Different types of eq?

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ksgblue1948

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Hi am new to all this and wondered if someone could please explain the different types of eq and which should be used on which instruments?
 
If you're new forget about EQ for a bit. Not to sound condescending, but I think the best way to learn is to record without doing anything except making sure it sounds as good as possible without any effects (except for maybe some compression to make sure everything is in the right dynamic range).

Now, I know that's not gonna happen because when I was learning I just wanted to play with everything and figure out how a million effects worked!

EQ isn't really something that you just dial up and stick on a specific instrument the same way every time. Like, my acoustic guitars don't always get EQed the same, it depends on the song.

So, maybe to help you out, you could be a little more specific...what instruments are you working with right now, and what don't you like about the sound you are getting? And what kind of music are you making?
 
If you're talking about the more broad designs of EQ, for recording, you're almost exclusively going to be using parametric (as opposed to graphic-type units which are better suited for live monitoring use) EQ's.
 
Aaron speaks truth. I found that throughout my first year of mixing and recording, the only EQ techniques that were helpful were high pass and low pass. Almost everything else I tried made things sound worse.

At the same time though, don't be afraid to just mess with things and see what works. Trial and error is the best teacher and the 'undo' button is your best friend. :)
 
Interesting question dude. Wiki is your friend - theres a pretty good description of what "Equalisation" is all about-search it. Look at the Audio and music header under that page. It mentions shelving, parametric, graphic and has links to terms like filters (high and low, band pass etc). Its probably a very good idea to do some homework on EQ when your starting out otherwise your just shooting blind pretty much :) So your definitely going about it the right way..trying to find out about the different types EQ out there.

As the guys mentioned work on getting your source correct and sounding great. A really great recording might not even require equalisation, or just a tiny amount

when you've done some homework then just have a play with your daw or mixer so you can hear what EQ does to your signal. If your using a visual EQ style plugin, you can actually see your audio track jumping about across the bands - generally 20hz - 20khz. Do some research on audio frequency!!! You will generally use EQ to help tracks find their own space in a mix, and or to make certain sounds pop out, or as a special effect. If your really lucky and record fantastic tracks, or use quality samples you may not have to use EQ too much, it could all be done with some fader moves, a touch of reverb/delay a dash of compression here and there - voila hit single!!!

If you've done your homework and still not having much luck - just use the presets ( I'M JOKING:listeningmusic:)
Well actually those presets come from tried and tested methods that a lot of studio engineers have found to work - so actually take some time to study those as well.
good luck
 
There are loads of EQ makes out there to choose from, Plug-in based and outboard based. You are spoilt for choice!
As for which EQ to use on which instrument really depends on your own judgement really. All I can say is try out different EQs on different Instruments and try to listen to the difference that they make.

G
 
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