EQ Techniques...

[Umlaaat]

All the advice I seem to read about eq suggests to cut rather than boost.. understandable.. but what do you do when you want to boost 3db at 2k.. do you decrease all other freq by 3db except 2k?

[TYY]

Originally Posted by Umlaaat

All the advice I seem to read about eq suggests to cut rather than boost.. understandable.. but what do you do when you want to boost 3db at 2k..

You boost 3db at 2k.

[Ironklad Audio]

no

anyone who tells you that they never use additive EQ is a liar. of course you're better off if you can get away with only cutting, but that's not always the case

besides, some EQ's sound awesome when cranked in certain areas

[AudioFocus]

my rule of thumb is that if I'm cutting or boosting I use a medium to wide bandwidth. otherwise it just sounds unnatural.

[Hide]

Just try both increase and decrease, and which is suitable sound what you think.
Then you can choice which one you should..... wasn't good advice?

[merrybmb]

The only thing that should tell you things like that are....your ears, man! I'm one of the busiest engineers in my small town and I have pretty crappy gear, doing bands on PT LE and such....but I stay busy cuz I can hear when it sounds BAD and when it sounds GOOD. That's all ya need, haus...and a few mics, ya know.

[Mike Caffrey]

The three rules of EQ:

1. Boost the good
2. Cut the bad
3. Don't touch anything that sounds great


Figuring out the right frequency and how much to cut or boost is a little harder, but that's really all there is to do.

[Beyersound]

Originally Posted by Hide

Just try both increase and decrease, and which is suitable sound what you think.
Then you can choice which one you should..... wasn't good advice?

That's why the knobs do both boost and cut!!!!!! You have to ask yourself, what will do more harm to the noise floor and phase response, a 3db boost at 2k over half an octave or a 3db cut over the other nine and a half octaves????

[Beyersound]

Originally Posted by AudioFocus

my rule of thumb is that if I'm cutting or boosting I use a medium to wide bandwidth. otherwise it just sounds unnatural.

Pretty good rule of thumb, ever wonder why most of the beloved legendary vintage EQs(Neve, Api, Trident etc...)have bandwidths that don't go narrower than half to 1 octave?

[norman_nomad]

What's with all the rules? Do what sounds best for the track.

In general cuts tend to sound more natural and boosts more obvious.

Try cuts with clean EQ's and boosts with color EQ's. Whatever works.

When you boost the volume of something in the analog domain it tends to take on the character of that gain stage. An EQ simply allows you to boost volume in a selected frequency range.

If you have a "nice sounding" EQ, a boost may benefit the sonics of the track.

[Dean Roddey]

my rule of thumb is that if I'm cutting or boosting I use a medium to wide bandwidth. otherwise it just sounds unnatural.

But isn't the rule that (with parametrics) the deeper the cut, the narrower the Q has to be in order to avoid bad phasing problems? If you look at the API 550's, which if the real ones sound even better than the plugs sound REALLY good, they use automatic proportional Q. The deeper the cut or boost, the narrower the Q gets. I assume that this has a lot to do with why it sounds so nice.

So it would see the correct rule is, small boosts or cuts can be narrow or wide (wider probably as you move up to busses and master buss), but narrow them as you cut or boost more.

I'm not sure if the same thing applies if you use two narrower cuts side by side to get a wider but deeper cut or whether that is just as bad in terms of phase issues.

[Noize919]

maybe you've heard this before, but....Boost with a wide Q until you hear some funky harmonics going on, the only way I can describe it is an ugly tone...you'll know when you hear it.

then narrow the Q till you've really pin pointed what frequency is causing that undesirable tone and tighten that Q as much as you can.

then cut it.

but that's not all, widen that Q a good amount because like someone already said in this thread...cutting and boosting with narrow bandwidths really do sound unnatural.

the high-mids are the hardest to get right...it's tough because a lot of instruments have some great harmonics that just sound sooo good in the 900-3k range. but not everything can fit in that spot...practice practice practice

best thing I've done when i first started out is to do a few projects for your friends, or your own...someone you can practice on and do the WHOLE thing without using ANY equalization after tracking is done....that way when time comes to mix your future projects, you'll have practice getting the sounds you need BEFORE mixing...and you can really utilize equalization for what it's really meant for when MIXING...fine tuning.

hope this helps

[Umlaaat]

i'll get an inst to sound good on its own, and this GENERALLY calls for boosting... but then when i mix, it seems there's not enough sonic space... and no, its not a question of the arrangement/vox/bgd vox etc..

maybe to eq while track is playing? or mebbe if - individuallly each element sounds good, but in conjunction.. no? (i know phrasing is akward but its 3:30 am )

[Empire Prod]

Turn the knobs until it sounds good!

