0:35 1) balance the frequencies - if there’s a bump of frequencies, its going to sound muddy ; use eq curve to balance 2:30 2) five frequency ranges 4:15 50 Hz - deep low end ; good = punch, kickdrum hits you in chest, bass drum is huge and full, deep low end; bad = boomy “you find that low boost and maybe on your tiny speakers it sounds good but on real speakers it sounds boomy.” 4:53 100 Hz - ~100-200 as high as 300 and 400 Hz; ian shepherd calls the hooting frequencies ; good = warm ; bad = muddy ; i do a lot of work in this range, taking frequencies down that sound muddy. 5:44 500 Hz - ~300-800 every instrument, including vocals, occupies these, so you tend to have a lot of buildup here ; good = full (whereas warmth has to do with lowend, fullness has to do with how big); bad = boxy (like recorded in a hard room); oftentimes with room mics recorded in home studios, i’ll make a big cut in the 400-500 range 6:45 1000 Hz 1000-3000 high-mid frequencies ; good = clarity / nasal ; bad = harsh 7:30 10000 Hz good = crisp airiness ; bad = strident, "ice-pick" ; people with hearing loss tend to have brighter mixes because boosting highs so much but for the rest of listeners its too much 8:13 3) Think like a sculptor - you remove a large chunk of the marble ; do cuts (-) before boosts (+) ; remove the offending frequencies
Joe is a truly gifted communicator. This is one of the clearest explanations of EQ I've ever heard. Actually, it's one of the clearest explanations of ANYTHING I've ever heard. Kudos!
I am so thankful for finding this video. I really started understanding more what the EQ was doing and how it was supposed to be used. I mainly used it to cut off tooo bassy frequencies or boost something.
"If you want something to sound better, but similar, you cut. If you want something to sound different, you boost. Very General, but mostly true. Great Video!!!
Hi Joe. At first I though, oh no, just another awkward "rules"-advice video. But I was positively surprised and liked the content as well as the presentation. I took something with me out of it. Thank you. Take care, stay safe and sound.
Nice explanation. I'm a semi retired pro-drummer have "toured" playing medium to large venues. Many times running my own discrete monitor mix in stereo with my vocals panned to left wedge & band/drum blend in rt wedge. You offer good tips here and we're never too old to learn or at least get a refresher
Thanks! Great vid! I'm going to share this with some of more advanced students in a highschool electronic music course that I teach. I also got your 5-step mix guide and looking forward to reading that. Cheers!
Thank you this was very insightful although I still have much to learn and much to experience myself this is a great way to go through it I think thank you so much for making this.
This is a great video. It should be a mandatory watch for anyone who wants to record. ***Rule number 2 is something that I learned over the past 20 years. It's great to finally have a working visual to go with what I already learned. I wish this video existed when I first started. Thanks for a great video!!! 😎😎😎
Everyone has different hearing and as a person ages the natural ability to hear higher frequencies disappears ... as proof I'm sure most people have heard of the classic "V" after EQs became popular in home HiFi... to me that's proof that most have different tastes in what that individual perceives as really good sound
This video is incredibly good, you are an awesome communicator apart from being an incredible musician/productor and composer, you know how to teach and I get everysingle word you say, thanks a lot Joe!
That was an extraordinarily good explanation...lately i have been editing podcast using logic's preset. One of the things i like to do now is use two eqs which are typically already in the preset signal chain. The first one is for me has become basically a subtraction filter. I select one of the frequency dots and narrow it enough to use it as an exaggerated spike. then i grab it and pull it up and sweep it along the range. Its astonishing how much un-attractive audio quality you can remove by simply reversing the newly found bad spike with an appropriate dip in that same range. Just pull it up..find the bad spot and then pull it down. then of course the next eq in the chain seems to be more effective because some of the bad stuff is missing from the audio. thanks for such a great layman's explanation sir.
EQ is a tool to cut/boost excess/lack frequencies. Then, the most important purpose; use it to make the sound musical or theatrical (depending on the purpose).
My favorite is the descriptive words for the five frequency ranges. They're fairly intuitive, but it helps knowing that others see it the same way. Thanks!
Thank you 🙏🏽 I’ve also learnt that it’s best to re-record something if you have to spend hrs to fix it with an EQ.. Me: writing this while spending hrs to fix something with an EQ lol
Something else I’ve heard, at least in relation to EQ’ing guitar, is to boost narrow and cut wide, which seems to agree with your point about cutting before boosting.
