Stop Using Eq Wrong

Stop Using EQ Wrong by Rob Mayzes
Table of Contents
Foreword...p.3
Chapter 1 - How to Use an Equalizer...p. 5

Chapter 2 - Range Allocation.p. 15
Chapter 3 - EQ, Before or After Compression?..p. 18
Chapter 4 - Backwards Mixing...p. 20
Chapter 5 - How to Achieve Separation and Clarity...p. 24
Chapter 6 - How to Fix Muddy Mixesp. 33
Chapter 7 - How to Fix Thin Mixesp. 37
Chapter 8 - How to Train Your Ears and Become a Better Mixer.p. 41
1
Foreword
Like most people, my life has consisted of a series of peaks and troughs.
More specifically, my life as a home recordist has consisted of a series of peaks and troughs.
It all started at the tender age of 13. I formed a band with my best friends, and we decided it
was time to record some of our own demos.
We bought a basic USB interface, a cheap large diaphragm condenser microphone (although I
had no idea what it was at the time) and all of the appropriate accessories.
On the way home from the store, we couldn't contain our excitement. We would finally record
our own music. We had created something original and now it was time to share it with the world
- and we couldn't wait to get started.
I was on a high.
Later that day, we plugged in the microphone and started recording. I remember thinking "how
hard can it be?"
As soon as we finished recording, we listened back to the whole track for the first time...
That's when the biggest low of my home recording career began.
Of course, it sounded awful. From that moment onwards my focus shifted from playing bass
guitar to recording and mixing. I dedicated the next few years to improving our demos.
I spent hundreds of hours reading online blogs (of which there were very few back then),
browsing online forums and consuming any other free resources I could find. My confidence
grew, and I thought I was ready to record a full album to send out to some labels.
I was on a high.
We bought some more equipment and set aside a whole weekend to record a few tracks. I had
been reading about recording and mixing online for a long time now... "how hard can it be?"
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BOOM. It sounded awful again. I lost all my confidence and almost gave up completely.
But then I had an epiphany... I needed a teacher. A mentor. This whole time I had been
teaching myself with free resources, and it hadn't worked. It was time to learn from somebody
else.
I spent some time in a professional studio. I got a job as an assistant live sound engineer. I
started buying reputable books.
I took everything I learned about working in a studio and mixing live sound, and applied it to
home recording.
That's the bit that took time - applying everything I learned to home recording. It's a completely
different beast. Most of the resources out there are geared towards working in a studio.
It's great listening to an experienced engineer talk about how he mixes tracks that were
recorded in a multi-million dollar studio... but can you apply what you learn to home recording?
That's the part I figured out on my own. There were very few people teaching that.
Nevertheless, once I started learning from people with experience, my skills advanced at an
incredible rate.
I was on a high... and I'm still on that same high to this very day.
Over the years I have studied audio production at University, worked in a range of studios
around London (from multi-million pound studios to small independent studios), learned from
some of the best engineers in the world (who worked with bands like Queen and Motorhead),
built several studios and worked with some amazing artists.
Most importantly, I have been recording and mixing at home throughout my entire career. I have
spent thousands of hours in the search for better techniques and methods for producing music
at home.
Now I spend my time working with artists around the world as a freelance mix engineer from my
own home studio. I also teach thousands of people about recording and mixing at home through
my education company, Home Studio Center (www.homestudiocenter.com).
It's likely that the beginning of my story resonates with you. Perhaps your journey started at a
different stage in life... I have some students who are over 70.
But wherever you are in this world, I expect that you have struggled with home recording.
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In this book, you will find practical advice (specific to home recording) that you can implement
right away.
This isn't advice that only applies to professional mixes and recordings.
This isn't advice from a pro who has been recording and mixing in multi-million dollar studios for
years and has forgotten the struggles of working with affordable equipment outside of a studio.
This isnt advice from a bedroom warrior who has no experience as a professional engineer.
This isn't advice from somebody who learned everything they know about sound recording in a
professional studio. Sure, I've been there, and I have applied what I learned from the
professionals to home recording. But I have spent far more time recording and mixing at home
than I have in a studio.
Neither is this is poorly communicated advice from an old school engineer who can't remember
what its like to be a beginner.
This is practical advice from somebody who has been recording at home almost every day for
the majority of their life. This is advice from somebody who understands what it's like to work
with a small budget in a less-than-ideal environment.
Im not perfect - in fact, I still have a lot to discover. But I know the frustration you feel. I know
the mistakes you have made. I know the struggles that you have to deal with every day.
I'm just like you.
Listen I want to ease some of that pain by teaching you what I have learned from years of
mistakes and experience.
This book is a transcription of a free video series I published on YouTube in 2016. The videos
are still available if you want to watch them - just search for Home Studio Center on YouTube.
By providing the same lessons in text format I hope to give you a portable document to read
anywhere and reference when mixing.
Are you ready? Lets not waste another minute.
4
How to Use an EQ
When you do really get to grips with EQ, you can mix with more confidence, and you can mix
with more speed. Once your ears start to develop as well, you can quickly pinpoint exactly what
you want to do before you even reach for an EQ.
In the first section of this book, I want to address the absolute basics. Most importantly, in this
chapter youre going to learn about the four approaches to EQ.
These are the approaches that I use every time I reach for an equalizer. Im going to do one of
these four things. Once you have an awareness of these four things, EQ becomes a lot easier.
Once you have a system in place, you wont just be wildly moving around the EQ, boosting and
cutting here, seeing what works, what doesnt. Instead, youll have a guideline to follow. Youll
have intention behind every move.
Im also going to reveal my 7 Commandments of EQ. Theyre things that you need to bear in
mind all the time whenever youre using an equalizer.
What is an Equalizer?
An equalizer is simply a tool that lets you adjust the volume of the individual frequencies within
an audio source. Rather than a volume fader, which would allow us to adjust the overall volume,
what an equalizer allows us to do is just turn up or turn down individual frequencies and
individual elements of that sound.
Think of it just as a smart volume control, but zooming in another level. Rather than controlling
the overall volume, were controlling the volume at individual frequencies, individual elements
and parts of that sound.
Every instrument has a fundamental note. As well as that fundamental note, it has overtones.
Thats what gives an instrument its tone or its character, its timbre, and thats why a bass guitar,
for example, sounds different to an organ.
Or if you took two different bass guitars, they might be playing a note thats centered at 100
hertz, for example. The note theyre playing is literally 100 hertz. But then they sound different
because they have different overtones. Even though the note is at 100 hertz, everything else
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adds to the tone, and theres these different characteristics that reside in the lower mids, the
upper mids, and the treble. By adjusting these frequencies, by cutting certain frequencies or
boosting others, we can adjust that tone and change the timbre of the instrument. You can even
cut out frequencies altogether, and were going to talk more about this in a second, but we could
cut out the fundamental itself, and itd still sound like a bass guitar because of these overtones.
Now, its important to bear in mind that you cant completely change the sound of an instrument
with EQ alone. All you can do is work with whats already there. In the recording phase, you
decide what tone you want, and then you use EQ to scope that and make small changes to take
it further towards your end goal. But you cant completely change a sound with EQ alone. You
can remove frequencies to make it sound different, and you can boost or reduce certain
frequencies to change the tone and timbre, but you cant completely change a sound. So
remember that at all times.
Where does EQ come in the mix? Well, generally your main tools are balancing, which is when
you just adjust a fader; panning, which is when you adjust how the source sits on the stereo
field, on the left ear or on the right ear but then after that, pretty much your next tool is EQ.
Were just zooming in another layer here. Balancing and panning are where most of your mix
