EQ for blugrass banjo

A hammer and wirecutters from my perspective.

tvolhein


What is a good EQ starting point for a typical bluegrass banjo?

Thanks

Tom

Banjo and Mandolin are very harsh but the amount of EQ needed will depend on how it was miced.  Ribbon mics are best because they tend to not pick up the worst of the harshness but still fast enough to not smear.  The old RCA 44 was the standard.  Moving coil mics can work well on the tone but are not as accurate on the speed and detail as the ribbon mics. It really doesn't even have to be an expensive ribbon to work well.  Distance and off axis placement can also fix harshness. Try to capture the sound you need in the mix while you record so you don't have to EQ later.  In many cases if the track sounds weak or dull solo it's perfect when it gets mixed in with the rest of the band. Bluegrass recordings shouldn't sound modern and "perfect".  Since we no longer have analog tape to smooth things out it's more important than ever to get the track correct for the mix.

If it's too late to choose a mic or placement EQ can do a lot of good. My best trick is to use a parametric EQ and boost a spot in the mids and sweep the frequency knob till it sounds unbearable. Now, reverse the boost to cut and you should be taking out exactly the notch you need to get rid of.  Play with the width till you get it sounding distant and sweet. Remember, nobody listens to a banjo with their ear next to it they way most people place a mic.

Tom, The way I approach it is like eq on anything,  there is usually a resonate or annoying
  frequency or frequencies that you will want to cut, boost and sweep to find,
      then there is the hi frequency that will cut through or add a shine that you may want to boost,( or cut)   do the boost and sweep again,  the last track I did on banjo was around 7k , 
     Then look at the lows,  start with a hi-pass filter even though there won't be much on a banjo,  then do the boost and sweep to find something that may give a warmth to it or that may need to be cut,   adjust gain and Q to taste,  then check in the full mix.
   I listened to some your tracks, you seem to have this eq thing figured out very well :)
  I'd say trust your ears!
     

Thanks to everyone for your advice.

Tom

tunekicker


All great advice. I'll approach it from a different angle.

For the banjo my instinct would be to go to an EQ that added some warmth and color to the sound.

I haven't tried the Pro Channel in X1, but it is supposed to do some of this. In my own setup I would likely drop on a UAD Pultec Pro EQ because it sounds great and adds a warm glossy tone to the sound without touching a knob.) I would also likely use the UAD Fairchild 670 to compress it ever so lightly. Again, I would be using that mostly because I like the character of the compressor. I also use this signal chain on Acoustic Guitar 99% of the time for the same reasons.

I find that when I find a plugin whose inherent character complements the sound of an instrument or vocalist I don't have to be as drastic with my settings to get things to sit right.

Peace,

Tunes

I wound up using the X1 ProChannel with some low mids and a bit of highs.  I find the ProChannel to be warm and smooth.  It tamed the banjo nicely.

Tom

Cool, Tom. Glad you found something that worked and I'm glad to hear you like the Pro Channel as I just got X1 and haven't played with it yet. Mike_mccue is right about ribbons. It's a whole new world when you start to expand your mic closet into ribbons.