Basic/Beginners Mixing Concepts – EQing

EQ is one of the most most dangerous processes because you can go very very wrong if your ears don’t make the right decisions,
in order for the ears to make the right decision is to stay fresh, the longer your ears can stay fresh the better.

in order to keep them fresh there are some things you should pay attention to:

1. sweeping is making your ears much more tired and making them not focused.
this is important!!

sweeping means taking one point on a parametric EQ and moving it (while the instrument is playing) all over the frequency range.

sweeping is a technique that even a lot of professionals use, some of the beginners says that it is easier to find the right frequency like that…
that’s right… for the first instrument… for the first couple of minutes.
but on the next instrument it will be harder to find the right frequency, and on the one after that it will be even worse,
sweeping makes the frequencies so connected, that after a couple of sweeping your ears will think that all the frequencies are the right ones!

instead of sweeping, teach your ears to recognize frequencies, and then just cut or boost the specific frequency that you aimed for,
using the A/B listening can help you and will make your ears even sharper the next time you will sit in front of the EQ.

A/B listening means to make the boost or cut on a specific frequency, then clicking on the bypass button couple of times (while the instrument is playing), so you can hear the change you just made.

now don’t get me wrong!
you can sweep, but use it as less as you can, use it only when you need it the most,
and A/B more often.

2. if you make a boost or a cut and it is not changing things to a good place or you don’t hear an obvious change, remove that EQ.

3. take rests, your ears needs to stay focused in this stage, the fresher and more accurate your ears will be the better the decisions you will make.

we won’t go too deep with EQ here because in this videos (beginners concepts) you will build your fundamentals, so when the more advanced sessions will come you will be ready.

but you need to know this :
the lower the number of the frequency the lower the sound will be, the higher the frequency the higher the sound.
that’s enough for now, remember this and EQ will be simpler for you.

because it is the beginners series I want you to be brave and play with the EQ while you are mixing.
I know most of the beginners don’t know what the exact frequency means, but you have that rule :
the lower the number of the frequency the lower the sound will be, the higher the frequency the higher the sound.

so if you want more high frequency you know it is higher on the frequency parameter.

now don’t worry if the results are good or not at first, you mind and your ears with time will gather enough information and will build some logical system that you can work with, and the best part is: all you need to do is playing with the EQ.
the more time you spend playing with the EQ the more stable and accurate the system that your ears will build.

in the video as you can see I just cut the lower frequencies that I didn’t need, they sound two bassy and I cut them from the instruments that don’t need a bassy sound,
and on the Kick I wanted the low frequencies so I left them there and even boosted but just a little so it won’t ruin the nice balance I had.