comes from. Thats what dictates which instruments are the loudest, which have the focus,
where theyre located in the stereo field.
But then we can zoom in one more level, and using EQ and compression as well, we can focus
in on smaller elements of the sound. We can change the tone. We can remove certain
elements. EQ is basically just a way of zooming in one more level so we can focus on the tone
or the smaller elements of the sound. Compression, again, is on that same kind of level. It
allows us to zoom in, but with compression were looking at the dynamics.
So now lets look at the frequency spectrum in a bit more depth
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We go from left to right, and we start with 20 hertz. Then on the right weve got 20,000 hertz, or
20 kilohertz. This is the range of human hearing. Now, none of us will actually be able to hear
20 kilohertz. When youre first born you can, but as you get older, your hearing slowly, slowly
degrades. Now I think I can probably hear 17 kilohertz. You will still hear 20 kilohertz, youll hear
the impact that itll have if you boost or reduce it, but if you actually just listen to a sine wave,
most people wouldnt be able to hear past 17 kilohertz. As you get older, that high note that you
can hear gets lower and lower.
Bass is on the low end (left). You can feel 20 hertz if youre on a really large sound system. Not
necessarily hear it. This is getting down to the area where elephants communicate using really
low rumbles, and up here past 20 kilohertz is where we get into ultrasonic. Thats how bats
communicate and use sonar, that kind of stuff.
In between, weve got the human range of hearing. This for me breaks down into five very
distinct sections, and every engineer will have a different idea of how the spectrum breaks down
for them.
The first area were going to focus on is sub-bass. To me, this is everything below 60 hertz.
Everything below that is sub-bass, so generally you need a subwoofer or a good pair of
headphones (open-back headphones, for example) to hear that. But you should be able to hear
it a little bit if youre on monitors or headphones. If youre listening on a laptop or a phone,
theres no way you will hear that. But thats sub-bass.
After that, we get into what I would call bass. For me, this is everything between 60 and 200
hertz. In this area, weve got lots of bass guitar. Lots of the low-end vocals as well, because
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male vocals are going to have the fundamental below 200 in most cases. Thats what I would
call bass.
Next up, if you go from 200 up to 600 hertz, this is what I would call low mids, and this is a really
important area for mixing, I find, especially with home recording, because its where you get a
lot of buildup with guitars, vocals, even the top end of the bass guitar especially. You get loads
of buildup in this area. This is an area thats really guilty for adding mud to a mix. Were going to
address that in a later chapter in much more detail.
So then after lower mids, weve then got what I would call mids. The mids for me split into three
sections: lower, mid, and upper. This is the middle mid. Its a bit complicated, but weve got
lower, middle, and upper mids. So this is between 600 and 3,000 hertz (3 kilohertz), I would say,
and this is where a lot of the focus is. The human hearing focuses mostly on this frequency
range.
Telephones focus on this range as this is the range that our ears are most susceptible to, that
they pick up most. So this is where you can start to get into harshness and aggressive sound.
And then weve got upper mids between 3 and 6 kilohertz, and this is where things really start to
get harsh. This is where we have brittleness a lot of the time. Its also an important range for
clarity, but when it gets too much, this is where we have those harsh elements.
And then after that we get to treble, or the highs. This is everything above 6 kilohertz, and this is
where we have air. You could split this even further into 6 to 12, and thats what I would call
treble, and then 12+ is what I would call air. But for now, were just going to leave this as the
highs, and this is everything above 6 kilohertz.
So there you go. Thats a breakdown of the entire frequency spectrum.
Frequency Range Description
20Hz-60Hz Sub-bass
60Hz-200Hz Bass
200Hz-600Hz Lower mids
600Hz-3kHz Mids
3kHz-6kHz Upper mids
6kHz-20kHz Treble
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Now, you can listen to these frequency ranges on a track using an EQ filter. Start with a high
pass filter to listen to everything above 6kHz, because that lets the highs pass through. Its
cutting out the low. Some people call it a low cut filter as well, but high pass filter. Its letting the
highs pass through. Then we also have a low pass filter, which you can set at 60Hz to hear the
sub-bass. This is doing the same thing; its cutting out everything above the frequency that we
set, so its letting the lows pass.
In addition to filters like that, we also have band, or bell boosts, some people call them. This is
where were just boosting individual frequencies. We choose a frequency, like 479 hertz, and
were boosting that and everything around it. We can control how narrow this is, so when I do
this, its boosting 479 hertz and only some of the frequencies around it. When I make it really
wide, were boosting 479 hertz, but were also boosting loads of other stuff.
Generally you want to use narrow for cuts and wide for boosts and thats a big generalization.
When youre starting off, thats a good thing to remember. As you get more confident, youll start
to use smaller boosts sometimes, and wide cuts too. But generally, narrow for cuts, wide for
boosts.
And then we have shelves as well. This is where we boost everything above a certain
frequency. I can boost all the highs. I can also cut them, and this works in a different way to the
filter. With the shelf, were just cutting everything by the amount, so 6dB. Were cutting
everything above 2.35 kilohertz by 6dB. Whereas with the filter, were just removing it. Were
getting rid of it completely. So it works in a slightly different way. Generally, I use high shelves
for a top end boost, especially on vocals, acoustic guitars, and generally on the whole mix as
well, maybe everything above 12 kilohertz. We can also use them for low cuts if we just want to
reduce the bass in a vocal, for example.
One more piece of advice I have, before we move on to my four approaches and seven
commandments, is that a lot of people when theyre starting out and even as they get into
more intermediate phases they start to use EQ charts. Thats okay at the beginning. If youre
going to look at an EQ chart, theres one below that breaks down the entire frequency spectrum,
and it uses descriptive words to explain each frequency range and how it sounds. If you can
study a chart like that and learn it, thats great. If you know something sounds brittle, thats
going to be the upper mids; if you know something sounds muddy, its going to be the lower
mids, for example.
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Description Frequency Range
Rumble 25Hz - 40Hz
Bottom 60Hz - 90Hz
Boom/Punch 100Hz - 170Hz
Warmth 130Hz - 220Hz
Fullness/Mud 250Hz - 450Hz
Honk 450Hz - 1kHz
Tinny 1kHz - 2kHz
Crunch 2kHz - 4kHz
Edginess/Brittleness 3.5kHz - 6kHz
Sibilance (in voice) 4kHz - 10kHz
Definition 6kHz - 10kHz
Piercing 8kHz - 12.5kHz
Air 15kHz - 20kHz
But dont use them when youre mixing, or try to avoid it. Every now and then its okay, but dont
become reliant on them. My advice as well is to definitely not use instrument-specific charts
when youre mixing, because thats going to take you down a rabbit hole that you dont want to
go down. Youre going to become so reliant on charts.
What were going to talk about in a second is how when youre using EQ, you want to have an
intention first. You want to think, This part sounds muddy, or it doesnt sound exciting enough, it
doesnt sound aggressive enough. Then what youre going to do is youre going to try different
frequencies. Youre going to find the rougher area, and then youre going to move around a bit
till you find the sweet spot. But if you start relying on charts, youre just going to say Okay, this
vocal sounds too brittle, for example youre going to go to the chart and its going to tell you 5
kilohertz, and youre going to just cut 5 kilohertz. Youre probably not going to move it around;
youre not going to find the sweet spot, because every source is different.
You cant generalize. You can say its going to be around 5 kilohertz, and generally brittleness,
or sibilance as well in a vocal, is going to be around that. But you need to move around. You
need to find it, because every vocalist is different. If its a female, it could be slightly higher. If its
a male, its going to be slightly lower, depending on the characteristic of their voice, the
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microphone youve used, the way they sang, what register theyre singing in. Its going to be a
different frequency. So you cant generalize like that and as soon as you start becoming
reliant on charts, thats what happens.
So my advice: study EQ charts if you want to get to grips with the frequency spectrum and learn
it more. Were going to talk about that a lot more in the final chapter on ear training and going
further with this. But try not to rely on them. Try not to use them when youre mixing.
Now lets take a look at those 7 Commandments that you can bear in mind at all times, and then
after weve gone over these, were going to go into the four approaches.
#1: Have an intention

