+1 to everything Danny said. Put another way, a multiband compressor is preferred to mitigate frequency anomalies that are not constant. We're talking primarily about resonances, which might cause a specific frequency range to sporadically be too loud. Statically dipping the range with an EQ might hurt the sound everywhere else that it's not a problem.

There is a third class of processors that combine the features of both multiband compressors and equalizers, and that is the dynamic equalizer. Check out meldaproduction's MDynamicEQ, an inexpensive plugin that you can demo. Once you get over the fairly steep learning curve, it's a great tool for those situations where neither a multiband nor a conventional EQ quite fills the bill.

Great point.

Most EQ's do not have threshold setting.

I learn (how to think about) something (in a) new (way) everyday.

Thanks Danny and Bitflipper!


best regards,
mike

I ran across this today. Hope it helps.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug02/articles/multiband.asp

I have a couple garbage bags full of compacted aluminum cans. It's growing in anticipation of the day FabFilter releases a multiband compressor. I don't know what's taking them so long, it's right up their alley. But the wait's OK because I reckon I need about 33 more bags of cans - assuming the price of recycled aluminum doesn't drop - before I'll be able to afford it.

Given how easy automation is these days, is there still much of an argument for using a multi-band EQ to deal with the occasional deviation in tone and whatnot? You could pretty easily just put an EQ on it and automate one of the bands to pop in when required. It would ultimately be the less intrusive way to do it, most likely. And considerably less processing overhead.

that's a good article there, timidi

thanks for posting that.



droddey

i think maybe the answer is the time factor, to go thru and find every peak that is problematic.
automating eq would work. it'd just take a while to program.

for that fact, you could automate a MBC on a separate bus and route a send to that bus, and only send parts of the song thru the MBC

droddey


Given how easy automation is these days, is there still much of an argument for using a multi-band EQ to deal with the occasional deviation in tone and whatnot? You could pretty easily just put an EQ on it and automate one of the bands to pop in when required. It would ultimately be the less intrusive way to do it, most likely. And considerably less processing overhead.

Very true. If it's not a dynamic or moving' series of events it would be very much like doing clip of fader moves on hot spots' or what have you.
As a side note and something to consider, I know they are very similar but it seems to me (and I'm not really sure why it would be) but dynamic eq often has a different and desireable effect vs multiband comp.