PAINTING WITH SOUND. SOME THOUGHTS…
directly from the guitar sound hole or onboard Carrying on with the painting analogy - isn’t
pickup or the specific sound you’d hear if you there a way to paint by numbers? Many
As we start to dig in a bit on how to start off stuck your head inside the bass drum. Our digital consoles include presets which apply
on our EQ journey, I like to relate mixing (and goal usually isn’t an exact recreation of what is common EQ settings for popular microphones
particularly equalization) with painting. Imagine occurring on stage at the sound source. or instruments, but keep in mind that these are
you are an artist and you’ve got your palette,
only very general starting points. Your iPhone
paints, brushes and your canvas ready to go. It is also important not to veer too far the other has a setting in the Camera app to emulate
Let’s say we are going to paint a flattering way from reality with extreme or ‘monotone’ an impressionist painting effect, but nobody
portrait of our significant other or our pet for equalization. If our hypothetical painting has would likely confuse that rough styling for the
this thought experiment. It would be important way too much dark gray overall or huge swaths finely crafted real-deal Monet painting. These
to capture their likeness fairly accurately - but of dark blue and black, it won’t effectively console EQ presets can be a valuable time-
we may decide to embellish a bit or leave out a represent your bright and peppy puppy. If saver in some instances, but always make sure
blemish or two here and there. After all, we did you find yourself having to make drastic EQ you are using your ears and not relying on a
say it was supposed to be a flattering portrait, adjustments to get a workable sound out of preset to determine what works and sounds
so it is totally fine to veer a bit from the absolute an instrument or a vocalist, perhaps the better good and what doesn’t. Also remember
truth. An absolutely perfect representation isn’t option is to change the microphone or the these presets represent common applications
usually the goal of painting, we’d probably microphone placement or the particular sound and best-case scenarios - applying an SM58
go with a photograph or a LIDAR scan or at the source. Just as with paint and the color microphone preset for a quiet vocalist holding
something equally high tech if an exact copy spectrum and the effective composition of your the mic three feet away isn’t going to overcome
was the goal. This is a fundamental concept portrait, a careful and measured balance of bad mic technique.
to keep in mind as we go along - the most audio frequencies helps each element live in its effective EQ for the acoustic guitar or bass own little spot and contribute to the beauty of Similarly, a number of EQ Cheatsheets and
drum, etc. in your live mix is unlikely to line up the whole. Instrument Frequency Charts are floating
exactly with the untouched sounds emanating
around with the aim of helping out beginning
Just as we don’t characterize works of art as being right or wrong, it is important to remember that outside of unwanted issues like feedback and intelligibility
problems, EQing and mixing boils down to what appeals to you and to the audience. Trust your ears and be up for experimenting.
May 2020
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