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-- Skip to content Stoyan's music blog Learning, playing, sharing music Menu and widgets Stoyan’s music blog Watch+listen : hear some of my music here About me I’m Stoyan Stefanov, a programmer by day (formerly of Facebook, Yahoo, SAP) and a book author , now being serious about music . Midlife crisis much? Can neither confirm, nor deny. Can tweet though. Search for: Recent Posts Spook 45 (Stoyan Jams podcast, episode #6) EQ terms and frequencies UBK’s multi-band referencing EQ-ing drums Holly Wurlitzer! Planet Performance podcast rig rundown Poor man’s custom reverb Like New (Stoyan Jams podcast, episode #5) IKEA cable storage Shepherd’s (Stoyan Jams podcast, episode #4) Brahms’ Requiem: my program notes Life (Stoyan Jams podcast, episode #3) Learning German with Brahm’s Ein Deutsches Requiem The curious case of the missing fundamental Remembering key signatures: another silly little trick Denoise in Reaper Jonny Greenwood’s score to Phantom Thread live Ambient Bach: Stoyan Jams episode #2 Auto-coloring tracks in Reaper FGam: Stoyan Jams, episode #1 Spook 45 (Stoyan Jams podcast, episode #6) https://music.stoyanstefanov.com/podcast-player/524/spook-45-stoyan-jams-podcast-episode-6.mp3 Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 1:07 | Recorded on June 20, 2020 Here’s one piano/synth piece, I was exploring what the good people at Spitfire audio have to offer in terms of free-ish plugins – some LABS pads (free) and BBC symphony (free if you wait 14 days). Subscribe to the podcast: RSS , iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play Posted on June 20, 2020 June 21, 2020 Categories Podcast Leave a comment on Spook 45 (Stoyan Jams podcast, episode #6) EQ terms and frequencies Fat, thick: 20Hz – 200Hz Muddy: around 250Hz but more broadly 60Hz – 400kHz Thin: lacking 20Hz – 500Hz Honky, nasal: 600Hz – 2kHz Present, presence – 1kHz – 4kHz Harsh: 2kHz – 7kHz Bright: 3kHz and up Airy: 15kHz and up Alternative view of the frequency spectrum [ source ] Posted on May 30, 2020 May 30, 2020 Categories mixing Leave a comment on EQ terms and frequencies UBK’s multi-band referencing Insert a multi-band compressor on your mix and your reference mix. Split into these categories of frequencies and think in terms of textures . Compare. 80Hz and below – subs ( weight ). Too much makes it heavy and sluggish. 80 – 200Hz – bass ( warmth ) 200 – 500Hz – low mids ( intimacy ) 500Hz – 2kHz – midrange ( energy, fire ) 2kHz – 5kHz – upper mids ( bite, sharpness ). Too little – mix sits behind the speakers. Too much – painful to listen 5kHz and up – treble ( sparkle ). Too little – dull, lifeless. Too much – zingy, crisp. Source: https://www.ubkhappyfuntimehour.com/ episode 205 An example of multi-band compressor is Reaper’s own ReaXcomp. Add to your mix, select a band and then click “Solo current band” to listen to this texture only. Posted on May 3, 2020 May 3, 2020 Categories mixing Leave a comment on UBK’s multi-band referencing EQ-ing drums Some starting points based on advice from Bobby Owsinski (update: and others). Disclaimer: Subtle. Moves of more than 3dB mean you should probably move the mic. Kick Reduce ~ 200Hz to 500Hz (the mud -range) to remove boxiness Reduce ~ 1.5k to remove honk Add 1.5k-2k (kick-in) for more snap Add 70-80Hz for fullness/tone (esp the clicky kick-in) Add 5k for definition Snare Add 10-12k to make a crisper Add 125Hz to make it fuller Add 1k for definition. Remove boxiness at 500-800Hz Hi-hat Add at 10 kilohertz for sizzle High-pass at 160Hz for definition Reduce at 1k to make it thinner Rack toms Add 200 to 500Hz to make them sound fuller Add 5k for definition Floor tom Reduce 150 to 500Hz to remove the beach ball Add 5k to for definition Cymbals Add 10k for sizzle High-pass at 160Hz for definition Posted on February 20, 2020 May 3, 2020 Categories Uncategorized Leave a comment on EQ-ing drums Holly Wurlitzer! Film/TV composer Nathan Barr showing a bunch of cool rare old instruments. Especially that