[Beyersound]

Originally Posted by Mike Caffrey

The three rules of EQ:

1. Boost the good
2. Cut the bad
3. Don't touch anything that sounds great


Figuring out the right frequency and how much to cut or boost is a little harder, but that's really all there is to do.

+1!!!!!!

[MarkRB]

Are there any advocates here of the more "Holistic" approach to EQ'ing?

As in never sweep to locate a frequency, simply select the freq with the EQ bypassed then engage?

I had an argument recently with someone who was adamant sweeping while engaged was simply "wrong" due to the ears quickly becoming accustomed to the boost or cut.

It's not something I do or even could do if I wanted as I'm not 'that' accurate at guessing and like to have a little play with the sound to see what it can take.

I was just wondering if anyone else used this "don't sweep" method?

[mdoelger]

Could you guys please tell what you consider a medium Q. I tend to not boost sharper than 1.2 normally, but sometimes I find myself boosting the fundamentals of lets say snares and kicks with 2.5 or something.

[Hide]

oh well... this thread is... anyway,

Originally Posted by Mike Caffrey

The three rules of EQ:

1. Boost the good
2. Cut the bad
3. Don't touch anything that sounds great


Figuring out the right frequency and how much to cut or boost is a little harder, but that's really all there is to do.

yeah, it is the EQ that's why!!
There is no rules, you feel good, that's OK, if you don't feel, try as opposite.

[Mr.HOLMES]

You will only learn good EQ ing from praticing it.
One basic idea but not rule!!!!

I only use the EQ if two instruments are too much in the same area.
I try to avoid to much EQ ing....

What is bothering me LF / MF / HF I first press stop set the eq to waht I want to hear and press play again. With this technique you will learn to tell anoying frequencys only by listening to a sound.

I mostly do cutting first.... as a rule of thump the more tracks you have always start with cutting if you boost your mix will get fast too hot on the bus.

[666666]

Indeed, as other have said above, use only your ears... there are no rules.

However, be careful, for those who are less experienced, it is easy to fall into a "trap" of constantly boosting eq as opposed to cutting. Boosting provides a more immediately noticeable "reward", but often it's too much, often can bend the signal in a way that is ultimately not ideal.

Cutting a small amount in the right areas by comparison can potentially get things just right, but takes a bit more careful listening. That is assuming the tracks were recorded well.

So my advise to eq newbies... indeed close your eyes and use your ears... and specifically practice cutting small bits to get a handle on how helpful cutting can be. Again, it's often more of a subtle change that you need to become sensitive to.... and once you're tuned up to it, you'll be on a path to better mixing.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with boosting, if and when appropriate, but if you find you are boosting a lot to get things to sound "right" per your ears, this is an indicator that your tracks were simply not recorded well to begin with.

I remember a recording a did back around 15 or so years ago when I had way less experience. In the mix I remember boosting a ton of eq on everything... every track had an eq cranked severely, boosting like over +5db of mostly high-end frequencies. Back then I did not think much of it, didn't know any better. I recently came across some of the original unmixed tracks from that session and found them to all be totally muffled and lifeless, extremely poor frequency response, very weak upper-end, extreme "wool blanket over the sound" effect... so it makes sense as to why I had been boosting the heck out of all the eqs during the mix back then. Apparently I WAS hearing correctly back then and was boosting eq like crazy in order to compensate for very poorly recorded tracks. And yes, the recording had been done with cheap mics and cheap pres... how I regret using that crap... just didn't know any better back then. Just say NO to cheap crap!

Anyway, point is, if your RECORDINGS are good, you should probably not need a lot of eq boosting later... a tad bit of careful cutting is usually what turns out to be the most appropriate approach when dealing with well recorded tracks. An apparent "need" for lots of eq boosting in a mix probably means you need to look at your source recordings, there is likely a big problem there.