I cant stress this enough. Dont just randomly start boosting and cutting different frequencies to
see what works and what sounds good. Instead, decide what you want to achieve first, and then
figure out how you can achieve it. Let me give you an example. Im mixing a vocal, and it
sounds a bit muddy. Its not cutting through the mix enough, and its kind of clogging up the mix.
Once I know that, I can think Okay, the low mids are probably where the problem is; thats
going to be making it muddy. So I can try to cut at around 400 hertz, and then I can move it
around, try 300, try 500, decide on where the best frequency is, where the sweet spot is, and
then suddenly the vocal sounds less muddy and the mix opens up. So decide what you want to
do first.
#2: Dont rely on EQ alone, especially to shape the tone

You need to shape the tone in the recording phase, because the tone that you capture there is
going to be what youre stuck with. You can use EQ to make it even better, you can use EQ to
shape it slightly more, but really the tone is decided in the recording phase.
#3: Prioritize cuts, but still use boosts

Cuts are better for a few reasons. It means youre maintaining headroom. Sometimes when
youre boosting, all youre doing is just making it louder so it sounds better, but you can level
match and turn down the gain on your EQ to compensate. Theres various reasons why cuts are
better.
But dont shy away from boosts. Some people get obsessed with subtractive EQ, and it can be
really detrimental. It can really put you back. If youre focusing too much on using subtractive
EQ, youre not going to be focusing on the mix and what works for the mix. So prioritize cuts
where you can. If something sounds brittle, dont boost the low end to make it sound warmer;
cut the high mids. Or if something sounds slightly muffled, try cutting the lows or the low mids
instead of boosting the highs, for example. You can still use boosts if you think thats going to be
the best way to go about your intention which goes back to #1. Have an intention. If a cut
works, it works, but if a boost works better, thats fine. But still, prioritize cuts.
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#4: Try to avoid applying EQ in solo

Instead, what I like to do is just bring up the channel a bit. If youre struggling to hear the
changes that youre making, if youre only doing a 1dB or 2dB cut or boost and youre struggling
to hear it in the context of the mix, bring that channel up a bit so you can hear it a bit better,
because then youll be able to hear your EQ change, but youre also going to still have the
context of the mix. Whereas if you apply EQ in solo, you can quickly forget about the rest of the
mix and how that instrument sits. No ones ever going to hear your mix in solo. Theyre never
going to hear the guitar in solo, so it doesnt matter if it sounds good in solo. It needs to sound
good in the mix.
A lot of the time, especially with guitars, they quite often sound really bad in solo, especially with
electric guitars. A lot of the highs maybe exaggerate some of the high mids that give it some
aggression. Just a quick example there. But normally they dont sound as good in solo, so try to
do it in the context of the mix; otherwise, you can trick yourself.
#5: Small changes soon add up

Especially when youre starting out, try to stick to cutting or boosting by no more than 5dB. Lots
of small changes across your mix soon add up. Even if you apply EQ in your mix-bus, which
were going to cover in a lot more detail in another video in this series, you still only want to use
1 or 2dB boosts or cuts. All those small changes across your entire mix soon add up. As you get
more confident, you can get more aggressive. People like Chris Lord-Alge are really aggressive
with their EQ changes. Theyll just boost the top end and not be afraid to boost the top end by
10dB or more. But only do that when youre confident, and remember that small changes soon
add up.
#6: You can be more aggressive with filters

I just said try not to cut or boost by more than 5dB, but of course, when youre using filters, its
different. You are cutting out all the sound. But dont worry about being aggressive. At the same
time, dont use a high pass filter on everything. A lot of people make that mistake. You dont
need to do that. Only use it if the low end is actually causing a problem or if you want to tighten
up the low end a bit on a bass guitar or a vocal, for example.
But at the same time, you can use low pass filters on electric guitars or things that are sitting
further back in the mix, and this is what helps you to get clarity and give clarity to the vocals and
the parts that matter. Again, were going to talk about that in a lot more detail, but dont be afraid
to be aggressive with filters but at the same time, dont use them on every single channel.
#7: Try to be subtle with parametric EQs

This again goes back to what I was saying about Chris Lord-Alge. When he is boosting by
10dB, its because hes using an old analog desk and the EQ sounds amazing. Its adding a
lovely color to the sound. A lot of the time with your stock parametric EQ and your door, its
going to be different. Its probably going to have some nasty side effects if you start boosting by
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too much. Its going to start messing with the phase. So try to be subtle with parametric EQs. If
youre using an analog modeling EQ, for example, you can be more aggressive and there are
exceptions to this rule, like the FabFilter EQ; its parametric, but it sounds amazing. But
generally, try to be subtle with your stock parametric EQ.
Thats it for the seven commandments. Now we can move on to those four key approaches that
will give you a system and structure to your EQ moves.
This is important, because, as you just saw, the first commandment was to have an intention
behind every move. Once youre aware of these four approaches, that gives you a structure,
and you can think I want to make this change, and this is the approach that Im going to use.
So this is a really great thing, I think, that I can pass on to you.
Approach 1 - Remove Nasty Elements

