Does everyone have there own way of EQ’ing things. I mean do you do it as you go along, do you wait to the mix down stage or are you always changing things?
Do you only use abletons EQ or do you use others? Do you use some EQ’s on percussion and others for leads and bass?
Another thing is do you always low cut things, even kicks?
What your views on EQ’ing everyone?
i do it as i go along i suppose
and maybe tweak at the mixdown stage
in ableton im not so keen on the bundled eq - i use voxengo gliss eq
it has a spectrum analyser in it as well so u can see the shape
i know its better to do it by ear but the visual helps
What about making cuts to things? I noticed in phils mixing tuts on the drums he punched up the low end and cut around 200hz.
I find myself cuting the really low end, like 34hz and make a few dip and peaks here and there - normally a very small dip around 48ish hz after getting my vrm box as it cleans up the room reverb distortionish type sound. But nothing like to the extent phil showed in his tut.
Also I’ve the SSL G-EQ very good for makeing these low end cut on kicks and bass and adding roundness to the kick but I dont like it on other things like leads for example…
i normally use the same kick
i found one i like and im gonna stick with it
i cut it at about 20 -25hz maybe with a wee peak at about 27-30hz
then the next cut is at 200. it rolls downhill from 30 to 200
back up again about 450 - 500hz and a bit of a low ahelf the rest of the way up the spectrum
EQ so your ears like it. You have to understand that all sounds have frequencies regardless whether you hear them or not. If you have a track that has 80 channels of sound, and you dont EQ, they low frequencies will sum and give you muddiness. Therefore you have to get rid of those sounds. So you cut low.
The best sound system in the world is a function 1 and they go to 40hz. Cutting at 34hz will give you less headroom and take the energy away from your low sounds. When you EQ your other sounds, try to make room for the main sounds. For instance, I make dubstep. The snare is important. It hits at aobut 200hz. Therefore, to make room for it I might cut a tiny notch about -5db at 200hz to make room. You do this for everything that is prominent in your track.
[quote]howiegroove (15/04/2011)[hr]EQ so your ears like it. You have to understand that all sounds have frequencies regardless whether you hear them or not. If you have a track that has 80 channels of sound, and you dont EQ, they low frequencies will sum and give you muddiness. Therefore you have to get rid of those sounds. So you cut low.
The best sound system in the world is a function 1 and they go to 40hz. Cutting at 34hz will give you less headroom and take the energy away from your low sounds. When you EQ your other sounds, try to make room for the main sounds. For instance, I make dubstep. The snare is important. It hits at aobut 200hz. Therefore, to make room for it I might cut a tiny notch about -5db at 200hz to make room. You do this for everything that is prominent in your track.[/quote]
Just out of interest Howie, you say cutting at 34hz would give less headroom and take energy away but if I’m listening via headphones that go to 10hz and a vrm box on and off + checking with my KRK speakers and it making not differents in terms of beffy need or in some cases reducing a little bit of bad rumble at the subby sub end then surely it would help the mix sound less muddy and give more headroom overall. Even more so when is comes to mastering and compression for example? Would it not also depend on the Q of the EQ as to whats it cutting out?
I usually do all the cutting/removing of unwanted frequencies as i go along andthen at the end during mixdown ill really get into the EQing more and start boosting things etc. I tend to usually just use the Ableton EQ on high quality unless i need to get really intricate with a sound and ill use the Sonnox Oxford, i also use the oxford for mastering 
Yeah Howie cutting at say around 30hz actually gives you more headroom because those frequencies arent audibile and just cause mud in your mixes. Even if a Function one goes down to 40hz, cutting at 30hz wont affect that as its inaudibile even on a F1.
[quote]jjdejong0 (15/04/2011)[hr]Yeah Howie cutting at say around 30hz actually gives you more headroom because those frequencies arent audibile and just cause mud in your mixes. Even if a Function one goes down to 40hz, cutting at 30hz wont affect that as its inaudibile even on a F1.[/quote]
Correct.
However, a Function is only in huge clubs and whatever, which means that those low frequencies wont even be heard if it isnt on a Function 1.
Muddying your mix = too many frequencies fighting for space and making mush. Its like this… If you have broth, and the broth is the song, right? The final product is a gravy (the gravy is made with broth and flour). The flour will represent the frequencies in the song. If you have too much flour (or frequencies) in your broth, you get dough. Definitely not what you were looking for. You added too much flour. Hope that makes sense.
Moral of the story, use your ears first and foremost. But you should cut at about 40hz. 20hz is infrasound. 40hz is the lowest a speaker can produce. The less frequencies in that area, the better. And you should cut all your sounds. How low depends on the sound. However, 40hz is pretty good area to cut. And remember, I make bass-heavy music, so you might even need to cut at 120hz! 
Just like most I EQ along the way.
Besides that, I roll off the low ends on all tracks. But it depends on the sound how much.
Kick <40Hz. Bass <60Hz. Most other sounds that don’t require the low frequencies I tend to roll off everything below 120Hz.
In addition, like said before, prominent sounds get a bit of a peak in EQ on their respective frequencies, while others get a valley there. You don’t want too many sounds fighting for the same frequencies.
If you balanced everything correctly, there isn’t a big need for compression either 
do it as you go. makes it easier to mixdown later.
I EQ and try and mixdown as I go, all tracks are different so EQ is also different track to track.
Was using abletons EQ eight up intill the other month but now picked up fab filters Pro Q and have to say I that I am loving it, my EQ’ing is so much cleaner and managing to find space alot easyer in the mix.
[quote]UnitedVision (15/04/2011)[hr]do it as you go. makes it easier to mixdown later.[/quote]
Me too - plus less boring at mixdown stage
[quote]BoneIDOL (15/04/2011)[hr]I EQ and try and mixdown as I go, all tracks are different so EQ is also different track to track.
Was using abletons EQ eight up intill the other month but now picked up fab filters Pro Q and have to say I that I am loving it, my EQ’ing is so much cleaner and managing to find space alot easyer in the mix.
[/quote]
Yeah this^
i dont like eq 8 either
[quote]chekka (17/04/2011)[hr]i dont like eq 8 either[/quote]
It works fine and does a good job. Throw it in high quality mode.
I can understand that it isnt visually appealing. But, then again, no included plugin in Live is. But in terms of functionality, its good for what it does.
[quote]howiegroove (15/04/2011)[hr]Moral of the story, use your ears first and foremost. But you should cut at about 40hz. 20hz is infrasound. 40hz is the lowest a speaker can produce. The less frequencies in that area, the better. And you should cut all your sounds. How low depends on the sound. However, 40hz is pretty good area to cut. And remember, I make bass-heavy music, so you might even need to cut at 120hz! :P[/quote]
Thanks, this is helpful.
As a musician, I think EQ-ing is definitely a new area for me that I’m still working on. So far I’ve been relying on tweaking presets in FabFilter’s Pro-Q. I guess what I really haven’t wrapped my head around are what parts live in what frequencies.
Just started reading Rick Snoman’s Dance Music Manual and I see he talks about the main impact of the Kick resides in the range you talked about 40-120 hzs, but the attack occurs around 3-6hzs. He recommends a using notch cut just below the attack.
Also, remember that if you have a sub, the sub will lie in the 40-70hz range. So you should LP your kick at 70hz so that it doesn’t interfere with the sub. Same thing with your main bass.
Low pass ?