Interesting... I've heard the exact opposite. Cut narrow and boost wide. And be more subtle with the boosts (around +2.0-3.0db) and maybe more aggressive with the cuts (down to -9.0db if necessary). Of course, there's no solid rule and it all depends on the sound you're going for.
Do you perform a spectrum analysis to facilitate determination of which freq. need attention? To my ear, 60Hz-100Hz anchors the song with rich bass, 400Hz is the muddy freq., and 6k - 10k offers clarity or, if too much, creates razor blades.
Hi, great video, one question, what do you think about starting the mix like in a backward mixing? like compressing the mix bus and sculpting the mix with like a general EQ, kind of getting a general EQ curve and dig your way down in the mix?? jaja make sence? greatings from México
Hi Joe. I was looking at your frequency bands and all I could think was notes and keys. Like, many songs are written in C or, F or G major. Maybe D major or Bb. So a lot of that 500hz makes me think B4/C5. So around 1k is C6. Many of those keys makes use of the 500hz band. Okay, so that as basis - if we are able to get that harmonic information, should we adjust our e.q. based upon the actual compositional elements like chord structures? Using things like overtone theory based upon the frequency range of the notes played? Using music theory to dictate mix decisions, I suppose is what I am getting at. Not saying that you need music theory to get a good mix, but taking music theory and applying it to mix decisions.
I understand the terms for too much of the certain frequencies, such as Boomy, Harsh, etc., but what about the terms for when there are too few of them? Empty, dull, etc.?
When you record you always want to get as much of the frequency range of the source sound as you can. It's always easier to subtract or lower the intensity of frequencies than to try and add or boost where there isn't enough of them. So try and eliminate the possibility of too few from the start. Those terms will vary from artist to artist and from engineer to engineer. There are some that have kinda become the standards like boxy, tinny. But I've heard about a 1000 different terms like that .....from just 4 or 5 engineers. When you work with a group for a while, you all will start to develop your terms for those things
funny you say that about " ice pick" sounding , i've been playing metal guitar ,loud as fuck, for about 40 years, and i had a singer always brought " ron" protection with him, (ear plugs) because i always cranked up my highs to get a nice buzzy ,sharp,sizzly distortion sound, and this one sound guy at the bar used to tell me that there aren't enough high frequencies in the universe to satisfy me, so i'm guessing i have a bit of hearing loss, ?
Well i think you´re referring to 2 different stages of producing a result. The first is the mixing stage, in which pretty much every single track gets eqd, and then you´re referring to mastering stage, in which again, many or few or no tracks might get eqd.
Rules 2 and 3 help you get rule 1. I like how you put this together Joe. A very balanced presentation. I have been in audio a long time, and how you described how to eq is brilliant and so dog gone easy. Excellent video!
about that deep low end part learned that one from playing electric bass guitar, string instruments generally generate saw-wave like tones, with a lot of 5th and octave overtones. our logarithmic nature in hearing and the evolved preference our ears have for frequencies within human speech range, make it so, you actually hear 1 octave higher than the fundamental a low E string on a bass is about 41 hz, but you mostly hear the 82 octave above that, sure with a good subwoofer you could change that, but that's far away from making a level mix :D
That totally makes sense, because most smaller studio speakers can't reproduce 41 Hz very well, but we can still all hear a low E when the bass player plays it.
Finally, a proper video about EQ that actually teaches you the logic behind things, not just tells you what to do! Many thanks Joe, looking forward to your next video. :)
Great video...finally understood how eq works and what is the aim...Can u also do a video that explains which instruments typically falls in which freq...
My first day as a trainee sound tech at my local venue the guy training me said something that stuck with me forever "EQ is really simple, usually you want boost something in its weak range and cut it in its peak range" whenever something sounds off, thats my goto solution.
@@gauravpandey2037 a lot of instruments fall across multiple ranges. Drums run the entire thing, kick on the low to cymbals on the highs. Guitars cross 2 or 3 ranges, depending on the type of guitar, the style being played, lead or rhythm etc. Pianos run the entire range. Really whats more important is worry less about what instruments fall where and rather focus on the actual music being played. I have guitar solos that only use the high notes and if you are eqing that, you are going to do it differently than a guitar part that is moving up and down the fret board a lot.
@@kaigreen5641 so I am someone who has just started getting into the production world...I play guitar but when composing on my own for arrangement point of view my mix dont sound that good.....some instrument is always overpowering others...So I want to understand how to use EQ on different instruments to make the overall mix sounds good...
