1) What stage do you notch the final mix? Mixx Buss or master? 2) What is the best VST for this, PRO Q 2 works well for me.. 3) Sometimes when I cut the track sounds a little thin, is there a way to make notches and still retain all the 'weight' of the song. 4) In general just please explain your tips and tricks and general application of notching and how to best use this during the mixing and mastering stage.
Usually you don't do such radical EQ moves during mastering. You can ( and should) use notch filters to fix ugly/harsh resonances during mixing, on individual tracks. Usually, if you have to notch down a frequency more than -5bB max, it's because something went wrong during tracking. Personally, my alarms start sounding when I feel forced to notch down -3bB... Remember that with such narrow Q moves, some phasing artifacts will most likely appear, depending on the EQ you use. Anyway, mastering is for subtle changes. If you have to make dramatic changes, fix them during mixing.
Thanks this answered my question perfectly.. Notch on individual tracks only.. But the question remains.. I see pro's notch out bad frequencies in mastering sessions in ask videos and ozone tutorials etc etc so I would not say this question is totally crazy.
Well, I guess that depends on what you call mastering.... As you come from an EDM background, what you call "mastering" is what I call "finalizing". There's a difference. If you produce EDM, you most likely want to get your music out of your DAW to some service like Soundcloud as fast as possible..This is finalizing...Mastering is a bit more complex than that. EDM is kind of a rushed, fast paced music production style. Things are very streamlined....And there are not real instruments involved either. So, I imagine an EDM producer will most likely need to notch down some key harsh resonances like around 3k or 0,6k... However, a honest producer should mix well enough in order to leave very few corrections to the finalizing/mastering stage.
I do prefer to attenuate the resonances on individual channels, but just in the instruments that have annoying ressonances, sometimes fm synths or digital wavetables on high octaves can produce a lot of ressonant peaks and if you try to get rid of that on master you will actually attenuate some important harmonics of other instruments.
Is there a way someone can create a txt file for me so I can make a EQ Mix Patch for my channel strip and I can use the recommended freq cuts. Or should I use my ears and do it this way?
No. It's impossible...Always use your ears. Offensive frequencies change accordingly to song key, room resonances, and with a hell of a lot of variables. Just swipe around your EQ with an exaggerated narrow boost to know where the bad frequencies are, then notch them down.
3-6 db or all the way down.. The pro q 2 has an excellent notching preset but IDK what the standard DB reduction should be.. Guess I better use my ears. Honestly guys if I didn't care about becoming the best I wouldn't bother learning all these advanced techniques but it's not easy when you actually produce and DJ all by yourself. No one is making my beats or my sound design or creating harmonies and melodies for me.. I'm a 1 man show, hate it or love it.
Notching template chart? Use your ears. I will always be a 1 man show. Well me and Midi cat. People suck. I love recording and jaming in my home studio, but that usually only last an hour or so. Then I cant wait to get most artist/people out of here. Dummies taking selfies of them selves on the mic. "Lookie me, Im in the studio!" Idiots. There have been 2 artists that I really enjoyed working with that had a clue. but all the others were getting drunk and taking selfies.......
And, stop worrying about mixing and mastering......Focus on your music first. Actually making tracks that need to be mixed properly. Youre trying to learn everything all at once. STOP! First your musicality......Then mixing.....Then mastering/finalizing. IN THAT ORDER!
I noticed this too, it's the new gimmick, not useful until the material asks for it. and that's rarely the case. skip exactly that tutorials, that will separate some bad from the good
i Don't Notch / Cut on the Mix Buss you do all that when you Mix you find all the offencive frequency and deal will them in the Mix But it is not unheard of to do a little in the Mastering Stage
I would recommend use the function "isolate listen" in your pro q with a q of 30-35 and run it across the spectrum looking for "whistles" and annoying resonances, then your spectrum annalyzer on pro-q can help you, try to make these ressonant peaks stay at the same level of your other peaks (or a little less if it's really annoying, because on the master the most quiet sounds gonna be way more noticeable), after reduce the gain of the frequency you can low the q (spread it) a bit, I think it's a nice recipe to start working with ressonant peaks... Ps. never thought about use notch filter to get rid of ressonant peaks, gonna try it. ;)
I personally do it on both. I get rid of the annoying (almost out of tune) screeches and frequencies, or at least duck them by a fair amount on each channel. I use the FL Parametric 2 EQ since i've always liked the ease to notch things out. The Pro Q2 is also a go to EQ as well. I do some notching on the mastering or just mix busses but try not to go overboard at all, just tiny things to clear up a mix if and when needed. I usually go through all my channels and bypass notch EQs to hear the difference, because sometimes some frequencies that sound terrible may actually add to the sound and be an important part of a sound. Just like add a low Cut of even 20-30hz can make the biggest difference to a kick or Bass sound even if they don't have any real dominant sub frequencies. It almost gives the other frequencies more space to speak.
Just don't use it.i honestly wish this "trick"would fuckoff and die already,because it is completely unnecessary and will DESTROY mixes.if you are finding it easier to balance things by putting notches in literally anything then you either have:really fucked hearing,or your room,playback system is total shit If you have inharmonicity in your sounds then they are not the right sounds for the arrangement,or they need to tuned so the "beating" is harmonious.THIS is what you are hearing as rogue resonances in sounds.they are harmonics which don't fit into the series of whatever key you are in.it's called music for a reason....and all "mixing"like that really does is very poorly disguise your lack of ability to put an arrangement together
I love it when I see these catchall rants that condemn an entire mixing practice as being evidence of lack of skill/talent There's lots of different kind of music out there and different reasons to use any technique at all. I mostly only use notches in sound design, or as a result of sound design, to tame some ridiculous mangled bass sound or something, but I have no doubt that someone somewhere has notched a mix bus successfully with great results
notch in the middle400hz-4000khz,try freqs that are not in the scale, use a musical surgical eq and on the master
As long as you understand that is akin to shoe-horning a large animal into a really tight space, then that is all good.i guess this all really comes down to what one considers "successfully"(you say tom-ay-to,i say tom-ah-toh,literally...)if someone felt the need to notch something to make something work together as a whole, then it seems pretty obvious that things could of been done earlier in the chain of events to prevent that "necessary"notch at 1.8khz or whatever.whether that be,tuning the sample up and down a few cents,sliding it around in time a tiny bit,editing the waveform at the front because the offending frequency is only in the transient and lasts for about 3ms,etc,etc,etc. I make "Mangled Basses"too and don't ever really feel the need to notch (you gonna give me a "good for you bro"anxiously awaiting your good for you bro reply) I don't know why you mentioned notching as a creative filter either,this is primarily me playing "devils advocate" if ya like in its use as an engineering crutch
