Feb 14, 2018 - After the last windows update, all of my browsers have slowed down to the point, where they take several minuted to load. Is this a cause from the way Trend Micro is conflicting with the update? Welcome to TM Home users Community, a public site where volunteers try to help each. All browsers slow windows 10. The issue is NOT my internet connection. It is hardwired and speed tests just fine. Every browser I try is slow to load & lagging. Chrome, Firefox.
The first part of our tone comes from the instrument itself. You choose your guitar based on a mixture of comfort, suitability, and what your ears hear when you play it. Everything that comes after the instrument itself essentially equates to an amplifier in one respect or another — or in other words, a make-louder device.
After that, you might toss a few pedals in the chain before eventually plugging into your amplifier. With acoustic guitars, this is even simpler: from the first second you touch that guitar, that’s the sound. That is now the essence of your tone.
Once you have that sorted, however, you will pretty quickly find yourself in a situation where either you need to record or play to a room of soon-to-be adoring fans. This is similar to the concept of the last mile in telecommunications in that it can prove to be the most problematic part if not addressed properly. If you’re an electric guitar player, you’re probably in good shape for the most part. Basses and acoustics, on the other hand, require a bit more consideration at this step.
Due to their resonance, acoustic guitars need more isolation than other instruments on stage. In most cases, playing an acoustic through a traditional guitar amp will result in uncontrollable feedback once reaching show volume. Usually, electric guitar amps are voiced for their instrument or at least for a certain mid-focused range, which means that the full breadth of the acoustic guitar’s tone is less likely to translate.
As for bass, it takes far more power for the frequencies of the instrument to be heard, which makes amplifying them difficult. Bass cabs aren’t the most easily mic’d things on Earth, and by the time the sound person has it turned up high enough to hear, chances are good that all other sorts of noise will creep in, too. Getting a clean signal to the mixing board can significantly improve the tone, which will move you closer to the sound you hear when playing at home.
In both cases, recording can be difficult. The best recordings rely on the microphone placement and the sound of the room. If you’re no expert or you have a very weak-sounding room, you may not be able to translate the tone to the recording. For both performance and recording alike, pairing stage or acoustic sound with the output of a DI box will make life easier.
A DI box (direct box, direct injection, or direct input) is a transformer-based module that converts an instruments high-impedance, unbalanced signal to a low-impedance, balanced signal. Mixing consoles require the balanced, mic-level input signal, and long XLR cable runs don’t alter your tone the same way guitar cables do. This means a host of benefits: removes hum, reduces feedback, provides full range EQ, and flexibility for mixing.
There are two different kinds of DI box. The first is passive, which performs the transformer action with no need for power. These are excellent for just about every use because they don’t add anything in the way of complexity to your rig. Stick them inline, send a signal to your amp and to the front of house, and you’re done. By their very nature, they’re not sensitive to ground hum or interference, the latter of which is thanks to transformer shielding on good quality units.
The major downside of passive DI boxes is that they can load low-output passive pickups. This includes the single-coils on just about every Fender bass out there. This results in lower output to the amp and can be detrimental to your tone. That led to the development of the second kind of DI box, active DI boxes. Using either a 9V battery, power adapter, of phantom power from the mixing console, active DIs don’t load the pickups at all and also act as preamps to drive more signal. Aside from the need to power them, another downside is that they don’t breakup in a pleasant, musical way when driven the way passive DIs do.
Virtually all of them have a switch for a ground lift, which provides its own path to ground when the outlet you’re plugged into is lacking. This will often eliminate all hum instantly. Most of the time, you’re fighting the room you’re playing in for control of your tone and this simple switch makes it much easier. Additionally, the direct, clean input makes your soundperson’s life easier, which will lead to you sounding better. If you want to read on about why DI is great, Aaron Rogers at EarthQuaker Devices did a nice writeup here.
To help you out in the studio or on stage, here are our picks for the top ten best DI box options for bass and acoustic guitar.