@@cisium1184 i have my 2 cents on those boomy: a lot in the bass department without the high end to balance it out muddy: can be read multiple ways, but i would go for: "long sustains bleeding into one another" first and foremost for EQ in particular would say "not giving each instrument their own frequency pocket to live in, which results in fighting for attention" but general lack of dynamics and/or attack curves could be considered muddy too i guess and since attack usually comes in the higher frequencies (at least higher than the fundamental usually), making things boomy is a recipe for making them sound muddy boxy: a small cabinet/room which makes sounds extremely dry and small, also kills off sympathetic resonance and the such harsh: very tiring to the ears high pitches, generally with a very strong attack. strident: never heard of the use of the word before, i wouldn't know (i just found out it kind of means harsh aswell lol)
Pushing 70, life long live performing musician, thousands of gigs, big and small... many gigs were loud, and frequent enough to cause damage... the joys of being an exuberant youth. I have tinitus, a constant couple of notes at between 4 to 5k are always there... it isn't debilitating, and actually, it comes in handy when mixing, as a reference... but I'd rather not have it... I recently had my hearing checked... my upper end drops off after 6k, It is difficult to hear the car's turn signal clicking when driving... so... I'm one of those old guys with the blinker on, going down the interstate... Music is still amazing to me, the learning process NEVER ends, and music is always challenging... we musicians are eternal students until we die... If you aren't learning, you're probably dead... Since the live scene for me is waning, its time for me to learn studio... I've rarely recorded... it's time... gathering gear, learning. Recently, I've been given a studio comission... humble beginnings, and a trial by fire... the pay offered is good... maybe when I finish the project, I can afford hearing aids.... I used to have hearing aids, but lost one... and since they work in pairs, the remaining one is useless. I really miss them for playing music.... the hearing aids I want cost $6k+... I tried them out, it was like the whole world opened up... wow! I've still so much music to do, record, play out, jam... Thanks for your labels of EQ. I'll add them to mine... Peace
Ronnie Parfait I dig it. Although I’ve never heard Making a Dino from Marble, we joke that our engineer can certainly make Chicken Salad out chicken sh!*. I was told that good photography isn’t taking the right picture but rather taking a whole bunch of pics and knowing which ones to throw away. Taking a wall of sound and crafting it into the vision of the artist IS an art in itself. I’ve tried mixing my own work to moderate success but conceded to let a professional do anything I want publicly distributed. (Still... I can’t help watching these videos and think I’m going to get better Chicken Salad in my home studio 🤣)
You gave us a major rule that you didn’t call a rule: “Don’t go off the visuals, go off what you hear.” Excellent. Those characterizations of the ranges are great. In terms of cutting, I guess that’s why some companies used to make cut only eq’s. The only wording suggestion I’d give you, and it would just save you about a minute, is to tell us that the frequencies you’re suggesting in those ranges are center frequencies.
Visuals can be useful. It's hard to have decent bass monitoring in an ameteur studio, so maybe checking bass visually is a good idea! Or those air frequencies, like will it sound good until it sounds dull when compared with other tracks? Look at how the highs roll off on a graph then. But no 'mixing' but checking visually of course.
You may not hear it but you will miss the fullness of sound. No matter what anyone tries to tell you Harmonics go down as well as up frequency. When two frequencies interact you get the Sum and the Difference all the way down and up. I am a Sonar and Physics of Sound guy who has over 50 years of experience. This effect is measurable.
Im 35 and still hear up to 20k luckily. But honestly, whenever I hear speakers that are prominent above 15 16khz I cant stand to listen to them long. I prefer a roll off at the high end so those super high frequencies are still there but really really quiet.
I can generate some sounds played at high frequencies, amp them, distort them, play them through some speakers, record it reflected back from a room, and plop it into a spectrum analyzer, you're not going to have significant sub harmonics from that, I've been doing it a ton lately to learn about room resonance and the air transfer function - though depending on the room you may see inharmonic frequencies coming back. another thing you might see is higher frequencies resonating with your ears frequency detectors to some degree, I'm not totally sure about the exact physics of that but I'm somewhat skeptical that lower frequency range detectors in your cochlea are going to be activated by high frequencies. can you say more about what you've seen generate subharmonics from high frequencies?
