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Originally posted by lowski wow thats alot to understand. I still don't quite get how it relates to how you EQ a sound though. Beacause most times its a melody or chord progression being played so its has various notes. As you can see im probably way off from what your trying to explain. By "Its fundamental frequency (i.e. its lowest pitch reference)" Do you meen the root note?. As for now i think im gonna just keep using my ear, I don't want to get confused and caught up in all these mathematics. Thanks though.

No. I do not mean its root note.

Take a single note of a piano. If you were to look at this under spectrum analysis (i.e. a realtime graph of amplitude against time) you will see quite complicated series of peaks and troughs. There will be variations depending on how hard or soft you strike the note but the relationship between these peaks and troughs will remain largely the same.

This relationship is its harmonic structure. Its lowest, highest amplitude reference is its 'fundamental' frequency. This is always the lowest pitch reference in any harmonic sound. If you apply a notch filter to this frequency, you will subtly change its pitch.

This is the same kind of effect that you get with acid sounds using lots of resonance. Opening the filter cutoff also appears to make it rise in pitch in some hard to explain way. In fact, you are not changing its pitch, but applying tonnes of resonance to the cutoff periodically causes the harmonics you sweep past to become higher in amplitude compared to the fundamental and its lowest pitch reference changes.

Every large peak after the fundamental is a harmonic in relation to it. To hear what something sounds like with no harmonics you simply dial in a synth patch which is a single sine wave. Take a look at it under a spectrum analyser. Note that pressing C4 on a synth patch consisting of a single square wave oscillator, you will have a fundamental frequency at around 260hz. But you can also work out the harmonics in relation to the fundamental which show up too (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th etc)

This for example is a spectrum of a single square wave from impOSCar. No chords, 1 note (C4):



Note the following:

1) All the extremely tall peaks are odd harmonics of C (i.e. E, G, Bb, D, F, and A.)

2) If you wanted to EQ out parts of this sound, you would only get a significant effect by notching out offending harmonics. Try applying a sharp a notch to 260hz. Notice that the integrity of the sound changes very little (because you aren't dramatically changing its harmonic structure or adding harmonics) - all the bass is gone near enough as well as its lowest pitch reference but this is not so important if you have a bass note reinforcing it in its absense.

3) Notice that applying a high pass filter below 260hz is pointless as there is basically nothing down here to EQ out.

The sensible thing to do then, in my opinion is to find the other instrument which seems to clash with this one and at what time. Find the note striking at the same time and identify its fundamental and harmonics (easy to do using the calculation posted above). Do you see any clashes? If you do you know what points to EQ out - they will have harmonics close to or at the harmonic intervals of the first. You can find out how much you need to EQ by exporting the result and looking at it in a wave editor. You will see stacking harmonics easily because they are peaks which are way louder than harmonics lower down in the series.

Its just an organised approach to finding out what places you absolutely need to EQ and how to do so without losing tonnes of headroom.

Last edited by Derivative on Sep-29-2007 at 22:22

Im sure we've all felt like this at some point or stil do. But best advice is just to keep at it, try not to have too many gaps. Like 4 or 6 months cos its best to keep going till you reach a point that you are happy with. In time you'lll get there.

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Originally posted by lowski As for the fills i don't meen drum fills, that i have a pretty good understanding of. But more or less FX fills like swooshes but more complex. I cant really discribe it cuz I dont fully understand what it is when im actually hearing it. sounds stupid I know. But its in pretty much every trance song.

Yeah swooshes are white or pink noise. You set the cut attack, hold and decay usually, to make the swoosh go up or down. In Fruity Loops I use 3OSC or Wasp to make swooshes. For more elaborate FX, combine several sounds, maybe white noise and a saw wave, use LFO to make them oscillate. Use hold and decay, again, to cause rising and falling. OK, I don't know all the technical terms, but I do know what everything does, LOL. Anyway, I'm sure if someone showed you all this stuff you'd learn real quick. That's how I learn best too. I learned everything the hard way, by trial and error. I had already had a bit of experience with synths though.

Guitarists like you and me tend to do well at composing EDM. And lucky us, we can add guitar parts to our tracks anytime we want to. Once you get all the boring technical stuff down you'll be on your way. At least you're young. I'm 40 and I really just got started with EDM. 3 yrs into it now, I think, and I'm ready to start submitting my stuff to real labels.

A lot of the audio engineering geek speak here, is way over my head. I'm sure one can go as deep as they want into it. I just try to make my tracks sound decent, and I plan on letting the labels do all the mastering.

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Originally posted by RichieV the waves trance tutorial is released by the company that makes waves vsts

I think you are talking about The Trance Experience ?