EQ'ing dead shows?

[claytushaywood]

Cant believe my dumb ass didnt think of this sooner. After years of listening to dead shows, i've come to hear certain things in the music that i love and some things about the mixes that I dont love. So I started eq'ing some of the shows i have. always add bass to 80's shows, add low mids to get bobby or piano up in the mix (depending on the year of course and keys and bobby's tone) Does anyone else do this? I was thinking I would get like a vintage EQ system for my stereo (didnt a lot of stereos used to have these) stereos are really downgrading for the most part these days, except for super hi fi stuff.

I just found i could eq on toast titanium, my flac burning software. It allows you to use AU effects on tracks. up to 3 that then get recorded to CD! pretty cool, except i cant figure out how to make one eq mix go to all the tracks. i have to set it for every track!!! and i like to use the 31 bands!!!! just eq'd some of the europe 72 box set stuff, amazing how much better it can sound!

just an FYI because of a previous response i got to this idea. i'm not saying people that eq and mix this stuff are not good by any means!! just different stereos need different eq's... and yeh some of the eq jobs suck! i think they could have done a lot better on this box set. whoever did rockin the rhein was a genius!

[Stone]

Considering most SBD's out there are a representation of what was needed for the specific room they were in or any other acoustic abnormalities at the time the recording was made. So between that and whatever corrections are needed for your system and the room its in, Yes! EQ goes a long way when listening to board tapes.

Any official release will have been doctored or probably even multi-tracked from the beginning. But in the days of rolling board tapes the EQ was always getting adjusted for better or for worse.

[claytushaywood]

interesting you say that... Just after posting this (not looking for anything, this story happened upon me) I was reading about the guy that recorded Live/Dead (cant remember his name and gotta get off this comp soon) he said after a lot of trial and error he realized that they should stop doctoring live while in the mobile recording unit so they could have something consistent to work with when taking the recording back to the studio!!! ha! now i dont think they did all their stuff like this, nice sync there. i think it was the guy who started mother mcrees with bob and played washboard for a couple weeks... ahhh

[claytushaywood]

by the way... you got any good system on doing the eq'ing? I actually still quite enjoyed my eq mix of the wembly show... vocals sounded flat, not enough bass (on my system of course- which is pretty full range) anyways... the burning software, Toast Titanium, let me use a 31 band AU plug in that came on my computer with garageband to record the eq from flac to cd! problem is i cant get the eq preset to stick with the rest of the tracks--- though maybe the eq was changing throughout the show anyways, but there is a general lack or overpowering of something on a lot of shows that can be doctored ya know... this method is pretty sweet actually, i'll try to figure it out. what do you use? i was thinking of also getting an outboard eq for my system

[charliemiller]

Just keep in mind that you are EQ'ing it for your room, which doesn't mean it will sound better in your car. If I am going to do any EQ'ing on a recording, I check it in my studio, my car, my iPod and my wife's stereo.

[zambiland]

I've been using Fidelia for playback, which allows insert of AU plugins. It works out well. If I want to EQ or compress or reverberate a whole show, either BIAS Peak or Waveburner does the trick. With a nice collection of EQs, either surgical or euphonic, you can do some great things to soundboards and audience recordings.

You might also look at Reaper. It's a good DAW for cheap, although the learning curve is a bit higher than some others. There are EQs built in.