Blog Post Part II: No, I'm not making an electric boogaloo joke

Well, time for a progress report. Unfortunately, some stuff happened, so I’m using garage band. Fortunately, I still have everything I need for recording this song: Guitar, Amp, Amp Output-Computer cable, and recording software, as well as a whammy pedal to get a bass sound out of my guitar, and an audio editor for mixing.  As such, I should be able to get started recording.

                                 

                                                                       Yep

Of course, I’ll have to start the recording with one the hardest part of this: the drums, considering that I have no drum experience and my drumming has been compared to 7^th grade marching band. However, the drums are also probably what I’ll have to lay down first, since I don’t plan on having to sell my recording as No Wave or “Soft Machine II: This Time It’s Personal.” In addition, I don’t actually have a good method for recording drums. As such, I’m going to end up recording the drums parts on a drum machine.  But if I’m going to make these drum machine parts sound good, I can't just open it up and hit record. If I do that, it then sounds like something out of a “Top 50 Latin Club Hits” compilations. This leads to me having to adjust the eq on the drums, in order to get a good sound.  

Now I know some of you might now be asking “So what does eq mean?”, among other things. Equalization (or eq) is important to understand because they’ll probably pop up in future blog posts, as they are critical when it comes to mixing. Well, to understand eq, you’ll have to understand frequency. Frequency is usually measured in hert (Hz). It refers to the sound that any object makes. Yes, you heard that right: Every sound that you hear has a frequency. It plays a heavy role in recording: The frequency of all of your instruments will determine what the song will sound like.

When recording, Audio Frequencies can be split into three different categories: Highs, Mids, and Lows. If you haven’t guessed yet, high frequencies refer to the highs, low frequencies refer to the lows, and mids refer to the middle frequencies. It is important to have a mix of frequencies.  If the frequencies for different instruments overlap, the song will sound very muddy. If there are no low frequencies, then it will sound like the practice right after you fired your bass player. If there are too many lows, then congratulations! You’ve discovered how to sound like your average Georgian sludge metal band. If that’s not what you’re looking for, then you screwed up.

Equalization is boosting or reducing the frequencies of a signal, such as a guitar or drums. If you’ve ever used a speaker with knobs like “Bass” and “Treble” and used those to adjust how the song sounds, then congratulations: you’ve just messed with the equalization (If you’re curious, the “Bass” knob refers to all of the lower frequencies, while “treble” refers to the higher frequencies).  

Eqing is usually controlled using different “ bands”, which are volume controls for certain frequencies. Equalizaers can have many different amounts of bands, from two to 32. However there are 7 bands that are usually considered to be the most important:

50-60 Hz

•    Thump in a kick drum

•    Boom in a bassline

•    Too much and you’ll have flapping speakers and a flabby mix

•    Too little, and the mix will never have enough weight or depth

100-200 Hz

•    This EQ band adds punch in a snare

•    Gives richness or “bloom” to almost anything

•    Too much makes things boomy or woolly

•    Too little sounds thin and cold

200-500 Hz

•    Crucial for warmth and weight in guitars, piano and vocals

•    Too much makes things sound muddy or congested

•    Too little makes them thin and weak

500-1000 Hz

•    One of the trickiest areas

•    Gives body and tone to many instruments

•    Too much sounds hollow, nasal or honky

•    Too little sounds thin and harsh

2 kHz

•    Gives edge and bite to guitars and vocals

•    Adds aggression and clarity

•    Too much is painful

•    Too little will sound soft or muted

5-10 kHz

•    Adds clarity, open-ness and life

•    Important for the top end of drums, especially snare

•    Too much sounds gritty or scratchy

•    Too little will lack presence and energy

16 kHz

•    Can add air, space or sparkle

•    Almost too high to hear

•    Too much will sound artificial, hyped or fizzy

•    Too little will sound dull and stifled

And there you have it: a crash course on frequencies and equalization. Now, you’re probably be asking, “So how are you going to change all of these frequencies things?” That requires another program: the audio editor Audacity, which will also probably what I’ll use for the mixing process. This handy app allows me control over things such as equalization, which I will definitely use wisely.

                                

                                                                 There is absolutely not way this can go wrong 

That was probably a really long tangent. To sum up my current progress, I now have every thing I need to record. I have my Recording software (as well as an audio editor), a guitar, an amp, and an amp out-computer cable. Now I know there’s been some questions about how I’m going to record the bass parts. The answer? I’m going to use a whammy pedal (a guitar device that allows you to change the frequency of the guitar sound) to make the guitar sound much lower to the point where it sounds like a bass. With this and the drum machine stuff that was previously mentioned, I now have everything I need to start recording

Resources:

"Using EQ When Mixing." Production Advice RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.

"What Is Frequency?" "Communication Systems" Northwestern University, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.