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Mixing Up & Down: EQ
by
Marc Schonbrun
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- Think of how each sound sits in mix
- Not all sounds fit well together
- Separate sounds so each has its own layer
So you’ve spent hours manipulating the volume and depth of your track, and yet, everything sounds bad. No matter what you do, it just seems sonically cluttered, so to speak. EQ is the answer, but in a different way than you might think. When recording, EQ is a way to shape the sound of individual tracks, but when you mix, EQ takes a slightly different role.
Any single sound is made up of many frequencies. Think of sounds as analogous to building blocks; each sound is a differently shaped building block. Not all sounds will just “fit together” without some light sanding. For example, the bass guitar and the bass drum sit in the same frequency range—the low frequencies. Depending on how the instruments were recorded, when you play them back together, you’ll most likely hear a bit of sonic mud because of so much sound coming in from the lower frequencies.
What’s happening is that both the bass drum’s and the bass guitar’s low frequencies are covering each other up, making your mix very bass heavy. You’ll notice that it’s also hard to hear both the instruments clearly. Welcome to EQ carving!
When you mix, sounds should not compete. If you load up a mix with a bunch of instruments in the same frequencies, you’ll get mud. Start to separate the sounds so that each sound can occupy its own layer. Try cutting the bottom of the bass guitar so the drum has some room.
Or try the reverse and cut the bottom of the bass drum. By doing this, you open up a space for the other instrument to sit in. You make a mix much the same way you make a building—one layer on top of another. EQ helps the pieces fit together.
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