restored and improved organ from 1920s that we’ve heard on many-a-film. Posted on February 13, 2020 February 13, 2020 Categories gear Leave a comment on Holly Wurlitzer! Planet Performance podcast rig rundown A few people asked about what I use for recording the Planet Performance podcast so here’s a quick rundown. This is just my preference, there are of course many other ways to do it. So what’s in the box? Two microphones. These are vintage Electro-Voice RE 635A . I got them from ebay for about $150 for the pair. Used to be newscasters favorites in the 70s or thereabouts. They are dynamic mics with omnidirectional pattern, which is unusual for a dynamic mic. They are also pretty slim. An alternative new mic for the purpose could be the classic SM58 which would be under $200 for the pair. Two foldable desktop mic stands – $20/pair on Amazon A 2-chanel USB interface Behringer UMC204HD . It’s a good mix of price and functionality/quality. About $100. Audio nerds may dislike Behringer due to its humble beginnings of ripping off old gear and making it cheaply and poorly. But that’s in the past. The mic preamps (that take microphone signal and amplify it) that come with it are highly regarded Midas, which is a company bought by Behringer. An affordable alternative could be Scarlet 2i2 . I picked Behringer also due to the “Insert” feature that let’s me plug in a hardware compressor during recording. Which I no longer travel with to save space, so there’s that. The mics plug into the interface with the mic cables. I carry a third mic cable as a spare. USB cable that goes out into the computer (comes with the interface). The setup in action. Interviewing Tammy Everts , photo by Christian Schaefer . Software I use Reaper to record and edit and mix. It’s a professional DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that costs $60, though it comes with unlimited trial version. A free alternative would be Audacity , which works on any operating system. Or GarageBand if you’re on Mac Posted on November 25, 2019 February 13, 2020 Categories gear Leave a comment on Planet Performance podcast rig rundown Poor man’s custom reverb How do you use your very own reverbs that no one can replicate? “In this day and age” when everyone is using the same Waves and Universal audio plugins how do you stand out from the crowd? Just record your own impulse responses! Impulsive re…what now? Impulse response, yup. IR for short. This is a way to get the sonic signature of a place, be it a bathroom, parking garage, Abbey Road studios or wherever Vienna Philharmonic peeps perform their NY concert. Once you “fingerprint” the space, then you can apply its IR to any new recordings at a later time. BTW, an impulse response is a regular audio file (.wav) so you can play it in your DAW or any music player. Capturing the IR Ideally you want to capture how the space affects all the frequencies. With a stereo pair of the most expensive and clean (uncolored) microphones you can lay your hands on. This means setting up speakers and “shooting” a test signal that goes through all frequencies. See how in all the detail here . The poor man’s way Well, I was traveling and the AirBnB we were staying at had an unfurnished basement. I though I’d record an impulse response and take this virtual basement as a token of the good times that were had on the trip. I mean look at that view! Anyway, this is a panorama image of a part of the basement: Nice. But I don’t have decent speakers, microphones (or time away from partying) to shoot test signals in complete silence. So corners were cut. What I had is a laptop, so I can use its internal mic. (Alternatively you can just record using your phone) For a test signal, a replacement is usually popping a balloon or shooting a gun, if it’s safe. If no balloon or gun around? Well, condoms are available everywhere. (And if you’re not inclined to misuse condoms in this way, you can always clap your hands and there’s your test signal.) And so, here’s photo of all the tools I had at my disposal...