Bro, I'm an old, OLD, cat who, with and without a band, has been sitting in corners of tiny venues, with bad wiring, throughout my career! I am not well-schooled in this recording stuff, in which I find myself immersed as of late (bought a little interface and Cubase Pro). EQing live is one thing! Your video has explained the basics of the "recording" side of EQing in a manner that even I can grasp!!! THANK YOU!!!!
@@emilyschmanks I have always understood this to be with relation between a parametric eq and a graphic eq. With a parametric you are selecting a range of frequencies and with a graphic you are honing in on a tighter more specific range. Boost the wide (para) as that will help all of the frequencies in the specified range, but then cut in the narrow (graphic) as then you can pin-point which specific frequencies are causing the most trouble. I hope this helps
@@tonytygielski3703 I don't get this logic. If you boost wide when you only need some of those frequencies you'll have to make a bunch of narrow cuts afterwards to compensate for it. I think the only reason for this rule is that it helps keep live instruments natural sounding to not make narrow boosts. But for anyone who is working with sounds that aren't all live recorded or not trying to work in a traditional live genre mold, this is bad advice. You don't always need guitars in a pop or EDM song to sound "natural", often you just want to fit them into a busy mix.
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR! THANK YOU! I have not much experience with EQ and i tried a lot and looked for many explainations. But none of them was so perfect for me like yours! Sorry for my grammar. I´m from germany if something is written wrong. I
Here's followup podcast episode on what words like BOOMY, HARSH, and MUDDY mean: www.homestudiocorner.com/episode-250/
Can you mix and master my song
That part begin at 19:50 of the podcast after the musicianship question.
@@OnTheLeftHandSide thanks
I love your videos, man. Thank you!!! I'll try to remember to check the website with 5 steps to mix.
@@emmabmusic if your in Nigeria I can do a great mixing.
0:35 1) balance the frequencies - if there’s a bump of frequencies, its going to sound muddy ; use eq curve to balance
2:30 2) five frequency ranges
4:15 50 Hz - deep low end ; good = punch, kickdrum hits you in chest, bass drum is huge and full, deep low end; bad = boomy “you find that low boost and maybe on your tiny speakers it sounds good but on real speakers it sounds boomy.”
4:53 100 Hz - ~100-200 as high as 300 and 400 Hz; ian shepherd calls the hooting frequencies ; good = warm ; bad = muddy ; i do a lot of work in this range, taking frequencies down that sound muddy.
5:44 500 Hz - ~300-800 every instrument, including vocals, occupies these, so you tend to have a lot of buildup here ; good = full (whereas warmth has to do with lowend, fullness has to do with how big); bad = boxy (like recorded in a hard room); oftentimes with room mics recorded in home studios, i’ll make a big cut in the 400-500 range
6:45 1000 Hz 1000-3000 high-mid frequencies ; good = clarity / nasal ; bad = harsh
7:30 10000 Hz good = crisp airiness ; bad = strident, "ice-pick" ; people with hearing loss tend to have brighter mixes because boosting highs so much but for the rest of listeners its too much
8:13 3) Think like a sculptor - you remove a large chunk of the marble ; do cuts (-) before boosts (+) ; remove the offending frequencies
GOAT
🕶
Annie you are ok, you are ok, you are ok Annieeeeee
Thaaaaaanks🙏💕
Thanks for this
Joe is a truly gifted communicator. This is one of the clearest explanations of EQ I've ever heard. Actually, it's one of the clearest explanations of ANYTHING I've ever heard. Kudos!
Thank you for this breakdown, very helpful
It's a legend talking to another legend woah
Morsomt å se deg her 😅 Lykke til med vidunder maskinen 🤩
Ah, my favorite musicianeer finding similar resources. I feel I'm on the right path lol
marble machine
I am so thankful for finding this video. I really started understanding more what the EQ was doing and how it was supposed to be used. I mainly used it to cut off tooo bassy frequencies or boost something.
or like, to make one frequency sound louder
Like this handwriting teaching style! I learn a lot. Really really really appreciate this!!!
This is the best, like mounstrously good to understand the basics
Wow very straightforward and easy to understand. Thanks for the video, Joe.
Best video I've ever seen about EQ, thank you sir
Great teacher !! Thanks so much .
"If you want something to sound better, but similar, you cut. If you want something to sound different, you boost. Very General, but mostly true. Great Video!!!
Hi Joe. At first I though, oh no, just another awkward "rules"-advice video. But I was positively surprised and liked the content as well as the presentation. I took something with me out of it. Thank you. Take care, stay safe and sound.
So helpful! The terms you use to describe good and bad for each range is spot on. I will be applying these techniques tonight!
