Opportune Moments for EQing

[timaeus222]

This may come off as strange to some, but to me it seems to make a difference. There was a day where I stayed up until 3 AM EQing the bass on a song, and I could hear how well I was making progress. That morning I woke up, I felt like I couldn't hear the bass as distinctly as I did the night before, but it still sounded good.

Is there a time of day or night that you guys find your ears most fine-tuned when EQing either tough bass sections or treble sections?

Edited January 11, 2014 by timaeus222

[Yami]

That's funny, because I had the same experience last night. I think later at night I can hear better

[PixelPanic]

It might be that as you were mixing, your ears adjusted to find a certain range of notes easier, assuming you were spending all night EQing. As such, when you are constantly trying to listen for the bass voice, your ears will center in and focus on that, and be able to ignore the melody or other harmonies to a degree. And when you wake up, your ears are now unfocused and your work is pretty much adjusted only for someone who specifically wants to hear that bass part in the right volume.

[Argle]

I don't think its time of day, rather ear fatigue. If you stay up half the night mixing, your ears will be kind of fucked.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I have hearing damage so the opportune moment for that probably came and went a long time ago for me.

I have a pretty damn good ear for pitch, though. Which is strange.

[AngelsDen]

I always tend to do Mixing Stuff at the early afternoon, doing Vocal recordings on the Morning and rehearsing at the night.

Vocals are fresh at the morning, i am most motivated to do anything at the afternoon and its more comfortable to listen in the night.

There are also times when i can perfectly recreate pitches, but theres also the opposite...

[PixelPanic]

An addition to what I said, you probably psychologically desperately wanted to achieve a certain sound at 3 in the morning so your brain tricked your ears into thinking it sounded right because that was the only thing between the brain and sleep.

So in shorter words, you didn't hear it, but your brain did.

[Orion]

Strangely enough, when I'm on the John.

Only partially Shh... I mean kidding...

I know some people that eq it all at once in one night. I know some people that do it as they go along from day one to end. The opportune moment is just that... it is situational and dependent upon preference of the artist. I really don't know which is better as sometimes I delegate different methods for different projects, musical intents or in lieu of expedient workflow.

Personally it's great to have a template that is already eq'd to your liking for streamlining working habit

[timaeus222]

An addition to what I said, you probably psychologically desperately wanted to achieve a certain sound at 3 in the morning so your brain tricked your ears into thinking it sounded right because that was the only thing between the brain and sleep.

So in shorter words, you didn't hear it, but your brain did.

I can actually say that although I couldn't hear the bass as distinctly as I could at 3 AM, in the morning I was accepting that the bass was well-mixed in the end.

[PixelPanic]

I can actually say that although I couldn't hear the bass as distinctly as I could at 3 AM, in the morning I was accepting that the bass was well-mixed in the end.

Okay, well maybe it was less your brain and just my first part, your ears adjusted to the bass part moreso than an untrained ear after sleep.

[Ryan Jobson]

Ear fatigue. That is all. Give your ears a rest every once in a while and try taking breaks.

[timaeus222]

Ear fatigue. That is all. Give your ears a rest every once in a while and try taking breaks.

Do you think our ears experience a similar effect as how our voices can sing better and more stably in the evening? (Disregarding the constant EQing)

[Garpocalypse]

Do you think our ears experience a similar effect as how our voices can sing better and more stably in the evening? (Disregarding the constant EQing)

I don't know 100% what it could be but I've heard that male hormones don't stabilize until mid afternoon usually. Which could carry over into having an effect on your singing. I had a sight singing class at 8am which was the absolute best time to get over your fear of singing in front of people because all of our voices were cracking like crazy.

I guess it's possible that it could have an effect on hearing frequencies but it's tough to not point the finger at ear fatigue. Much more maneageable too. I'd rather be worried about taking a 10 minute break than think that I only have a small window of time each day to work.