what is a good eq plugin for boosting frequencies

[ryanwoollerton]

I know a lot of people say, when eqing never boost, just cut!

but anyways, are there some eq's out there that handle boosting frequencies well without getting ridiculous amounts of phase shifting?

thanks

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I know a lot of people say, when eqing never boost, just cut!

That's just one of those oversimplified Internet myths that like most myths is pretty bad advice.

It's more helpful to remember two other EQ "truisms":

1. "Use EQ cut to make things sound better, use EQ boost to make things sound different." What this really means is EQ is mostly used to make things sound better by removing bad-sounding attributes, whereas boosting does nothing to remove the bad, but rather changes the nature of the good the bad and the ugly.

2. "Cut narrow and deep, boost wide and shallow". In other words, the "bad" frequencies one usually wants to cut are usually limited bandwidth "spots" that you want to attack with fairly deep and surgically narrow cuts, whereas boosts are usually wider and more gradual fine-tuning "bumps" to shape the overall sound, and not targeted surgical attacks.

None of these "truisms" are hard-and-fast rules, there are always exceptions somewhere along the line, but they in general tend to apply more often than they don't.

If you really want what you're looking for, just do a search for the phrase "linear phase EQ", as those take care of the specific potential issue you're asking about. But there are plenty of perfectly fine EQs that are not linear phase that you can use to boost frequencies just fine as long as you use the EQ properly.

G.

 

[Troy6120]

Thanks for what sounds like great advice, Southside. This was a great question, followed by a great answer.

I had subscribed to the "cut-only, never boost" advice that a lot of people throw around about using EQ. Thanks for making it sound silly. Have a good one!

 

[recordman]

I use my ears more than any advice I read and you should too. I agree completely that the "only cut never boost" thing is a joke. It's just another thing that seems like a good idea to people that have little to no experience mixing and a whole lot of time to write on message boards with advice they read posted by another member.

Everything SouthSIDE Glen said is true.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I use my ears more than any advice I read and you should too.

That's really the bottom line. No truism - even the ones I gave - can anticipate what the actual contents of your tracks are or exactly what they may or may not require in terms of EQ or any other type of processing. Only your ears and your desires can determine that.

G.

 

[Chili]

2. "Cut narrow and deep, boost wide and shallow".

Wow, I really like this advice. Mostly because I find that that is exactly what I have been doing without even knowing it and I've never heard this before. Glad to see something that supports what my ears have been telling me in a general sense. Maybe I'm doing something right.

cool.

 

[Seafroggys]

The UAD EQ's are great for boosting, but they do cost a small bit of change and you need a UAD-1 or UAD-2 card to use them. But well worth it.

 

[dastrick]

1. "Use EQ cut to make things sound better, use EQ boost to make things sound different."
G.

I read this in one of my books a long time ago and it's some of the best advice that I've gotten.

 

[Dr. Varney]

That's just one of those oversimplified Internet myths that like most myths is pretty bad advice.

It's more helpful to remember two other EQ "truisms":

1. "Use EQ cut to make things sound better, use EQ boost to make things sound different." What this really means is EQ is mostly used to make things sound better by removing bad-sounding attributes, whereas boosting does nothing to remove the bad, but rather changes the nature of the good the bad and the ugly.

2. "Cut narrow and deep, boost wide and shallow". In other words, the "bad" frequencies one usually wants to cut are usually limited bandwidth "spots" that you want to attack with fairly deep and surgically narrow cuts, whereas boosts are usually wider and more gradual fine-tuning "bumps" to shape the overall sound, and not targeted surgical attacks.

None of these "truisms" are hard-and-fast rules, there are always exceptions somewhere along the line, but they in general tend to apply more often than they don't.

If you really want what you're looking for, just do a search for the phrase "linear phase EQ", as those take care of the specific potential issue you're asking about. But there are plenty of perfectly fine EQs that are not linear phase that you can use to boost frequencies just fine as long as you use the EQ properly.

G.

Great explanation... Has made me think about EQing in a diffferent light. Thank you!

Dr. V

 

[silentsky]

Here's a good article that explains the concept of "cut narrow, boost wide":

http://www.hometracked.com/2008/01/31/eq-cut-narrow-boost-wide/

In my experience, I've found that I have to be careful with boosting frequencies too much, or it tends to overload the input on some of the plugins that I have on my Aux Sends (compressor for parallel compression on drums, reverbs, etc.). By cutting instead of boosting, it tends to avoid that problem.

I've also read a lot of guys who say they tend to cut, and then push the track fader up a bit, which makes sense. By doing it this way, you can basically create the same EQ curve that you would by boosting, but you're not eating up all of your headroom and risking overloading the next link in your signal chain (such as plugins, the stereo mix bus, etc.).

As far a specific EQ plug, I normally just use the parametric EQ that's built into the Mixer in Samplitude.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

In my experience, I've found that I have to be careful with boosting frequencies too much, or it tends to overload the input on some of the plugins that I have on my Aux Sends (compressor for parallel compression on drums, reverbs, etc.). By cutting instead of boosting, it tends to avoid that problem.

I've also read a lot of guys who say they tend to cut, and then push the track fader up a bit, which makes sense. By doing it this way, you can basically create the same EQ curve that you would by boosting, but you're not eating up all of your headroom and risking overloading the next link in your signal chain (such as plugins, the stereo mix bus, etc.).

Ideally, you'd have an EQ plug that has an output gain or level control that allows you to set the proper gain at the output stage of the plug so you don't have to worry about downstream levels whether you boost or cut. Not 100% of EQs have this, but most of the better ones do.

When I become King Of The World (probably about three days after I die ) it will be a law that every plug have an output gain stage and output metering on it.

But there can be a difference between boosting EQ and cutting EQ and boosting gain. If you want to, say just for example, push up a little bump at 4k, trying to cut everything *but* 4k and then boosting the overall level can work, but the actual shape of the curve will probably be different. If you have a flexible enough EQ, you can replicate the shape pretty well, but it usually takes some work to shape it that way, compared to just doing the simple boost. And if you don't have a flexible enough EQ, all bets are off on replicating the shape at all.

G.

 

[flatfinger]

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