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Originally posted by Azza Robinson Hi Ive producing for about a year now and im having trouble equing my strings and my leads, they dunt sound right i use a jp 8080 and have made sum wicked sounds but when i put them into a tune i keep having to turn the beats up then down again then up becuase the lead sounds too quiet or loud, and does ne1 know what i could use to help them sit right like reverb ect to make them more stereo ie, like above and beyonds breakdowns,which eq frequencies to boostor decrese would help thanks thanks for ur time peeps Azza

if the lead sounds either too quiet or too loud, try compressing it. it its sounds like it is fighting with beats or bass, you should equalize it - try cutting all frequencies below 150 or so Hz for 6 dB or more. you should listen at what you do. to make it more stereo you can try chorus effect, or try this - create an aux buss, put delay in it with only one trigger (retrodelay vst plugin is nice for this), and put the original lead on left channel, and its delay on the right channel. there are also some stereo wideners available on kvr-vst. you could even try setting the balance in the patch of your synth.
for strings, i usually cut all below 300-400 hz pretty hard (i use pad sounds for bass then). stereo will make the lead more present, but more muddy also. it depends on what you want, but do not overuse the reverb. many people overuse it.

Thanks mate apprciate it

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Lets f**king ave it!

What I usually do with strings is create two channels with the same string part and pan one hard left and the other hard right. Then move one of them about 10 ms after the other, this should create a wider stereo feel.

p.s Good to see another Leicester lad on here

for strings i tend to use chords alot so theres a big wide range of frequencies to deal with. i tend to make a wide 3dB cut around 1,500 to 3,000 hz to get rid of the telephone sounding quality and sometimes a high end boost at 8,000hz + for some air. BUT and i stress, this is HIGHLY dependant on what frequencies your string pad occupies. my strings setup tends to not have any prominant bass to muddy the kicks and bassline but i used to have problems with pads muddying my hats and shakers. hence the 3,000hz cut.

the only accurate way of EQing your strings effectively is to whack on a spectrum analyser and see where it sits on a frequency spectrum. it should be wider than most instruments have a bottom end that touches the low end kick and bass frequencies and a top end that goes waayyyy past 10,000hz. i tend to remember where my kicks, bass and hats sit in frequency terms then make small cuts to my string pad where these instruments have most of their presence. most of the kick and bass will reside around 50hz to 1000hz so ill usually make a notch on the EQ where most of their presence is here (again, consult the spectrum analyser). i also tend to make another notch higher up where the clanginess of the hats are, around 2,000 to 3,000hz. basically i have my pads literally 'pad' out all the empty frequencies in between my primary instruments. i also usually have it wide in the stereo field to distance it from my lead instruments which occupy alot of the same higher frequencies. most of my leads sit between 3,000 hz and 8,000 hz and are usually centred but again, i dont do anything without a spectrum analyser.

producing doesnt come naturaly it takes time keep at it you will get there