EQ/Mastering question

so i'll start off by saying i'm no audio/mastering whiz. i know my way around a sound editor but i'm no producer. so i have copies of Team Doyobi's Wheels of Anterion on (legit) mp3 and the eq-ing is way off. i suspect that the master used to cut the 7" was used as the source for the mp3 - it's really bass heavy and way out of balance.

so here's the question - i know there's a standard curve used to eq vinyl and cut it, so how do i compensate for this in audacity or somesuch?

I suggest you lower the bass and make the higher frequences a bit louder but not too much so you won't have a crackling noise all over the recording. Middle frequences should be alright.

I'm no expert here, but that doesn't make any sense. Usually stuff mastered for vinyl is about the same. Or if anything, less bass frequencies. Are your speakers fucked up?

  On 12/21/2010 at 6:55 PM, fox said:

i suspect that the master used to cut the 7" was used as the source for the mp3 - it's really bass heavy and way out of balance.

you are incorrect, the RIAA curve is such that the vinyl is cut with bass frequencies reduced

  On 12/21/2010 at 9:17 PM, oscillik said:

  On 12/21/2010 at 6:55 PM, fox said:

i suspect that the master used to cut the 7" was used as the source for the mp3 - it's really bass heavy and way out of balance.

you are incorrect, the RIAA curve is such that the vinyl is cut with bass frequencies reduced

I gotta concur with my main man oscillik here. Also the RIAA curve isn't added during the mastering, but during the cut itself (again, as far as I know). So the vinyl master files would sound "normal".

One thing I have noticed though, sometimes back catalog releases that show up on digital download are sourced from the vinyl release instead of the original masters. Like they didn't sound all that good without vinyl coloration, or maybe the masters are just lost. Maybe that's what you've got going on? In that case if it's done shoddily (or it was just a lousy cut to begin with), you might get something with boomy bass and a lot of sibilance owing to the record itself.

EDIT: also maybe it just sounds fucked up on purpose. It's Team Doyobi after all. They can be mad raw.

just tweak the EQ till it sounds good to you, then bounce it.

100htz roll off

Anyone know of a free high quality multiband EQ that would be good for mastering...

  On 12/21/2010 at 9:27 PM, Ascdi said:

  On 12/21/2010 at 9:17 PM, oscillik said:

  On 12/21/2010 at 6:55 PM, fox said:

i suspect that the master used to cut the 7" was used as the source for the mp3 - it's really bass heavy and way out of balance.

you are incorrect, the RIAA curve is such that the vinyl is cut with bass frequencies reduced

I gotta concur with my main man oscillik here. Also the RIAA curve isn't added during the mastering, but during the cut itself (again, as far as I know). So the vinyl master files would sound "normal".

 

One thing I have noticed though, sometimes back catalog releases that show up on digital download are sourced from the vinyl release instead of the original masters. Like they didn't sound all that good without vinyl coloration, or maybe the masters are just lost. Maybe that's what you've got going on? In that case if it's done shoddily (or it was just a lousy cut to begin with), you might get something with boomy bass and a lot of sibilance owing to the record itself.

 

 

EDIT: also maybe it just sounds fucked up on purpose. It's Team Doyobi after all. They can be mad raw.

thanks. i suspected that i might have the RIAA thing backward. i dont think it's mastered directly from the vinyl as it came out digitally at the same time (so not like a "typical" back-cat release). i also don't have it on vinyl so maybe it sounds like crap there too. i'll have to fool around with the EQ settings and see what i come up with. and yes, its TD, so it could be intentional, but i've always felt that they wouldn't put out anything quite so muddy on the low end.

I'd recommend cutting bass rather than boosting tops

i've got chris gladwin on the case to see if the files as sold were the tracks as intended or not. i know myself and i know that having the time to sit down and screw with the EQ on these two tracks is unlikely to happen. i'll wait and see what chris says.

ROFL dude it's not that hard to open up two tracks and reduce the bass if you think it has too much bass. You really shouldn't have to reduce specific frequencies unless it was flat out mixed horribly, reducing like 3-7db or so below 110-140hz to taste would take no time.

  On 12/24/2010 at 8:34 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

ROFL dude it's not that hard to open up two tracks and reduce the bass if you think it has too much bass. You really shouldn't have to reduce specific frequencies unless it was flat out mixed horribly, reducing like 3-7db or so below 110-140hz to taste would take no time.

You have time to post on the internets tho

Another thing you could try would be to replaygain the files using foobar or winamp (which only writes to file tags and is completely reversible) and see if that improves things. The problem with EQing is that you'd need to reencode the mp3 afterwards, which could introduce some generational loss of quality.

a little goes a long way. I second the rolloff @100Hz. use your internet powers to find a free eq.