and will make things worse ultimately. Just stick at it, and ideally focus on improving your monitoring environment (room treatment, good speaker stands and positions). Most of your problems are probably related to how accurately you’re able to hear rather than anything else.

That and I can just never get the drums right. I don’t play drums, so I’m working with plugins. The drums are never right in my stuff. That’s maybe 90% of why I never finish a song. The drums just never have the right vibe that I’m going for.

Then neither do the guitars for that matter. For some reason, no matter the tempo I play at, my songs just always sound sluggish and slow. The drums always seem like they lack umph and pep. It’s so unexplainable. I’ve straight up given up numerous times. I can’t figure it out. I’m either already insane, or it’s driving me insane.

I don’t know what to do. Can’t seem to find what I’m looking for.

 

[easstudios]

That and I can just never get the drums right. I don’t play drums, so I’m working with plugins. The drums are never right in my stuff. That’s maybe 90% of why I never finish a song. The drums just never have the right vibe that I’m going for.

Then neither do the guitars for that matter. For some reason, no matter the tempo I play at, my songs just always sound sluggish and slow. The drums always seem like they lack umph and pep. It’s so unexplainable. I’ve straight up given up numerous times. I can’t figure it out. I’m either already insane, or it’s driving me insane.

I don’t know what to do. Can’t seem to find what you I’m looking for.

What set up are you working in? can you share a photo of your studio?

Is there someone you can get to help you with programming/writing drums? I think learning some new ways of doing things will help you get out of that rut

 

[WhiteShadow]

What set up are you working in? can you share a photo of your studio?

Is there someone you can get to help you with programming/writing drums? I think learning some new ways of doing things will help you get out of that rut

This is literally my setup right now. Mackie CR3 monitors. Studio One or Reaper for DAW. Focusrite Solo. Charvel San Dimas. Wolfgang Special. Also have an Alesis Surge kit I just bought but still haven't been able to get it to trigger the MiDi drums plugins in the DAW. Wouldn't matter anyway because I can't really play drums good enough.

Going to invest in some monitor stands right away.

 

[rottingcorpse]

I learned eq layering when I worked at a studio as a go-fer straight outta high school.
Not sure if that's what you're talking about.
Pretty sure you could learn a lot about that subject just from the internet.

 

[VESmedic]

This is literally my setup right now. Mackie CR3 monitors. Studio One or Reaper for DAW. Focusrite Solo. Charvel San Dimas. Wolfgang Special. Also have an Alesis Surge kit I just bought but still haven't been able to get it to trigger the MiDi drums plugins in the DAW. Wouldn't matter anyway because I can't really play drums good enough.

Going to invest in some monitor stands right away.
View attachment 128881

Man you literally can find EVERYTHING you need to learn online at this stage. Every single problem you have, is an easily found tutorial on how to do all of this. Secondly, you are never going to be happy with your productions monitoring with this. You brought a lawnmower to the Daytona 500 and are asking why your lawnmower isn’t as fast… that’s about the best analogy I can give. Invest in a good set of headphones for now until you can actually put together something you can monitor with.

 

[Jack Luminous]

I'm terrible at home recording and everything entailed therein.

I was wondering if its a legitimate endeavor to find a song/album in which you really like the sound/mix, and EQ match every instrument so you can be sure you're going to have a good sound/product?

Would this even work?

Yes it can work provided you can find sections with isolated instruments to capture each eq separately. I did that about 20 years ago using the eq matching tool of Samplitude with Death's "Human" and one of my own mix. It worked pretty well.

You could use various multitrack floating around the web with separate "pre-produced" instruments tracks. I'm sure it could give interesting results. That would not prevent you from further tweaking of course.

 

[ZEN Amps]

I'm terrible at home recording and everything entailed therein.

I was wondering if its a legitimate endeavor to find a song/album in which you really like the sound/mix, and EQ match every instrument so you can be sure you're going to have a good sound/product?

Would this even work?

No this would not work at all. There are no real 'tricks' or silver bullets here, same as any other worthwhile endeavour.

Practice, practice, practice are the three pillars of getting solid recordings. Put in the hours and you'll slowly start getting better results

 

[Jack Luminous]

,No this would not work at all.

Really ? Have you tried at least once ? Eq matching can also work on whole mixes provided the two arrangements are close enough and levels are somewhat proper to begin with. Of course, it is not a panacea or a proper way of working, more of a quick & dirty trick but it does work surprinsingly well.

