Plug-in Preset ?

Question

Ok, Im a noob to Logic Pro 7. I come from the ProTools LE World. Anyway, I had 1 question pop up while perusing around in Logic, and mixing some previously recorded, imported music......
Its always been taught that when EQ ing tracks you want to take away more than add....... So my question is..Why does almost every EQ preset boost frequencies instead of cutting unwanted frequencies. I know its just starting points, but was just curious. Maybe one of you Logic Jedi Masters could brief me on why that may be.
Ok till my next Noob question later, and thanks for any and all comments......er except for flames.. : )
G4 933   Mac OS X (10.4.4)  

Answer 1

Music/ producers have been lazy this days simply because of presets
everyone wants presets to do their thing for them, y'all need to remember that those presets are there as just demos to show you what the plug-ins can do not what you are supposed to do
back in Analog days and still is, there where no presets, do it by ears was what they call it
which means you need to learn your hardware and understand what each button / knobs/ faders were for
different songs requires different settings
different engineers requires different settings
and different people have different ways of hearing things
have you thought about maybe those presets were setup on a Slap Bass which was originally about -12db then they EQ and compress to their need and save the settings in there for you
but now you got logic and you are trying to use the same settings or channel strips on a sub which is like -3db
what would you get if you do that ( Distortion or muffled ) and no space or room for other sounds
this applies to the mastering settings as well
not all songs are the same
I always start the EQ / Compressor off Flat then work my way up or down
the whole theory about " its better to cut than boost is cool but sometimes it doesn't apply to everything
let your ears and skills be the judge
hip hop needs more punch a lil distortion and really PUMPED
whereby classical music will be opposite to that
so you need to mess around with the plug-ins and understand what is what and whats good for you
presets is not always the answer
If you switch the Auto gain on, thats not the end of everything, you got the Gain contol, threshold, attack, release, ratio, knee, (PEAK/RMS), and the output clip to mess with as well
its all of this things that make up a compressor
try all of them and see whats good
and it helps alot if you know what they means and what they do
so read the plug-ins manual if you have to, to help your skills
or to make it even better you can even use the side chain to help control the volume as well
all this counts
there is alot to logic that presets, presets are there to guide you not to do it for you
stash