I am a co-producer for the tracks on this EP, so I will need to research things about it. Something I need to learn about is recording effects. I will be using different sources which I will be referencing in my proposal.
Channel EQ – Channel EQ is usually the first effect used on, and it is changing individual frequencies on track. There are a few tips on how to get the best sound from using channel EQ from my research. However, these aren’t definitive rules, they are just tips and a general idea. Using your ear is still the most useful thing to do.
0 – 50 Hz (sub) usually has these frequencies cut as you usually can’t hear these frequencies through most of speakers, and when they are it is very faint. However kick drums and basses can include these frequencies. 100 Hz is good for a kick drum, as it is usually where the punchy sound comes from.
200 – 400 Hz (low mids) is usually where a lot of bad sound comes from. As this area can give off a muddy or boomy sound if there are too many frequencies in this area. 800 Hz has the midrange punch for a bass guitar.
1 – 3 Khz (high mids) usually add warmth and fullness to the sound. It works especially well with vocals, guitars and the top end of frequencies on a kick drum. 3 – 7 hz is good for the sibilance of the vocals and makes it pop.
8 – 12 Khz (top end) adds a shimmer and brightness to the track. For a lo-fi sound, cut out these frequencies. It depends on the genre of music and your taste on whether to cut or boost these frequencies.
For vocals, some good frequencies are 120 Hz for fullness, 200 – 240 Hz for a boomy sound, 5 kHz for more presence and 7.5 – 10kHz for more sibilance.
For electric guitar, 240 Hz for fullness, 2.5 khz for bite, and 8 kHz for sizzle.
For bass guitar, 60 – 80 Hz for the lower sounds, 700 – 1000 Hz for the attack and 8kHz for the string noise.
For a drum kit, there are different tracks for different drums. For the bass drum, to get the lower sounds a good frequency is 60 – 80 Hz and for a “slap” sound 4 kHz. For the snare drums, for fatness a good frequency is 240Hz and for the crispness 5 kHz. For the toms, to get the fullness a good frequency is 120 – 240 Hz and for attack 5kHz. For the hi hat and cymbals, for the clank sound 200 Hz and for the “sizzle” 7.5 – 10 kHz.
Compressor – A compressor reduces a signals dynamic range, so that they sound natural. As having two sounds on the same audio track that are on opposite ranges then it would sound completely off, and a compressor fixes that. It reduces loud sounds and increases quiet sounds.
There are usually two different types of compression you can do, which is either corrective or creative. Corrective is where you are fixing an issue, such as a part of the track being too loud or quiet. Or there is the creative aspect where you use a compressor to give a track a specific sound.
The threshold is where you want the compressor to start working. You set the compressor to a certain dB, then the compressor will work from the sounds above that. This is important as if you want to fix or change a loud sound and only them sounds you will have to set the threshold high. And if you set it low you will affect most of the sounds. The perfect threshold depends on what the track needs.
The ratio affects how strong the compressor is. A low ratio gives a gentle compression, and a high ones gives a intense sound. When adjusting the ratio, the perfect sound is what your ears deem as good, as if you have a too high ratio then the audio will sound squashed as it will have no dynamics. However if you don’t have enough the dynamics will be way too apparent and too much.
Attack and release is part of the same control, and attack controls when the compression starts and release controls when the compression ends. This control if the compressors effects will start and end swiftly or gradually. This control is great at creating a natural sound.
Automation – Automation in terms of music is when the DAW will automatically perform tasks for you. Such as moving knobs, switches and faders. The most common use of automation is to affect the volume of different parts of the track. This is useful for example if in the chorus the guitar gets drowned out, however when you turn the volume up for the guitar, it is too loud in the verse. In this situation you would use automation to make the guitar louder in the chorus.
The reason automation is so useful is that before the mixing process became digital. When recording and adding effects, you would have to do it manually by using faders. So if the guitar was at a good level in the chorus, but get drowned out in the verse, then you would manually turn it up and down during the recording. However if there was another instrument that had a similar issue, or an effect was too much in one part of the song and good in another, that’s when an issue would arise. However with automation it does all of this for you, it saves loads of time and is more precise than manually doing it.
You can automate practically anything such as effects, so distortion, reverb, chorus etc; you can also automate a bus instead of a singular channel so you can control what happens to multiple channels at once easier and automate the master fader so that you can automate when a song is loud, quiet or a fade in/fade out. You can also perform a limitless amount of things at once, however if you do too much a system overload will happen.
The most common way to record automation on Logic is to draw it in using the mouse. You can just move the line to automate what you want. Automation can be used in creative ways, such as if you want a different EQ sound in the chorus than to the verse, you could automate it. There are also many different things you can do with it.