Getting your EQ "flat"

[BenignVanilla]

I often hear people in the know saying that the mix should end up with a "flat" EQ. The EQ on my final mix is all jagged (tongue in cheek). What does "flat" really mean?

In the image below...for all of my mixes, I end my chain with a stereo bus that I route to the main. On this bus, I tweak EQ, compression, etc. My last plug-in is the analyst. This is a screen shot of that analyst, at the end of the chain.

Is this flat?

[Massive Master]

Ears - Not eyes. EARS.

Who gives a rat's rear-end what it looks like? What does it SOUND like?

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by BenignVanilla

I often hear people in the know saying that the mix should end up with a "flat" EQ. The EQ on my final mix is all jagged (tongue in cheek). What does "flat" really mean?

In the image below...for all of my mixes, I end my chain with a stereo bus that I route to the main. On this bus, I tweak EQ, compression, etc. My last plug-in is the analyst. This is a screen shot of that analyst, at the end of the chain.

Is this flat?

Now that looks like it's starting to sound pretty good; ) Why does it only go up to 5k? It should go to 20k

"Flat" is a subjective term usually referring to an "even tonal balance" and can't really be seen from an analyzer.

[Farview]

'Flat' is to Mix EQ what 'brown' is to guitar sound. It means nothing specific.

[BenignVanilla]

Originally Posted by Massive Master

Ears - Not eyes. EARS.

Who gives a rat's rear-end what it looks like? What does it SOUND like?

Actually, I totally agree with you. I am still a newb and I tend to overdo thingin my mixes, so when I hear people talk about making a mix "look" a certain way...I think in my little engineer pea brain...maybe how they are describing its look could help me with my sound.

So take my question with a grain of salt.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by Massive Master

Ears - Not eyes. EARS.

Who gives a rat's rear-end what it looks like? What does it SOUND like?

Originally Posted by Waltz Mastering

Now that looks like it's starting to sound pretty good; ) Why does it only go up to 5k? It should go to 20k

"Flat" is a subjective term usually referring to an "even tonal balance" and can't really be seen from an analyzer.

Originally Posted by Farview

'Flat' is to Mix EQ what 'brown' is to guitar sound. It means nothing specific.

+1 what they said .

"Flat", like beauty or pornography, is largely is in the ears of the beholder.

Besides, the closest you can get to technically, measurably "flat" is white noise, and that doesn't sound very good, does it?

Just mix so that no particular range in the spectrum seems to stick out *to your ears*...unless of course you actually want that sound to stick out on purpose.

G.

[BenignVanilla]

Originally Posted by Farview

'Flat' is to Mix EQ what 'brown' is to guitar sound. It means nothing specific.

LOL. I use that term all the time in rehearsals when describing my frustration with my guitar rig...need more brown...and they all sort of look at me like I've lost it. Brown is good.

[Talldog]

Maybe he means to mix it so it sounds good playing the tune on a system with the eq flat. Whenever I test a mix on another system (home, car, computer, pod) I only play it with the eq as a flat line. No tweaking (hard as that is).

[NYMorningstar]

The only thing I see that would concern me is how your slope changes around 3k. It levels out there and appears to even begin to rise. You generally don't want your high end to be louder than your bass end. Jagged is good because it's showing dynamics but you want to maintain that general downslope.
+1 to what Talldog says on the eq flat.

[Farview]

When I test songs on other systems, I listen to them with the EQ set the way it is set for everything else I listen to on that system. Some systems sound like crap with the EQ flat.

Unless you are one of those guys that adjusts the EQ for every CD they put into the player, it wold be a more useful test if you just leave the system set up like it always is. If it sounds like a commercial CD like that, you know it's good.