I just checked the noise sample I posted a couple comments earlier here, and it doesn't sound that bad already. Sure I'd add some flavor to it as a general listener, but it sounds pretty okay as is.selig wrote: ↑24 Sep 2018Ouch- so the entire mix is run through all these filters, just to make it “flat” (even though flat probably sounds bad)? Have you analyzed good sounding mixes? If so, you’ll notice none of them are spectrally flat, and most of them don’t look alike - indicating there isn’t “one” setting that works for all types of music.RobC wrote:
I thought you meant by 'untouched system', that we generally don't equalize our device to our hearing during work, but try to keep its response flat.
The recordings themselves, what we can load as a waveform, do get processed. They get split into frequency bands, and the average levels of those bands are brought to the same level. That's what I dubbed as 'flattened' for now.
But I think it will be best to wait for a beat, made with this method, so you can hear what it will be like. This might be a bit complicated to just talk about.
And when you say flat, you mean like white noise on a spectrum, or pink noise (more preferable) or some other arbitrary standard?
Are you trying to take an artistic process, and make it conform to some “standard” response curve (e.g., “flat”)? It sounds like you’re taking the “ears” out of the equation, and just making every frequency range hit some sort of target?
Apologies if I’m missing something here - still sounds like a solution in search of a problem as you’ve described above. But I’m still interested in making sure I’m understanding the basic concept, and trying to understand what “problem” this solution is addressing. Maybe I’ve totally missed your intention here, and if so it is not at all intentional!
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Personally, I don't understand why it's a problem, if every single sound would be perfectly audible (even if we do remove some bands - think high/low pass filtering).
There are good sounding mixes, but I believe it's possible to beat them this way. And the differences between songs would still be there, if the filters are applied to every single sound (drum hits, notes, etc.) individually.
Again, listen to the noise sample I posted. That's flattened the way I said. But if you generally listen to a sine wave sweep, you hear the sound that has equal energy in every band, too.
In total, this kind of takes the ears out, yes. Then, when the user listens to the song, they can add their ears to it with EQing.
We can take Thriller for example. As the song truly begins with the bass line, I (or rather just my ears) for example find the hats way too sharp, I'd like the kick to have just a bit more treble, and the bass is a bit too much in the low end. If I start equalizing that, then either the hats get even sharper, or the kick gets lost in higher ranges - depending if I boost or drop highs when I equalize it for myself on my playback device. If I tweak the low end, then the kick is going to lose quite a bit, too.
That is something that can't be controlled with simple tools, like an EQ on a phone for example, on the go, and I'm not overly fond of it.
That said, I'm not sure if it will all work the way I imagine it! Still a lot of work to do...