Heartbeat EQ? Help, please.

[Peter]

I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.

Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
this sound come through?

Many thanks.

[George Gleason]

Peter wrote:
> I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
> will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.
>
> Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
> have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
> this sound come through?
>
> Many thanks.


Great heart beat on Mickey Hart's(grateful dead fame)
"Music to be born by"

george

[George Gleason]

Peter wrote:
> I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
> will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.
>
> Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
> have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
> this sound come through?
>
> Many thanks.


Great heart beat on Mickey Hart's(grateful dead fame)
"Music to be born by"

george

[Frank Vuotto]

On 16 Nov 2004 09:24:46 -0800, (Peter)
wrote:

>I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
>will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.
>
>Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
>have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
>this sound come through?
>
>Many thanks.

No advice on eq but make sure you get a HEALTHY heartbeat sample
because studies have shown that an unhealthy one can be extremely
disconcerting to the listener, even if they don't know its sick.


Frank /~ http://newmex.com/f10
@/

[Frank Vuotto]

On 16 Nov 2004 09:24:46 -0800, (Peter)
wrote:

>I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
>will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.
>
>Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
>have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
>this sound come through?
>
>Many thanks.

No advice on eq but make sure you get a HEALTHY heartbeat sample
because studies have shown that an unhealthy one can be extremely
disconcerting to the listener, even if they don't know its sick.


Frank /~ http://newmex.com/f10
@/

[Ethan Winer]

Peter,

> Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone have
any suggestions relative to eq/compression <

Yes, avoid boosting very low frequencies which won't contribute to the sound
and will just distort smaller speakers or be inaudible. The exact EQ you use
of course depends entirely on the source sample you're working with. But if
after hearing it in context in the spot you feel it needs some EQ, I'd start
closer to 200 Hz than 100 Hz.

--Ethan

[Ethan Winer]

Peter,

> Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone have
any suggestions relative to eq/compression <

Yes, avoid boosting very low frequencies which won't contribute to the sound
and will just distort smaller speakers or be inaudible. The exact EQ you use
of course depends entirely on the source sample you're working with. But if
after hearing it in context in the spot you feel it needs some EQ, I'd start
closer to 200 Hz than 100 Hz.

--Ethan

[Jeff Jasper]

Peter wrote:

> I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
> will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.
>
> Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
> have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
> this sound come through?

I've done a lot of spots using real heartbeat, and there seems to be no way
to EQ it for better clarity. All EQ does noticeably is vary the level
rather than any sort of tonal improvement.

That said, you can take a single sample on your DAW and manually bring down
the big initial peak of the waveform to something more reasonable. Copy it
for as many beats as you need. Then when mixing, either use an accurate
peak-reading meter or look at the waveform to set the level no higher than
that of the vocal, so that on-air processing on TV will not duck the vocal
every time there's a heartbeat. Multiband radio processing will be less of
a problem.

Unfortunately, this is one sound that puts you at the mercy of the playback
speaker(s). One thing you might try (that I haven't) would be pitching it
up an octave and seeing if it still sounds plausible. Clients want that
deep thump, but there's simply a limit as to what you can do without
endangering the vocal.

Good luck!

Jeff Jasper, VO guy
Jeff Jasper Productions, West Monroe, La.

[Jeff Jasper]

Peter wrote:

> I'm producing a spot for a cardiac care unit at a local hospital which
> will have the sfx of a heartbeat running throughout.
>
> Given the wide variety of speakers this will be heard on, does anyone
> have any suggestions relative to eq/compression etc., that will help
> this sound come through?

I've done a lot of spots using real heartbeat, and there seems to be no way
to EQ it for better clarity. All EQ does noticeably is vary the level
rather than any sort of tonal improvement.

That said, you can take a single sample on your DAW and manually bring down
the big initial peak of the waveform to something more reasonable. Copy it
for as many beats as you need. Then when mixing, either use an accurate
peak-reading meter or look at the waveform to set the level no higher than
that of the vocal, so that on-air processing on TV will not duck the vocal
every time there's a heartbeat. Multiband radio processing will be less of
a problem.

Unfortunately, this is one sound that puts you at the mercy of the playback
speaker(s). One thing you might try (that I haven't) would be pitching it
up an octave and seeing if it still sounds plausible. Clients want that
deep thump, but there's simply a limit as to what you can do without
endangering the vocal.

Good luck!

Jeff Jasper, VO guy
Jeff Jasper Productions, West Monroe, La.