I was taught these EQ “rules of thumb” when I first started out as a trainee, to help learn the art of mixing – each EQ band influences different qualities of a mix or instrument, and I thought you might find it useful if I shared them.
Later in the post I’ve also embedded another great video by Joe Gilder. Like the one in my using compression post recently, it gives an excellent introduction to the different EQ settings and parameters, plus some great real-world examples of using EQ in Pro Tools, although the ideas are applicable to any DAW.
Before we get to the tweaks, I want to stress that these are just ideas, guidelines and starting points. Always remember the golden rule of EQ:
Balance is everything
You can’t just add a load of 100Hz and expect your bass to sound rich – the key is to get each area balanced with every other, so that all the instruments complement each other, and don’t fight. This may even mean cutting out some frequencies to stop them clashing with other instruments – you can probably lose everything below 1kHz on a hi-hat mic, for example.
Balancing the mids – roughly 200 Hz to 2 kHz – is particularly important, since the 2K area is the most sensitive region of the ear, and getting the mid-range right is essential for things to sound warm, natural and real.
Some crucial EQ bands and what they sound like
50-60 Hz
Thump in a kick drum
Boom in a bassline
Essential in dub, dubstep and reggae !
Too much and you’ll have flapping speakers and a flabby mix
Too little, and the mix will never have enough weight or depth
100-200 Hz
This EQ band adds punch in a snare
Gives richness or “bloom” to almost anything
Too much makes things boomy or woolly
Too little sounds thin and cold
200-500 Hz
Crucial for warmth and weight in guitars, piano and vocals
Too much makes things sound muddy or congested
Too little makes them thin and weak
500-1000 Hz
One of the trickiest areas
Gives body and tone to many instruments
Too much sounds hollow, nasal or honky
Too little sounds thin and harsh
2 kHz
Gives edge and bite to guitars and vocals
Adds aggression and clarity
Too much is painful!
Too little will sound soft or muted
5-10 kHz
Adds clarity, open-ness and life
Important for the top end of drums, especially snare
Too much sounds gritty or scratchy
Too little will lack presence and energy
16 kHz
Can add air, space or sparkle
Almost too high to hear
Too much will sound artificial, hyped or fizzy
Too little will sound dull and stifled
How EQ works – settings and parameters
As promised, here’s Joe’s video introduction.
The only thing I would add to this is to underline what he says about judging final EQ settings in the context of a mix – solo first to get in the right region, then listen with the track to see if it works. And, be cautious when using low cuts in the way that he demonstrates – you risk overdoing it and losing some of the natural sound of the instrument. Finally:
Newton’s 3rd Law (of EQ)
Of course all this is only the tip of the iceberg – every one of these comments has exceptions, caveats and alternatives. Returning to the idea of balance, bear in mind that
For every (EQ) action there is an equal and opposite (EQ) reaction
Whirlwind 10 Band Eq Bass Used Cars
For example, if you add too much to the 2 kHz EQ band, eventually anything will sound thin and harsh. If you compensate by adding some 100 Hz to warm it up, you’ll end up with “scooped mids” and the sound will be thin and lack body. So you add some 500 and suddenly you’re back where you started, but it all sounds a bit processed and un-natural.
10 Band Graphic Equalizer Settings
So I’ll finish with a final rule of thumb for you:
Less is more !
– and an outstanding resource, to an interactive frequency chart with even more rules of thumb and suggestions for the best EQ band to use eachinstrument. I don’t agree with all of them, but as Joe said in his video, there are no rules in audio – use your ears !
More information
If you found this post useful and are interested to find out more about using EQ, you might like to check out my video tutorial pack Home Mastering EQ – to find out more, click here. It was written specifically for mastering, but lots of people have told me it’s helped them in mixing, too.
To see exactly why EQ is so crucial in mastering, check out this post:
How EQ can make your music sound louder – using LESS compression and limiting
Synergy player models not showing. In this, I’m discussing what I’ve learned about fostering synergy during major initiatives.If people have the willingness to forge their diverse perspectives into a synergistic alliance, the following sequence can be used to describe how they can work together to.