Lets go into the first approach, which is how most people start off. This is using EQ to remove
nasty elements. This is a really powerful thing, because when were looking at subtractive EQ
and what I call surgical EQ, which is using a narrow band to remove nasty elements, it can
really clean up a vocal or guitar, any sound source, before youve even done any tonal shaping.
Simply by removing nasty elements, you make more room for the pleasantness and the
niceness and the good stuff to come through.
What were doing is surgically removing certain frequencies. Its surgical because were using a
really narrow cut. If you can remember earlier in this chapter, I said about using narrow bands
for cuts and broader bands for boosts, and thats exactly what Im doing here. All you do is
boost and narrow band and sweep around until I found a nasty element. This, I think, is the only
stage where its okay to use the boost and sweep technique. It is a good way to find room
resonances and other unpleasant elements.
What youre listening for is a sudden increase in volume, because that suggests that theres lots
of that frequency which probably means its a room resonance, because every room will have
certain frequencies that resonate. Once you find the frequency range, just cut it out by 2-10dB. I
normally find one or two problematic ranges on important parts like vocals, guitars, snares etc.
Approach 2 - Enhance the Pleasing Elements

And then once weve removed the nasty stuff, we can move on to approach #2, which is
enhance pleasing elements. For this, I prefer to use an analogue modelling EQ, but its by no
means necessary. Lets use the example of applying EQ to a vocal with a 2dB boost at 6
kilohertz. Thats probably because I thought the aggression in the vocal was nice. I sat down
and I thought, What about this vocal do I want to enhance? It already sounded clear, but I
wanted to enhance the upper mids and give it a bit more aggression and treble, which is why
Ive got a boost here.
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Thats the second approach, enhance the pleasing elements that are already there. You cant
introduce new elements. As I said earlier, you can only enhance whats there, so thats why you
need to make sure its a good recording and you like the tone in the recording phase.
Approach 3 - Make Things Sound Different

Then approach #3 is just to make things sound different. For example, you could filter out all of
the top end and low end on a vocal to give it that telephone sound. Making things sound weird
and different with EQ is a great way to add interest and variation to your mix.
Approach 4 - Create Space in the Mix

