How to EQ for Beginners - 3 things you need to know

How to EQ for beginners – 3 things you need to know

You have some absolutely stunning recordings! Your guitarist just played the sickest riff out there and your singer did so well on this most recent take it gave you chills. All your amazing tracks are laid out in your DAW, now we hit the play button and bleh. Everything sounds like mud now that it’s all together. What do you do now? Let’s learn how to EQ for beginners with 3 things you need to know.

Equalization is the process of balancing volume at different frequency ranges, giving subtle emphasis to desired frequencies, or even removing unwanted frequencies altogether. EQ’s are standard tools for Audio Engineers because they allow us to shape the tonality and give space to crowded mixes.

In this article, I am going to break down the 3 most important concepts to understand that yield great results every time.

If you are absolutely new to EQ and need to learn how to control an EQ then please check out this short video I have created for you!

1. Cutting V.S. Boosting Frequencies

Cutting and boosting frequencies are the two different thought patterns engineers use when making a tonally stable mix. Both solutions can yield the same results if done correctly, but it can be hard to determine when to cut or when to boost. There are also different implications to each method that could help, or hinder, any mix. So let me help make that decision a bit easier!

Cutting frequencies is a great practice for anybody new to mixing because it prevents our ears from falling into the loudness trap or thinking that our recording sounds better just because it is louder (a natural and difficult-to-control human ear phenomenon). When we cut frequencies our primary goal is to minimize/ decrease unwanted tones and make instruments sound better together. Cutting frequencies will help to prevent our mixes from getting too loud because we are not adding in any extra volume, just taking way.

Boosting frequencies is great for the MOST important tracks in a song. Boosting is a much more musical use of an EQ and commonly benefits from an EQ model that adds some type of character through saturation, distortion, or Amp Modeling. This adds shimmer or air to the highs of vocals, a warm rich tone to the mid-range of a guitar, and even powerful clarity to the bass line. Boosting with an EQ needs to be used sparingly! This can quickly turn a mix muddy when overused.

Try to make changes by reducing frequencies because Less Is More when it comes to mixing. You will find that mix decisions are much easier to make and your end results will be more appealing because they are closer to what you first imagined.

2. How to clean up and fit sounds together

Now that we know the difference between cutting and boosting, how do we actually make so many different sounds work together?

To put it simply, determine the most important elements and remove unwanted frequencies from adjacent tracks, or tracks that are using the same frequency range. Here are a few examples of unwanted frequencies you will run into when working.

The low 20 Hz – 100 Hz

Let’s learn how to EQ this for beginners: This range is often unwanted noise energy of the room or white noise from synths/guitars. It is common to use a High-Pass Filter/ Low Cut Filter with a slope between 6db – 36db to remove these frequencies from a track. Just move the frequency control switch to the desired frequency band and listen to the effects different slopes have on your track. Cutting these frequencies is the key to achieving a clear and precise low end of the mix because it reduces any frequency masking.

High Highs

The buzz of an electric guitar or white noise energy from a synth/pad can sometimes generate unneeded frequencies from 15 KHZ on up.

Let’s learn how to EQ this fro beginners: Using a Low-Pass Filter/ High cut Filter with a slope of 6db – 12db to remove the unneeded frequencies can really help add clarity and air to more important mix elements such as a vocal melody or a synth lead. Make sure you are aware of the context of your mix and how each track plays a different role in the music, we would NOT want to cut anything that needs significant high energy like a vocal or lead synth found in many genres like Pop, EDM, and even R&B.

Resonant Frequencies

Let’s learn how to EQ this for beginners: Another type of unwanted tone is any resonant frequency because they are essentially spikes in volume at a specific frequency. These can occur in really any situation but are very common in vocals, snare drums, and electric guitars. Use a narrow band Notch Filter to reduce these resonant peaks because this action minimizes any unintended dynamic content or harsh tones that are generated.

A great technique to get in the habit of is to sweep with a notch filter. Take a high Q filter (3 – 4) with a -10db reduction and smoothly change the frequency using your EQ controls. when you hear an area where the cut helps balance your sound, pull back the gain reduction a bit and lower the Q to retain any musicality that could be infringed upon.

Use cuts to add emphasis to other frequency ranges in a track.

This is one trick that is EXTREMELY important to understand and to use. Let’s think about a piano track as piano tracks often express a wide frequency range. In this piano part, we hear some great low-end playing and great high-end, but we want to emphasize the high-end a bit more. It may be your first reaction to reach for a high-shelf filter and boost the high end a bit. DON’T… not as a first reaction anyway. This will make you fall into the loudness trap by boosting the high-frequency content more than needed. This will also introduce balance issues between any guitar or vocals that reside in the same frequency range. Instead, take a low shelf filter and reduce the lower frequencies, this will result in a much more musical sound overall and with fewer net gain changes.

Workaround 3 main tracks

Mixing is all about finding the best mix of sounds, it’s not about making anyone sound the best-recorded track in history. While you of course want to have great recordings to begin with, mixing is going to be very difficult if you get in the habit of making everything seem important. IT’S NOT! Not everything is as important as the vocal, or the bass or the piano part or whatever you deem to be the center of attention. Humans can only distinguish 3 different sounds at one time so it is a fool’s errand to try and make 5 main sounds. SO my advice is to mix around these three main mix elements and make sure they are sustaining the soundscape and color you intended and pushing other less important elements into different mix spaces using EQ by cutting out highs, removing any mud in the 200 Hz – 350Hz range, clearing space for vocal presence in the 1000 Hz -2000 Hz range and removing nay bass interference a number of instruments could be causing.

This is an example of track selection. The 3 yellow tracks (Lead Vocal, Lead Guitar, and Bass) were the 3 most important elements to me in this particular mix. I made sure to keep these at the front of my song making all the other tracks work and fit around them. As a mix engineer, it is your duty to decide what is more important. Another mix engineer could have chosen to have the Lead Vocal, Kick, and Pad as the center of attention. But make sure to know where each track ranks. And music is not static, so these elements often switch, and it can be frequent!

3. Understanding the signal chain

The signal chain is often looked over by many people new to mixing and is an integral part of achieving the sound you are looking for. Using the EQ at different points in the signal chain will create different results. Have an EQ dedicated to cleaning up the track. This will be one of your first plugins within the signal chain. Referring back to the above tips, think about what sounds can be CUT for clean up. We want to place an EQ in the BEGINNING to give our following plugins the best possible audio source to work from.

The second way an EQ functions in the signal chain is by changing the post-processing tones, AFTER any other processing is done. This can be to either tame back harsh harmonics that are generated or to give extra life to ranges that are focal in the mix. The EQ here could likely be cutting or boosting, this is very dependent upon the context of your mix. As a tip, when doing post-processing EQ in the mix stage, it is likely beneficial to use an EQ that gives some type of extra sheen if that’s via a warmer tone, very minor distortion, or anything else.

Bonus tip – Turn your analyzer off

There is a reason why many EQ’s allow you to turn off the analyzer and why many great EQ’s don’t even come equipped with one. It is because visualizing audio is quite misleading more often than not and can harm the outcome of mixing decisions. Eyes can mislead the ears so try turning off your analyzer when you are making some changes next time and hear the results.

Now, to comfort anybody brand new to mixing or using the EQ, the analyzer is a fantastic tool and needs to be used. I love using it to make sure my low end is clean and it sometimes gives light to very resonant frequencies. But just like every tool in existence, there is a time and a place to use said tool, but you shouldn’t always have to use it.