How to get an "in your face" sound...?

[0B02]

I write and record good, old fashioned hard rock songs and am about to mix a recording, to which I will add audience sounds to make a 'mock live' recording*

 

I've been very diligent, to the to the point of spending many hours choosing the right drum sounds, reamping the guitars (and including the occasional mistake in the recordings), carefully assembling the audience sounds from many different samples to make it sound natural and so on.

 

However, I'm scratching my head a bit regarding EQ. I want a really 'in your face' sound that replicates that of an authentic club (say 100-200 people) gig. I want listeners to really feel (as far as possible) the sense of a band with Marshall stacks crammed into a small stage giving it everything, sweat running off the walls and cheap lager , so I think the EQ will be really important.

 

Any advice from those who understand the frequency spectrum better than I do would be really helpful, please...

 

(* It's very a long story and the reasons are many and various for not 'simply putting together a band and playing a club gig'. So please just go with me on this...)

[Atlas007]

How about some compression and reverbs?

[0B02]

Reverb I've got my head round, as well as replicating small amounts of spill into what would, in reality, be the instrument and vocal mics. The problem with compression is that I don't want to lose all the dynamics, although I appreciate that there will be an element of a 'wall of sound' with what I am trying to achieve. I think multiband compression is the answer, however with multiband compression we effectively come back to the question of what frequencies to compress and therefore, effectively... EQ!

[simon.a.billington]

Reverb has a tendency to push things back. For in your face sounds you will want less of it. Though all your secondary, non essential elements can use a bit of it to help sink it into the background a bit. The contrast here can give the ear the audible cues it needs to identify something up close.

 

Consider harmonics and saturation on the “close” elements as well as it can help give a sound weight and presence also making it sound closer. Don’t sacrifice the transients though as they contain a lot of necessary information for the ear to help locate the proximity of a sound. Brighter and more transient rich sounds appear closer, while dull and more compressed sounds sound more distant.

 

So which compression can help, make sure you don’t over do it, or destroy too much of your transients in the process.

[0B02]

Cool, thank you

[fisherking]

compression, limiting. push things hard. little or NO reverb. don't pan too wide, keep the center dense. but eq... you have to use your ears (maybe a little boom, but be careful with that).

[David Nahmani]

compression, limiting. push things hard.

Beware, as depending on how you're using compression, you may get the opposite effect: air is a natural compressor. In reality, the closer a source is to you, the bigger its dynamic range, and the more air between you and the source, the more compressed the sound will end up.

 

So when compressing as a simple way of reducing the dynamic range, you're generally making your sound more distant.

[0B02]

Do exciters make a difference? (I've always considered them as one toy more than is absolutely necessary )

[fisherking]

compression, limiting. push things hard.

Beware, as depending on how you're using compression, you may get the opposite effect: air is a natural compressor. In reality, the closer a source is to you, the bigger its dynamic range, and the more air between you and the source, the more compressed the sound will end up.

 

So when compressing as a simple way of reducing the dynamic range, you're generally making your sound more distant.

 

i guess, as you've pointed out, it depends on how you use it. i mixed a very-well-recorded rock band last year (2 guitars, bass, drums, one vocal). compressed the hell out of everything, and had these great, dense sounds to play with; the mix was great (the artist loved it). their previous mix was clean, calm... no punch. i gave them a mix with dynamics (ie dropping the bass out of the verse, stuff like that), but fat, present.

 

as always, whatever works.

[simon.a.billington]

Do exciters make a difference? (I've always considered them as one toy more than is absolutely necessary )

 

Exciters, harmonic enhancers, saturation... all pretty much variations of the same thing, distortion. They can help give a sound some weight and bring it forward in the mix. Too much though will just have it sounding too distorted and flat again, so there is a limit to how much you can apply.

 

When using compressors too, try to leave much of your transients untouched as they are they audio cue the ear needs to determine direction and proximity, largely. Closer sounds are also more dynamic and having more transient information helps to achieve the close illusion.