And then finally, weve got approach #4, which is to create space in the mix using range
allocation. This is a really good way to create separation, which were going to talk much more
about in a later chapter. Some people call this frequency slotting.
Essentially, this is the act of never boosting two parts at the same frequency. Instead, once a
frequency range has been allocated to a particular part, you probably want to cut that
frequency in other instruments. By cutting frequencies in some instruments and boosting them
in others, you can create space in the mix and give each part its own place to sit, its own pocket
in the frequency spectrum. Were going to talk a lot more about that later, but thats approach
#4.
I hope you find that useful. The important thing is you remember those four key approaches.
Approach #1 is to remove any nasty elements; #2 is to exaggerate any pleasing elements; #3 is
to make something sound different; and then #4 is to create space in your mix.
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Range Allocation
This is a technique that a lot of people use. Some people know of it as frequency slotting. Its
essentially the act of giving each instrument or vocal, or at least the most important parts, their
own space within the frequency spectrum, their own corner of the mix, as to say. This really
helps with separation, it really helps to clear up your mix, and it helps you to think about mixing
in the right way, about where your EQ cuts and boosts are as well.
By the end of this chapter, youre going to feel really confident with this technique, and hopefully
its going to improve your mixes. So lets dive in. What is range allocation? I call it range
allocation (instead of frequency slotting) because youre not just slotting frequencies. That
term makes it sound like youre aggressively slotting instruments into a certain frequency range.
But its not. Its a much subtler act. Youre allocating a range of the frequency spectrum to an
instrument or a vocal. Once youve allocated that range to a part, you just want to be wary that
you dont boost anything else in that range, and also that you cut other things in that range to
give the part a bit more space.
Again, you only want to do this with the most important parts. If you went and did this with every
single element of your mix, it would take forever. You only want to do it either on the vocals, the
lead guitar, and maybe the bass and kick, the snare things like that, the most important parts.
But also, you can do it on group buses.
Before I go into the finesse of this technique, just remember youre not doing it with every single
individual channel. That will take you too long. Youre only doing it with the most important parts,
and maybe on the group buses as well, so all the guitars at once or all the keys at once, for
example.
First example Im going to give is vocals. Lets go back to an earlier example of boosting vocals
by 2dB at 6 kilohertz. In this example, the vocal had some aggression to it, but I wanted to dial
in more aggression. I wanted to help it cut through the mix a bit more. So I already knew I was
going to be boosting somewhere in the upper mids.
First of all, to find the pleasing element and to find the range that youre going to allocate to this
part, I just dial in a boost, maybe 3 or 4 dB a bit more exaggerated than you end with just so
you can hear it clearer. I know I want to be in the upper mids, so its going to be somewhere
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between 4 and 7 kilohertz. I would head to that frequency range and move the band around until
I find an area that sounds nice.
At 7 kilohertz I feel like its a bit too high; were getting more into the top end, and thats not
really what I want to boost. I want to boost the high mid aggression. Down at 4 kilohertz, it
sounded nice, but I didnt feel like it cut through enough. It wasnt enough bite. It was a different
kind of element of sound.
So 6 kilohertz was the area that I liked the most. After that, of course, you dial back the boost
probably somewhere around 2 dB or 1 dB, which is what I would set it on. Play with the width as
well. Generally with boosts you want to be a bit wider, but just have a listen to how that affects
it. It sounds a bit more musical, a bit more natural when its wide. But we still want to have that
bite and that aggression, so somewhere between the two works well.
Heres the important bit. Now I know that a 6 kilohertz boost on the vocal sounds nice, I can
write that down. Grab a pen and write it down. Vocal, kHz. Now when Im going through and
processing my other channels or on the group buses, I know not to boost 6 kilohertz on
anything. If anything, I want to do the opposite: I want to cut 6 kilohertz.
You could even try cutting 6 kilohertz on ALL the instruments. So send all of the instrument
parts drums, kicks, all bass, verse guitars, chorus guitars, keys to a stereo aux buss called
All Instruments. Then apply a subtle 1dB cut around 6kHz on this new stereo aux.
Another good example is kick and bass. If you find that the kick has got a nice sub-bass to it
and you want a track to have a bit more of a groovy, dance-y feel to it, you could write down
Kick, 60 hertz.
If the kick is at 60 hertz, you dont want the bass to be prominent in that frequency range, so
maybe the bass sounds nicer, and the notes that its playing and the tone of the bass sounds
really nice around 120 hertz, so you write that down.
Now youre probably going to cut 60 in the bass, because thats where the kick is allocated, and
youre going to cut 120 in the kick, because thats where the bass is allocated.
Now lets use the guitars as an example. Lets say Im boosting them at 1.5 kilohertz, so thats
their allocation. I can write that down, Guitars, 1.5kHz. Again, same technique to find that
frequency - I found that this frequency range was a nice, pleasant element of the guitar that I
could enhance that wasnt already being used up by something else. Then you might want to
cut 1.5 kilohertz in any competing instruments, like the keys or bass guitar.
Just constantly bear this in mind. Write it down, and then when you come to EQ-ing your
individual parts or the group buses, just think about whats already been allocated, where
theres space in the frequency spectrum for something to sit.
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Again, dont go over the top with it; 2-3 dBs boost or cut here and there is all you need. You
dont need to start filtering and being really aggressive. It just creates a bit more space, it gives
you some structure to work to with your EQ moves rather than just randomly boosting.
If you start boosting the same frequencies in two different parts, youre going to get frequency
masking. Its going to start to interfere with each other. So writing those allocations down really
helps you to prevent that from happening.
One last tip for this technique: try to do it with your ears as well. When you are boosting and
finding frequencies to boost and to allocate, some people will use a frequency analyzer. I dont
actually have one; I never use spectrum analyzers. But Logic Pro, for example, the EQ there
comes with one. FabFilter, their EQ has a spectrum analyzer.
Its tempting to have a look at that spectrum analyzer and see where the main notes are. For
example, you put it in your kick drum, you have a look and maybe the biggest peak is at 60
hertz, so then you think Okay, I need to cut 60 hertz on everything else.
But this is dangerous, because all that means is the fundamental is at 60 hertz. If you start
boosting the fundamental, first of all thats going to sound weird. Its probably not going to help
the tone.
Cutting the fundamental in other stuff does help, but then when you get to the common
instruments that are in the low mid range, which we spoke all about in the video on muddy
mixes, like guitars, acoustic guitars, the upper range of a bass guitar, male vocals, even female
vocals, theyre all sitting around the same space. Theyre all going to have very similar
fundamentals.
You quickly run out of space in the low mids, so instead you have to look to the high mids and
the mids, around 6 to 1 kilohertz and everything around that area, for your allocations. You cant
just allocate fundamentals because everything is going to be in the low mids, and then all your
allocations are going to be really close to each other, in that low mid range between 100 and
300 hertz.
So try to do it with your ears. Find a boost that sounds nice in the mids and then cut it in other
things.
Please do implement this technique in your mixes. I think it will really help you. Especially writing
them down like that is a great way to get started. After a while youll just remember, and when it
comes to boosting youll think Ive already boosted that somewhere else. Im not going to do it.
But it really does help to write it down.
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EQ Before or After
Compression?
Im going to finally answer the age old question of, EQ before or after compression? I actually
suggest something completely different: neither of those, I say. All will be revealed in a second.
First of all, before I answer that question, I just want to point out that its really not that important
in the grand scheme of things. If youre worrying too much about where you place EQ in your
plugin chain, then youre getting caught up on the wrong things because it really doesnt matter.
It makes a very, very small difference, and youre much better focusing your energy on other
areas like the fundamentals of EQ, those 4 key approaches that I covered in chapter 1. So dont
worry about it too much.
Having said that, I do have my own opinion of where it works best, and this is going to be very
different to other engineers. Its a purely subjective thing.
Generally with mixing, people agree on the outcome, but they disagree on methods. People can
agree on what a good mix sounds like and what they want to achieve in their mix, but they go
about achieving that in completely different ways.
So Im going to give you my opinion, Im going to give you the way that I do it; you can decide
whether you agree with my thought process or if you want to try a different way, and thats fine.
Im going to demonstrate the various ways at the end of this video so that you can actually hear
how small of a difference there is between each way. There is a difference. You will be able to
hear it, but its very small.
First of all, whats my opinion? Well, I think that you should use EQ before and after
compression. Not before, not after both. And theres a reason for that.
In chapter 1, I spoke about the different approaches to EQ. Just to recap, Approach #1 was to
remove unpleasant elements, remove nasty stuff. Approach #2 was to exaggerate the good
stuff. And then of course, we had Approach #3, which was create space, and #4, which was
make things sound different.
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But those first two approaches (remove the nasty elements and then enhance the pleasing
element) can be split into two different EQ plugins. What I like to do is actually remove the nasty
elements, then compress, and then enhance the pleasing elements. And Ill still do a bit more
cutting as well. I like to call it surgical EQ and tonal EQ: surgical EQ before compression,
tonal EQ after compression.
In our first EQ, which I call surgical EQ, were usually removing those room resonances. So its
narrow cuts, surgically removing the nasty stuff. Once weve done that, weve removed the low
end noise, weve tightened it up a bit on the low end, and weve removed those room
resonances, the vocal sounds a lot cleaner. Now weve got what I would call a c lean vocal that
we can compress.
After applying some compression what weve got is a cleaner vocal, because weve removed
the resonances and the really ugly stuff, and weve got a vocal thats a bit more dynamically
consistent. This is where I feel its time to start working with the tone.
So after this Ive got my tonal EQ, which is generally enhancing the pleasing elements. Im
doing that by boosting the high mids and the upper treble area, and Im also doing that by
removing some of the lows just to clear up the top end a bit. So thats my tonal EQ where Im
enhancing those pleasing elements.
Now, if I put this before the compressor, my reasoning is that Im boosting this frequency quite a
lot, so the compressor is going to be enhancing that boost, really. I am using another
compressor afterwards, so Im kind of going EQ, compressor, EQ, compressor, and thats just
the way that I like to work. I like to use a faster compressor, then tonal EQ, and then I use a
slightly slower compressor.
But the important distinction here is that my opinion is that you remove all the nasty stuff, then
you use compression one compressor is fine; you dont have to use more than one and then
you do your tonal adjustments. Because youve got a nice clean vocal, you compress it, and
then its time to start adjusting it to taste. Youre not fixing anything at this point. Youve already
fixed the ugly stuff. At this point, youre just shaping it to perfection.
Having said that, changing the order of the plugins results in very, very small difference. So
theres no right answer. In my opinion, apply EQ before and after compression. Whether you
agree with that or not, its up to you, but thats how I like to work.
Give that a try. I think it really helps you to stick to those 4 approaches, because youre splitting
EQ into two different plugins: youre removing the nasty stuff and then youre enhancing the
good stuff. In terms of workflow, I think it really helps you stick to those approaches. In terms of
sound and tone, theres not much difference.
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Backwards Mixing
In this chapter I want to talk to you all about a technique that Ive been using for a while now
called backwards mixing.
This is a really great way to mix with more efficiency and more speed, but also to get better
mixes in less time with less plugins. Finally, its also a really great way to have a system about
your mixing, because its really important to have some kind of system. You dont want to just
move around the mix randomly, adjusting things here and there. You need to have a system.
This is my system. It works for me. If youre used to this kind of standard system of starting with
the kick drum and then bringing in the bass and working from the foundation up, I think this is
going to be a really interesting new way of thinking for you.
You might even mix like this already, so Im going to give you some techniques for sticking to
this ideology after I explain it, and then you can try it in your mixes.
I call it backwards mixing because in your mixer, generally people have it set up in a way that
you have all your individual channels on your left, and then after that you have your group
channels, which are simply the act of sending all of the instruments of a certain group to a group
aux channel, a stereo aux.
For example, I generally send the drums going to their own stereo aux channel, all bass parts,
guitars, keys, backing vocals, lead vocals etc. So everything is going to a stereo group channel.
This is really important. Were going to talk more about that in a second. But an important
distinction here is that you want to change the outputs of the individual channels, not just create
an effect send. So the output on the bass guitar, for example, should be the All Bass stereo
aux channel - NOT the mix buss or master fader.
Backwards mixing is the act of working backwards through your mixer, so from right to left
instead of left to right. Instead of starting with your kick drum or your vocal and working slowly,
bringing in instruments one by one, and then doing group processing and then maybe some
processing on your mix bus...
I suggest doing the opposite: starting with your mix bus, then moving to your group
channels, and then adding processing to your individual channels at the very end.
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This relates to my overall philosophy of mixing, which is start with the bigger picture and then
slowly start to focus on the finer details. You start with big things like balancing, and then
backwards mixing, and you end with things like automation, effects, and spot effects really
small details within the mix.
Because if you start with the small details, youre going to change your mind later in the mix.
You need to make those decisions within the context of the mix, and you need to really start to
get the mix together at an early stage, with balancing and EQ and bus compression, because
that will help with your confidence, it helps you to mix fast, it helps you to stay excited.
I call those overall process of starting with the bigger picture and then focusing on the finer
details at the end slow focus mixing, because youre slowly focusing on the details as you
progress through your mix.
Now lets actually talk about backwards mixing and how you implement that, and the actual
steps involved as it comes to EQ.
I tend to have quite a lot of processing on my mix bus. Theres a few reasons why I think
applying EQ on your mix bus first is beneficial. First of all, it helps with confidence. You can get
a good sound straightaway. After youve balanced the mix and youve got a good static mix, you
can compare your mix to your reference, and straightaway youll hear if it needs more
brightness, if it needs more low end, if its sounding muddy in the lower mids, if it needs more
aggression. You can make those EQ changes on the master bus, and straightaway your mix is
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going to sound better. Youre taking a big step towards your end goal, and thats going to really
increase your confidence and keep you excited.
But theres other benefits. Benefit #2 is that by starting with EQ on your mix bus, youre mixing
into it. Youre considering that with every move. If you dial in more top end on the mix bus, that
means you dont need to dial in as much top end on a vocal or an acoustic guitar, for example,
or a piano. Whereas if you did it the other way round and you mixed in individual channels first,
and then at the end you added a top end boost on your mix bus, its going to completely throw
off your entire mix.
So its best to start with those moves and then mix into them, because then youre going to be
considering that at every stage and working with that EQ.
Benefit #3 is that it helps you to mix faster and with less plugins. And time is always of the
essence when it comes to mixing. The longer you spend on the mix, the less objective you
become. Ear fatigue sets in, and youre going to start doubting your decision. Now lets look at
the steps to implement backwards mixing in your mixes.
Step 1 - Balancing
Before you start applying EQ on your mix buss, you need to have a good static mix going.
Spend a lot of time adjusting the volume faders until you feel like you cant get any further with
the faders alone.
Step 2 - Compare to Your Reference Track

