Recording, Eq and compressor

Henke78

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Hi guys

I'm new on this forum but I have a big question ! I have veen recording a few ukulele tracks. They were recorded in a drumroom with a Rode K2 tube mic in from of the ukulele and 2 AKG C391s A's room mic's. So the quallity of the tracks are really good but I have no idear on how to eq the tracks. What freq. to cut and what to boost ? and what about compressor ? Can I use a gentle compression as on acoustic guitar ?

Henke
 
It really depends on how you want everything to sound. I wound start by spending a little time on Gearslutz.com It is a great recording forum.
Sorry to be a little vague, but there really is no short answer to that question.
 
As far as EQ, I find subtractive EQ'ing works well. I usually use a plug-in of a Focusrite Red 6-Band EQ. I'll go through each frequency band and turn the gain for that band all the way up while the track is playing. I'll then sweep through the frequencies to find ones that don't sound very nice (I've found that 4K-5K can be a little boxy). Once I've settled on a frequency I don't like, I'll turn the gain down to below 0. If I turn the gain down too much I find it no longer sounds natural as it's missing that frequency band so I'll usually go between -.5dB to -1.5dB. Do it with each frequency band and see how it sounds, then make changes accordingly.

For compression, I also use a plug-in of a Focusrite Red Compressor. My playing is generally pretty even...I don't tend to have tons of sharp volume spikes so I don't want to heavily compress it. I'll usually go with a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio and set the threshold so that only the sharp spikes are being compressed and usually only by 2dB or 3dB (again, I still want it to sound natural). I'll then adjust the attack and release as needed.

This is just a guideline to get you started...it really helps to just play with the compression and EQ until you find something that works for you. As Eric mentioned above, there's an abundance of information at GearSlutz.com and it's worth taking a look.

On a side note, I have a K2 as well that I love! I used to use a Blue Blueberry on the body with an AKG 451 at the neck but I find just using the K2 gives me what I'm looking for. Unfortunately the room I record in sounds terrible...I'd love to be able to use some room mics to get in a little natural reverb!
 
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