I'm trying to improve the overall quality of my mixes and was wondering if anybody has EQ presets for the Sonitus that they want to share. I know the best tool for improving a mix is is the human ear but it would be great if I had a jumping off point for say bass guitar, bass drum, snare, male vox, female vox etc. Thanks in advance.

Joe D

If you are tracking the exact same thing as I am then you can use my EQ settings If not it would do you no good. Your audio is not the same as my audio. Nor is it the same as anybody else's. Thus you can't use some one else's EQ curves on your audio. I hope you understand what I am saying to you.

+1 to that. Plus sheesh, there's presets already in there. EQ more than anything else you just HAVE to use to personal taste. There are no presets alone that you can apply to your mixes to magically improve them.

On the upside, EQ is the easiest thing to learn and play with, and totally non-destructive. Start with a general guideline: cut narrow, boost wide. Also, try cutting instead of boosting if at all possible. Especially because you mention your mixes, which is all about getting everything sounding good together. That means carving out a little slice of home in the frequency spectrum for all your sounds.

So, just crank it up and have at it!

If you pick through the rambling there are some good EQ tips amongst this lot: http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html#approach

In particular the idea of sweeping quite sharp notches up and down the spectrum to identify the parts of the sound you want to work on. There are also some good pointers in there about what frequency areas tend to be important for which elements of certain sounds too.

Cheer
Child

The main thing is to get a good basic grasp on the concept of compression. The Mixing Engineers Handbook has some great info on when/how/why to use it (lots of free articles on the web too - google). There are also some interesting and creative ways they detail too in M.E.H.. But once you begin to get comfortable with the different parameters and what they accomplish I think presets become unnecessary. Like John said - every instance is different.

I find that most individual instruments, and combinations of similar instruments can benefit from some degree of compression (even if very slight) and then the overall mix to be sure. But I think it is just a matter of trial and error until you get comfortable with the concept (and of course looking at some basic presets will help too) and then you'll have a solid idea of when and where to use it and will use presets only as a starting point - if at all.


NOTE TO SELF: In the future, when people ask questions about various topics and you choose to answer, try and read the post carefully so as to answer the actual question that they ask.

(EQ, Compressor - what's the difference? )

ORIGINAL: John

If you are tracking the exact same thing as I am then you can use my EQ settings If not it would do you no good. Your audio is not the same as my audio. Nor is it the same as anybody else's. Thus you can't use some one else's EQ curves on your audio. I hope you understand what I am saying to you.

John you are right.........But, some people are just not comfortable with that answer! People learn in different ways. Some people just want to see it in action and that is comfortable for them. Ultimately one will have to tweak their own way. I would suggest looking at some of the included demo's and seeing what they are doing there. Also, do a search for instrument frequency(or similar) chart and study those. That really helped me understand where to start tweaking each instrument.

ORIGINAL: degaetanoj

I'm trying to improve the overall quality of my mixes and was wondering if anybody has EQ presets for the Sonitus that they want to share. I know the best tool for improving a mix is is the human ear but it would be great if I had a jumping off point for say bass guitar, bass drum, snare, male vox, female vox etc. Thanks in advance.

Joe D

There is a mixing template for Sonar RIGHT HERE

ORIGINAL: degaetanoj

I'm trying to improve the overall quality of my mixes and was wondering if anybody has EQ presets for the Sonitus that they want to share. I know the best tool for improving a mix is is the human ear but it would be great if I had a jumping off point for say bass guitar, bass drum, snare, male vox, female vox etc. Thanks in advance.

Joe D

Youll need to use your ears and ajust to taste. someones presets were not made for your song and every track needs something different. so presets will not help you. Learning how to EQ and training your ears will help you
Cj

The only presets I have ever used that weren't mine were low cuts & hi cuts and maybe the telephone voice bandpass thingy which I tweaked anyway. For simple stuff like that, it takes almost as long to call up the preset as it does to just shape the EQ in the first place. And for more complex EQ curves, they are going to be specific to the source material & not applicable to any other track.

The OP clearly asked for a JUMPING OFF POINT.

With any unfamiliar tool, presets can be a great help. Simply cycling through a bunch of well conceived ones can explain a lot about how the tool works.

I think it would be great if, in addition to including exemplary presets, SONAR included little production notes for each, explaining why the particular settings were chosen, and which parameters are most likely to be usefully tweaked for the target application.

For every SONAR user ready to debate the merits of different dithering algorithms, there are likely several more for whom EQ is a new idea.