NICHE MARKET
Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Doug Eisengrein
I remember my first “real” EQ. It was a basic 7-band built into a cheap DJ mixer, but to that 14-year-old kid back then, it was the coolest-sounding thing on the planet. With just my ears and a few tweaks, I could make any poorly recorded 12-inch sound a million times better. But more than that, I could do cool things like pull out all of the bass during the break in a track only to pump it back up hotter than before when the song kicked back in. I could also push randomly selected single bands up and back down in time with the beat to add some drama to the mix. Although not rocket science, this technique gave my mixtapes an added zing that many people heard and liked — and some others, mainly producer types, abhorred.
Nowadays, many DJ mixers are equipped with 3-band frequency kill switches that are specifically designed for the same type of creative mixing. Adjusting a mix's balance in real time can tip the scales in favor of a great live gig or recording, which is why knowing some creative uses for EQ (aside from the nuts and bolts) can be such an asset to your sound.
Q TIPS
In the virtual world, many DAWs include quality EQs of either multiband (linear) or parametric types; parametric EQs can be seriously useful to create fluid, dramatic sound effects. In Propellerhead Reason, for example, virtually all parameters of the program's PEQ-2, MClass Equalizer and the EQ section of the 14:2 Mixer — including on, off and bypass switches — can be mapped to both MIDI and keyboard remote control. Especially nice is the MClass EQ, which, like any good parametric, can be used much like a synth filter: If you raise or lower the gain of one of the frequency bands, assign a MIDI-controller knob or fader to the Frequency control and sweep ever so slowly across the spectrum, the result is a gradual amplification or dampening of a certain bandwidth, depending upon the Q setting (area around the center frequency). By using a relatively narrow Q and starting at the very top or bottom of the frequency spectrum, you can typically keep the EQ's initial effect out of audible range until you sweep in far enough for it to have an impact on the signal, making it behave like a silky-smooth crossfader. Rapidly sweeping back and forth across the entire spectrum with MClass often results in a watery-sounding effect. If you keep an active frequency setting in one position, add (rather than cut) gain and gradually bring the Q control up and down, you can accentuate or de-emphasize a wider range of frequencies and create a pulsating effect.
Take note that if you are doing this sort of frequency boosting and sweeping across the spectrum, whether in the studio or in a live situation, you should be mindful of your levels. Because EQs allow you to drastically boost the levels of specific frequencies, you run the risk of severely damaging your monitors, a club's speakers or much worse.
PLAYER IN MANY BANDS
Linear EQs, especially the popular 31-band type, such as Apple's AUGraphicEQ plug-in, can also be powerful tools in your production arsenal. Rather than make smooth sweeps across the frequency spectrum, you can fully boost or fully cut specific frequencies that already have relatively narrow bandwidth or Q. As with the aforementioned DJ example, I've found that by choosing just one or two adjacent bands at a time and boosting and cutting them in time with the rhythm of a track, you can make things interesting. And like the Reason example, this can be particularly fun and effective (and much easier to perform) if the EQ in question allows you to assign continuous MIDI controllers to its individual bands. Or if you're crafty enough, you can try modular programs such as Native Instruments Reaktor or Cycling '74 Max/MSP. Such programs allow you to build your own custom processors, including parametric EQs.
MARRIED COUPLE
In the studio, you can design an interesting effect by running one signal through two different EQs, using one for the left and the other for the right channel. In this scenario, full, spacious pads, leads or basses can be crafted simply by boosting a lower frequency in one channel while boosting a noticeably higher frequency in the other. My ears tend to lean toward boosting the lower signal in the left channel and reserving the right for higher frequencies, but that is totally subjective.
Similarly, you can create a psychedelic effect in a live set by using two parametric EQs. Assign your MIDI controller's knobs or faders to each of the EQ's frequency controls, and sweep them both back and forth opposite one another. If you want to experiment with this in Reason but have noticed that the Subtractor synth only sports a single output, this is precisely what the Spider Audio Merger & Splitter is good for. Feed a Spider the mono signal from a Subtractor, and send a clone of the signal to the left input of two different MClass EQs. Then, patch the left output of each EQ to a 14:2 Mixer channel, one to the left and one to the right. Even though you are feeding one left channel to a right input, it will work just fine because you are dealing with a mono source. As a side note, most pro-audio hardware units that accept either a stereo or mono signal typically pipe mono signals through their left sockets. There are exceptions, but that is the general rule, and Reason follows this convention.
If you take these creative ideas for EQ and run with them, there are endless varieties of interesting things that you can do. By deliberately breaking all the rules with EQ — as long as you are careful with your levels along the way — you will go a long way to learning both the tools and the rules while you hone your skills with a tried-and-true weapon of sonic destruction. Now, get to it.
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
