Original Message 1/9                 Date: 17-Jan-00  @  06:47 PM   -   EQ How Too?

Mark D

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Hi Kilo,
I must commend you on the compressor explanation in the FX RACK section. It truly helped my application of compression within a mix. However I recently have purchased a 31 band EQ and was wondering if you or anyone could provide some guidelines for EQ use in a mix. Some useful tips I have already received relate to upping the EQ at 200hz to give more punch to a bass drum while also increasing the EQ at 12khz to add more brilliance to high hats. Any more tips like these or any info on regular EQ tricks applied in commercial recordings will be highly appreciated.

Cheers,

Mark D.

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Message 2/9                 Date: 17-Jan-00  @  08:56 PM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

k

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you get different mixes for different applications, cd mix, radio mix, club mix etc - each has a different emphasis. otherwise, whatever feels right

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Message 3/9                 Date: 18-Jan-00  @  06:27 PM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

Mark D

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Hi,
Since i posted the original message i've done some research and found out the following, which i would like to share for the benefit of any other EQ novices out there. I imagine most of this stuff may be common knowledge, however for those like myself who are not in the know these tips may prove useful.

Use of EQ to minimize noise:

Line current in the US is 120 volts and 60Hz. I believe in the UK the line current is 240 volts and 50Hz. The frequency of ground loop hum will be either 60Hz or 50Hz depending on your location (US/UK)
To eliminate a hum from a mix or instrument part, try cutting the EQ at 60Hz or 50Hz respectively.

Muddy mixes:

This works well on long sustained sounds such as string sections or pad sounds. You can also apply this to an entire mix, but as Kilo stated above different emphasis works for different applications. If a sound or mix, sounds muddy, you can try cutting the EQ at 400Hz this tends to open up the mix a little more and can help individual sounds, such as thick pads, sit better in a mix.

Boosting signal, not noise:

This applies to singular sounds. Try not to boost a frequency that isn't there. For example a bass guitar doesn't have much above 5kHz, so boosting the EQ at 10kHz only boosts noise and not the signal.

Adding brilliance to a mix:

The highest sound a normal human ear can hear is around 20kHz, boosting a little around this range can add more sheen to a track. Again this may work well in some applications but not in others.

Well, thats all the stuff i have learn from various sources. I hope it is of use to others, as it was to me.

Cheers,

Mark D.

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Message 4/9                 Date: 21-Jan-00  @  12:33 AM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

Ellipsis

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when you boost the noise..you boost the signal...thats how it works (unles you are using some form of subtractive eq)

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Message 5/9                 Date: 09-Feb-00  @  01:30 PM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

swarm

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My fav tip is cut, don't boost.
Boosting fills up your sound around the boosted freq, increases your noise floor, and can end up distorting.

Cutting the frequences you don't want can empasis what you want while leaving room in the mix.

Then you can boost as an fx to really bring something out.

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Message 6/9                 Date: 04-Mar-00  @  11:49 AM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

cyclop

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swarm is right.
cut frequencies don't boost them, boost the GAIN,after cutting out the unnecessary freq's.it is the BEST tip you'll ever get regarding eq-ing.
it is tempting to boost kik and snares and crackatacrack etc, but believe me you'll end up with a shit mix.way to go is this:play around with your channel eq
on the mixer,and see to wich point you can go down with your cutoff without
really affecting the sound.as soon as you start to hear that the high is being cutoff drasticly,stop with turning it down and leave the cutoof just above the point were you started to hear the difference.do the same thing for the low frequencies, but ofcourse then you must leave the cutoff knob just under the hz where it starts to become audible.everything above and beneath this audible difference, you should cut out.not completely but much lower than the rest.now you start to get a clean tight signal.if it happens that the sound you were eq-ing is
a bit to low in volume now,just turn the gain up.do this on every channel and when you've done that feed the signal trough one equalizer(on the master channel for instance and there you can boost slightly, but keep the
'notch'as pointy as possible.)when you did all this listen again and maybe the kik is to soft.don't boost the eq, but try turning up the gain.with experience in this you'll get a strong and tight mix.probably,on your master mix, you'll
end up cutting mid with a very pointy notch, boosting the frequencie of the 'puck-sound'in the basekik, and turning up the ,as mentioned in your own post,
12000 hz band for clarity.in short:
cut out all the frequencies in a sound that don't make a difference, or that are in the way of other more important frequencies from another soundsource for
instance, and boost the gain,to get your sound in the balanced dimensions.
driftkicker.

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Message 7/9                 Date: 06-Mar-00  @  12:11 PM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

MARK D

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Cheers guys,

Your advise has certainly improved the overall quality of my mixes.

Driftkicker, your tip on cutting each sounds frequencies to the point before the sound noticable changes really helped put it in to perspective. I find instruments don't interfere or mud up so much anymore, so cheers for that one.

If anyone has anymore tips i'm still open to suggestion, so keep 'em coming.

Anyone got any tips on eqing reverb?

MARK D

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Message 8/9                 Date: 06-Mar-00  @  06:53 PM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

cyclop

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yeah.. take out all frequencies
below 250/350 hz.those freq's reverbed REALLY mud up your mix.unless you want a specific effect of course..if you take a basekik and you wanna reverb it
you can check this; it makes hardly any difference wether you cut out all bass in the reverb,cause the reverb only gets 'triggered' by that little 'puck' sound at the beginning of the kiksound.if you let the deep low sound come as well trough the reverb it gets all out of shape and out of FOCUS.note that of course in a break it sounds totally mega when the kik blasts trough the reverb in full effect,bass and treb and all.but you'll see..in a track with all sounds going on, you don't wanna reverb ANY low frequencies, probably you end up cutting out everything below 500hz in the end.if you can make seperate audiotrack or mix-split or in an other way make a seperate mastermix,you could do this; take out all the low frequencies below 2000hz,maybe even 2500 hz, and send only that through reverb,and mix the effect out over the original mix.use no other reverbs anymore,maybe snare only and the synthleadline,now you get a sort of very sublime spaciousness to the track, and if you excaggurate the 12000 and up hz you get this crispy exciter kind of layer..pan it hard left and right, and make sure that there are no other sounds panned that extreme, maybe none further than 7 o clock left and 4 o clock right..you'll hear if you try.don't mix it in to loud though!just about hearing it for your ears is enough for any one who just hears your track to hear it really well.a big mistake people make with reverb is that they really wanna hear the effect,it can work, but in general you get this stupid demo sound.and if you reverb a sound,you might as well make the sound you are effecting a mono sound(that is if it was stereo to begin with)that will give you one extra input on the mixer, and the reverb will sound much more like reverb, plus the fact that the reverb can be set to a lower volume,without loosing its erm..reverbability...  

driftkicker.

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Message 9/9                 Date: 22-Mar-00  @  11:40 AM   -   RE: EQ How Too?

ashley

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a while ago i picked up a behringer feedback eliminator for about £100. i use this for eq, cant remember the speck off the top of my head but you get something like 10 bands of parametric eq per channel. all the parameters are midi contollable for sweeps and swoops. the sound is not very sweet but with all the adjustment you can really work on a sound, you can change the sound of a drum kit as a track progresses from big to small, tight to flabby etc. but as i am not looking for a natural sound it think this is a bargain and it doesnt need a wall wart. yes the best eq-ing is cutting. amen
ashley

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