fox5150
Inspired
I've been meaning to do this for ages, but I finally got round to recording myself along with a guitar backing track for "Rio" by Duran Duran. I know this song really well as it's a staple with my band Total80s. I downloaded the track from Free Guitar Backing Tracks @ GuitarBackingTrack.com, stripped out the guitar parts and dropped it into Reaper. I setup a quick patch using the Friedman BE, with some chorus, reverb and delay and it sounded excellent - or so I thought...
So, I record into Reaper, playing along with the backing track all pleased with myself. Once finished, I have a listen and the guitar is competing with the bass too much and isn't really "in the mix" as it were. So I decided to have a play with the EQ within Reaper so I can hear exactly what happens when I cut this and boost that. I loaded up the VST: ReaEQ FX block and have a look at the plot of frequencies. Interestingly, there's loads of activity sub 200Hz and not much above about 8kHz, and this is with a cut in the CAB block at around 70Hz.
Remembering something I'd seen in a Pete Thorn video, I put a Low Shelf in at 200Hz. Result is that the low end is much cleaner and not getting in the way of that glorious bass riff. It still sounded a little flat and not really that present - if that makes sense. I've paid lots of attention to any "How best to EQ for FRFR" and "How to Warm up the sound" type threads and so, I tried boosting a little around 1kHz and it started to pop nicely.
It's all very well me spouting words, but to see if I'm on the right track, I thought I might as well upload two samples; one with the EQ and one without. My poor ADSL upload wasn't that keen on the WAV files, so these are 320kbps MP3's.
Rio - without EQ:
Rio - with EQ:
I've still got so much to learn, but this little exercise really helped me how using the EQ can help you sit properly within the mix.
Simon
So, I record into Reaper, playing along with the backing track all pleased with myself. Once finished, I have a listen and the guitar is competing with the bass too much and isn't really "in the mix" as it were. So I decided to have a play with the EQ within Reaper so I can hear exactly what happens when I cut this and boost that. I loaded up the VST: ReaEQ FX block and have a look at the plot of frequencies. Interestingly, there's loads of activity sub 200Hz and not much above about 8kHz, and this is with a cut in the CAB block at around 70Hz.
Remembering something I'd seen in a Pete Thorn video, I put a Low Shelf in at 200Hz. Result is that the low end is much cleaner and not getting in the way of that glorious bass riff. It still sounded a little flat and not really that present - if that makes sense. I've paid lots of attention to any "How best to EQ for FRFR" and "How to Warm up the sound" type threads and so, I tried boosting a little around 1kHz and it started to pop nicely.
It's all very well me spouting words, but to see if I'm on the right track, I thought I might as well upload two samples; one with the EQ and one without. My poor ADSL upload wasn't that keen on the WAV files, so these are 320kbps MP3's.
Rio - without EQ:
Rio - with EQ:
I've still got so much to learn, but this little exercise really helped me how using the EQ can help you sit properly within the mix.
Simon
