EQ Vs Filter

[jessejames]

I've had some fun making a pure sine wave loop around 35hz and just letting the speakers blast my face. It's nutty. If you put your face about 1.5 - 2 ft away from the speaker, you can feel the sine wave converging right on your face and it tickles! Guaranteed to make you smile.

[steevio]

gotta love it though! heheh

I'd like however, to take the opportunity to point out to others though that is isn't just some new age hocus pocus (as unfortunately I might well have given the impression of it being). I think there is real potential for taking this often self indulgent business of making tunes into very exciting and physically useful places. A meeting point between science and individual expression, if you will.

For example, here (http://www.lunarsight.com/freq.htm) is a big list of some of the known frequencies and some of the ways they can be put to use in a range of settings, for example, how to excite certain parts of the brain, and thus how to take people on a useful journey through different states of awareness (no 'brown note' though, heheh). There is a lot of rubbish I think, and the guy's referencing can be quite confusing, but it's well worth a look.

To use the inaudible frequencies (0-20hz), via some kind of binaural thingamy, you can use 2 different synth parts hard panned left and right detuned by the appropriate number of hertz.

Personally, I got really exited about all this when I first read it, but have been too lazy to get cracking and put it to some decent use. maybe now's the time!

I hope this is useful to someone.

Mark

I dont understand one thing, if i use those inaudible frequencies in a track and then convert it to mp3, wont those frequencies be lost? or am i missing something here?
In the mastering stage in most cases frequencies under 30-40 hz get rolled off, above 20 hz rolled off also.
And if a speaker cant even produce that kind of frequency (1 hz...) does it make any sense doing it?
Please help me out understand this thing, it sounds interesting but still raises alot of questions.

its not really true that in mastering they roll off frequencies below 30-40 HZ. frequencies in that range are perfectly audible and usable as bass, its only when you get down to 20 HZ that it becomes inaudible, and you feel it instead.
certain frequencies can make you very ill, ( i think in the 2 - 4 HZ area but dont quote me ) because they can send parts of your body into sympathetic vibration, like your bowels and your stomach.
infact they have been used as weapons.
so using freqs below 20 HZ is pointless, unless you want the entire dance floor to throw up , anyway most mastering engineers will roll off below 20 HZ, and like you say speakers cant reproduce it.
(organ pipes in churches quite often go down to 20 HZ.)

[steevio]

how can you measure the the frequency of a bass kick? Like to figure out what key it is in?

spectrum analysis,

For that matter, what about all your drums how and what key should they be tuned to?

tune your drums to whatever key you like bruv. i tune my percussive sounds to all sorts of different keys, i dont treat percussive sounds any differently to other sounds in my tunes, i always think holistically about the musical relationships between all the sounds in a tune, it really depends on whatever musical mood i want for the track.
i recently heard a guy busking with an instrument called a hang drum, and i loved the sound so much, i wrote a tune using the scale from the hang drum, so my kick drum was tuned to the same note as the fundamental tone of the hang, and all the other percussion was tuned to the various notes of the scale.

[oblioblioblio]

hey steevio man. check out those links i posted to stuff about binaural beats.

The brain obtains positional information from the environment by constantly analyzing phase differences between the left and the right ear. So, if you detune sounds that are hardpanned left and and right, in the right listening circumstances (who knows, maybe this is only realistically achievable with headphones), it can have the equivalent effect of using a sound wave at that particular frequency.

But like you say, you've gotta be pretty careful with what you're doing.

[hydrogen]

right.. so you when you use the analyzer you are looking for the area that resonates the most?

then what about drums? I mean... my ears aren't just trained to say... that sound is 2 semitones off it should be pitched up to be in g#. haha... I'm just not that good i guess and I'm looking for computer assisted help.

how can you measure the the frequency of a bass kick? Like to figure out what key it is in?

spectrum analysis,

For that matter, what about all your drums how and what key should they be tuned to?

tune your drums to whatever key you like bruv. i tune my percussive sounds to all sorts of different keys, i dont treat percussive sounds any differently to other sounds in my tunes, i always think holistically about the musical relationships between all the sounds in a tune, it really depends on whatever musical mood i want for the track.
i recently heard a guy busking with an instrument called a hang drum, and i loved the sound so much, i wrote a tune using the scale from the hang drum, so my kick drum was tuned to the same note as the fundamental tone of the hang, and all the other percussion was tuned to the various notes of the scale.

[steevio]

hey steevio man. check out those links i posted to stuff about binaural beats.

The brain obtains positional information from the environment by constantly analyzing phase differences between the left and the right ear. So, if you detune sounds that are hardpanned left and and right, in the right listening circumstances (who knows, maybe this is only realistically achievable with headphones), it can have the equivalent effect of using a sound wave at that particular frequency.

But like you say, you've gotta be pretty careful with what you're doing.

yeah mate, ive been aware of binaural beats for a while, but you're right it does only work in headphones. it's basically putting frequencies directly in your head that otherwise your ears couldnt pickup. i reckon its more useful for healing and home listening music. i'm not sure how it could work with techno.
your brainwaves work at frequencies below 40 HZ, for instance in the different phases of sleep and during say meditation, there are very specific frequencies, between 2 and 40 HZ, called alpha, beta, theta, and deltawaves, and you can induce those frequencies with binaural beats.
it's a whole other topic, i think it needs a new post if anyone is interested.

[steevio]

right.. so you when you use the analyzer you are looking for the area that resonates the most?

then what about drums? I mean... my ears aren't just trained to say... that sound is 2 semitones off it should be pitched up to be in g#. haha... I'm just not that good i guess and I'm looking for computer assisted help.

how can you measure the the frequency of a bass kick? Like to figure out what key it is in?

spectrum analysis,

For that matter, what about all your drums how and what key should they be tuned to?

tune your drums to whatever key you like bruv. i tune my percussive sounds to all sorts of different keys, i dont treat percussive sounds any differently to other sounds in my tunes, i always think holistically about the musical relationships between all the sounds in a tune, it really depends on whatever musical mood i want for the track.
i recently heard a guy busking with an instrument called a hang drum, and i loved the sound so much, i wrote a tune using the scale from the hang drum, so my kick drum was tuned to the same note as the fundamental tone of the hang, and all the other percussion was tuned to the various notes of the scale.

i think its got a lot to do with how different people work. if you're working with samples a lot of the time, its harder to pinpoint the frequencies. i dont work like that, so i dont know what plugins and software there is to help you in those realms other than basic spectrum analysis, or using your ears, ( which IMO is the best way).
if ever i have a sound i need to analyze, i just look at the spectrum, there'll be a dominant frequency, ( which may be the fundamental but not always ) and other spikes on the graph which are harmonics, and i can work out from those what the note is, ( its quite often octaves that will stand out, for instance if you've got spikes at 110, 220 and 440, you know its A )
its different to building your own sounds in synths, which is how i work. then its very easy to tune your percussion from the off. almost all the percussive sounds i use start off as pure sinewaves, so i know the exact frequency i'm working with. then i add modulation, harmonics. noise, resonance, envelopes etc etc. till i've got the sound i want, but at the root of the sound is the original frequency i started with.

[hydrogen]

Awesome... thanks for the tips steevio.