next »

[Daniel Pellicer]

I found this in reddit: http://99sounds.org/5-quick-tips-improve-eq-skills/

I normally don't do equalization, and that probably is affecting the sound of my mixes. One thing that surprised me is that it says you should use a LP and a HP filter for each of the tracks.

Do you guys do that? How do you know which frequency is the correct one? Do you try different positions till it triggers the right sound in your ears?

[GavinHarrisonSounds]

There are sort of 'rules' that you can generally adhere to, but the best rule to follow is if it sounds good…it is good!  One thing I would say to always check is the bottom end, some things can get lively…especially synth patches.  Always HP anything where the bass doesn't need to be present.  This will also have the effect of allowing you to push your mixes louder without the need for heavy limiting.

[Daniel Pellicer]

There are sort of 'rules' that you can generally adhere to, but the best rule to follow is if it sounds good…it is good!  One thing I would say to always check is the bottom end, some things can get lively…especially synth patches.  Always HP anything where the bass doesn't need to be present.  This will also have the effect of allowing you to push your mixes louder without the need for heavy limiting.

The part that says, if it sounds good, then its good, I understand that part. But then you say that checking the bottom end is important. What do you exactly mean with checking? What am I looking for?

[pgil]

I usually high-pass around 40 or 50 hz in each track, before any compressors or other effects.  Sounds below this range are usually inaudible, or sound like a quiet rumbling, but if you look at a graph of the spectrum, there can be a lot of "loud" noise here. Sometimes these inauduble sub-bass frequencies are louder than the actual music.  Reducing that stuff will make your mixes sound less muddy, and allow you to make the full mix louder without clipping.

[GavinHarrisonSounds]

There are sort of 'rules' that you can generally adhere to, but the best rule to follow is if it sounds good…it is good!  One thing I would say to always check is the bottom end, some things can get lively…especially synth patches.  Always HP anything where the bass doesn't need to be present.  This will also have the effect of allowing you to push your mixes louder without the need for heavy limiting.

The part that says, if it sounds good, then its good, I understand that part. But then you say that checking the bottom end is important. What do you exactly mean with checking? What am I looking for?

Well take something like an electric guitar, anything that happens in the lower frequencies will be pretty worthless (obviously different for a bass guitar!) so you'll generally want to hi-pass them.  Personally I'd say 40-50hz is quite high up to start cutting, though it would depend on the slope you have on the roll off.  That being said, there are no solid hard and fast rules!

Ultimately bass takes up the most energy in terms of frequencies, so taking out unwanted bass will not only make mixes sound better but will also allow you to go louder without smashing a limiter!

[PythonBlue]

Agreed; bass does tend to use a lot of the sound of a track without EQ, so I tend to use low-shelf bands and mild high-pass filters nowadays; loud bass has been a problem with my prior work.

[Daniel Pellicer]

Ok then I do my hp and lp for each track looking for the right frequencies to cut (maybe around 40 50 hz but can change)

After that do I have to still play with the hz around? Where do I have to search more? They were talking about a little boost in the snare in 200 hz. Why that? How do you people know where something is needed?

[GavinHarrisonSounds]

It's quite a long topic, but trying to keep things short and simple…ultimately as you work more and learn more (as we all keep learning whilst we work!), you'll start to find that by doing 'x' at 'x' frequency you'll achieve a certain type of sound.  Want a crisp snare?  Boost around 3k, or you could try 8k for a real snap.  Want to bring out vocal clarity a bit more?  Try a little boost around 1.5k.

Each instrument is powerful in a certain area and you want all your parts to be able to gel well rather than all occupying the same space.  Do try and EQ when listening to your entire track, otherwise you can spend ages getting one part to sound lovely only to discover against everything else it sounds terrible…a song is the sum of all the different parts.

Of course, all this relies on the sound source you start with being recorded well / in a certain fashion.  It really comes down to experimenting, try an EQ on something and if what you're doing makes things sound better than go for it.  I will say do try and aim to cut rather than boost where you can.

I've had a quick look on the internet and this article, whilst being old, is a good read:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/mar95/eq.html

I can say no mix is perfect and you'll always go back to something when you hear it and wish you'd done things differently, trust me on that one!   

[Kyle Preston]

One thing that surprised me is that it says you should use a LP and a HP filter for each of the tracks.

Yeah, I saw this on reddit too. I think it's an excellent article, but take the LP HP filter advice with a grain of salt.  Some instruments need these EQ pass filters for sure; I've found them particularly useful when writing Chiptune-8-bit style music; some of those sounds can be quite harsh and I usually cut off anything above 4700 Hz.  I use Logic Pro, which calls them 'High Cut' and 'Low Cut', just for clarification.

I was writing a large orchestral style piece, and I had a friend recommend using a 'High Cut' on all of the strings.  Which I liked at first. But after I recorded like 9 different strings parts, adding them together produced this really stale and lifeless sound.  I realized that the HC was destroying the emotion of the song, so I instead used my favorite EQ plug in and just toned down the high end like so.

Rather than completely removing all of the frequencies, this EQ just turns them down and MY GOD did it sound better. Immediately, the sonic qualities of the track sounded much more alive. 

So yeah, LPs and HPs are great tools, but be careful not to over-use them, because you may just murder your sound in the process.   

[Audiosprite]

definitely hpf every recorded audio track. if you're using samples you may or may not need to (you don't need to EQ any of the instruments in an orchestra vsti, for example, if the orchestra is 100% of the instrumentation).

another good general rule is to do subtractive EQ before your compressor, and boost EQs after. this is because boost EQ will boost the overall signal, causing the compressor to treat the signal differently.

[Hitrison]

Less is way, way more with high/low pass filters in my book.