EQ/Compression tables

jinxed · Post by **jinxed** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:06 pm

I'm new here so i thought what better way to introduce myself than with some good ol' Freq/Compression help....

These tables helped me loads to understand Freq's & Compression, hope this can help you lot as well or help you improve on any knowledge you already have! They are just guidelines/starting points and its best to experiment with them, they helped my sound a lot.

Enjoy

tempest · Post by **tempest** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:09 pm

wow !!

now i don't even need ears

just messin' man.. cool graphs, welcome aboard

future producer · Post by **future producer** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:14 pm

Have you got a better one for the purple and blue one down the bottom, I cannot hardly see anything.

silentk · Post by **silentk** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:16 pm

V nice tables man, this kind of thing is always appreciated

welcome

jinxed · Post by **jinxed** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:32 pm

Future Producer wrote:Have you got a better one for the purple and blue one down the bottom, I cannot hardly see anything.

Don't have any larger images than that man, but just uploaded the Source PDF document on megaupload for you if thats of any use.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UVU53832

MARCHMELLOW · Post by **MARCHMELLOW** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:58 pm

sick. this is well useful

krytikal · Post by **krytikal** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:03 am

bookmarked

nice 1 x

future producer · Post by **future producer** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:22 am

Nice one cheers!

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:04 am

One thing that bothers me about those tables - if you stick the release on a compresser to 10ms and then stick it on a subby bass (with, for simplicity, a big component below 100hz), one cycle of the wave is going to be longer than 10ms. So your compressor will start bringing the gain back up, not in between bass hits, but in between individual cycles of the waveform - in other words, it'll be applying some weird waveshaping distortion to your bass. Which might be what you want, but most of the time will just a) make it sound horrible b) take out some of the sub power and c) make your ears hurt after a while.

We've just had a lecture from Macc over on the Subvert Central production forum about this.

But in the name of Science You Can Try At Home, if you stick their suggested compressor settings on a 40 or 50hz sine, you'll notice that if you drag the release time down from (say) 1s to 10ms you should get an increasing amount of high frequency ie distortion. It's even more pronounced if you turn the attack down a bit or go to a soft knee rather than a hard one.

So I'm guessing that these things were written with bass guitar in mind, which has a whole lot more midrange than a dubstep sinewave sub.

Interesting looking stuff otherwise... nice to have a starting point to start messing around from, if nothing else. Thanks for sharing!

future one · Post by **future one** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 4:35 am

I think the compression tables are pretty useless considering all compressors react differently.

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:05 am

Future One wrote:I think the compression tables are pretty useless considering all compressors react differently.

ka-ching. the eq tables are useful but the compressor table doesn't take into account all the mojo in an compresor. a distressor is a much different beast than, say, a simple dbx and what each of 'em'll do to a signal is very, very different.

decent starting points for compression, though.

but 4ms on bass? what?????? you're either gonna get distortion that mars the signal, an ugly, audible click, or you've got some super-spendy box that's got tons of headroom. the whole chart has pretty aggressive attack times-- handle with care.

jinxed · Post by **jinxed** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:55 pm

Slothrop wrote:So I'm guessing that these things were written with bass guitar in mind, which has a whole lot more midrange than a dubstep sinewave sub.

Definetly agree, these tables are not designed for making a specific type of music. Like what has just been said, use these just as starting points and to help you develop an understanding of the technical side of things more!

cryptic · Post by **cryptic** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:43 am

Great post - Good starting points when mixing down

two oh one · Post by **two oh one** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:11 am

Hmmmm. The compression table is sod all use to anybody, really.

This table I just made is probably as much use:

jim · Post by **jim** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:22 am

djake · Post by **djake** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:27 am

massive post!!!!

these are the posts i like!!!!

tarranjoe1 · Post by **tarranjoe1** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:08 pm

thanks alot jinxed, looks pretty useful

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:02 pm

two oh one wrote:Hmmmm. The compression table is sod all use to anybody, really.

This table I just made is probably as much use:

saved

printed

up on wall next to the clash poster.

two oh one · Post by **two oh one** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:34 pm

TeReKeTe wrote:
two oh one wrote:Hmmmm. The compression table is sod all use to anybody, really.

This table I just made is probably as much use:

saved

printed

up on wall next to the clash poster.

Live by it, yeah?

oooooh. Clash. Have you seen the future is unwritten yet? My favourite film of the year. And the pirate was probably the funniest thing on film, ever.

two oh one · Post by **two oh one** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:30 pm

Just to clarify...

The compression table is useless, because there are too many variables.

Just look as Threshold as an example...

Are we working in 16 bits or 24 bits?
How loud is the original sound - Where are we peaking?
How does it sound now, vs how you want it to sound?
What compressor type are you using?
Is this creative compression, or 'fix it' compression?
Has an EQ been placed before or after the compressor?

As always, it's a case of learning what each knob does and listening intently to what you're doing as you twist. Listen for thickness, and the percussive attack. Listen for how loud the sound appears to be vs where its peaking. If you turn down your output until it's super quiet, you can hear the changes more easily. It's pretty much impossible adjusting compression when you're blasting things.

Also, if you're making music from nabbed samples or construction kits, chances are things have already been squashed to death and adding more compression isn't going to make things pretty.

EQ/Compression tables

EQ/Compression tables

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