Mixing With EQ - Carving EQ Holes - TheRecordingRevolution.com
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- ►► Overwhelmed by all of the EQ techniques? Just download my FREE EQ Checklist → www.EQChecklist...
Part 5 of 7 - Mixing with EQ is all about creating space for every track to sit nicely together. Today I have a powerful trick to help you do just that - carving out EQ holes.
This one strategy on just the outside instruments in your mix can give you more clarity + width in just minutes. Check it out!
loveee this whole series - I've been mixing for about 5 years now and I still come back to these videos :] it makes mixing so much simpler. thank you!
You have pretty much just saved from being fired. Super helpful EQ videos. Thanks man
Absolute life saver!! I’ve been trying to figure this out for years. This just leveled up my mixing!!
You're a good man Graham...Another great tutorial explained well, not to mention your time you take out for everyone else to learn. Thanks as always.
The timing of this video is almost miraculous - I am really struggling with this sort of problem right now but this will absolutely help. Thanks very much!
Thanks man, all of your videos are great. Literally every musician that I run into that is looking into learning more about mixing, I send them your way. Your 10-minutes to a better mix totally upped my game! These new EQ vids are great too.
Loved the way everything was explained!! Thanks Graham! Much love from India
These EQ videos have been so helpful to me. All of them are clear and excellently explained. I downloaded the Checklist, which is awesome. Consistently putting out this much excellent content is impressive and shows the dedication of Graham and company. This channel is seriously incredible. Thanks a ton! All the best.
Thank you so much for these videos. After months of trying I am starting to get a drum sound I actually like.
The checklist is great! An entire mix checklist would be really cool if possible.
dude these tutorials are incredible. Thanks a ton
Graham, can you make a video covering phase meter?
thats right , i don't see much of these videos around...i hope he sees this suggestion though
Aldo Veraldi I
So much better than the last video on this that i watched.
Love it! I learned this technique from you a few years back and use it on every mix with dual-tracked hard L-R panned rhythm guitars.
Love this entire serious! Thanks for keeping things simple and understandable!
good, clear tutorial, Thank You Graham! I hope compression series will follow.
Thanks, Grahm! Really enjoying the Mixing with EQ & Compression mini-series. Can you please do one on mixing with Reverb? These have been very helpful and I struggle with reverb as I'm sure a lot of people do. Thanks so much!
Thank you so much Graham, great video as always, your videos help me to improve a lot!. A future video series about compressor would be great, greetings!.
Thnx for the video and check list. One one thing for the future. Add test question..
Man, thank you! You always spit out gems that are so helpful!
Nice video Graham! Although I liked the bass from the non-EQ guitars in the mix, it gave some power that I enjoyed a lot :)
A lot of times, soloed guitars sound better with some beefy low end, but once they're in the mix, that low end tend to fight with the bass guitar creating muddiness.
The most basic "EQ hole" is removing the low end from midrange instruments to let more room for bass, kick drum, piano/synth low registers etc..
Would it still create muddiness if using a low shelf on the guitars instead of a low cut? or maybe move the low cuts to the left to lower frequencies and using a more vertical slope? Some of my tracks in the past got way too thin sounding after low cutting everything but the bass and kick, so now I trust my ears more until I learn better rules or get bigger studio monitors..
@Max - Muddiness comes from (lower) frequencies from multiple instruments or tracks bunching up, at least when they're competing TOO much. - So using a shelf instead of a complete cut might still help, but also create a bit of "fighting" at the same time depending on how frequencies interact. But at least you're making more space for other instruments or sounds to come through more clearly. - It's just that a complete cut will give a lot more obvious clarity and separation. - A lower cut/pass, like you said, could work as well, but again it depends how much space it leaves for anything else. It just depends out of which frequencies the "competing" instruments or tracks consist, and the trick is to balance them so that they don't bunch up too much where they overlap (if at all). - You could indeed make very tight separations, like make a high pass for a guitar sloping down from say 120 to 80 Hz, and then cut a hole for a bass-instrument from say 80 or 100 Hz and up. Which is really rumbly with little punch, but of you insist and like that, it's a way.
Again, it depends on the context; In the more recent Metal a kick-drum might have very little bass and a lot more slappy higher frequencies it depends on, with guitars just blazing in the low frequencies, while in Jazz or Blues you might have a nice bottom-y and woof-y kick while the guitars are completely left out of the bass-region.
A nice trick to find out what is useful content in a track or instrument is the following; Solo it, then put a LOW-pass filter on it, then either go from the lowest frequency up and wait until you start hearing anything that sounds useful or pleasant, or better, start at a very high setting and go down until you find that anything you hear is just useless. Because you will find that a lot of the lower frequencies are just a lot of nothing. And it might be useful "air" when you stand in front of the instrument or its speakers for example, but it's mostly useless in a mix.
Anyway, then find that sweet spot for the cut-off, apply it with a high-pass and notice how you're removing, maybe a little "fatness" but also a lot of useless residual content and it sounds cleaner.
If you want to make it sound a bit fatter or punchier again, maybe try boosting frequencies just above where you've cut. Say you ended up cutting everything below 120Hz on a guitar, maybe boost at 150-180Hz to compensate a little. - Anything lower would be the task of other instruments, like the bass-guitar. Not saying that it only affects those frequencies, but it's meant for that bottom end, even though guitars affect that as well, they are more important affecting higher frequencies and can be toned down at the bottom end.
