Steve Sancteria
New member
So I´ve been watching the "In the studio with Armin Van Buuren" and "Martin Garrix" several times now and always get their suggestion "don´t use limiters on your master bus while producing" in my mind and started working it out, it really improved my EQing process.
Since I only knew what an EQ does but never found a reason to use an EQ when I´ve started producing, I´d like to share this basic knowledge to get yourself into advanced mixing to make your tracks sound better.
So for the beginners out there, with each sound that you add to your track, you add frequences.
If you add a Hi-Hat for example, which has its frequences in the mid, high and high-end...mostly , you add it to the stuff you already have in your track and if you add too much at a certain frequence, it starts clipping and sounds distorted. (If your EQ plugin that you use doesn´t show the frequences of your sample, synth or what sound you ever use, download a SpectrumAnalyzer such as the 7 phases Spectrum Analyzer, it´s freeware , put it on your master bus und solo the sound you want to check out for its frequences)
This happened to me a lot when I´ve started and became really frustrating, so the solution for this bad thing for most beginners and amateurs is a limiter on your master bus, it does limit your sound where ever you want, mostly you use it on 0db or slightly under that just to get rid of the distorded clipping sound while you produce your track.
The problem behind this is, you stop thinking about accurate EQing which is especially really important to EQ your kick drum and bassline so they don´t fight with each other, also a sidechain compression on your bassline helps improving this, you can use the SpectrumAnalyzer to make it more accurate since most beginners don´t have the world´s best studio monitors.
Also, a lot of people say, less is more and if it comes to adding too many sounds to your main track (I don´t mean the small little details no one on the dance floor will notice anyways) it becomes a melted piece of...something that has no defined sounds, it will look like a big sausage (during kick and bassline sections, this is actually not bad) and you lose a ton of something that´s called "dynamics" and you want to have this dynamics if you have melodies, different drum sounds and some vocals going on in your track so the ear can figure out what is loud and what quiet in a natural way.
If you stop using this instant limiter on your master bus, you avoid using way too much and then when your track is done, you can get a little bit of a multiband comproession on your master bus, or just your favorite mastering tool, such as iZotope Ozone to make it sound "directer"
So as a conclusion, try to define every single sound in it´s frequences by cutting away unwanted frequences with the EQ, I hope this will give you the "WHY" to use the EQ.
---if there might be something not 100% correct, just let me know, I am still kind of a beginner as well
Since I only knew what an EQ does but never found a reason to use an EQ when I´ve started producing, I´d like to share this basic knowledge to get yourself into advanced mixing to make your tracks sound better.
So for the beginners out there, with each sound that you add to your track, you add frequences.
If you add a Hi-Hat for example, which has its frequences in the mid, high and high-end...mostly , you add it to the stuff you already have in your track and if you add too much at a certain frequence, it starts clipping and sounds distorted. (If your EQ plugin that you use doesn´t show the frequences of your sample, synth or what sound you ever use, download a SpectrumAnalyzer such as the 7 phases Spectrum Analyzer, it´s freeware , put it on your master bus und solo the sound you want to check out for its frequences)
This happened to me a lot when I´ve started and became really frustrating, so the solution for this bad thing for most beginners and amateurs is a limiter on your master bus, it does limit your sound where ever you want, mostly you use it on 0db or slightly under that just to get rid of the distorded clipping sound while you produce your track.
The problem behind this is, you stop thinking about accurate EQing which is especially really important to EQ your kick drum and bassline so they don´t fight with each other, also a sidechain compression on your bassline helps improving this, you can use the SpectrumAnalyzer to make it more accurate since most beginners don´t have the world´s best studio monitors.
Also, a lot of people say, less is more and if it comes to adding too many sounds to your main track (I don´t mean the small little details no one on the dance floor will notice anyways) it becomes a melted piece of...something that has no defined sounds, it will look like a big sausage (during kick and bassline sections, this is actually not bad) and you lose a ton of something that´s called "dynamics" and you want to have this dynamics if you have melodies, different drum sounds and some vocals going on in your track so the ear can figure out what is loud and what quiet in a natural way.
If you stop using this instant limiter on your master bus, you avoid using way too much and then when your track is done, you can get a little bit of a multiband comproession on your master bus, or just your favorite mastering tool, such as iZotope Ozone to make it sound "directer"
So as a conclusion, try to define every single sound in it´s frequences by cutting away unwanted frequences with the EQ, I hope this will give you the "WHY" to use the EQ.
---if there might be something not 100% correct, just let me know, I am still kind of a beginner as well
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