Logic Pro Pre-sets ???

[Pianoworldstage]

Hi,

 

Regarding my last post concerning EQ which many of you gave helpful answers to, I've since wondered, if many sound engineers work with an EQ flat frequency response when in production, when then would the EQ pre-sets in Logic come in to play? why are they there? Or for what purpose would they be used.

[des99]

If you assume that just because we recommended that a classical piano probably doesn't need much EQ'ing, that *nothing* does, you'd be wrong. Contemporary productions use EQ extensively, to carve out unwanted frequencies, to fit different sounds together, to highlight or recede other sounds, or to fix problems, or to pleasingly shape.

 

It's a wide-ranging tool.

[fuzzfilth]

If you record, say, a kick drum, chances are that you might want to cut considerably at 400Hz, boost at 5kHz and boost at 70Hz. These will be roughly the same spots you work on every time you record a kick drum, so why not make a preset with these frequencies dialed in, ready to go.

 

To make this a marketable feature, you need to expand and add presets for vocals, guitars, piccolo trombone and bagpipes.

 

However - and this is where EQ presets (and Channel Strip Settings in general) are a double edged sword really - what if it's not 400Hz but 325Hz for this exact drum ? What if you need to boost 6,25kHz for this drum in this song ? What if there's so much 70Hz that you actually need to cut instead of boost ? What if that male vocal that you intended to make warm with the Warm Male Vocal preset does not take kindly to the exact frequencies that a brave guy at Apple deemed proper many years ago ? You'd need to actually use your ears and decide what, where and how much you would want to cut or boost and if you need to do it at all. And this is where so many inexperienced users go wrong. They slap Warm Male Vocal on any male vocal track they come across without even knowing what exactly it does and if it makes their track better or worse. No one told them that EQing is not a one-click affair, actually Apple told them the opposite with that huge library of 'professionally engineered' presets.

 

EQ presets in their present form are a marketing gadget to ostensibly equip beginners who have no idea what they're doing with the tools to get a professionally sounding mix. The problem with this is that they still have no idea what they're doing. I can't count the posts on this forum which go "I have somehow deleted Warm Male Vocal and now I can't get it back. I'm using it in every project. I need this! Help!" Well, first, if you used it in every project, then just go there, and save it from any of the tracks you slapped it on, and second, you'd make some actual progress in your hitherto non-existent mixing skills if you'd actually start listening to your male vocal and decide what is has and what it needs. And just like magic - poof, there'd be no more desperate need for Warm Male Vocal...

[robinloops]

A preset is like a ‘dash of vinegar, a pinch of salt, pepper to taste, with a touch of cayenne’. These might be the principal seasoning ingredients but you can’t just blindly throw in spices and hope for the best. You still need to season to taste.

[des99]

A preset is like a ‘dash of vinegar, a pinch of salt, pepper to taste, with a touch of cayenne’. These might be the principal seasoning ingredients but you can’t just blindly throw in spices and hope for the best. You still need to season to taste.

 

And they don't work at all on ice cream.

[David Nahmani]

Also keep in mind that you won't be mixing your kick drum the same way if you're doing Jazz, House Music, Death Metal or Reggae. And even that "Rock Male Vocal" preset? It doesn't know your vocalist, if he's got an aggressive voice, a soft one, a mid-rangey one, a bassy one, etc. Only you know. By listening, tweaking etc. There are, IMO, no shortcuts for learning to mix for yourself.

[Pianoworldstage]

Thanks Des, Fuzz, and David,

It's great to have you guys as a knowledge bass for learning.

[David Nahmani]

You're welcome. By the way "flat frequency response" is obviously not the quality of an EQ, the job of an EQ being to re-adjust the frequency spectrum of the audio signal you feed it (for example lower the mid-range frequency, or boos the low frequency, etc.).