Frequency Analysis Plugins

[Julian Nichols]

I should use my ears, I know.

But I do find that a visual representation trains my ears as to which frequencies are which - I've been using Schope by Schwa and RenEQ and am getting better at identifying frequencies.

If I was to upgrade my Frequency Analyser Plugin, I'd be looking at Waves PAZ at the moment, but I thought I'd ask the gurus here if there are any others that I should consider. I'd be using it for 2 things : identifying EQ clashes in my mixes, and A/Bing my tracks with commercial releases of a similar style.

My setup is all ITB, very little physical recording, mostly electronic soft synths etc. Just a home producer.

Any advice or words of caution will be cheerfully received.

[seancook]

pretty sure flux make a free one
maybe download that and see if you like it, if not you can pay for one, but if you are just wanting to check the basic overall shape of a track and look for any peak frequencies it may be enough for you
cheers
sean

[The Tasmanian]

Its also good to get to know what frequency musical notes are down the low end - I find this a much more rewarding way to think of frequencies - especially with electronic music - and then just jumping an octave is doubling the frequency.
Also good for bass guitar low end - sometimes kick too.
And using a freq analysis plug in if you feel you have mud/build up in a certain areas - or problems to deal with.
But looking at the image as a habit is not a wise way to make music sound and feel great - ears and heart are king.

[Ben M]

There's probably plenty of options with ITB spectrum analysis.
IKmedia T-Racks metering is good. Has a decent spectrum analysis and all types of metering with different viewing parameters.

[jdutaillis]

I tend to use TRacks metering or Schope. I'm not a big fan of the waves metering and don't think you'll get any more out of it than Schope already shows you.

A nice free one to check out is by Bluecat Audio - http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_FreqAnalyst/

They also to a multitrack version for analysing multiple tracks together (not free though) - http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_FreqAnalystMulti/

[Lucas]

if you want to train you ears, check out Harmen's How to Listen