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Eq Cheatsheet
Eq Cheatsheet
Eq Cheatsheet
Cheatsheet
EQ Cheatsheet
Acoustic Drums
Be careful when boosting top end on close mic’d tracks. This can accentuate cymbal bleed and
make the drums sound harsh. If you’re struggling to achieve brightness without bringing up the
cymbals, try using gates to reduce the bleed between hits. You can also layer in drum samples
(my first choice) and EQ them for brightness without bringing up the bleed.
There are two approaches for EQing overheads. You can either:
1. Filter out all the low end and use them as cymbal mics, or...
2. Leave them as-is and use them to form the overall sound of the kit
Option #1 will create a separated, sculpted sound that works well in modern genres.
Option #2 will lead to a more natural sound that works well for folk and acoustic music.
Try rolling off everything below 40 Hz on the kick. This can often tighten things up.
Since each mic has bleed, you should always EQ drums with all the mics playing together.
You can often filter the hi-hat aggressively. Try cutting everything below 500 Hz.
Acoustic drums will often need lots of EQ. Don’t be afraid to boost or cut by 10 dB or more.
Listen to a few modern records and notice how bright the kick is. The key to getting your kick to
cut isn’t more low end, but more top end.
Vocals
When boosting top end, listen for harshness. Often times, this will occur when your boost
extends too far down the frequency spectrum. If this happens, move the boost higher up or
tighten the Q. You can also add a small cut to the upper midrange to counteract any harshness.
High-pass filtering will often be necessary, but it’s not always needed. If you don’t hear a
problem, there’s no need to fix it.
You can high-pass female vocals much higher than male vocals without affecting the sound of
the voice.
Listen for resonances in the lower midrange. You can address and remove them using my
sweep and destroy method, which I explain here.
Bass
To add presence, boost higher than you think. The solution is not more low end, but to bring out
the harmonics (start around 700 - 1200 Hz).
Acoustic Guitars
Don’t be afraid to roll off the low end. Often times, all you want is the sound of the pick hitting
the strings.
Watch for resonances in the lower midrange. You can address and remove them using my
sweep and destroy method, which I explain here.
Electric Guitars
Listen to them with the bass. Often times, you can remove quite a bit of low end. The guitars
may sound thin on their own, but with the bass, they’ll sound great.
Watch for harsh resonances in the upper midrange (2 - 4 kHz). You can address and remove
them using my sweep and destroy method, which I explain here.
If electric guitars are recorded well, they often need little-to-no EQ.
Synths
Your approach should vary widely depending on what you’re working with.
Many modern synths are ear-piercingly bright. Don’t be afraid to roll off top end. This can help
them sink back into a mix.
Often times, synths will fill up the entire frequency spectrum. In a busy mix, you’ll often have to
whittle them down using high and low-pass filters.
You can be aggressive when EQing synths, because we have no expectations about what they
should sound like. This gives you more flexibility than when EQing an organic instrument, where
you can’t stray too far from what the instrument sounds like in real life.
Piano
Boosting 5 kHz can bring out the sound of the hammers hitting the strings. This will make the
piano sound harder, which can help it cut through a busy mix.
My Top EQ Plugins
#1 Choice: FabFilter Pro-Q 2
For me, nothing beats the sound and flexibility of the FabFilter
Pro-Q 2. Its slick GUI is easy on the eyes, and the built-in
spectral analyzer is invaluable. I rarely use anything else.
This plugin is old school, but I like the way the shelves sound.
While I can emulate its behavior using the Pro-Q, it's still a great
choice.
Mastering it is the key to crafting clear, larger-than-life tracks. Abusing it, however, will
put you on the fast track to wimpy, muddy mixes.
The following EQ mistakes will destroy the clarity and separation in your tracks,
dooming you to mixes that sound small and amateur. Avoid them, and you’ll be well on
your way to creating tracks that compete with the pros.
The truth?
The results are often an improvement. The low end clears up, creating more space for
the kick and bass.
But there are hidden downsides to using this technique.
Filtering everything will often remove low end that isn’t getting in the way. This is the low
end you want to keep, because it will add weight and body to your mixes. Getting rid of
it might make the low end clearer, but you’ll sacrifice fullness by doing so.
If you filter everything at the beginning of a mix, you’ll never know what you’re missing.
My vote: If the low end on a track is getting in the way, nix it. Otherwise, leave it alone.
The midrange is where the core of most instruments lie. It’s also where our ears are
most sensitive. And finally, it’s the part of the frequency spectrum that’s most consistent
across different speakers. Master-mixer Jack Joseph Puig sums it up best:
“The midrange is where the heart and soul of music live. It’s where you feel the real
emotion that someone is trying to convey with an instrument or voice…” (CEPro)
The midrange should be a priority, not an afterthought. Spend more time focusing your
attention here.
Mixing seems complicated, but it’s actually simple. The entire process can be broken
down into five steps:
When you’re mixing, there should always be a step 1. You should always be trying to
solve a problem.
Before reaching for an EQ, ask yourself—what problem am I trying to solve? If you don’t
have an answer, ditch the plugin.
Instead, they focus on one track at a time and make decisions in a vacuum. If they’re
working on a vocal, they solo it and tweak the EQ until it sounds great on its own.
The problem?
They completely ignore context.
While soloing might be fine for basic cleanup work, do the majority of your EQing with
the whole mix playing. This can be hard at first, but it’s one of the easiest ways to
improve your mixes.
If you’re like many, you add an EQ to your mix bus and cut the offending frequencies
there.
Problem solved…right?
Wrong.
The muddiness you heard was likely caused by one track in your mix.
While you might have fixed the problem, you probably cut a lot of stuff that didn’t need
to be cut too.
This is a surefire path to a thin, wimpy mix.
Instead, find the offending track in your mix and make the cut there. This will produce
much better results.
Imagine you’re mixing a multi-mic’d drum kit, and the snare sounds thin.
What gives?
While no amount of EQ will fix this problem, the solution is easy. Just flip the polarity on
the snare track, and you’ll have all the low end you need.
Don’t forget to check for phase cancellation before EQing. If the low end sounds thin,
phase is often the culprit.
Let’s say you recorded a vocalist who frequently grabbed the mic stand while singing.
The result?
A compressor doesn’t know the difference between this rumble and the sound of the
vocal. If the rumble exceeds the compressor’s threshold, the entire track will be turned
down.
So if the singer grabbed the mic stand in the middle of a phrase, her performance will
suddenly dip in volume. Not because she’s too loud, but because the rumble is.
This can lead to a track that gets quieter at seemingly random, unmusical moments.
Which can sound quite odd.
For this reason, I always high-pass before I compress. This way, my compressor won’t
be triggered by low-end rumble.
This is just one of many things impacted by where you place your EQ.
Before reaching for EQ, try the faders. Many problems can be solved simply by turning
tracks up.
On certain phrases, he got too close to the mic. These spots sound boomy and muddy.
But in other spots, the recording sounds fine.
But the spots that were fine to begin with will end up sounding thin.
You’ll fix one problem, but create another.
For more free mixing tips and tricks, check out my website, Behind The Speakers.
The material in this PDF was adapted from several articles that I originally wrote for The
Pro Audio Files.