EQ:
EQ (equalisation) plays an essential part in any well mixed song, its crucial to know how to use the eq on any instrument to be able to embellish your sound by fine tuning the balance by adjusting the volume of different frequency’s. EQ ensures that all elements of a song work well together and corrects imperfections to improve the clarity of a final mix.
In logic there are 3 different types of shapes that you can use to adjust EQ such as;
Filter- on the lower end this is called a high pass filter witch cuts every thing below the amount that you set it to, this is helpful when cutting out hissing on the high end or unwanted subs and rumbling on the low end. When all tracks come together these small imperfections can really add up!
Shelf- This boosts or reduces frequency’s in a shelf like shape but unlike the filter it does not completely cut out frequency’s
Bell- This is most likely to be used in the middle frequency’s and it can be used to pinpoint a very small range of frequencies, as well as in a broader way to adjust tonal character.
When controlling eq its important to use all of these tools to be able to edit the sound in the way the artist likes, you can do this by shortening or lengthening the eq curves to effect as large or as small as a space you would like to. For example, a bell with a short wave length is used to make specific arias more punchy or to lessen very specific frequency’s.
Learning how to do this affectively takes practice and understanding of what each channels requirements are in terms of highs, mids and lows. I have watched some youtube videos about how to control eq in logic (linked below) and have learnt the basics by understanding what the important frequency’s are in most instruments.
Reverb:
Reverb is the most commonly used affect because is gives your tracks space and dept. This is important because you can differentiate reverb to make it sound less 2 dimensional and the listener enjoys this because it sounds like there in the aria that its being recorded in.
Miking And Recording:
Drums-
When miking up the bass drum, placing it on the outside will give you a more boomy sound so its important to find the sweet spot. It may also be helpful to angle the mic because the bass drum moves air witch can cause wind issues. It can then go into the digital snake to the daw.
With the toms and snare its sensible to position it an inch up from the head and an inch towards the centre from the rim facing towards the centre of the drum.
With hi hats and other symbols these can be picked up from over head mics or a small diaphragm condenser for the hi hat. When the over heads mics are further away they give a wider sound in the mix and a more intermate sound when closer so this is subjective to your taste.
Vocals-
These are added after all the other instruments to prevent bleeding from the sensitive large diaphragm microphone. They need a mic that picks up on mid end frequencies, its sensible to change the mic being used depending on the voice and the song style.