Excellent video. Thank you!
Nice explanation. I'm a semi retired pro-drummer have "toured" playing medium to large venues. Many times running my own discrete monitor mix in stereo with my vocals panned to left wedge & band/drum blend in rt wedge. You offer good tips here and we're never too old to learn or at least get a refresher
You helped me a lot here !!! I see where I went wrong now, thank you so much !
Thank you Joe! I'm a visual learner and you made things a lot clearer.
🙌🏾 Thank you and God bless!
Great helpful tips! These concepts are important.
Thanks! Great vid! I'm going to share this with some of more advanced students in a highschool electronic music course that I teach. I also got your 5-step mix guide and looking forward to reading that. Cheers!
Very helpful video! Thanks!
I've been making music for 1 1/2 years now and im glad to have seen this video now already. Huge help!!!
Thanks! great clear ideas!
Insightful. Thank you brother.
Good points to consider, thanks Joe!
Thank you this was very insightful although I still have much to learn and much to experience myself this is a great way to go through it I think thank you so much for making this.
Love you sir
Thank you!
Cool, usefull and fun!
Cheers from Portugal 🍺🤘
useful, short, and simple. nice!
Great analogies....
Excellent Joe! I'm going to share this with some of my clients.
I've been struggling to understand eq for a very long time, I'm so glad I found this video
Thanks. I found this to be very helpful!
This is a great video. It should be a mandatory watch for anyone who wants to record.
***Rule number 2 is something that I learned over the past 20 years. It's great to finally have a working visual to go with what I already learned. I wish this video existed when I first started.
Thanks for a great video!!! 😎😎😎
Excellent information, thx!!
This was exactly what I needed, thank you.
Everyone has different hearing and as a person ages the natural ability to hear higher frequencies disappears ... as proof I'm sure most people have heard of the classic "V" after EQs became popular in home HiFi... to me that's proof that most have different tastes in what that individual perceives as really good sound
Ah yes - the old "Disco Smile" as it was known :)
Yanni...Laurel...yanni...laurel. Honestly thought, what's a V? A scooped EQ? I'm net to this stuff.
Hello Joe! Really nice experience to look this Video!! And I saw you have more of your knowledge created To help and teach other people!
This is a nice video , explained really well and in short duration.
Perfect explanation 👌
This video is incredibly good, you are an awesome communicator apart from being an incredible musician/productor and composer, you know how to teach and I get everysingle word you say, thanks a lot Joe!
Not gonna lie man, this video saved my album. Thank you 🙌🏻
THANK YOU
You are great Man!
Perfect video, thank u
Very helpful, appreciate it!
Really useful. Thank you!
great advice
wow so helpful! Thankyou
Great VO
That was an extraordinarily good explanation...lately i have been editing podcast using logic's preset. One of the things i like to do now is use two eqs which are typically already in the preset signal chain. The first one is for me has become basically a subtraction filter. I select one of the frequency dots and narrow it enough to use it as an exaggerated spike. then i grab it and pull it up and sweep it along the range. Its astonishing how much un-attractive audio quality you can remove by simply reversing the newly found bad spike with an appropriate dip in that same range. Just pull it up..find the bad spot and then pull it down. then of course the next eq in the chain seems to be more effective because some of the bad stuff is missing from the audio. thanks for such a great layman's explanation sir.
Damn this video rules man. Thank you!!
Veeery good video. Best explained video out of 20 I've watched. You got my sub, thanks sir.
Wow best video on this topic!!
Great video thanks man!
EQ is a tool to cut/boost excess/lack frequencies. Then, the most important purpose; use it to make the sound musical or theatrical (depending on the purpose).
Goat
My favorite is the descriptive words for the five frequency ranges. They're fairly intuitive, but it helps knowing that others see it the same way. Thanks!
Great video Joe. Very simple but informative. I will save this and sub to the channel. thanks
love this - very well explained - subbed
PENCIL DROP!
Pro tip, boost into a compressor to get excitement
Thank you 🙏🏽
I’ve also learnt that it’s best to re-record something if you have to spend hrs to fix it with an EQ..
Me: writing this while spending hrs to fix something with an EQ lol
Great explanation, u win a like and suscription 🤘🏼
Something else I’ve heard, at least in relation to EQ’ing guitar, is to boost narrow and cut wide, which seems to agree with your point about cutting before boosting.
