EQ matching and K-system?

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M_Glenn_M
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2012/05/28 22:46:11 (permalink)

EQ matching and K-system?

Bitflipper mentioned these in another thread.
What are these? 


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#1

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    thomasabarnes
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    Re:EQ matching and K-system? 2012/05/28 23:47:17 (permalink)
    I think what they are talking about is described in the article the following link leads to.

    Starting with roman numeral VI in the article. It appears to be some deep stuff dealing with metering and monitoring and signal levels.

    http://www.digido.com/level-practices-part-2-includes-the-k-system.html


    "It's not a song till it touches your heart. It's not a song till it tears you apart!" Lyrics of Amy Grant.

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    #2
    bitflipper
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    Re:EQ matching and K-system? 2012/05/29 10:16:59 (permalink)
    EQ-matching is a feature of some equalizers (e.g. Ozone's) that allows you to automatically set your EQ to match the curve of some reference music.

    Let's say you're a big fan of Pink Floyd, and you've composed a tune similar to "Great Gig in the Sky", you could load that recording into an analyzer that produces a spectral representation of GGiS. With EQ-matching, the equalizer can automatically tweak its filters so that your song matches the Pink Floyd recording. In theory, your song now sounds just like Floyd's.

    Of course, it doesn't. In fact it probably made your song sound worse. That's when you start to think that maybe the feature has been oversold.

    EQ-matching does have legitimate applications, though. Maybe you've recorded two vocal verses a month apart and they don't sound the same because the mic's not set up in exactly the same place, or maybe you used a different microphone, or the singer was wearing a big hat. EQ-matching can help you match the two performances better. I would imagine that it's more commonly used in movie and television post-production than in music production.


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    bitflipper
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    Re:EQ matching and K-system? 2012/05/29 10:24:20 (permalink)
    The K-system is basically a way to meter loudness and assure loudness consistency. 

    It was inspired by standards used in the movie industry, the only audio sector that's ever had such standards until the K-system came along. For movie exhibition, the audio guys can actually know in advance how loud the movie sound is going to be in any theater, because the sound systems in theaters are calibrated to a universal standard. 

    Mastering engineer Bob Katz (author of the highly-recommended book "Mastering Audio") proposed a similar system for music production wherein mix and mastering engineers would calibrate their own speakers in a similar fashion to movie exhibitors. 

    thomasbarnes' link to Bob Katz's website is a good place to start researching the K-system. Ultimately, assuming you do your own mastering, you'll probably want to get a copy of his book.


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    pwal
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    Re:EQ matching and K-system? 2012/05/29 11:12:06 (permalink)
    would be nice if sonar's meters were configurable for this sort of thing

    list of stuff
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    bitflipper
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    Re:EQ matching and K-system? 2012/05/29 13:23:41 (permalink)
    Easiest, quickest way to get k-metering is Voxengo SPAN. Of course, if you want to do it right you'll also need a SPL meter to adjust your playback levels. But if you just want to visually check your master bus against a K-level, SPAN will do the trick. Just put into Mastering mode and select your K-reference.


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    #6
    M_Glenn_M
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    Re:EQ matching and K-system? 2012/05/29 13:29:41 (permalink)
    Cool stuff , thanks for those.


    Producer Exp x1d 
    Win XP, intel Core2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.4 GHz, 2 GHz RAM  
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    BR800 controller , DR880 drum machine. GR20 guitar synth, Alesis QX25 
    KRK 6 + 10" sub.   Sennheiser HD280pro cans  
    2 Yamaki acoustics, Korean Strat, 60's Jazzmaster, 60's BF Deluxe Reverb,   

     



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