The next step is to compare your mix to your reference once you have a good static mix. You
can even use several reference tracks (one for the low end, one for the vocals etc). Flick
between your mix and your reference tracks a few times and listen out for any obvious
differences.
You might hear that your mix needs more top end. Maybe your mix sounds muddy. Maybe
theres too much low end. Or maybe theres a lack of aggression in the upper mids.
Step 3 - Mix Buss EQ

Now you can reach for an EQ with an intention in mind. If I hear too much low end in my mix, I
know that I probably need to reduce the low end below 100 hertz or control it with multiband
compression. Then I might need to remove mud by cutting in that 200 to 400 hertz frequency
range. Then I might need to boost the upper mids a bit to give the mix a bit more aggression.
And perhaps I want to enhance the top end and add some more air by boosting 12 kilohertz and
above. Its important to use a reference and have an intention before you start applying EQ.
Step 4 - Group Buss EQ

Then once youve done your mix bus processing, you can move on to your group buses. Again,
this saves a lot of time and energy. Rather than going through and processing each keyboard
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part individually, apply EQ (and compression) on the group busses. If all the guitars sound a bit
harsh, try cutting the upper mids on the group buss instead of individual channels. I do the
majority of EQ on the group busses.
Theres some channels, though, that you will have to do individual processing, specific
processing on the channel. Bass guitar, for example. Of course Ive got a lot of processing on
that because I wanted to shape the tone there, and weve only got one bass channel. Its direct.
If I was mixing a direct bass with an amp recording, Id probably do the processing on a group
bus. But because its only a DI, Im doing it there.
Vocals as well, another example of a channel where a lot of the processing is going to be on the
channel itself. Snare and kick drums, too. And of course, effect channels I dont have an effect
bus; I just have individual processing on the effects, because it depends what youre trying to do
with that effect.
So move from right to left. Start with your mix bus. Thats where a lot of the magic happens.
Then do your processing on your group buses; that will save you lots of time, and it helps to
keep things simple. Its just much easier, much more efficient. And then finally, any individual
processing that cant be done on a group channel.
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How to Achieve
Separation and
Clarity In Your
Mixes
There are many factors to a good mix.
To me, a good mix is one that best conveys the message and emotion of the song.
There are numerous ways to do this, and this important end goal must be considered with every
move. You can spend as long as you want on automation, balancing, compression and other
tools
But if your mix doesnt have SEPARATION, and your mix isnt CLEAR none of that matters.
A lot of my students ask me how to achieve separation and clarity in their mixes. Generally, they
are referring specifically to EQ techniques that they can implement. As with most things in the
world of mix engineering, it isnt that simple. Sure, your use of equalization will have a huge
impact. But there are some other issues that you must address first.
But first, there are two factors that are important whenever applying EQ: listening environment
and referencing.
To accurately apply EQ to any sound source, you need a good listening environment. This
DOESNT mean you need a professionally treated room and expensive monitors. It DOES
mean learning your room and equipment. Acoustic treatment and proper monitors will help you
immensely. As will a decent pair of mixing headphones. But if you dont have those things, just
make sure you learn your equipment. How? Through referencing
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Every time you mix, compare your work to a professionally recorded and released track.
Think of the tone you want to achieve (modern/warm/aggressive etc.) and find a track in a
AW and compare it to your mix.
similar genre that has those qualities. Now drop it into your D
Where is your mix lacking? Does it sound muffled? Or does it sound too bright? Is the low end
too loud? Or too quiet? Whenever applying EQ, referencing can help you to make the right
decisions.
Consider your listening environment, use a reference and applying EQ will become far easier.
Separation (Or Making Every Part Audible)