Interesting... I've heard the exact opposite. Cut narrow and boost wide. And be more subtle with the boosts (around +2.0-3.0db) and maybe more aggressive with the cuts (down to -9.0db if necessary). Of course, there's no solid rule and it all depends on the sound you're going for.
The adsense was actually useful
your voice sounds like jon lajoie's at the begining, and your video is super handy, thanks. although I hate seeing you throwing away paper like that.
Do you perform a spectrum analysis to facilitate determination of which freq. need attention?
To my ear, 60Hz-100Hz anchors the song with rich bass, 400Hz is the muddy freq., and 6k - 10k offers clarity or, if too much, creates razor blades.
Wow.
I like to boost when I want the sound of the eq itself, a characteristic of the device I’m using. Eq’s are amps after all...
Hi, great video, one question, what do you think about starting the mix like in a backward mixing? like compressing the mix bus and sculpting the mix with like a general EQ, kind of getting a general EQ curve and dig your way down in the mix?? jaja make sence? greatings from México
instead of taking paper you could take the pc with a usb write pad
But I thought all the faders were supposed to smile! 😀
Major tip: dont do frequency sweeps, use your ears, hear whats wrong and correct it
Hi Joe. I was looking at your frequency bands and all I could think was notes and keys. Like, many songs are written in C or, F or G major. Maybe D major or Bb. So a lot of that 500hz makes me think B4/C5. So around 1k is C6. Many of those keys makes use of the 500hz band.
Okay, so that as basis - if we are able to get that harmonic information, should we adjust our e.q. based upon the actual compositional elements like chord structures? Using things like overtone theory based upon the frequency range of the notes played? Using music theory to dictate mix decisions, I suppose is what I am getting at. Not saying that you need music theory to get a good mix, but taking music theory and applying it to mix decisions.
I understand the terms for too much of the certain frequencies, such as Boomy, Harsh, etc., but what about the terms for when there are too few of them? Empty, dull, etc.?
When you record you always want to get as much of the frequency range of the source sound as you can. It's always easier to subtract or lower the intensity of frequencies than to try and add or boost where there isn't enough of them.
So try and eliminate the possibility of too few from the start.
Those terms will vary from artist to artist and from engineer to engineer.
There are some that have kinda become the standards like boxy, tinny. But I've heard about a 1000 different terms like that .....from just 4 or 5 engineers. When you work with a group for a while, you all will start to develop your terms for those things
Hi! What software you use to do these pictures in your videos? BTW very goog job
funny you say that about " ice pick" sounding , i've been playing metal guitar ,loud as fuck, for about 40 years, and i had a singer always brought " ron" protection with him, (ear plugs) because i always cranked up my highs to get a nice buzzy ,sharp,sizzly distortion sound, and this one sound guy at the bar used to tell me that there aren't enough high frequencies in the universe to satisfy me, so i'm guessing i have a bit of hearing loss, ?
what did you say , i couldn't hear you, lol
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Paper wasted: *a lot*
Jokes aside, this is a great video, thank you!
When would you want to EQ individual tracks vs. the entire mix?
Well i think you´re referring to 2 different stages of producing a result. The first is the mixing stage, in which pretty much every single track gets eqd, and then you´re referring to mastering stage, in which again, many or few or no tracks might get eqd.
How much of the drum bus are you putting on each track? Is it turned all the way up, 50%? Only part I didn’t understand
You don’t “put the drum bus” on them. All the tracks are routed TO the drum bus, using the outputs of the tracks not sends.
Could it make sense to make different mixes for people whose hearing is in different conditions?
Rules 2 and 3 help you get rule 1. I like how you put this together Joe. A very balanced presentation. I have been in audio a long time, and how you described how to eq is brilliant and so dog gone easy. Excellent video!
about that deep low end part
learned that one from playing electric bass guitar, string instruments generally generate saw-wave like tones, with a lot of 5th and octave overtones.
our logarithmic nature in hearing and the evolved preference our ears have for frequencies within human speech range, make it so, you actually hear 1 octave higher than the fundamental
a low E string on a bass is about 41 hz, but you mostly hear the 82 octave above that, sure with a good subwoofer you could change that, but that's far away from making a level mix :D
That totally makes sense, because most smaller studio speakers can't reproduce 41 Hz very well, but we can still all hear a low E when the bass player plays it.
Finally, a proper video about EQ that actually teaches you the logic behind things, not just tells you what to do!
Many thanks Joe, looking forward to your next video. :)
Great video...finally understood how eq works and what is the aim...Can u also do a video that explains which instruments typically falls in which freq...
