Eq-ing Sampled Instruments vs. Real Instruments

I'm enjoying reading the "Mixing Engineer's Handbook" but it also raises some questions...

In the Interviews section of the book, the various mixing engineers talk about their preferences regarding EQ settings for particular instruments.

In my situation, I use sampled drums and bass for my mixes from either my Roland JV-1010 hardware synth or other sources such as the Cakewalk TTS-1 soft synth.

I'm wondering if the same EQ principles (in the book) apply to instrument samples as they do to real instruments?

Are the samples already optimized to an "ideal" EQ and require little or no adjustment?

What's the consensus here?

Thanks.

Dave,

I have the LA Drums sample/loop collection.

At first listen I thought the samples sounded a little to thick and woofy.

Now that I've been using them more I 'd swear they purposely left in as many key frequencies as possible to leave room for as much EQ'ing as you may need.

Now that I'm acclimated I've had some good success EQing what I need and they have really worked out well.

I guess I'm saying is these loops are optimized to leave room for you to optimize.

Interesting.

What do you use for a Frequency Analyzer?

Is there a plug-in available that you can insert in the Master buss to see the frequencies of the overall mix?

ORIGINAL: Dave King

Interesting.

What do you use for a Frequency Analyzer?

Is there a plug-in available that you can insert in the Master buss to see the frequencies of the overall mix?

check out voxengo's SPAN plugin: http://www.voxengo.com/product/SPAN/

it's free and works great for my purposes. it pretends to do the k-metering system although i haven't been able to verify if it in fact does or just says so on the button. you can put it on the master bus but i use it on individual busses and tracks as well to check out any problem frequencies.

basically in addition to using my ears i try to get a flat frequency spread across the core frequencies of the instrument. a lot of dipping eq is flattening out fundamental and resonant frequencies that make the instrument sound cheap or clangy or whatever. using a frequency analyzer you can actually see somewhat where these frequencies are popping out.

on the whole mix i do the same thing but of course the spread is bigger, usually between 50hz and 10-12k, again looking for a fairly flat response.

ears are important too but using an analyzer is a good way to train them.

I have that book too. It is informative but when it comes mixing, everything is relative. When I read about certain EQ or compression techniques, I try to break them down and focus on what specifically they are trying to accomplish with those techniques. Then I can evaluate my own situation and see if and how I can apply the technique to get the desired effect.

Wow. A lot of great responses aond food for thought...

I'm gonna give that Voxemgo SPAN analyzer a try and see how it works for me.

Thanks!

ORIGINAL: themidiroom

I have that book too. It is informative but when it comes mixing, everything is relative. When I read about certain EQ or compression techniques, I try to break them down and focus on what specifically they are trying to accomplish with those techniques. Then I can evaluate my own situation and see if and how I can apply the technique to get the desired effect.

I agree. Whenever you read some famous producer tell you "I almost always cut upright piano by 3dB at 8k" or whatever, keep in mind that there is a very good chance that this producer ALSO almost always works in the same studio, rents the same piano, and uses the same mics to record the same session musican on upright piano. And all those variables might be totally different from anything you're doing. Moreover, he may specialize in a kind of music that showcases warm, soft, midtempo piano sounds, whereas you might have a ragtime piano deep in a dense rock mix, and you may want your piano's upper presence plinkiness to really jump out out of the speakers.

I think the best way to use those kinds of mix-by-numbers "recipes" is use them as a framework for understanding why and how the producer/enginner made certain decisions.

Cheers.

What would be really cool is to analyze a really well-done song produced in SONAR and be able to compare the "before" (raw mix) and the "after" (finished mix) and see how the results were obtained.

That would be cool. What about it fellas? Any of you prepared to do this on your next track to teach us mere mortals something?