Equalizing

[sam69]

Hi, I am new to this board.... I hate to open up by saying this, but I find it important for you all to know that I am a newbie.

I have had a Roland vs-1680 mixing board without the special effects chips, and I am having a lot of trouble trying to get a decent sound to come out of that machine.

Here's a list of my equipment:
mics= 3 SHURE 57's
board= roland vs-1680
drumkit= percussion plus
guitar and drums get recorded using shure mics against amps or directly plugged in.
some CD-burner connected to my board using a fiber optic line.


now, we all are familiar with WINAMP, and I know very little about EQ. I do know that my board does not distribute the songs in an EQ friendly environment (so there's not enough high or middle end...etc).

I think there is some preset in the board to attain these EQ levels, but I don't have a fricken clue how to get to it or what to do once I'm there.

now my question is, what should I have to do to get a decent and well spread EQ level using this board and all this equipment?

thank you for your time,
Sam

[recordingpro]

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum. There is a pretty respectable eq in the vs1680, it can be used as an insert effect. Also, you might want to look into adding one of the effects cards at some time. Roland has what they call the "mastering toolkit" which is very nice...much like the finalizer. It allows you to do multi-band compression and eq, which will allow you to take your complete mix and get the volume pumping, and the eq tweaked the way you'd like it. You might want to check with Roland or with Sweetwater to verify that this will work with the version of the vs1680 you have.


Any one else have some more specific directions on using EQ on the VS recorders ? (sorry sam, I'm a pro tools and large console guy, and don't know the specifics of the vs)

[sam69]

ok, if i buy an EQ and/or compressor... how do I get all my mics (which wound be micing drums and guitar) into the EQ or compressor and then into the roland board?

[legendtrail]

Sam - if you don't have an effects card in the 1680, get one. Then try the mastering tool kit algorithm. You can look at an example on Rolandus.com. They also have a good tip sheet on understanding the tool kit in their support documentation section. You'll only need to experiment a little to start getting the results you want.

[Nixon]

Sam69,

The easiest way is the get yourself a VS8f2 card of the Roland. If you buss all of the tracks to the mastering tool kit you can get an even EQ going. But I also want to stand on the soap box for a minute:

As a beginner, don't get so rapped up in the EQ'ing. People like to throw up Frequencies like compliments sometimes. One of the best ways to learn how to EQ is just to solo a track and just experiment. In watching many great engineers while a assistant at Sony, almost all of them would bring in CD's to reference to. This kept them on the right track as far as the sound that they were going for.

Here is a good exercise to do, solo a snare track with an EQ on the insert. Turn the gain all of the way up on the mid band eq and start adjusting the freq and listen as it sweeps through. When you find the frequency that you want to enhance or get rid of, just pull back on the gain. This will teach you to zone in a a freq and adjust it to the way you want it, rather than just turn in knobs in hopes to find a sound. After a while, it will be come second nature to you. Try this on other instruments as well.


I hope that this help....