My first day as a trainee sound tech at my local venue the guy training me said something that stuck with me forever "EQ is really simple, usually you want boost something in its weak range and cut it in its peak range" whenever something sounds off, thats my goto solution.
@@gauravpandey2037 a lot of instruments fall across multiple ranges. Drums run the entire thing, kick on the low to cymbals on the highs.
Guitars cross 2 or 3 ranges, depending on the type of guitar, the style being played, lead or rhythm etc.
Pianos run the entire range.
Really whats more important is worry less about what instruments fall where and rather focus on the actual music being played. I have guitar solos that only use the high notes and if you are eqing that, you are going to do it differently than a guitar part that is moving up and down the fret board a lot.
@@kaigreen5641 so I am someone who has just started getting into the production world...I play guitar but when composing on my own for arrangement point of view my mix dont sound that good.....some instrument is always overpowering others...So I want to understand how to use EQ on different instruments to make the overall mix sounds good...
This is insanely helpful. Thank you.
noi
I'm actually trying to teach other, non technical folks about EQ during streaming. But them self-tuning the EQ for their voice will be hard
Boomy, Muddy, Boxy, Harsh and Strident. You’re missing two more dwarves. 😂😂
Scratchy and Whiney!
I get a strong sense that no one really knows what those words mean.
@@cisium1184 i have my 2 cents on those
boomy: a lot in the bass department without the high end to balance it out
muddy: can be read multiple ways, but i would go for: "long sustains bleeding into one another" first and foremost
for EQ in particular would say "not giving each instrument their own frequency pocket to live in, which results in fighting for attention"
but general lack of dynamics and/or attack curves could be considered muddy too i guess
and since attack usually comes in the higher frequencies (at least higher than the fundamental usually), making things boomy is a recipe for making them sound muddy
boxy: a small cabinet/room which makes sounds extremely dry and small, also kills off sympathetic resonance and the such
harsh: very tiring to the ears high pitches, generally with a very strong attack.
strident: never heard of the use of the word before, i wouldn't know
(i just found out it kind of means harsh aswell lol)
Clippy
Mike Roberti *dwarves
Pushing 70, life long live performing musician, thousands of gigs, big and small... many gigs were loud, and frequent enough to cause damage... the joys of being an exuberant youth.
I have tinitus, a constant couple of notes at between 4 to 5k are always there... it isn't debilitating, and actually, it comes in handy when mixing, as a reference... but I'd rather not have it...
I recently had my hearing checked... my upper end drops off after 6k, It is difficult to hear the car's turn signal clicking when driving... so... I'm one of those old guys with the blinker on, going down the interstate...
Music is still amazing to me, the learning process NEVER ends, and music is always challenging... we musicians are eternal students until we die... If you aren't learning, you're probably dead...
Since the live scene for me is waning, its time for me to learn studio... I've rarely recorded... it's time... gathering gear, learning.
Recently, I've been given a studio comission... humble beginnings, and a trial by fire... the pay offered is good... maybe when I finish the project, I can afford hearing aids....
I used to have hearing aids, but lost one... and since they work in pairs, the remaining one is useless. I really miss them for playing music.... the hearing aids I want cost $6k+... I tried them out, it was like the whole world opened up... wow!
I've still so much music to do, record, play out, jam...
Thanks for your labels of EQ. I'll add them to mine...
Peace
Keep it up, Thomas! Hope you're having a blast doing what you love!
“Take this piece of marble and turn it into a dinosaur”...
For $200: “What is things never said in music production Alex”
Ronnie Parfait I dig it. Although I’ve never heard Making a Dino from Marble, we joke that our engineer can certainly make Chicken Salad out chicken sh!*. I was told that good photography isn’t taking the right picture but rather taking a whole bunch of pics and knowing which ones to throw away. Taking a wall of sound and crafting it into the vision of the artist IS an art in itself. I’ve tried mixing my own work to moderate success but conceded to let a professional do anything I want publicly distributed. (Still... I can’t help watching these videos and think I’m going to get better Chicken Salad in my home studio 🤣)
steelman774 HAHAHHAHA
ok boomer
Balance. “EQ” stands for Equalisation.
you have to equalize to achieve balance.
@@Radical_Middle He should know that
"Equalization"
@@TjwithA5.0 it depends UK/USA English have different spelling
@@spanellaful I think they spell taxez with a z now, but I could be wrong.
