treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

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Roy1
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treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by Roy1 »

I cannot find any reference to treble and bass controls among my many tutorials. Can anyone tell me how to alter the treble and bass on my commentary using Vegas Movie Studio 10 HD platinum. Any Info. much appreciated. Thanks.
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TimStannard
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by TimStannard »

What you are looking for, Roy, is Equalization or "EQ". There are several sorts available but all do fundamentally the same thing.
John Roberts will be able to confirm whether this is the same in Movie Studio, but in Pro on the track header of each audio track (to the left of each track) you will find the little green "FX" icon. Click this and you will see that three audio effects have already been added: Noise Gate, EQ and Compressor (you are free to add more)
EQ is the one we are interested in here. Open it and you'll see a line with four dots, labelled 1,2 3 and 4. The line represents the audio frequency with sub-bass at the left and ultra-treble at the far right.
The "Dots" can be moved up and down to increase (up) and decrease (down) the relative volume of the frequency represented by the dot.
So, to decrease bass, take the left hand dot and drag it down.

To increase the mid range, find a dot in the middle and move it up. Move the dots left and right to centre their adjustments around different frequencies.
You get the idea?

The best way to get to grips with this is to find a wide ranging sound (some white noise might be good) and just play and listen to the effect.
The controls at the bottom allow you to type in precise numbers rather than move the dots and the two extreme dots (1 and 4) can also be set to "shelf" which effectively means apply to this frequency and everything below/above.
The "rolloff" slider denotes how much of the signal either side of the frequency specified by the "dot" is effected.
For example, if you know you have mains hum at 50Hz, you can set a "dot" to 50Hz, set the rolloff to the smallest possible value, drag the dot right down and only the frequencies very close to the mains hum will be reduced.
Tim
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Dave Watterson
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by Dave Watterson »

In my earliest days of mucking about with sound the test piece usually used was Henry Hall's recording of 'The Teddy Bear's Picnic' - played on a 78 - using a gramophone constructed in Meccano around a car starter motor ! The alternate choice was a Scottish Country Dance tune called 'Hamilton House'.
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John Roberts
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by John Roberts »

Hi Roy and Tim and Dave! :D

Tim, you're right, it's exactly the same in MS (I'm working on version 12 but I don't believe it has altered from version 10). Click on the little green icon that's marked 'Track FX' when you mouseover it, to open the window containing the plug-ins, and you will indeed find 3 plug-ins already added. Although they are 'active' their default parameters are set so that they do not make any adjustments to the sound.

However, unless you are experienced with adjusting EQ I would avoid the use of the default 'Track EQ' plug-in. It can be very easy to get things wrong!

There are 3 alternatives - the first one is 'ExpressFX Equalisation' which will give you a basic 3-band control for bass, middle and treble, very similar to a decent Hi-Fi unit so it's very difficult to go wrong with this and will probably suffice for your needs, Roy. Alternatively, there is 'Graphic EQ' which will give you options for a 10-band and 20-band graphic equaliser via the tabs along the bottom of the plug-in. I generally use the 10-band EQ in the first instance, reverting to the 20-band on the rare occasions I require a touch more accuracy. A graphic equaliser such as this is simply a set of narrow band tone controls, each control affecting a small section of the audio spectrum; a 10-band equaliser usually has its controls spaced one musical octave apart, with the 20-band equaliser controls being half an octave apart.

The parameters available under the 'Track EQ' plug-in are useful for creating notch filters as Tim suggested, to reduce mains hum or other troublesome noises, as well as creating special effects such as a hollow 'tube-like' sound, but when one starts adjusting the frequency and Q of filters it's very easy indeed to end up adding more filters to correct issues created by incorrect settings of other filters.

If you're not sure how to add any of the plug-ins to your track or event, give either Tim or myself a shout and we'll jot something down for you :D

Dave, I'm not sure if a 78rpm version of Teddy Bear's Picnic played on a starter motor driven Meccano record deck counts as 'Hi-Fi' these days, if it ever did :lol:

John
Roy1
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by Roy1 »

JOHN and TIM. Thank you again for your very helpful advice on this matter. I have found that EXPRESS FX equalisation plug in has suited my purpose adequately. Obviously my problem again has been the jargon used by all the editing programme makers. (or should I say the murder of the English language used for descriptive purposes. Never in a million years would I have associated Bass and Treble controls with an equalisation App.( The use of the word app shows that I am learning) I always understood that the equalisation programme was to remove unwanted sound from an audio track. No wonder I couldn't find what I wanted. Thank you again, I think of you two as knights of Camelot charging in to rescue souls in distress. Long may you continue with your helpful quests.
DAVE. Although nothing to do with the problem I was interested in you mentioning Henry Hall as he was a hero of mine when I was Extremely young. My parents were in show business and there were appearing at the Winter Gardens Theatre Berlin in 1933 and Henry Hall and his orchestra were top of the bill. My parents had taken me to Berlin with them and I was introduced to Henry Hall. He became my hero because he gave me the German equivalent of Half a Crown. I will never forget that holiday for another reason. I remember seeing all the future NAZI leaders as they ordered us off a tram and then set light to it. I remember vaguely seeing Hitler, Goering. Goobles and a gang of about ten all wearing brown shirts. It's a pity my parents didn't have a movie camera.
Last edited by Roy1 on Sat Apr 02, 2016 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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TimStannard
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by TimStannard »

Roy1 wrote:TOM and TIM. ... I think of you two as knights of Camelot charging in to rescue souls in distress. Long may you continue with your helpful quests.

To be honest, Roy, when I imagine myself as a knight of Camelot, it is either here: https://youtu.be/q4tWBILtrSU or rescuing something rather mor feminine and younger than your good self (no offence). However, in the real world, being able to help out other Vegas users (or film makers in general) is a real pleasure of mine and is one way of trying to pay back (or rather "pay forward") the help I have gratefully received over the years.

And JOHN is absolutely right. The Express EQ is perfect for what you want.

John, thanks for pointing that out. I'd never even looked at it! Probably because it didn't exist in the first version of Vegas I used, and I had no need to learn it and most of my EQ is done is external programs or using the Track EQ as a notch filter to dial out hum or hiss.

Speaking of which - and going somewhat off topic - Anyone who is having a problem with noise on an audio track, I cannot recommend Izotope RX5 too highly. For reducing general background noise it beats Sony Noise Reduction 2 (expensive on its own and included in Sony Sound Forge) by a country mile, which itself beats the more basic Sony Noise reduction (included with Sound Forge Studio) by a long way. But it also presents sound as a spectrum making removal of glitches like knocks of a microphone stand, external police sirens etc a cinch. Crackles and Pops - great filters. YES we should all be recording stuff perfectly in a recording studio or an acoustic chamber, but when that's not possible IZotope RX5 is a great collection of tools. The new (for the standard version) reverb remover even gives pretty good results in certain circumstances.

It ain't cheap. But even though we know audio is 50%-70% of the experience of watching a film, we still spend the biggest percentage of our budget on video.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
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TimStannard
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by TimStannard »

John Roberts wrote:when one starts adjusting the frequency and Q of filters it's very easy indeed to end up adding more filters to correct issues created by incorrect settings of other filters.
Wise words. I often get to a point where I disable everything I've added then start again. Also it is very important to come back to it the next day with fresh ears. What sounds right after 2 hours of "tweaking" often sounds like Daleks the next day.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
Roy1
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Re: treble and bass control in Vegas Movie studio 10

Post by Roy1 »

HI JOHN. Sorry about calling you TOM in my thanks post. I have now corrected it
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