Rules of EQing?

C

CowboyClyde

New member
Hey all,

I'm super basic at mixing. Just finished a track and have started the mixing phase. I've been reading/watching some tutorials and the basic rule of thumb seems to be: Cut the various instruments in your track to get rid of "mud" and allow space for certain sounds to cut through.
Ex. Cut the high's on your kick drum or bass sounds, to allow space for your hi-hats or your lead sound.

My question is: How do you guys get an idea of where all the sounds "sit" for each respective instrument?
Are you throwing an EQ on every single track in your song?
What if you're unsure where the sound should sit?
What are some basic rules of thumb when EQing during a mix?
 
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Eq'ing is all about frequencies. The rule of thumb in the new age of mixing is to hi-pass everything as much as you can to save room for the kick drum and bass instruments. This is how I start my mixing process and then I adjust to what my ear likes:
1. Hi-Pass everything except for the bass and kickdrum at 100khz
2. Low-cut the bass at 20khz (unless you hear mud, low-pass at 30hz)
3. Low-cut the kickdrum until you can actually hear your bass at a lower frequency than the kick
4. Setup a side-chain compression with your bass and kick drum (very important in dance and hiphop)
Do the same thing for your hi frequency instruments except do it backwards starting from the highest frequency on your eq.

As stated, this is only a starting point and caters to pop, dance, and hip hop mixing. If you are not yet familiar with how frequencies and panning works, I'd seriously think about booking a studio session with someone just to learn some tricks.

Cheers!
 
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jude_stylezz said:
2. Low-Pass the bass at 20khz (unless you hear mud, low-pass at 30khz)
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What? Your messing up Hz with kHz. And even if the units were right, the human cant even hear below 20Hz. Sub bass sits in 20-60 those are the frequencies you feel more than hear. Audible bass starts at 60 to roughly 120-200 Hz.

Plus a couple of your other rules are kind of questionable too. Its about getting the bass and the kick to work together, not getting the kick to sit above the bass on the spectrum.


The golden rule of EQing is it should be subtractive before you start boosting. First look for what you can cut, THEN look for what you want to boost.

And a few pointers are

And this is subjective but generally cuts are a deeper/thinner Q value and boosts are a wider/shallow Q value.

To make a digital EQ sound a bit more analogue(as much as thats possible anyway) Widen the Q, people might argue this one.
 
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Yumid said:
What? Your messing up Hz with kHz. And even if the units were right, the human cant even hear below 20Hz. Sub bass sits in 20-60 those are the frequencies you feel more than hear. Audible bass starts at 60 to roughly 120-200 Hz.

Plus a couple of your other rules are kind of questionable too. Its about getting the bass and the kick to work together, not getting the kick to sit above the bass on the spectrum.


The golden rule of EQing is it should be subtractive before you start boosting. First look for what you can cut, THEN look for what you want to boost.

And a few pointers are

And this is subjective but generally cuts are a deeper/thinner Q value and boosts are a wider/shallow Q value.

To make a digital EQ sound a bit more analogue(as much as thats possible anyway) Widen the Q, people might argue this one.
Click to expand...

You're right, typo but I did mean to say filter out everything below 20hz :D.

Also, when I said low-pass @20khz I meant hi-pass @20hz. I get confused with terminologies a lot.

Cheers!
 
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jude_stylezz said:
You're right, typo but I did mean to say filter out everything below 20hz :D.

Also, when I said low-pass @20khz I meant hi-pass @20hz. I get confused with terminologies a lot.

Cheers!
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Yah i realize that now, you just worded it weird at first haha. When i seen high pass everything at 20Hz I instantly thought.."well ya, the whole spectrum is 20Hz-20KHz" Most of my stuff is high passed at 150 anyway so the only thing hitting below 20 is the sub so I dont really worry about that. The first thing you do when mastering is cut everything at 20Hz anyway so I usually just leave it until then. Never really noticed many problems with the sub causing muddiness before. But it would make sense to cut at 20 at the start too. I was in class when I replied so I didnt really think about it. All I seen was high pass at 20Hz and it seemed weird to me until I thought about it right now. Because the spectrum starts at 20. So at the time all I was thinking is High Pass @ 20Hz=Full spectrum so it kind of seemed weird to call it a rule if youre already cutting everything else at 100-150. I just look at it as more of a mastering step than an early stages EQ step.
 
What these guys said is a great start. I usually use hp filters on everything besides the kick and bass in my hip hop mixes. Sometimes I'll hp the kick or bass at 20, however I find a low shelf eq at 30 dropping a few Db to be more subtle sometimes. Anyway, once that's done, listen for what you think needs to stand out and what instruments or sounds are conflicting with each other. For boosting, I genuinely like to use an analog eq style plugin like the puigtech or sonEQ because their boosts sound more musical to me and not harsh like a digital eq boost.
 
just experiment.. i wouldn't follow 'rules' because mixing changes from track to track.. you might want your snares a little brighter on a certain track.. but then not want them too bright because it may overshadow a sound you like and vice versa.. there are so many variables when it comes to mixing.. just make sure you master eq and compression..
 
I agree. Rules are a good starting point if you have no idea where to begin. But feeling, experimentation and experience are also important variables.
 
Yumid said:
Yah i realize that now, you just worded it weird at first haha. When i seen high pass everything at 20Hz I instantly thought.."well ya, the whole spectrum is 20Hz-20KHz" Most of my stuff is high passed at 150 anyway so the only thing hitting below 20 is the sub so I dont really worry about that. The first thing you do when mastering is cut everything at 20Hz anyway so I usually just leave it until then. Never really noticed many problems with the sub causing muddiness before. But it would make sense to cut at 20 at the start too. I was in class when I replied so I didnt really think about it. All I seen was high pass at 20Hz and it seemed weird to me until I thought about it right now. Because the spectrum starts at 20. So at the time all I was thinking is High Pass @ 20Hz=Full spectrum so it kind of seemed weird to call it a rule if youre already cutting everything else at 100-150. I just look at it as more of a mastering step than an early stages EQ step.
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I know you can't "hear" below 20hz but when I put a HPF on a kick drum or bass at 20hz, I definitely hear it change the timbre of the sound, making it usually sound tighter. It is what it is, I'm not going to over think it too much. :D
 
I sincerely doubt that a hpf @ 20Hz is doing much more than introducing phase shift to the result, which may bring other harmonics out more clearly as the phase shift will be frequency dependent i.e. you are hearing processing artefacts
 
bandcoach said:
I sincerely doubt that a hpf @ 20Hz is doing much more than introducing phase shift to the result, which may bring other harmonics out more clearly as the phase shift will be frequency dependent i.e. you are hearing processing artefacts
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Here is J C Concato putting a HPF at 20hz using an SSL Strip on a kick drum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2EFh7L3UzI

He runs Point Blank music school in England and mixed a lot of acts in the 90s including Portishead.

"I put a low cut here at 20 just to clean the bottom end" (using the filter)

Maybe you are right about the harmonics part but I just go with what my ears like, especially if it's corroborated by what I've seen established veterans do.
 
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using the 20Hz low cut/high pass will remove any sub-audio motor-boating/chatter and dc offset (a permanent voltage lift or drop from 0V) from the signal which is an accepted practice,

whether it actually does anything else is disputable as most folks cannot hear 20Hz even though the range of human hearing starts there
 
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