I recorded a solo Jazz piano album at the weekend. This is now mixed and I'm very happy with the result with one exception. Across the tracks, there are one or two treble notes that have a harsh ringing. I'd like to tame these notes without losing the richness and sparkle that I've captured in the recordings. As a relative novice to mixing, how might I go away achieving this?
Sometimes it's capsule resonance on the microphone/s.
Dynamic EQ, not too steep. You'll likely only kill the ringing completely by killing the life and details in the recording. It's a balancing act.
Thanks, that's helpful. I guess as a novice, it would be useful to understand the capabilities of a DynamicEQ I might use (ReaEQ?) - in terms of isolation / identifying the frequencies and the filters / parameters to apply?
ReaXComp is a multiband compressor, not a dynamic EQ.
TDR Nova is probably the best freebie to try first.
Strictly speaking they're basically the same thing.
Either one can do the job of the other.
A dedicated dynamic EQ should be better for EQ duties, with more dedicated features for equalisation. Horses for courses, but the comparison is fair.
Strictly speaking they're basically the same thing.
Either one can do the job of the other.
A dedicated dynamic EQ should be better for EQ duties, with more dedicated features for equalisation. Horses for courses, but the comparison is fair.
If we're speaking strictly, then they are very different!
Multiband compressors split the signal with pass filters and sum the result. That's why you can't have notches like a dynamic EQ.
Semantics. Trying to be fair to Locombiano. They are largely (though not completely) interchangeable in practice.
Multiband compression splits the signal and therefore affects the signal just by being there. No compression has to have even taken place for this distortion to be introduced to the signal.
By contrast to this dynamic EQ only affects the signal when it is operating, therefore it is a little more transparent.
Though there is linear phase multiband compression too.
Semantics. Trying to be fair to Locombiano. They are largely (though not completely) interchangeable in practice.
Multiband compression splits the signal and therefore affects the signal just by being there. No compression has to have even taken place for this distortion to be introduced to the signal.
By contrast to this dynamic EQ only affects the signal when it is operating, therefore it is a little more transparent.
Though there is linear phase multiband compression too.
I think it's important to make the distinction right off the bat for someone just starting out.
It's not really semantics because they operate differently and produce a different result. They're not often used interchangeably.
"Differences
As you should be able to tell by now, dynamic EQs and multiband compressors are extremely similar, and it’s no wonder that they’re often used interchangeably.
The absolute simplest way to differentiate them is that a multiband compressor functions mostly like a compressor, but with some aspects of an EQ. A dynamic EQ functions mostly like an EQ, but with some aspects of a compressor."
"If you want to attenuate certain frequencies by a large amount, a dynamic EQ is usually a better call than a multiband compressor. Dynamic EQ is more transparent than compression, and a multiband compressor trying to aggressively compress a signal may be audible enough to become distracting in the mix. Strong attenuation will usually be less distracting with a dynamic EQ."
"Differences
As you should be able to tell by now, dynamic EQs and multiband compressors are extremely similar, and it’s no wonder that they’re often used interchangeably.
The absolute simplest way to differentiate them is that a multiband compressor functions mostly like a compressor, but with some aspects of an EQ. A dynamic EQ functions mostly like an EQ, but with some aspects of a compressor."
"If you want to attenuate certain frequencies by a large amount, a dynamic EQ is usually a better call than a multiband compressor. Dynamic EQ is more transparent than compression, and a multiband compressor trying to aggressively compress a signal may be audible enough to become distracting in the mix. Strong attenuation will usually be less distracting with a dynamic EQ."
I would respectfully disagree
You can't get a bell filter out of a multiband compressor. They can be more interchangeable if using very wide and shallow bell filters or shelving filters, but I would call that crossover (pun intended) rather than interchangeability.
I see little to no solid case for having or using a multiband compressor if you have dynamic EQ, unless it's more CPU friendly, or you actually want that colouration?
In a nutshell (as far as I can make it out) dynamic EQ is the more more transparent successor to the more crude multiband compression, and can be set to act like multiband compression anyway.
I guess suck it and see. Maybe someone here swears by multiband compression and doesn't like dynamic EQ?
I see little to no solid case for having or using a multiband compressor if you have dynamic EQ, unless it's more CPU friendly, or you actually want that colouration?
In a nutshell (as far as I can make it out) dynamic EQ is the more more transparent successor to the more crude multiband compression, and can be set to act like multiband compression anyway.
I guess suck it and see. Maybe someone here swears by multiband compression and doesn't like dynamic EQ?
I would love more people to chime in on this, as multiband compressors are a blind spot of mine that I havent really looked into but I'm a dedicated dynamic EQ user (DMG Equality is my go to), usually before the compressor in an fx chain.
So basically, I can strike off looking into multiband compression if I'm essentially doing the same thing?
I would love more people to chime in on this, as multiband compressors are a blind spot of mine that I havent really looked into but I'm a dedicated dynamic EQ user (DMG Equality is my go to), usually before the compressor in an fx chain.
So basically, I can strike off looking into multiband compression if I'm essentially doing the same thing?
They sound different. I very rarely use multiband compressors, but some people swear by them.
As a very general rule, I use dynamic EQ to fix problems where static EQ would do more harm than good, and multiband compression where I want the sound it brings (which isn't very often at all).
It's just different ways of working. Some people use multiband compressors to fix problems all the time.
... Across the tracks, there are one or two treble notes that have a harsh ringing. I'd like to tame these notes without losing the richness and sparkle that I've captured in the recordings. ...