EQ Question

[jaimeparedes]

Hi, I just finished to record a song and the artist wanted to include a flute on it, doing a kind of melodies between the vocals. I am having a trouble mixing it because some notes on the first octave of the flute have big frequencies (I guess) because once I make the bounce and I play it on a standard system the A (440 kHZ), of the first octave and even the G, produce a horrible resonance. I didn't notice on my studio monitors. It is evident only on a stereo car or home system. The rest of the instruments sound pretty decent and also the voices, at least something you can predict but the flute is a pain, I recorded it not too hot, the signal seems to be correct, buy despite I cut mid range, low range and even hi range frequencies (a lot) still I can't get ride of that annoying resonance. Also of course I have some compression applied on the flute and on the mix. If someone have any tip, idea or advice I am grateful in advance. THANK YOU.

[cmchamp]

Wind instruments, especially, rely on their overtone series for their character. Try this
high pass filter @ 300Hz - 12dB/octave or steeper
low shelf @ 500Hz -6dB

Start there to see if it reduces the resonances.

If not, turn down the flute in the mix a bit and bring out the overtone series of the lower notes by placing a parametric at around 2400Hz with a wide Q and give it 3dB boost.

Don't kill the brilliance of the flute by cutting the overtone series.
Additionally, you can always try a multi-comp - frequency sensitive compressor and compress below 1kHz a bit more than above.

C.

[jaimeparedes]

thanks for your wise advices...could you please be a little more specific when you said "bring out the overtone series of the lower notes by placing a parametric at around 2400hz with a wide Q and give it 3dB boost" Excuse me what do you meant when you say parametric...its the EQ right?? I used the values you suggested and it works nice but now the flute is too quiet, so to make it balanced with the mix I had to boost really a lot the flute (+10dB) WHEN I usually keep everything on this song around -7dB....this song doesn't have drums or bass, only 2 guitars, flute and 3 voices. I am using the eq 3-7 band, the one that come with pro tools...thanks in advance for any idea.
All the best to you.

[cmchamp]

I suspect you used a cardiod (directional) microphone when you recorded the flute. Especially if you close miced it, that brings out a lot of LF (fundamental) of the sound. By placing the HPF in, you removed much of the fundamental which is OK, and because the recorded signal had quite a bit of that in there, you need to boost the remaining signal to achieve a new balance. Not a problem, that's just what engineering is and knowing how sounds should fit in with one another.
C.