What are your 'critical' EQ points?

[tee boy]

Hi all,

Just thought it might be interesting to see what one other consider to be their important goto EQ points (ie, the places where you start when EQing mixes).

Its possible that many of you dont work this way, but personally, I have a set of 'goto' EQ points for solving many mix issues. Ofcourse, these are just starting points, but never the less, I have found this to make life so much easier. Before, I would be EQing all over the place, then adding more EQ to compensate for the first batch, and around and around we go! Working this way forces me to be more selective about the EQ that I use, and much less likely to attempt to EQ over poor recordings (prefering to rerecord instead if possible).

So for me, I find the following to be of much use:

Notch cuts at (narrowband):

- 300Hz
- 500Hz
- 800Hz
- 1.3kHz

HP cuts filtering at:

- 20-40Hz
- 70-80Hz
- 120-160Hz
- 200Hz
- 400Hz
- 1000Hz (usually for high end sweeteners)

I rarely use wideband notch boosts, but sometimes I find a medium wide midrange cut to be useful when positioning a thick synth pad or keyboard sound behind an already dense mix (such as in choruses). Also, a subtle boosts at the following freq's can be handy:

- 120-150Hz on rhythm guitars
- 10-12kHz (very occassionally for high end augmentation)


TB

[MASSIVE Master]

I'd submit that if you're finding "common" starting points, you may have room issues somewhere...

[cap217]

unless you are the only one doing all the mixes and mastering.... you may just always like a freq and bump it... but more than likely its a room issue!

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by tee boy

So for me, I find the following to be of much use:

Notch cuts at (narrowband):

- 300Hz
- 500Hz
- 800Hz
- 1.3kHz

Maybe it's just because it's the way my head works. But why not just where ever the peak or offending tone is centered?
From another angle -doesn't '300 on one source pretty much apply to other sources? (Not that you are going there here , more to the similar 'what eq points for such and such inst.' kind of thing.)

[warhead]

I keep my home stereo and car stereo set to the disco smile.

War

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by tee boy

I rarely use wideband notch boosts

It's very hard to boost a notch filter...

/Cojo

[TheSweetener]

Originally Posted by tee boy

- 1000Hz (usually for high end sweeteners)

For me?


If there's one ferquency I hate for my rock stuff, it's 1000Hz

[tee boy]

Originally Posted by Cojo

It's very hard to boost a notch filter...

/Cojo

Lol, you know what I mean!

TB

[tee boy]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

I'd submit that if you're finding "common" starting points, you may have room issues somewhere...

Possibly. But I have found many of these points to be useful when mixing in other rooms, so possibly not. A perfect example is the notch at 275-300Hz when dealing with electronic kick drums. I find that alot of the 'punch' lies around this frequency, and as a result find it a great place to start. Funnily enough, a very short attack compression also attentuates frequencies around this area in electronic kicks. Infact, Iv found that the right compression can result in a very similar treatment to the 300Hz notch.

But I must reiterate that these are NOT preset points. More like starting points for corrective EQ. I will undoubtably have to hover around for a while until I find the cultprit red handed. To some extent, its like an extention of the 'low, midlow, midhi, hi' range catergories.

Maybe I am trying to be too formulalic in my EQ'ing, not sure. Or maybe I am indeed trying to compensate for bumps in the room's response. But I have definately found that having rough starting points for mix EQ makes me far more focused on correcting problems, and was curious to know if others work in a similar way.

For example, Im sure I remember Mr Dye mentioning his RenEQ presets in an thread from way back. It was interesting, as I had never before considered the idea of having starting points and rough templates for EQ treatments.

TB

[tee boy]

Originally Posted by TheSweetener

For me?


If there's one ferquency I hate for my rock stuff, it's 1000Hz

I should explain that this tends to be more when Im doing electronic drums. Quite often I combine electronic sounds, sampled sounds and live recordings to build composite beats.

For instance, say I have a chunky vinyl snare or an acoustic snare. I might want to at a saturate 909 snare above, so usually I start out with a HP of around 1kHz. Obviously this varies to suit the individual example. But I do quite a bit of this when designing drum sounds and beats.

Infact, I havent done this kind of stuff on any live drum takes, but it would imagine that its pretty similar to what many modern engineers would do when they add samples to augment their drums.

TB

[seaneldon]

my critical eq'ing comes from placing the right mics in the right places in the right room. saves a shit-ton of time compared to spending dozens of hours during a mix fooling around with filters and frequency cuts/boosts.

[ToxicApple]

this could be pretty useful thread.

300hz-400hz

[astronmr20]

Most everything below 60.


Actually, I like 1k.

Depends on the EQ plugin/ hardware, too!