4
has a boom quality that can get very tiresome to the ears after a while.
That’s not to knock it. Push the 125Hz slider to MINUS 5dB and you’ll find
a lot of what you might have thought was bass will be gone.
You see, if 31.5Hz and 63Hz were the flour and eggs of a cake, the 125Hz
band is the vanilla extract and sugar - the flavoring of bass. Boosting it too
high is like guzzling straight extract and sugar syrup. Use 125Hz sparingly, as a
seasoning, the way producers do.
Maybe +3 to pump up a vocal or a bass guitar part. A bit more if you’re a
drum freak. Also good for acoustic bass, virtually all symphonic music and
your Aunt Tillie’s goiter.
250Hz.
This is on the upper fringes of bass. Fiddle with it and you’ll see it
has relatively little to do with bass guitar or kick drum. It does have a lot to
do with voices and lead guitar solos, though. Without it they lack body. Add
250Hz to “flesh out” thin vocals or older records with narrower dynamic
ranges.
BRINGING THEM FORWARD AND MOVING THEM
BACK: 500, 1000, 2000, 4000
.
These sliders control the core of music. Melody instruments, vocals,
midrange percussion - almost everything we associate with music. With care,
you can substantially change the sound of most melody instruments as well
as vocals. Each cut and album will be different, so experiment.
In our experience the 1000 slider does most for all-around human voice
presence. 500 is great for male voices and jazz tenor saxes. Some solo piano
benefits by a little boost here, too.
In practice, folks seem to cut down the 2000 and 4000 as much as they
boost them. There seems to be plenty of these frequencies in most contempo-
rary pop cuts. The question is, is there too much? Particularly at high sound
pressure levels. Try it for yourself.
GETTING VERY HIGH: 8000 and 16000.
Oddly enough, neither of these frequencies is as ear-piercing as you might
think. What you thought was tinny treble is really lower down at 2000 and
4000. Up at 2000 you’ll be surprised how few instruments are actually
affected. The tips of womens’ vocals, snare drums, some synthesizer and
higher brass and woodwinds. But you can use more of it than you might first
suppose by its classification as “treble.”
As for the 16Hz, well, it’s the icing on that audio cake we were describing
earlier. The crisp sizzling of cymbals, the high harmonic overtones that bring
music to life...they’re all here.
Unfortunately, this is also a frequency which involves (dare we bring it
up?) your age. From young adolescence on we start to lose the high end of our
hearing. It’s the ultimate finito frequency roll-off and there’s little that can be
done about it. Not that we’re saying you are getting deaf when you reach 30.
But you can hear less 16K than you could ten years ago. That’s all.
Boosting this band 3-5dB can “flatten” your hearing curve again and bring
a lot out. Just don’t get vain and leave it at 0dB.
