Mixing with EQ (equalisation)

Everybody knows what EQ is. We’ve all used it in terms of basics the bass and treble controls on hi-fis, but mixing with EQ is an entirely different ball game.

Getting the basics isn’t difficult but it takes knowledge and experience (like most things) to get really good at it.

What EQ is all about: an introduction for me

Years ago when I bought my first synthesizer, I was puzzled that I couldn’t get the same sort of bass sound out of my Sequential Circuits Pro One that some people were.

I listened to the records and knew how to come up with a million different sounds from the Pro One but what was I missing? My bass sounds were similar in sound but something was lacking. The missing ingredient, of course, was the recording process.

The sounds I heard were compressed but more importantly, they had been equalised. I had a Fostex X15 portastudio at the time, and that had bass and treble on each input.

Tweaking the bass helped but it still didn’t do the job. I started to think that maybe it wasn’t EQ that I needed. Of course, it was, but I didn’t realise then just how much more complex EQ could be. Not just bass and treble. Knowing all the other EQ intricacies was what I was missing.

Unfortunately, it’s not just a case of having the right EQ tools. You also need to know not only how they work, but also what it is in the sound that needs altering. For that, you need to have some experienced ears.

A great idea for recording vocals if you’re stuck for space

EQ on a single sound

You may need to EQ a sound in isolation.

The main reason for doing this is if there is something wrong with it or if there is another sound mixed in with it that you want to minimise.

For instance, you may have a vocal sound that has sibilance (the “Th” and “S” sounds that a vocal produces) that you can get usable by reducing some of the highs. If it is particularly bad you may need to de-esse it. Or you may have a guitar sound that has a lot of string scratching noise.

You can reduce this with EQ. Incidentally, if you are trying to remove or isolate by using EQ you can make some improvements with EQ and make a sound usable however on a lot of occasions it’s a bit of a balance between getting rid of some frequencies without affecting the rest of the sound.

If you’re struggling or if you just want to do the job easily try the iZotope RX. It’s not often I’m blown away by a sound production tool, but this one is pretty special.

Apart from removing hums and clicks, it can remove almost any sound from any other. Such as removing the vocal from a track (this has to be seen to be believed.)

What is a pop filter used for?

EQing a complete mix

When it comes to mixing a song comprised of multiple tracks I’d go as far as saying it’s impossible to do without EQ.

EQ will make any mix of sounds better. That’s if you know what you are doing. If you don’t, you could probably make it sound worse! The idea of EQing a complete mix is each sound will take up space in the audio.

As a beginner, this was always a concept I struggled with. I would EQ a synth bass to sound massive. Like Human League Being Boiled, then EQ the drum machine to sound massive. Then EQ a synth lead sound, you’ve guessed it, to sound massive.

These sounds were all huge and impressive on their own. Together they would sound fantastic. Imagine the disappointment when they didn’t. Surely if you take 3 huge powerful sounds and mix them together the result will be even better.

Well, as you probably know it doesn’t work like that and it took me a while to figure out why. Oh, there was no internet or books or people around who were doing this kind of thing, so in those days you had to figure stuff out for yourself.

What’s ducking reverb and why should you use it?

How do you EQ a complete mix

You can learn how to do it but there is always going to be an element of experience and experimentation.

You should follow most of the rules but don’t be scared to experiment and listen. Just because the traditional methods say don’t put reverb on bass sounds doesn’t mean you can’t.

The problem I had in the early days was to assume getting a good sound meant exactly that. I listened to the tracks in isolation and EQed them to sound good on their own. This won’t produce a good mix when you combine them.

When you have a sound on its own it doesn’t matter how much of the audio spectrum it takes up. That’s why my massive synthesiser bass was so good, it was huge and took up most of the audio spectrum. The same with the drum machine and any other synthesiser sounds I created.

What you want is for the whole mix to take up the audio spectrum, not one sound. When you have two sounds that take up most of the audio spectrum on their own mixing them together means that they clash. Each sound will obscure the other. This can easily produce a mush of sound and not what you envisage the mix to sound like.

I start by listening to each sound and getting rid of stuff as I mentioned in the first paragraph. Frequencies and sounds that you don’t want to hear like excessive sibilance.

