Ive been messing around with all the knobs on my mixer and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on low, mid, and high levels for vocals, acoustic, and harmonica.
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Thats a tough call. Being everything not being equal. I always try for unity gain through out the mixer. You might want to search for Gain Structure, Setting Mixer Input Levels, mixer gain, Mixer Settings, Etc.
Joe
As joe says, it depends on many factors. Different mikes will give different sound signatures, which will affect your settings, as will, to a much lesser degree, different cables.
Your guitar may well have one or more frequency bands that are louder/quieter than others and need compensation, in the mixer.
Even your sound card will influence the settings in the mixer - poor quality cards will need more help than good quality ones.
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I generally din't EQ anything at all, it's much easier to do that *after* recording.
When I record with a Mic I normally reduce the low (80Hz) knob to reduce low frequency hum in the recording.
Tanglewood TW28STE (Shadow P7 EQ) acoustic
Yamaha RGX 320FZ electric guitar/Egnater Tweaker 15 amp.
Yamaha RBX 270 bass/Laney DB 150 amp.
http://www.soundclick.com/kalleinsweden
It depends on what you want to accentuate with ‘said instrument'.
I tend to think of post-record EQ'ing as fixing a problem. I would try to get them as close as possible before you start recording.
...well, like most folks have said - depends on many factors and preference. some people leave the eq flat until after recording. I do that sometimes too. But all in all, i think my guitar sounds a little high, and my voice a little too low (bassy) so when i use the eq, i turn down the lows on my mic, and turn it up on my guitar.
You might check out the "Mixing Engineer's Handbook" or similar books for ideas...I generally record flat, selecting and moving mics to get a good sound before the red light comes on. I do use EQ at times during mix down, but it often depends on context...for example, I generally won't change EQ on a solo acoustic guitar if it's been recorded well, but if it's in the context of a band, I might boost 12-15khz...and sometimes take out a little of the bottom as well. Generally I try not to have different instruments competing in the same frequency ranges.
Kalle: Why not use the low-cut for that? That gets rid of the hum/rumble and leaves the proper bass frequencies intact.
Hi Arjen
Have I missed something ?
Low-cut filter on the UB802 mixer (my doesnt have a low-cut filter)
or in the recording SW (Kristal) ?
But reducing the 80Hz frequency on vocal mic is not major problem as the human voice doesnt go that low (at least not mine). But a 80 Hz filter on a mic for instruments could be another thing.
Tanglewood TW28STE (Shadow P7 EQ) acoustic
Yamaha RGX 320FZ electric guitar/Egnater Tweaker 15 amp.
Yamaha RBX 270 bass/Laney DB 150 amp.
http://www.soundclick.com/kalleinsweden
Sorry, that option is there starting on the UB1002. Anyways: low cut is not to cut the lowest part of the vocals/instrument but to remove background rumble that the mic might have picked up. That's why you could easily do a 80Hz cut on vocals since it leaves the actual vocals alone but deals with the noise. If you'd use the EQ you'd change the actual shape of the vocal sound instead of removing garbage from the recording.
Remember that the low rumbles you are deleting are not audible unless you have a proper sub.