To me, separation means one thing: a mix where every important element is clearly defined
AND doesnt interfere too much with other elements of the mix. The opposite of separation
would be a cluttered, busy or messy mix. Imagine a mix where all of the instruments battle each
other for attention. The vocal gets lost in a sea of guitars and percussion. The lead guitar is
undistinguishable from the rhythm part. Its difficult to hear each part LET ALONE hear the
intricacies and emotion of the performance.
Now imagine a mix where everything has its own space and corner within the frequency
spectrum. Every lyric is audible, and the melody of the lead guitar part sits perfectly in the mix
yet they arent fighting each other or battling for attention. As you move your focus around the
mix, you can easily distinguish each part. The bass, the kick drum, the snare, the electric
piano Theres a lot going on, yet you can easily focus on each part. In case you hadnt figured
out, you want to aim for the second example. But how?
Arrangement
Before I address EQ, lets go over the other techniques for adding separation to your mix. You
see, separation starts before you even touch a microphone or DAW.
Arrangement in this context refers to two simple things:
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1. The instrumentation of the piece

2. The choice of octave (or register) for the various parts
Consider a band that has 4 different guitarists (and nothing else). Separation isnt going to be so
easy to achieve. Now consider a chorus where three different instruments play the lead melody,
but all in the same octave. They might sound good as a whole, but there will be little separation
between the parts. Think about the instrumentation of the song and how it could help or hinder
separation within the mix.
Also make sure the most important parts are spread across multiple registers. Its fine for three
instruments to play the same melody if they all play it in a different octave. And bear in mind that
sometimes separation ISNT desirable. Think about an orchestra the entire cello section is
meant to blend together to create one coherent sound. Thats part of the music. Just dont waste
your time trying to give those parts separation later in the mix.
Balancing
Volume balancing is your main tool as a mixer. Did you know that mix engineers used to be
called balance engineers? Before you even THINK about panning, EQ, c ompression or
anything else remember that the majority of your mix comes from the balance between the
channels. So, how does balancing relate to separation? Well if everything is loud nothing is
loud.
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Your mix needs to have focus. Decide which elements are the most important (usually the lead
vocal, any melodic parts, and occasionally the rhythm section). Now make everything else
quieter. It might seem simple, but spending longer on balancing is the first step towards
separation.
This is also where automation comes into it. Generally, a static mix isnt enough. At different
points in the song, you will want different parts to have the focus. Use volume automation to
counteract this problem. For example, the guitar part might provide a supportive role in the
chorus, but a more prominent role in the verse. Automate the volume accordingly.
Panning
Another easy way to get separation in your mix is by making use of the entire stereo field. But,
at the same time, dont rely on panning too heavily a lot of people will hear your mix in mono.
Start by panning only hard left, dead center or hard right. Keep most your pan pots at one of
these positions. Now fill the gaps between with one or two parts on each side (but no more).
Achieving Separation with EQ

Before you learn about specific techniques for creating separation with EQ, you should have an
understanding of what frequency masking is. It sounds complicated, but its not. Essentially, it is
this:
When two parts battle for the same space in the frequency spectrum, they mask each
other. They might sound great in solo, but when you put them together they sound
mushy and undefined.
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Before you address frequency masking with EQ, you should address it with arrangement and
balancing. But after doing those two things, you can further enhance the separation within the
mix using EQ
Range Allocation
Theres a simple way to create separation between the most important parts in the mix. I like to
call this Range Allocation.
NOTE: You only want to create separation between the most important parts, not everything.
Parts that play a supportive role dont need separation (remember the example of an orchestra).
Range Allocation is the act of giving each part its own range within the frequency spectrum.
Some people call this frequency slotting. The best way to describe this technique is through the
use of an example
In a typical rock track, you will want separation between the kick and the bass.
Allocate one of the parts to the sub bass range (lets say 30-80Hz) and the other part to the
bass range (lets say 80-200Hz). Which way round you chose to do it depends on the vibe of the
track
For a groovy, more rhythmic track allocate the kick to the sub bass range. For a heavy,
constant low end allocate the bass guitar to the sub bass range. Now that you have an idea in
your head of where each part is sitting in the frequency spectrum, EQ accordingly. If you boost
30-80Hz on the kick, cut it on the bass. If you boost 80-150Hz on the bass, cut it in the kick. And
by cut, I dont mean remove completely (for example, with a filter). I mean a subtle 1-5dB wide
cut.
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Mix in Mono
I advise mixing in mono until the end of the mix. This forces you to create separation with
arrangement, balancing and EQ rather than relying on panning. Once you have finished
applying EQ and compression, and are nearing the end of the mix, start panning. The mix will
open up and you wont believe the amount of space and separation.
Focus on the Mid Range

Most problems with separation and frequency masking occur in the mid range.
Sure, getting the relationship between the kick and bass right is important but far more people
will notice when the guitars and vocals clash.
I spend around 30-50% of the mix on a single Behritone speaker. Dont get me wrong this
speaker sounds pretty awful. Its tiny. It pretty much sounds like a crappy PC speaker. But
heres why its important: the small size means the speaker only produces mid frequencies. It
can reveal problems in the mids that you might not notice on larger monitor speakers. Check
your mix on multiple speaker systems and focus on the mid range. Where are the problems?
What parts are fighting with each other?
High-Pass Filtering
Theres an easy way to get separation between the low end parts (kick and bass) and the rest of
the mix
Use high-pass filters on any parts that have low end BUT dont need it.
Thats an important distinction dont start using a high-pass filter on everything, otherwise your
mix could start to sound thin and weak. Only use a high-pass filter on parts that dont NEED any
low end. For example, use a high-pass filter on electric guitars, acoustic guitars (if they play a
supportive roll), vocals, keys (if they arent providing the bass) and toms.
Start at 50Hz and bring the filter up until you notice a loss of bass or warmth then back it off a
touch.
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Sometimes though, that loss of low end can make the part sound clearer and help it to stand out
in the mix (with vocals for example). Use your judgement. Oh, and make sure you do this in the
context of the mix, not in solo.
Clarity (Air, Brightness and Shimmer)