 

[VESmedic]

Really ? Have you tried at least once ? Eq matching can also work on whole mixes provided the two arrangements are close enough and levels are somewhat proper to begin with. Of course, it is not a panacea or a proper way of working, more of a quick & dirty trick but it does work surprinsingly well.

I agree with @ZEN Amps , it doesn’t work. There is so much more that goes into the way something sounds other than just it’s eq curve. On that note, I very often use the raw stereo guitar track to future breed machine by Meshuggah as a “reference” point of tone. I’ll apply something like ozone’s tonal balance and see if it’s in a similar ball park, because I know I love that tone. But what I’m looking for is similar clarity, not so much as it is the same eq curve as that tone. But, that tones Lower midrange clarity is perfect to me, and that’s often a spot of trouble for sure on guitars. So no, it definitely doesn’t work on whole mixes, but I think it can be useful to use as a reference on a single instrument track. But even then, the song has to be in the same tuning, same gain structure etc. it’s just not that simple.

 

[Jack Luminous]

I guess it depends on your definition of "working". It's quick and easy to try anyway so I guess OP can have at it and see for himself if it fits his needs.

 

[ZEN Amps]

Really ? Have you tried at least once ? Eq matching can also work on whole mixes provided the two arrangements are close enough and levels are somewhat proper to begin with. Of course, it is not a panacea or a proper way of working, more of a quick & dirty trick but it does work surprinsingly well.

Sure you can match the EQ on two different sources, but that in no way means the EQ'd track will sound 'good' or even better than it did. There's way too much complexity going on in an audio signal for this to work - and yes I've tried it. It might work with a signal with little to no harmonics, but good luck finding one.

But you're right - it might help on some things, some of the time. Try this - sing "I've paid my dues" into a 57 then EQ match it to Freddie...

 

[Jack Luminous]

Try this - sing "I've paid my dues" into a 57 then EQ match it to Freddie...

I won't try because it obviously won't work. But that's not "mixing" you're talking about, more like a magic wand. For sure eq matching using IR is not a magic wand, it's just another tool. But it's a good one. You can fix a lot of things with duct tape. Of course it's never a purist solution but I thought it was obvious from the start.

 

[VESmedic]

I won't try because it obviously won't work. But that's not "mixing" you're talking about, more like a magic wand. For sure eq matching using IR is not a magic wand, it's just another tool. But it's a good one. You can fix a lot of things with duct tape. Of course it's never a purist solution but I thought it was obvious from the start.

Sad but true is a great guitar tone, but how well is that tone going to work in queen song? This is an extreme example, but the OP asked if he could “eq match entire mixes to ensure a good sound/product”…. No, you can’t. It’s really that simple. There are a lot of great sounding records, but if you “eq match” them and say great I have that tone now, what assurance is there that that tone is going to work in YOUR mix? Just because the drums from the black album sound great and the guitars from an Aerosmith record sound great doesn’t mean those will sound great together. and that’s essentially what the OP is asking. Furthermore, eq has limits. You can’t just expect an eq to sound great if going to extremes in Q and addition/subtraction of frequencies. People that forget this are the same people who think you can just eq a tone to sound like something else. The ole “ oh just throw an eq in the loop your abc amp will sound exactly like XYZ amp”… total nonsense. The Op is going to be chasing his tail trying this, and it will be a waste of time, guaranteed. Again, using it as a referencing tool is one thing, “eq matching” a mix is quite another. Even if you can pull apart the seperate instruments in a track, which is a process in itself that I’m betting, if the OP is asking how to eq match and if that will sound good, I doubt very much he’s going to want to download and learn software of how to do this.

 

[thegame]

Going to invest in some monitor stands right away.
View attachment 128881

Is it a good idea to have all those amplifier speakers with their heavy magnets only inches away from your hard drive? Thinking their magnetic field may mess with your data, sooner or later.

 

[BeZo]

It's really difficult to mix anything better than you can hear it. Worse yet, just buying good monitors might not be enough. If the room isn't treated, the room can still cancel certain frequencies and have you chasing ghosts. You may feel like EQ matching could be a cheat code to get things to sound right, but you'll never know if you can't hear it. Rather that chasing that, I would try to do things the right way and get the reference right.

For a small, simple setup like yours, I would go out and get some good, open back headphones. I edit on Beyerdynamic DT990s and I like them, but there are better. Then, I would listen critically and make EQ moves with a purpose. You can do it. There are ear training courses on YouTube to help you learn to listen. There are plenty of mixing tips out there, but the only one that matters is yours. If it doesn't sound right, figure out why and fix it.

You'll get it eventually. It does take practice though.