EQ Help

dsealer

New member
I'd like to ask for help or guidance or suggestions. I've been using Reaper for a year or so now and I'm feeling pretty confident with it. That's not to say that I know or understand everything. I still have much to learn with it but at this point I can pretty much accomplish what I want to when I record.
My “ask” has to do with EQ. I realize that I am lacking in knowledge when it comes to adding eq to my tracks. I am able to add enough to make things sound as I want them to sound but that's about it.
I don't understand how to “carve out” frequencies for different things, like vocals and instruments. I don't understand much of what is involved with assigning, cutting and boosting frequencies. I'm guessing that my different musical parts share the same frequencies.
I've spent a life time playing music but now I'm not focused as much on playing (live) as I am recording my music.
I'd like to get better at recording and mixing and I realize that I need to do a better job of “eq”ing my music.
So with all that said I'd appreciate any help, guidance or suggestions anyone is willing to provide. Please be advised that my lack of understanding things leads me to ask other questions.

Thanks,
Don…..
 
There will be plenty of natural overlap between things. Where we want to control or correct freq balances are;
The track has issues that obviously need correcting -on it's own, or in it's place fitting in the mix.
That is done in the mix and in solo as an aid to zero in.
Example, a boomy voc that needs attenuation or low filtering where that area is too hot.
As you get the more obvious corrections done and continue building your mix move on to the more subtle things that come up as you zero in on balances and the mix context.

Sloppy way of saying it, but a starter :>)
 
Practice practice practice!

Two things to help as kind of a starter to understand what you're actually hearing EQ-wise.....
1.Do you have a 31 band graphic in your plug-ins library? I'm not suggesting its actual use (although sometimes its exactly what you need) but putting it on an individual track and solo'ng that track and then playing with the graphic will easily demonstrate WHERE frequencies reside within a source. It's ear training.

2. ALWAYS start with cutting EQ points rather than boosting to get a particular frequency to stand out.

What you will discover is there are a lot of things in every source ...be it vocal, guitar, bass, keys, etc... that will have no bearing on that particular sources' impact in a mix at certain frequencies. It's here that you will learn what 'carving' is all about. And this leads back to learning what frequencies through the practice of locating these with the graphic, are important to various sources.

Have fun.
 
This
I am able to add enough to make things sound as I want them to sound...
And this
...how to “carve out” frequencies for different things...
Are the same thing. Listen to the mix and EQ things til the whole thing sounds good. Just keep in mind that sometimes when we think we want to turn up a frequency on a given instrument, it might be better to turn down that frequency on some other instrument. It's not any more complicated than that. There's no magic formula. Listen and try and you'll inevitably learn along the way.
 
Put ReaEq as a plug-in on your tracks, it has a visual component so you can get a rough idea where the frequencies are. play with the EQ bands (you can drag, or use the settings bars) and see how doing this changes the sound of your mix. For examle, put the EQ on an electric guitar track, and push the band up and down at around 800 Hz and see how that not only affects how the guitar sounds, but also how it changes the vocals.
 
Some general guidelines I use:
1) listen to pop records closely
2) electric and acoustic guitars are most often very "jangely" in their tone--nothing low.
3) piano doesn't use the left hand/lower tones very often when there's a bass player.
4) the bass and kick drum play at the same time, so the boominess of the drums need to be reduced so that the pulse from the bass is effective.
5) classical guitars are allowed more leeway in lower, fuller eq
6) voices can use the full, warmer eq
7) panning can also help out some eq issues.
 
Don, to respond to your "carve out" certain freq. (in vocals) , I find that there is a spot around 1K that I don't like at all. It is different for different singers. Before I do any other eq work , I will use a narrow band and boost it pretty high somewhere around 1K. Move it left and right while listening to the track and make sound as "BAD" as you can. You will find the freq. that sounds like you're singing in a tin can. Now just take that boost down until it's "cutting" that freq. There will also be one somewhere below 300hz that muds it up. I find this a good starting point , it's pretty easy to make something sound bad then cut it. MS..
 
Don, to respond to your "carve out" certain freq. (in vocals) , I find that there is a spot around 1K that I don't like at all. It is different for different singers. Before I do any other eq work , I will use a narrow band and boost it pretty high somewhere around 1K. Move it left and right while listening to the track and make sound as "BAD" as you can. You will find the freq. that sounds like you're singing in a tin can. Now just take that boost down until it's "cutting" that freq. There will also be one somewhere below 300hz that muds it up. I find this a good starting point , it's pretty easy to make something sound bad then cut it. MS..
This seems, IDK, kind'a odd. If you go sweeping around in tracks you're bound to find nasty stuff.
Now what you could in fact find and be zeroing in on is some of the big spikes and decays from room reflections or resonances. There, some of 'us (folks here and I'm not one of those lucky enough) with proper rooms wouldn't necessarily even have nasties like that.
I guess it seems to say 'look for problems as an assumption.
 
One of the problems I notice is that software EQ is often complicated for beginners. Because you have the choice of frequency, Q (width) and Gain, the beginners don't understand the Q control so that often they don't understand fully the frequency due to the Q control being set too wide. The older people amongst us started with analog EQ which had a fixed Q, however we very quickly learned about High, High Mid, Low Mid and Low. We also got to use Graphic Equalisers which because of their nature made it a good learning tool for understanding which Frequency effected what in the spectrum.

Some of the plugins around the place that have fixed EQ, or even the Graphic Equaliser plugins, are a better tool for beginners until they get the hang of it. Waves VEQ-4 and Waves GEQ Graphic Equaliser are 2 that come to mind.

Alan.
 
I sometimes set a pretty narrow Q and boost, and sweep around a freq that I want to cut. That way I better hear what it is I want to then cut.
 
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