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EQ Cheat Sheet - The Guide For Sculpting Your Sound
EQ Cheat Sheet - The Guide For Sculpting Your Sound
Kick drum
2. Snare
3. Hi-hats
4. Toms
5. Cymbals and overhead mics
6. Room mics
7. Bass
8. Acoustic guitar
9. Electric guitar
10. Piano
11. Vocals
12. Orchestral instruments
13. Effect returns
What is EQ?
Equalization is an essential principle, tool, and process in audio production.
We use equalizers (also called EQs), to manipulate the frequency balance of
sounds.
With EQ suitably explained, we can almost move on to our main event: the
equalizer cheat sheet. But first we need to get something out of the way.
Treat this cheat sheet as training wheels, using it to teach yourself to ride
the bicycle of sound.
Many kicks will sound like a beach ball if you don’t handle that 300–500 Hz
region, and many snares will have a sustained ring that may not serve the
song in their midrange.
The same generalities also apply to mixes as a whole: cutting out excessive
low-end can help tighten up the mix and reduce muddiness. Trimming
frequencies in the treble register can curtail harshness or sibilance issues.
So how do you go from someone who needs a cheat sheet to someone who
doesn’t?
Practice, of course. But that’s not all—you also need good reference sounds,
and tools that help you achieve your goals.
Learn
Other Shop A/B and iZotope’s
tools, such as ADPTR Audio’s Metric Subscripti
Audiolens,
allow you to compare your work with your favorite commercial releases
with ease. You can toggle back and forth between your mix and a similar
song, instantly comparing the frequency content of the guitars as you do
so, or the vocals.
The other thing I need to tell you comes from years of experience: When it
comes to EQ, less is always more. The less you can do to achieve a proper
EQ balance, the more natural everything is going to sound when it’s all tied
together.
This cheat sheet should be used when you’re presented with a sound and
you have absolutely no idea where to begin. It should teach you where the
problematic and virtuous areas are in a given instrument—and more
importantly, how to hear them in the context of the mix. Use it only as a
starting point for your own decisions.
Here’s another useful tip: if you find yourself working with the same
musicians across a selection of songs, come up with a cheat sheet for that
particular musician. Like I said, one singer will sound drastically different to
another; there’s no shame in having a starting place as a preset for a
specific individual—it helps you get to the creative stuff faster.
To bring out the low-end punch and definition of a kick drum, start by
boosting the frequencies in the range of 60–80 Hz. This will enhance the
fundamental low-frequency impact. For added weight and warmth, a gentle
boost around 100–200 Hz can be applied. To tighten up the sound and
reduce boxiness, a cut around 200–500 Hz can be useful. If you want more
attack and click, a boost around 1–5 kHz can bring out the beater sound.
Experiment with these ranges to achieve the desired balance between
power, clarity, and attack in your kick drum.
Kick drum EQ in Neutron
2. Snare drum
3. Hi-hats
Often we leave hi-hats alone. Why? Because excessive filtering of a hat can
have a drastic impact on your snare. Sometimes the area between 3–7 kHz
can become a harsh problem, and should be tamped down with minimal
harm to the snare sound. But a big high-pass filter to clean up the lows can
wreak havoc on a carefully constructed phase response among multi-miked
Hi-hat EQ in Neutron
4. Toms
Toms can benefit from similar EQ techniques as the kick and snare drums,
although the specific frequencies may vary depending on the size and
tuning of the toms. To enhance the body and depth of the toms, boost the
lower frequencies around 60–120 Hz. Be careful not to boost too much, or
else you’ll cause these low frequencies to ring out for longer than they
would otherwise—and you don’t want a tom sticking around longer than it
has to For added attack and presence, a boost in the range of 800 Hz–1.5
kHz can bring out that stick sound. To avoid any muddiness, consider
cutting frequencies around 250 Hz, give or take. Experiment with these
ranges to achieve a balanced and impactful tom sound.
Toms EQ in Neutron
Overhead mics don’t just capture cymbals, but the overall sound of the
drum kit. They provide a sense of space and give the kit its stereo image.
To preserve the natural tonal balance of the drums, minimal EQ
adjustments are recommended for overheads. However, if there are any
frequency build-ups or resonances, gentle cuts in problematic areas can
help. Often 4 kHz can be a slight problem, and a little nip there can do you
Learn Shop Subscriptio
some good. Additionally, if more cymbal definition is desired, a subtle boost
around 8–12 kHz can enhance the shimmer and presence.
