Eq question

Georgia_Boi

New member
I'm almost done mixing my song. I have been referencing my mix to an professional mix and everything sounds good except the midrange of my song seem to be lacking by a few. I could boost one instrument in the midrange but all that does is mask the other instruments. I hear conflicts about people saying not to put an eq on the master bus and some people say they do as long as its not drastic changes. How would one approach this by fixing this in the mix, which I tried (in my case, causes masking) or would slight eq on the master bus be fine. I think the bus eq would be more on the mastering stage.
 
Slight EQ is fine. But also more of a mastering thing. It's best to fix things at the source. Then the mix if necessary.

Remember-- Subtractive EQ can be as/more effective than Additive EQ. In other words, cuts are as good as/better than boosts, if you want to avoid mud.


GJ
 
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I've found a lot of professional mixers will route all their tracks through a stereo track, often referred to as the stereo bus or the mix bus. Just pop an EQ or slight saturator on said bus and boom got your self a lovely mix.

Don't forget to throw the rule book out the window. If it sounds good, it sounds good!!!
 
I've found a lot of professional mixers will route all their tracks through a stereo track, often referred to as the stereo bus or the mix bus. Just pop an EQ or slight saturator on said bus and boom got your self a lovely mix.

Don't forget to throw the rule book out the window. If it sounds good, it sounds good!!!

Yeah exactly this.

Think of mixing in 2 steps, you have all the close, focused elements (kicks, basses, synths etc etc) you mix all those.. but Bus those out to other buses tot hen do a general "top down" mixing workflow.. so your now painting in BIG steps, but use less of the actual effect.. - i.e you boost/cut but 0.5DB rather than 6 db on the individual tracks.

You can add all sorts of source l9ike saturation, limiting, tape emulations etc. - but as Rougment said perfectly.. - Who cares what the rules are, music is there to be enjoyed, so what if you used 100 EQs on it.. if it killer its killer period!. :)
 
Yeah exactly this.

Think of mixing in 2 steps, you have all the close, focused elements (kicks, basses, synths etc etc) you mix all those.. but Bus those out to other buses tot hen do a general "top down" mixing workflow.. so your now painting in BIG steps, but use less of the actual effect.. - i.e you boost/cut but 0.5DB rather than 6 db on the individual tracks.

You can add all sorts of source l9ike saturation, limiting, tape emulations etc. - but as Rougment said perfectly.. - Who cares what the rules are, music is there to be enjoyed, so what if you used 100 EQs on it.. if it killer its killer period!. :)


- Just to double down on the mix bus idea. The SSL-G compressor was made purposely for bus compression. So its always a good place to start.

And I forgot to mention if you can, use a Linear Phase EQ. Every change you make with an EQ no matter how small with introduce phase shifts. So doing some pretty big adjustments on a huge bus can create some phase fuck-ery. If you're unsure what a linear phase EQ is or what the difference is there are plenty of resources online on the topic.
 
I usually wind up with an EQ on my 2bus. Basically I mix the record without it and if it’s lacking in midrange or lows or whatever, I’ll deal with that on the individual tracks. But if I get to the end and I’m perfectly happy with everything and I just need a tiny nudge here or there, rather than trying to disturb what is otherwise perfect, I’ll just give it a nudge (1dB or less) on the 2buss. I tend to use IK EQ432 (Sontec program EQ copy) for this purpose, and I almost always have the Q as wide open as possible. These are very subtle and very broad tweaks. And just for emphasis, it’s the last thing I do on a mix – I don’t mix through an EQ and I don’t use a 2buss EQ to fix problems. HOWEVER, I personally think that people starting out resort to 2bus EQ way too quickly and use it like a band-aid to try and fix bigger problems in their mix and, as a result, don't learn how to mix very well. So I would stress to find the problems with the tracks and fix it there. You will become a better mixer in the long run.
 
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