EQing high end elements.

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Daniel Carroll

New member
When EQing high end like hi-hats and whitenoise, do you need to make room for them? When they play together in the same frequencies they obviously take up head room but if i cut 4 decibles from the hihat it won't be crisp and clear. Should I cut from lets say the hihat so the whitenoise has more clarity or should not care about the headroom and high shelve them for crispness. Thanks.
 
Daniel Carroll said:
When EQing high end like hi-hats and whitenoise, do you need to make room for them? When they play together in the same frequencies they obviously take up head room but if i cut 4 decibles from the hihat it won't be crisp and clear. Should I cut from lets say the hihat so the whitenoise has more clarity or should not care about the headroom and high shelve them for crispness. Thanks.
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If you are using software, you should not touch it and that includes even what you would have on the master bus, don't touch it at all. If you are using hardware you should just make it sound as good as possible on group scope in solo on pretty low monitoring volume by using the volume faders as much as possible then EQ. Then in the context you find ways of making the settings milder, e.g. by using a pretty treble rich monitoring configuration on high monitoring volume and then fine adjust. But as soon as you need to do more drastic EQ changes, you should stop and fix it in the recording. Learn to use the EQ mostly to add and to improve the sound of effects after it, use the volume faders, expanders and compressors to balance the air.

If you are working totally ITB with just plugins, your best bet is to narrow down the processing to the mid range, because plugins cannot handle the low end or the high end well. ITB mixes require incredibly good incoming signal, when that's not the case they instantly sound terrible.
 
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I would only make cuts if I found it difficult to hear elements clearly and as distinct sounds (regardless of the frequency range). I would more than likely make any necessary cuts on the white noise as opposed to the hi hats. This varies with the type of music your working on, but hi hats are essential to rhythms a lot of the time. Removing them or cutting them too much might subtract from the overall grove if they end up sounding bad or lackluster. On the other hand, noise is usually an effect that has a very wide range. Cuts in the high end won't be as drastic here as would be the case for hats. Also, you could get away with some stereo widening effects to help white noise be more distinct in a mix.

With all that said, I've never had an issue of white noise clashing with a high hat, cymbal, or other high frequency sounds. White noise is fairly quiet in my tracks since it is very fatiguing and annoying for me to listen to at louder levels.
 
Hats and white noise are the only things that are playing in frequencies that high so you don't really need to make room for them since they're already alone up there. I haven't had a problem not low passing my white noise or hi hats, they sit fine in the mix just the way they are.
 
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