Some engineers also like to high-pass the low end from the overheads to let
the kick handle that area more. In general, use EQ on overheads sparingly to
maintain the integrity of the overall drum sound.
Overheads EQ in Neutron
6. Room mics
Rumble: 40 Hz
Body: 40–120 Hz
Warmth: 120–400 Hz
Boxiness: 400–500 Hz
Presence or harshness: 1–4 kHz
Aggression: 4–8 kHz
Air: 8–12 kHz
Room mics capture the ambience and depth of the drum kit, and often
sound quite different depending on the mics used, the room, and the
recording engineer.
You can, if you want, get creative with room mics: If the room sound lacks
warmth, a boost around 400 Hz can add depth and body. On the wrong kit
though, this could be the exact wrong choice. Use EQ on room mics boldly—
but sparingly—to shape the overall drum sound and create the desired
sense of space.
Instead, I will play you a drum kit completely unprocessed, and you can
contrast that to a kit which has all of the EQ moves you’ve seen above
applied:
Before After
For an even more comprehensive dive on EQing drums, check out our drum
EQ guide.
7. Bass
Here’s the truth about the bass guitar: most of them are recorded with
pretty much everything they need in the low-end department. If you have to
start by boosting, you’re probably in trouble.
Here's what bass can sound like before and after EQ.
Before After
8. Acoustic guitar
Here's what an acoustic guitar can sound like before and after some of
these EQ moves.
9. Electric guitar
Electric guitars can sometimes get a bit harsh around 3 to 6 kHz, or a bit
tubby in between 200–300 Hz. They can also conflict with basses or drums
in the low low end, so a high-pass filter might be in order.
Other than that, there’s no real standard EQ setting for the guitar, because it
can sound so different depending on how it’s processed and amplified
before the instrument even gets recorded. The djent rhythms of Meshuggah
and the churchlike tones of Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah don’t occupy the same
universe, and yet they come from the same instrument.
Before After
The best advice I ever got for EQing guitars is this: give them broad strokes,
like the tone-stacks of an amplifier. For this ethos, the Lindell 80 channel
strip from Plugin Alliance is particularly suited to the task of EQing electric
guitars. It doesn’t hurt that the plug-in has an innate coloration to it which
really suits the instrument.
Lindell
Learn 80 channel strip for Electric guitar EQ
Shop
Lindell 80 channel strip for Electric guitar EQ
10. Piano
When dealing with the piano, there are several common frequency issues
that may arise. You may come across a buildup of mud in the lower
midrange frequencies, which can result in a lack of clarity and definition in
the piano's sound. This can be addressed by applying a gentle, broad cut
somewhere between 200–500 Hz to reduce the excessive warmth, and to
create more space in the mix. On the other hand, the higher frequencies of
the piano, particularly in the 2–4 kHz range, can sometimes feel a bit harsh
or piercing. Here you would use a subtle dip in this area to help tame any
harshness, ensuring a smoother and more pleasing tone in the process.
11. Vocals
Vocals can sometimes feel nasal or pinched between 500 and 1.2 kHz,
depending on the singer; so that can be a cause for dipping. Additionally,
vocals can sometimes exhibit harshness in the high frequencies,
particularly around 5–8 kHz. If sibilance or harshness isn’t an issue, a
gentle shelf in the air frequencies (10 kHz and above) can really open things
up.
String section:
Brass section:
Using the Masking Meter in an orchestral arrangement to figure out problem spots
Using the Masking Meter in an orchestral arrangement to figure out problem spots
Equalizing effects returns, such as reverbs or delays, helps blend the effect
Learnthe mix. Since effects are often
within Shop
used to create ambiance or Subscriptio
add color,
the EQ adjustments will depend on the desired sonic result.
For reverbs and delays, consider using high-pass filters on subs and lows to
remove unwanted low end build up. Gentle and broad cuts to the low
midrange or high-mids might be warranted as well, depending on whether
you want to tamp down mud or harshness. Boosting certain frequencies in
the effect return can emphasize specific aspects of the effect, such as the
decay or the tails.
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Vocals Tutorial Nick Messitte
This article provides a lot of information, so hopefully it’ll help get you
started with practicing EQ in your mixes using tools like Neutron. You may
notice that this article trended toward the acoustic side of instruments, so if