Problems N’ Fun

Naturally, you can really fine-tune some of your problem solving. Got LF noise problems? Tune the parametric all the way down to 10 Hz, cut 18 dB at high Q, and then gradually increase the Q until you hear the LF noise go, stopping when you begin to take out the bottom end of the music track. Often you can get rid of at least three octaves of grunge before you notice the track itself changing.

Notching out hum is an old favorite, of course. You may have to take out several harmonics (60, 120 and 180 Hz. f’rinstance). And, on the low Q side of things, you can very gently tweak or tilt the bottom or top of the spectrum to add just a little body or sparkle to the sound, or you can thin the middle to open up the sound, make it transparent. Here you are looking at very broad boosts and cuts of two dB (three if you’re crass). As I said at the top, a little eq goes a long way.

Manually swept deep notches, particularly in stereo, make an interesting, subtle, and potentially musically relevant flanging effect. Similarly, tracking an overtone up and down with high Q boost through a section of a tune can be musically effective, especially as part of a novelty hook.

A Bit About Digital

All of the above gets a lot more promising in the digital realm - you can now buy some fairly powerful software digital eq to go with Sound Designer II (Digidesign). While I’ve got some problems with the current stuff (a review will be forthcoming), the potential for working off-line and compiling effects with about a million bands of eq is immense, and the cost gets extremely reasonable (would you believe $500 for stereo 10-band parametric? Off-line that adds up to about three gezillion bands of eq, if you have the patience...).

Happy bands!

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