Once you’ve got rid of things you don’t want you can start combining two of their similar sounds together.

How can you use 32-bit VST’s on a 64-bit DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

Native Instruments Komplete 12 FX bundle

If you’ve read any of my other effects-related guides, you’ll know I’m a bit of a fan of the Native Instruments bundles. There’s plenty to get excited about when it comes to EQ as well, with plenty of different EQs to play with.

You also get plenty of compressors. This was covered in my guide about how different types of compressors sound. You get all of the common types of effects and some are extremely good.

One of my favourites is Choral which I covered in my round-up of chorus plug-ins.

If you’re looking for a good reverb then Raum will be right up your street and I covered this in my round-up of the best reverbs for vocals.

The meter spectrometer and Mixing with EQ

Something I didn’t have that would have made things a lot easier to understand and clearer to implement would have been an audio spectrometer or some device to show you the complete audible frequency spectrum in one go.

If you have something like this now is the time to tune it on. While you should use your ears when you are inexperienced it’s not that easy to know what to do first when met with sounds to mix.

Something that shows you the frequency range helps a lot so you can visualise as well as hear.

Bass first

I tend to start with bass frequencies first so that’s usually drum sounds, bass sounds and some big deep synthesiser sounds.

Have a look at the meter and you’ll see that some bass sounds have lots of middle and even some highs. If you have a bass drum and a synth bass sound playing at the same time they will cover each other where their frequencies overlap.

If you alter the EQ on each sound so they don’t overlap so much you can get it so you can hear each element better.

This is always going to be a compromise though and you have to strike up a balance as you have to sacrifice something from each sound for the overall good.

In this situation, you can always utilise the technique of sidechain compression. This is probably the best way of mixing two clashing bass frequency sounds.

Committee mixing

This is why you should never mix as a committee.

This is especially the case when letting a band have a go at mixing. It’s a disaster. Each member wants their sound to be the focus and turned up. The bass player wants his sound to dominate, the drummer his, the guitarists are usually the worst culprit and only want the guitar to be heard.

You get the idea. Just don’t let that happen!

Mixing with EQ and using Monitors

You may have heard this before, but you need to use accurate monitors to be able to EQ accurately.

If your monitors lack delivery in certain frequencies then you will overcompensate by boosting them with your EQ when you didn’t need to. They were already there. Your monitoring just didn’t let you hear them properly. If they lack detail you won’t be able to hear the detail in your mixes.

As you can see, to be able to deliver accurate mixes you need accurate monitors to hear it all in the first place.

Monitor volume

As well as having decent monitors you also need to use them correctly.

You may have noticed that mixes sound different at different volume levels I don’t mean loudness I mean the frequency balance changes. A mix may sound like it lacks low frequencies at very low listening levels. It may also sound quite middly. It all depends again, on your monitoring.

It’s all too easy to do your mixing at too loud a volume level. Let’s face it, it sounds better when you turn it up. The problem is you won’t get an accurate sound. You should try to avoid turning things up too loud by mixing at a conversational level. The level you speak at.

You can get applications on your phone that will make it work as a level meter for sound. You can see the level you produce when speaking and the levels your monitors pump out. Keep an eye on the levels and you’ll produce better mixes.

Listening at lower levels also benefits your ears in that higher levels firstly aren’t good for you and secondly fatigue your hearing quicker.

Should you use chorus effects on vocals: yes, if you use this one!

Mixing with EQ: Final thoughts

When a sound is in isolation EQ isn’t as important as when it’s in a mix.

That is when you really need it. I find that it’s even more indispensable when it comes to mixing electronic music. Some synthesiser sounds can fill the entire audio spectrum with one note. While it sounds impressive on its own as soon as you try to put other things in the mix everything is either fighting for space or you simply can’t hear it.

This is where cutting frequencies helps. If you have a few different sounds playing at once you have to limit each to its own audio space.

EQ in music production, is as much an art as it is a science but if you get the “science” bit wrong it’s much harder to excel in the “art” bit.

When I do a mix I try to get as much as the EQ done before I add other effects. Then once other effects are added you’ll have to tweak the EQ more.

Others do it differently so don’t worry if you develop different ways. It’s what works for you but if you’re having problems try to sort out the EQ first.

If you are a beginner be sure to check out my guide to effects.