Due to its power to change and sculpt sound in countless different ways, Equalization is one of the most powerful tools in a mixer’s arsenal.
Whether you’re using it for broad, musical boosts to enhance the punch or excitement in a track, or narrow, surgical cuts to remove unpleasant build-ups and resonances, it’s just a must-have if you’re looking to produce professional-quality mixes and masters.
THE BASICS OF EQ
If you’re new to audio, you can basically think of an Equalizer as a set of volume faders/knobs which allow you to control the relative levels of specific tonal ranges within a sound.
While a typical volume fader/knob can make an entire instrument louder or quieter as a whole, an EQ essentially allows you to split that signal into multiple “Bands” (lows, mids, and highs, for example), and cut or boost each of these ranges independently from each other.
If you’ve ever used an affordable hardware sound-board/mixer, you’re most likely already familiar with the kind of simple “3-band” equalizer design. These will typically consist of low, mid and high bells/shelves at set frequencies for basic tone-shaping purposes.
In professional studio mixing, this concept is often taken a step further in the form of Parametric Equalizers, which allow for an almost infinite number of EQ bands, and superior customisation of parameters like frequency, gain, curve and Q (width/resonance).
Now that we have a better understanding of what EQ’s are, let’s take a look at how we can actually go about using them to make recordings sound better.
MIXING WITH EQUALIZERS GETTING STARTED
First off, I’ll start by saying that technically, there’s no such thing as “right” or “wrong” when it comes to equalization (or anything mixing-related for that matter).
Being that no two instruments, microphones or voices are identical, the “perfect” settings that work well for one sound may not work for another, and vice versa.
This being said, there are some universal “rules of thumb” that will produce decent results on pretty much anything. So, let’s take a look at a few of them and get you started on your equalization journey.
THE GENERAL RULES OF EQ
1. Broad, “Musical” Boosting
When you first listen to pretty much any “raw” audio recording, like a vocal captured with a microphone, or guitar plugged straight into an audio interface, chances are things are gonna sound fairly “dull” and “flat”.
While these “qualities” aren’t necessarily a problem as long as you’re listening to said source in solo (as they aren’t yet having to compete with anything else), the moment you place them in context of a full arrangement with bright cymbals, booming bass, and harsh distorted guitars, they’ll most likely just get completely lost in the mix.
The single most powerful EQ move you can apply to these kinds of raw recordings straight-off-the-bat to instantly take them most of the way from “boring and lifeless” to “exciting and professional”, is to give them a broad, generous (+5-10dB) upper-mid/treble EQ boost using either a shelving or bell band in the 5-10kHz range.
In the case of instruments that don’t play a primarily “low-end focused” role, like guitars, keys, horns, or vocals, I’d even go as far as saying that if you’re only able to apply 1 EQ move per instrument (for whatever reason), make it this one.
When boosting high-end, it’s important that you use the right tool for the job. A plugin like our mastering-grade MIXROOM equalizer plugin allows you to lift the treble of pretty much any source in an extremely clean & musical manner.
A high-band set at 5-8kHz upwards by +5 to 10dB is the perfect choice when you’re aiming for bright, present, clear sounding vocals, drums and guitars. Simply push it to where things are sounding great, and call it a day!
The same logic also applies at the opposite end of the frequency spectrum when dealing with low-end-focused instruments like kicks and bass guitars/synths. Depending on the genre you’re working in, often just applying a single, broad, strategic low-end (bass) boost at the right frequency is all it takes to make a big difference.
Similar to the MIXROOM example we’ve just looked at for the high-end, our BASSROOM equalizer is a fantastic choice for boosting clean, punchy, thick low-end into kicks, bass guitars or sub synths.
The 60-80Hz band is perfect for giving kick drums some nice chesty low-end “thump”, while the 80-160Hz band tends to sound great on bass guitar. Again, just simply lift them until things are sounding nice and fat!
Fun-Fact: While you may think world class mixers like Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, Paramore), Andy Wallace (Linkin Park, Jeff Buckley) and Andrew Scheps (RHCP, Jay Z) are using a ton of complex, “secret” mixing tricks to achieve their punchy & exciting signature sounds, a lot of it actually just comes down to their bold usage of strategic low and high shelving on pretty much every instrument.
2. Broad “Sculpting” Cuts
There are two types of mixing engineers: the “subtractive” ones, and the “additive” ones. The thing is, believe it or not, both approaches can actually achieve the exact same results…
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