Audio Production

Alex Case Lecture Recap

December 4, 2008 December 4, 2008 Recently we were lucky enough to have Alex Case come to CDIA to lecture on equalization. I attended one of his lectures at the Boston Area Definitive Audio Student Summit earlier this fall and was really excited to see him here at the school. One of the topics I found most interesting in his lecture was the "masking effect," which is basically when the presence of weaker sound is made inaudible by a louder sound. He discussed how this comes into play in a mix; specifically its effect on frequency. Something of which I was previously unaware is the "upward spread of masking" – maskers interfere with higher frequencies more than those that are lower. Practically this means that really loud low frequency events mask a broader band of frequencies than events occurring elsewhere in the spectrum and are therefore undesirable, particularly when they are sustained. Another practical application of the properties of masking discussed was the use of complimentary cuts and boosts when working with a mix. Musical parts sitting in the same frequency range tend to compete or drown each other out. A solution to this (after initially attempting a natural fit in terms of the arrangement, of course) is to give competing instruments their own bands to occupy utilizing equalization ("EQ") to emphasize (or de-emphasize) parts of the spectrum more fittingly. For example, a snare drum and distorted electric guitar often sit in the same range. EQ can be used to make room for the snare in the guitar track by taking out some of the frequency content in the guitar that is shared. Alex Case is a really enjoyable speaker to watch and listen to. I find him to be charismatic and subtly (and sometimes less subtly) witty, making his lectures on sometimes rather dry subjects entertaining and - I think ultimately - more effective.