Creative Recording I and II are two extraordinarily helpful books to understand the working of the whole process of studio recording. It is not only good for the Computer Musician alike, but for bands.
The First book is called: Creative Recording I, effects & Processors.
The Second is called: Creative Recording II, microphones, acoustics, soundproofing & monitoring.
Author: Paul White.
Publisher: Sanctuary Publishing Limited.
Their respective ISBN are, first: 1-86074-229-7. The second is: 1-86074-231-9
(Ho… that? No no… I'm not Paul White's brother. The truth is that his books are really great, that's all)
Creative Recording.
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This is a short extract of this 283 pages book:
As with all my other books, the aim is to go into as much detail as possible while keeping the explanations clear and straightforward. It took me many years to learn everything that's in this book, but I'd like to pass it on so that others involved in recording music can achieve their full creative potential in considerably less time. Paul White.
Impressions of loudness
It's an established fact that the human nearing curve isn't flat, but instead is more sensitive to mid-range sounds than to frequencies at the extreme high and low ends of the spectrum. Again, we don't notice this, because we've heard things this way all our lives. However, as the level of sound we're listening to increases, the mid boost of the hearing system becomes less, with the result that high and low frequency sounds seem proportionally louder. This is yet another of those interesting physiological factors that can be exploited into fooling the ear into believing it's perceiving something that isn't entirely true. For example, if we know that extreme high and low frequencies stand our more when we listen to loud music, we can create the impression of loudness at lower listening levels by attenuating the mid range and boosting the HF and LF ends of the spectrum. The loudness button on a stereo system does exactly this, and if you look at the graphic EQs used in a nightclub or PA system, you'll often see them set up showing a smile-shaped curve to promote the illusion of loudness and power. Of course this works just as well in the studio, though it's generally most effective must to treat some of the sounds in a mix so as to maintain a contrast between the different sounds.
When to EQ
As a general rule, equalisation should be employed only after all efforts have been made to obtain the best sound at source. What's more, there's a huge subjective difference in sound between a budget equaliser and a top quality studio equaliser, so if you have to work with a budget EQ, or the EQ section build into your desk, you'll probably have to use it very sparingly if the overall sound isn't to suffer, especially if you want to make changes in the critical 800Hz to 4kHz region where the human ear is very sensitive. Though the character of a really nice equaliser is difficult to quantify, the best equalizers allow you to make more drastic changes without the sound appearing unnatural, nasal or harsh.
Most often, a combination of cut and boost is required, but always use the EQ bypass switch to flip back and forth between the equalised and unequalised sounds, to make sure you really have improved matters. Equally, if you feel the need to EQ an instrument in isolation, check again with all tracks playing to make sure that the settings you're using work in context with the rest of the mix. More often that not, you'll have to make further adjustments, but it really is worth striving to get your sounds right a the outset - EQ is an invaluable ally in shaping well-recorded sounds, but even the best equalizers have their limits when faced with difficult material.
Separating Sounds
EQ can be used in many ways, but one of the most popular applications is to separate two similar sounds within a mix where the degree of overlap is causing the sound to become confused, or muddled. If, for example, two sounds are fighting it out in the same part of the spectrum, a peaking equaliser can be used to add a degree of bite to one sound at one frequency while the other sound can be peaked up at a different frequency. Similarly, the top of bottom end of a sound can be "trimmed" to avoid conflict, a typical example being the acoustic rhythm guitar in a pop mix where the bottom end can get confused with the vocals, the drums or even the bass guitar. Here you can roll off quite a lot of the bottom end without probably sound rather thin. This introduces an important fact about EQ that I'll return to later - it's not what something sounds like in isolation that counts, but how it sounds in the context of the rest of the mix.
As with all my other books, the aim is to go into as much detail as possible while keeping the explanations clear and straightforward. It took me many years to learn everything that's in this book, but I'd like to pass it on so that others involved in recording music can achieve their full creative potential in considerably less time. Paul White.
Impressions of loudness
It's an established fact that the human nearing curve isn't flat, but instead is more sensitive to mid-range sounds than to frequencies at the extreme high and low ends of the spectrum. Again, we don't notice this, because we've heard things this way all our lives. However, as the level of sound we're listening to increases, the mid boost of the hearing system becomes less, with the result that high and low frequency sounds seem proportionally louder. This is yet another of those interesting physiological factors that can be exploited into fooling the ear into believing it's perceiving something that isn't entirely true. For example, if we know that extreme high and low frequencies stand our more when we listen to loud music, we can create the impression of loudness at lower listening levels by attenuating the mid range and boosting the HF and LF ends of the spectrum. The loudness button on a stereo system does exactly this, and if you look at the graphic EQs used in a nightclub or PA system, you'll often see them set up showing a smile-shaped curve to promote the illusion of loudness and power. Of course this works just as well in the studio, though it's generally most effective must to treat some of the sounds in a mix so as to maintain a contrast between the different sounds.
When to EQ
As a general rule, equalisation should be employed only after all efforts have been made to obtain the best sound at source. What's more, there's a huge subjective difference in sound between a budget equaliser and a top quality studio equaliser, so if you have to work with a budget EQ, or the EQ section build into your desk, you'll probably have to use it very sparingly if the overall sound isn't to suffer, especially if you want to make changes in the critical 800Hz to 4kHz region where the human ear is very sensitive. Though the character of a really nice equaliser is difficult to quantify, the best equalizers allow you to make more drastic changes without the sound appearing unnatural, nasal or harsh.
Most often, a combination of cut and boost is required, but always use the EQ bypass switch to flip back and forth between the equalised and unequalised sounds, to make sure you really have improved matters. Equally, if you feel the need to EQ an instrument in isolation, check again with all tracks playing to make sure that the settings you're using work in context with the rest of the mix. More often that not, you'll have to make further adjustments, but it really is worth striving to get your sounds right a the outset - EQ is an invaluable ally in shaping well-recorded sounds, but even the best equalizers have their limits when faced with difficult material.
Separating Sounds
EQ can be used in many ways, but one of the most popular applications is to separate two similar sounds within a mix where the degree of overlap is causing the sound to become confused, or muddled. If, for example, two sounds are fighting it out in the same part of the spectrum, a peaking equaliser can be used to add a degree of bite to one sound at one frequency while the other sound can be peaked up at a different frequency. Similarly, the top of bottom end of a sound can be "trimmed" to avoid conflict, a typical example being the acoustic rhythm guitar in a pop mix where the bottom end can get confused with the vocals, the drums or even the bass guitar. Here you can roll off quite a lot of the bottom end without probably sound rather thin. This introduces an important fact about EQ that I'll return to later - it's not what something sounds like in isolation that counts, but how it sounds in the context of the rest of the mix.