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Sorry, on Reverb nation, its Rigster without the 1.
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On Wed, 3/30/16, Massimo Liverani <mas.liv@libero.it> wrote:
Subject: R: Re: OT: Space
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Date: Wednesday, March 30, 2016, 2:29 AM
Yes great post Rick! you
are proving to have a considerable competence in sound
field, on the same theme we could also mention the famous
psicoacustic effect called "party effect" for
which our ear is always able to perceive a conversation
between two people even in the chaos of other conversations
simply by focusing on it. I think that the masking effect
can therefore in certain cases also be overcome by this
possibility that our brain that is able to do amazing
things in the acoustic field, also in the eye, but the
sound is generally less known and underestimated.
Congratulations again!Massimo
----Messaggio originale----
Da: Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>
Data: 25/03/2016 4.36
A: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>,
<Loopers-Delight-d@loopers-delight.com>
Ogg: Re: OT: Space
To amplify
what everyone is telling you
about avoiding mud:
Human beings have a phenomenon called
'masking' or 'timbral
masking' where if we here something in the exact
same frequency
spectrum we will actually only
really 'hear' the loudest of the two
sounds. This phenomenon
most notably in two
spectra: bass and lo mid (which
includes
basses, bass drums, dark ambient pads, etc.)
and in the intelligibity ranges (the ranges that
perceive the
consonants in human speech which includes.
Here's an effective way to teach yourself how this
works on a
visceral level. Whisper something
that is barely but definitely
audible to another person in a room
and then, while talking, play a pair of hi hats
quietly so that
they 'mush' together to make a noise
source. Make sure the hi
hats are slightly louder in volume than your
listening.
The person listening to you, will probably still be
able to tell
that you are speaking (because there are deeper
frequencies in the
human voice than just the intelligibility frequencies
of the consonants) but they will be completely unable
to hear what
you are saying. I love showing
my drumming students this
effect and
make it humorous by just saying truly absurd things
when they are
unable to hear because of the 'masking'
frequencies of the hi hats
and then repeating to them what I just
have said while their brains were unable to hear what
I was
saying. Amazingly, we
don't even get what's being said
subliminally, despite the claims of many subliminal
weight loss recordings that are out there.
These "masking' problems cause distinctly
different kinds of
problems in recording and mixing.
In the bass and lo midranges the sine waves of the
fundamental
pitch of your sounds are so large that we don't
perceive them in
stereo (are ears are just too close together
to delineate the deep waves.
Consequently, 'masking' in the
bass and low bass is particularly difficult because
you can't use
stereoscopic positioning to eliminate the problem.
Back in the analog days of recording we used to use a
trick called
'Zipper EQ' (as taught to me by Sandy Stone
who engineered
Hendrix)
when encountering bass 'mud' in a mix,
where we would put a bass
guitar or bass synth
sound through one channel (mono) of a stereo graphic
equalizer and
the 'masked' bass drum into the other
channel (mono).
Then we would boost the frequencies like this up to
about 500 hz.
30hz 60hz
120hz
250hz
500hz
BASS GUITAR/SYNTH
+3db -3db
+3db
-3db +3db
and set the other side of the graphic to the exact
opposite:
30hz 60hz
120hz
250hz
500hz
BASS DRUM
-3db +3db
- 3db
+3db -3db
When you looked at the EQ it looked like a
zipper.
Interestingly, if you solo-ed the
channels, each one would
sound weird and rather wimpy, but if you summed
them in MONO
they sounded really full and you could hear each one
really
distinctly. It's cool because
it's entirely a psycho-acoustic
effect.
No other creature would hear it this way.
With midrange frequencies which are highly directional
and,
hence, wonderful for putting into a very strong
stereo effect,
You can merely pan two offending tracks widely in the
stereo field
and be able to hear both simultaneously.
Now, of course this phenomenon of Masking can exist in
both
Dynamics, Rhythm, Melody and Harmony
so you have to be careful that your tracks are not
only not
masking each other in the sonic spectrum but in these
other ways
as well.
I've found that a really good rule of thumb is to
use only one, or
perhaps two, levels of complexity in a
mix: Timbral complexity,
Rhythmic complexity,
Dynamic complexity, Melodic and Harmonic complexity.
The simplicity of all the other categories will
effectively
'frame' the complexity that you want people to
pay attention to.
In this way, you call the listeners' attention to
the parts of
your piece that you really want them to listen to.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
Rick Walker
Kevin Cheli-Colando <billowhead@gmail.com>
wrote:
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on
how to get
more air/space in recordings happening in
the computer.
I use headphone to play most times and the
resultant
recordings always sound claustrophobic and
way too
dense. I've tried playing with EQ
for each track and
filters seem to help (though I can't
spend that much
time dialing those in while playing guitar)
so I figured
I'd ask if anyone had any tips or tricks
to open things
up.