That's a lot, but hope it gives an idea.
And of course, experiment. These aren't rules, but tricks and guidelines. Unless you have very cookie-cutter recordings or something, your content and mix won't be the same, so you have to find the way to make it work.
Again, you amazed me Graham! Thanks for sharing!
thank you. U explained this super well.
Technically as a graduated acoustic engineer I can say that this way you use is correct. It's because compressor is a non-linear system, so it can add some harmonics to your signal. So you deal with clean signal to correct it's tembre. But subjectively all ways can be right if your ears enjoy it :-)
that midrange boost on the guitar was nice
Always good stuff! I love the 1.2k-2.8k split @2.6db also :P I *do* personally try n cut the lower frequencies in a shelf type manner to not blow out the punch (unless it's di which I rarely use) Always good stuff, thanks Grhm!
Well done Graham, very noticeable!
Tnx sir, yr tutorials r always educative n inspirational...
As u give may more be given to u....
Great as always Graham!
It´s really interesting that you can hear it best when you a/b it with the whole mix on. I mean i could hear it with the guitars solo as well, of course. But it became really obvious what it did to the mix by playing everything:) Great vid, thanks for that! Btw, why didn´t you level match your EQ moves in this case?
Thanks for the tutorial and free eq guide!
that like dislike ratio!!!!
Have you looked into Neutron? It's a new plugin from Izotope and it helps determine which frequencies are being masked. It makes it really simple and I think it could help a lot of people.
Btw, it also has an option to cut frequencies while boosting others at the same time.
Great tip, all your videos are very helpfull!
Brilliantly told!! Thanks!!!
Thanks man. Super informative and fun. Lekker!
So freakin' helpful. Thanks, Graham!
Thanks (again)!
Thanks Graham again ...awesome tip :)
Thank you
thanks a lot your videos are very helpful to me.
Is it just me or without the EQ whole track and even the guitars themselves sounds much fuller and much more mixed in.
thanks bro u help more than u know it
your the best man
nice!!! Thank you!
Hey Graham.....I'm a caveman and I'm trying to wrap my head around this particular concept of your approach to L&R guitar track EQing.....would this rule also apply to quad tracked guitars? Thanks. -Aaron-
If your vocals are boosted at 2k. Do you need to carve out 2k out of all of your instruments?
great question
I only the ones that are masking the vocals
Graham, what if you want a straight up wide punk crunch. Dookie for example. How would you approach an equal wide sound for the guitars in each ear?
Thanks for this.
How much to the L and R are you panning the two guitars? And if you mix in mono, as a lot of people advise as a way to start out with a mix, how apparent or not apparent is carving out EQ 'holes', and how difficult is it to hear or work with when mixing mostly in mono?
So what if you’re trying to create a stereo effect with 2 guitars playing the same riff panned left and right? Would you still do this? Or would you EQ them identically?
Hey Graham, thanks for all the videos they have helped me a ton! One question, I've been recording an EP and I live mic'd my amp. I play with a lot of mids and highs, which sounds fine through the amp. But in the recordings the highs are just a little too harsh. How could I tune down the highs without killing my tone? I'm struggling lol
Hey Graham, what happened to you new EP? I want to listen to it so bad :(
👍👍👍...what frequency you boost for kick and bass?
yes, hi brother... i need videos about phase meter ,
this was for 2 leads, what about 6 or 7 does the eq holes still work there?
Question. My instructor/producer is a life-long musician, engineer and producer. He has enjoyed some level of national success. Been in Rolling Stone Mag., played CBGBs, been on national late-night TV. Mostly focuses on pop rock. After I do typical EQ cuts and carving he ALWAYS remove most of it and does very little. I find it confusing what he is trying to teach me vs folks I'm learning from online. I have to assume he believes if you EQ in the way in, the track sounds more natural?
How drastic are your cuts and boosts? And how many are you doing? Usually I won't have more than three eq changes, and they will almost always be less than 3db. For most stuff, less is more to keep it natural like you said. If it is recorded right, then almost no EQ is needed at all. If I can get away with doping very little, then that is the route I'll take every time.
Frankly, I'm new to this. I often start with presets of whatever EQ plugin I'm using. Normally the preset describes and instrument and effect. "Tight bass." "Bright A Guitar." You know. Then I go by (developing) ear. My guy makes it almost flat and makes small boosts or cuts at hi and low ends. Funny to me, he never rolls off the low end completely to "make room for kick and bass" as they say.
You can get away with some presets on compression and some other plugs, but I'd stay away from them on eq. Each track is so sonically different that there is no way to know exactly what to boost and cut, it's almost like throwing darts in the dark; You may occasionally hit, but normally you miss. And you don't have to high pass everything, all depends on if that low ends need cutting or not.
I wonder would this technique work on vocals as far as lead and background?I'm gonna try just to see thanks GRAHAM
verlaine laguerre you shouldnt EQ the lead too much you want it to sound natural but the background you can
you can eq the lead and it still sound natural especially if you use Fab Filter .
The beginning of that song reminded me a bit of "Alma Mater" by Alice Cooper. Like you're about to bust out a bitchin' electric cover of it xD
Thanks for the great info, this really helps ;-)
just use neutron 🤗
Giveitalittlebitofenhancement! You said that so fast! lol
He keeps talking about these clashing instruments as 'left and right' instruments as if they are typically panned that way.
I just can not thank you enough...
first comment yay i dont have anything to say but hey i guess
Sticks and stones...