Adding *sparkle* to my mix

[Mogwix]

 

to make it "cutting is better than boosting" a "rule" is silly as the proper eq change is solely dependent on the context.

 

Obviously. The notion here isn't that you should never boost, but rather that cutting unwanted frequencies goes further than boosting the wanted ones.

 

It's good advice to get new users started because obviously they don't yet know the frequencies they want or don't want. Inevitably they're going to end up boosting everything because as they make changes they figure hey... it sounds better if I boost the highs... oh and if I boost the lows... but now the mids are a little weak better boost those too... oh and it sounds even better if I boost the highs again... oh and the lows wow!

 

Even though a smiley face isn't my thing (my eq's make weird faces at me), it's always better to cut the mids a bit instead of boosting the highs and lows. You keep your headroom and get your tasty EQ at the same time. It's all about balance. Notice in the EQ curve I posted earlier there's both boosts and cuts... I like to think of it as averaging things out. It's better cut more than you boost... than to boost more than you cut.

 

Edit: boost is such a strange word.

 

PS: The notion of cut over boost holds even more water when you relate it to cheap systems. In this case, it doesn't matter how much you boost the highs... the speakers aren't going to reproduce them anyways! Instead cut out the low mids and lows and overall the system will appear brighter. Or in a rig with no subs... you can boost the low end all you want but all you're going to do is cause harm to your poor speakers.

[Dukey]

Hi everyone

 

UPDATE

 

Last saturday was the *big* event and it turned out bigger then we thought. Some 250 people showed up - pre-sales 75 tickets only - approx 30 invitees so we expected 125/150 only. (with 123 sold tickets we would all at least make a little money). The venue has live music every weekend so to get so many people to show up is quite an achievement for 2 relatively unknown bands. Initially we thought about renting a PA but when ticketsales seemed to stall we decided to use our own PA. A Some of you offered your advice on my question about adding *sparkle* to the mix - Tks Guys:thu: - your advice reaaly made the difference- I turned down all Channelstrip EQ's to flat and added a little midHi/Hi where neccessary, same with the Param.EQ on the mains and the mix really stood out and had more then enough *sparkle*. What maybe also helped was the fact that last times we used our tops only - this time we had our full PA set-up (Tops & Subs), crossed theXOver (in 2-way stereo mode) at around 120 hZ, engaged the 100hZ filter on the mics. Vocals really stood out (I did sound for the other band - only bummer was that the soundguy that was supposed to do sound for us didn't show up). As I normally do sound for our band from stage I kind of know how to mix us so settings we found during soundcheck were OK for the gig as well (in fact the leadsinger of the other band helped us out douing sound for us - only thing he had to to was taking care that voices where just a tad above instruments. My monitor was connected to the mono out so I could kind of control what he was doing). I received a big compliment form the venue owner about the sound - remember he's used to having live bands / DJ's / Tape-artists perform there every weekend for the past 20 years or so and knows the difference between good and bad systems/mixes.

 

Thanks again for your advice - much appreciated

 

Greetz

Will

[jwlussow]

Glad to hear it worked out. Congrats on the gig.