You gave us a major rule that you didn’t call a rule: “Don’t go off the visuals, go off what you hear.”
Excellent. Those characterizations of the ranges are great. In terms of cutting, I guess that’s why some companies used to make cut only eq’s.
The only wording suggestion I’d give you, and it would just save you about a minute, is to tell us that the frequencies you’re suggesting in those ranges are center frequencies.
koshersalaami And listen to the "Room" not just your headphones.
Visuals can be useful. It's hard to have decent bass monitoring in an ameteur studio, so maybe checking bass visually is a good idea! Or those air frequencies, like will it sound good until it sounds dull when compared with other tracks? Look at how the highs roll off on a graph then. But no 'mixing' but checking visually of course.
Rule 2 is genius simple explanation and "Hooting" is exactly the right word/sound
Indeed
Why your voice sounds like James Hetfield's.
He even has the pronunciation down lol. I can't unhear it now.
@@ThatOtherRaccoon Dude, what have you done?? All I hear is James Hetfield now. xD
He was James Hetfield's vocal coach. Duh. Noobs....
James Hetfield: "I am the table".
We can hear him, but what you didn't notice, - we can also see him.
Cause the EQ is perfect.
Now i just want a shirt that says "Boosting is the devil"
Jake Below
Me too!
well it is... and the shirt needs to be made.
As long as the back says "And the Devil is Your Best Friend"
MixDOWNNN
The Waterboy
Must be 50 years ago, when I could detect 20k
You may not hear it but you will miss the fullness of sound. No matter what anyone tries to tell you Harmonics go down as well as up frequency. When two frequencies interact you get the Sum and the Difference all the way down and up. I am a Sonar and Physics of Sound guy who has over 50 years of experience. This effect is measurable.
Im 35 and still hear up to 20k luckily. But honestly, whenever I hear speakers that are prominent above 15 16khz I cant stand to listen to them long. I prefer a roll off at the high end so those super high frequencies are still there but really really quiet.
@@richb313 when you say a sum and a difference between two frequencies are you referring to constructive and destructive interference?
I can generate some sounds played at high frequencies, amp them, distort them, play them through some speakers, record it reflected back from a room, and plop it into a spectrum analyzer, you're not going to have significant sub harmonics from that, I've been doing it a ton lately to learn about room resonance and the air transfer function - though depending on the room you may see inharmonic frequencies coming back. another thing you might see is higher frequencies resonating with your ears frequency detectors to some degree, I'm not totally sure about the exact physics of that but I'm somewhat skeptical that lower frequency range detectors in your cochlea are going to be activated by high frequencies. can you say more about what you've seen generate subharmonics from high frequencies?
It's called psychoacoustics, you don't need to hear it but it will change the whole mix.
Bro, I'm an old, OLD, cat who, with and without a band, has been sitting in corners of tiny venues, with bad wiring, throughout my career! I am not well-schooled in this recording stuff, in which I find myself immersed as of late (bought a little interface and Cubase Pro). EQing live is one thing! Your video has explained the basics of the "recording" side of EQing in a manner that even I can grasp!!! THANK YOU!!!!
You forgot a gold one:
Cut narrow, boost wide.
i know this is considered good practice but could you explain why it is?
@@emilyschmanks I have always understood this to be with relation between a parametric eq and a graphic eq. With a parametric you are selecting a range of frequencies and with a graphic you are honing in on a tighter more specific range. Boost the wide (para) as that will help all of the frequencies in the specified range, but then cut in the narrow (graphic) as then you can pin-point which specific frequencies are causing the most trouble. I hope this helps
@@tonytygielski3703 that's an excellent explanation, thank you!
@@tonytygielski3703 I don't get this logic. If you boost wide when you only need some of those frequencies you'll have to make a bunch of narrow cuts afterwards to compensate for it. I think the only reason for this rule is that it helps keep live instruments natural sounding to not make narrow boosts. But for anyone who is working with sounds that aren't all live recorded or not trying to work in a traditional live genre mold, this is bad advice. You don't always need guitars in a pop or EDM song to sound "natural", often you just want to fit them into a busy mix.
If you have to boost anything you are probably not compensating for the room first. Be very careful when using boost for that way lays distortion.
Liked the visual of this - made it entertaining and fun to watch!
THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!
THANK YOU!
I have not much experience with EQ and i tried a lot and looked for many explainations. But none of them was so perfect for me like yours!
Sorry for my grammar. I´m from germany if something is written wrong. I