Hey all! I would like to find a good EQ analyzer that I could stick on a reference track (similar music to mine) and then stick it on my mix so I can see if I'm lacking certain frequencies or maybe have to much in a certain frequency range.

First, what a is a good plugin to do this? Are they all pretty much the same? Seems like I recall BlueCat had some free plugin for this. I'll have to look into it.

Second, is this a good idea to do? Eventually I would like to just be able to do this by ear, but I think since I'm a amatuer, something like this could help me out.

Thanks!

 

Of course its a good idea to compare your tracks with reference tracks during your mastering stage. Just make sure they are original cd rips , wav or aiff files. Not some 192kbps mp3 converted into a flac or wav (this happens a lot on p2p filesharing like slsk)

plenty of FFT/Spectrum analyzers around , Voxengo Span , Nugen Audio Visualizer,BlueCat Audio FreqAnalyst Pro , Apulsoft APeq & Apqualizer has FFT function , Inspector XL Analysis Suite , SmartElectonix s(m)exoscope, HOFA Plugins IQ Analyzer,MasterPinguin PG AM , these all work as VST inside your DAW, then there are also other audio visualisers but work through soundcard source , not vst. Flux Analyzer tools are one of the best package. Just pick one of them that you like its gui , and response-update-freeze function and you are set to go.Im personally using BlueCat and apulsofts apEQ (the old 32bit version) for my FFT needs

 

I would go for Izotope ozone 5 6 or 7 and use the matching eq, (preferably to look up the differences not for strictly applying it.)

before u do so make sure the dynamic range are about equal.

(where izotope is usefull again, set the out meter on 2650 intergration time. this should give some reasonable readout)

 

HOFA IQ do a package, an analyzer with a library of reference material and a separate but linked EQ. If you want to make corrections the EQ will "read" from the analyser, I'm not keen on thier EQ but the analyser is as good as I've seen.

None of these analyser things are going to do the full job for you but they do help point you in the "right" direction.

 

When common sense tells me that my ears are becoming fatigued due to too many hours at the console, I strap iZotope insight across the Master fader in order to see exactly where I'm f***ing up the overall mix. Automatic matching eq doesn't float my boat. It gets me close but, for that final polishing touch, I prefer to be "hands on". That's not to say that auto-eq is essentially bad. The problem is me. I'm an incurable knob twiddler.

 

Thanks everyone! I will just have to try a few of them and see how it works out.

BTW... I forgot to mention I'm a ProTools 12 user... AAX. I did buy Patchworks from BlueCat so I can run some VSTs.

Thanks!

 

FLUX Pure Analyzer Essential (standalone) is f&%"ng awsome! Another free workhorse is Voxengo SPAN (VST).

 

Voxengo SPAN is more than you need.

TBH you can do this FabFilter ProQ2 if you have it, set the slope between 3.75 to 4.5 (higher numbers will generate a darker output) and try to make a flat line between the lowest Fx and the highest Fp. Small dips between 2.5KHz to 5KHz are fine as long as you can hear everything, and you should be able to, big mountains of energy there is quite piercing and very quickly fatiguing especially on a low DR track.

One caveat to matching EQ though is going to be the bass PTT, generally bass drums and the like are way louder on Pro-AM or AM mixes (peak energy and non-distributed harmonics) this is not something you can easily fix in mastering and even when you can it doesn't sound as nice as when properly done in the mix itself.


Try to mix it near flat first - when it sounds good - and it's flat in the mix - then an EQ comparison or match will become slightly more useful.