Before we dig into adding clarity to your mixes, be aware that clarity is a relative term. As with
loudness, if everything in your mix is clear, nothing is clear. Usually you want the vocals,
cymbals (sometimes snares), acoustic guitars and piano/keys to have clarity. Electric guitars,
bass guitars, kick drums and other supportive parts dont need clarity.
In order to give clarity to the parts that matter you need to make the supportive parts less
clear. There are a number of ways to do this.
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High Cuts and Low-Pass Filters
Most people never consider using a low-pass filter when mixing. But by removing the top end
from the parts that are more supportive OR the parts that dont need/have any top end you
can add depth and clarity to the mix.
If you want to make a part sit further back in the mix, cut the highs. Whether you use a high
shelf or a low-pass filter will depend on how far back you want the part to sit. But you still want
the part to be audible. Try not to cut the high mids or anything else below 6kHz. In this process,
you are also making more room in the top end for the stuff that matters (like the vocals).
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High Shelf Boosts
The next step is to boost the top end of the parts that matter. I boost the top end of the vocals in
pretty much every mix. A high shelf boost as low as 6kHz can work, but more often its around
10kHz+. Now the vocals sound super-clear in the context of the mix.
Try to use an analogue-modelling EQ for this rather than your stock parametric EQ. Free plugins
like Slick EQ still work well for this. You can also try adding a top end boost to the entire mix, on
your stereo fader. Do this at the beginning of your mix, though, not at the end.
Beware of Harshness and Brittleness

When boosting the top end, keep it subtle (unless you know what you are doing). If your mix
starts to sound harsh or brittle, its because you have either a) been too aggressive with your
boosts, or b) boosted the high mids as well as the top end.
Check the frequencies of your boosts and try to stay above 10kHz. Try to find the source of the
problem and fix it. But, if you are in a rush, try a wide 1/2dB cut around 5-10kHz on your mix
buss.
Remember that mixing comes towards the end of the production process. Problems with
separation in particular need to be addressed earlier in the songwriting and recording phases.
Only then can you ENHANCE separation in the mix phase. As for clarity, its relative. Focus on
creating depth within your mix, and then you can really add clarity to the parts that matter.
32
How to Fix Muddy

Mixes
In this chapter youre going to learn all about how to prevent and fix a muddy mix. Its a really
common problem, especially with the typical rock band setup, but as soon as youre aware of
the ways that you can prevent and fix the problem of mud in your mix, it really clears up your
mixes, gives them more definition, gives them more room for the good stuff to shine through and
more clarity in there as well.
First of all, to reap quickly, you need a good listening environment, or you at least need to know
your listening environment. It helps if you have acoustic treatment and a pair of actual studio
monitors or a good pair of open-back headphones, for example. But if you dont have those, you
can still get good mixes; you just need to really learn your equipment.
Which brings me on to point two, which is make sure you use references when youre EQ-ing.
Compare your mix to a professionally mixed, mastered, and released track, and that will guide
you towards making the right EQ decisions and give you something to compare your mix to, to
decide if its too bright, too bass-y, etc. So two key things I wanted to reiterate there.
Now lets move on to muddy mixes and how you can prevent and fix them. I find that the guilty
frequency range is generally between 200 and 400 hertz. Sometimes 500, sometimes a bit
lower than 200, but generally its between 200 and 400 hertz.
If you load up an EQ on your mix buss, center a band at 300 hertz, make it quite wide, and
boost it instantly the mix going to sound more muddy. Everything is going to lose its definition;
youre not going to be able to pinpoint the different instruments as much, and its just going to
sound a bit clogged up.
So 200 to 400 hertz is the frequency range that you want to address with your EQ moves, but
before we talk about that, I want to go back to the root of the problem. Its generally an
arrangement problem.
When youre arranging a piece, you want to think about both instrumentation and also the
register and octave that the different parts play in. Because if you have lots of parts playing in
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that area, in that lower mid area, in the same octave maybe you have three guitars all playing
in the same octave, or even different instruments but playing in that same register of course
theres going to be a buildup of frequencies in that area.
If you think about a string quartet, its a cello to provide the low end, viola to provide the middle,
and two violins to provide the top end, but generally theyll be doing different things. So youve
got a really nice spread across the whole frequency spectrum with four different instruments.
But now think about a typical rock band setup. Youve got a drum kit, with the main parts being
the kick and the snare; then youve got a bass guitar, a rhythm guitar, sometimes a lead guitar
as well, an acoustic guitar, a piano maybe, male vocals or female vocals. You could even have
keyboard parts. It quickly builds up, and a lot of those instruments are focused around that low
mid area. The fundamentals of those instruments are around that area.
You can think about this when youre composing. You can think, rather than getting three
guitars to play chords and a melody in the same octave, put them an octave apart.
But theres an inherent problem with that rock band setup that is hard to avoid, and generally it
does cause muddy mixes especially when youre recording at home as well, the kind of
microphones youre going to be using, the microphone techniques youre using might add to
that muddiness. So its a common problem.
You can fix it, first of all, by addressing the arrangement if you have that ability. But a lot of the
time we also need to use EQ to further remove that mud and treat that problem.
Now lets go over the 3 ways that you can fix and remove or at least reduce muddiness in your
mix.
#1: Avoid Boosting this Range

Technique 1 is pretty simple: dont boost the frequency range. Now, that may seem obvious, but
a lot of people will boost the low mids if they want to make something sound warmer. But
instead of doing that, Id say cut the highs, cut the upper mids. Thats going to make something
sound warmer. Or even cut the highs. Experiment with that.
Because as soon as you start boosting here, theres a couple of problems if you boost the low
mids. First of all youre going to be adding to that mud, and secondly, especially if you get a bit
lower, you could be boosting particular notes.
A bass guitar, for example, a lot of the notes are between 60 and 100 if youre playing in the
lower octave. If you just boost it 100, youre going to be boosting certain notes, and those notes
are going to stick out a lot more.
34
So first of all, if you are going to boost low mids or lows, make sure its wide so youre not
boosting particular notes. But generally I recommend to avoid boosting between 200 and 400.
Again, that seems obvious, but thats going to go a long way to preventing mud in your mix.
#2: Address 200-400Hz on Individual Channels

Technique 2 is actually treating those problematic frequency areas on the individual channels
themselves. For example, you might apply a wide 2dB cut centered at 300hz on the lead vocal.
This does two things: first of all, it clears some of the mud from the vocal. It helps the upper
mids to shine through a bit more, it helps it to cut through the mix a bit more. But then secondly,
it has that added benefit of also, because the vocal is going to be one of the loudest things,
thats going to remove some of the mud from the overall mix as well.
Of course, you can do this on your group buses as well, and Im going to talk more about
processing on group buses and on the mix bus in a later chapter. So thats technique #2,
removing mud on the channels themselves and on the group buses. Just remember that
frequency range, 200 to 400 hertz, thats going to be problematic.
#3: Mix Buss EQ

Technique 3 is actually removing that mud on the mix bus itself. In most cases, I would actually
apply this technique before cutting frequencies on individual channels.
As mentioned in the chapter on Backwards Mixing, I mix backwards; I start with the mix bus,
then the group buses, then individual channels. So this is the first mud cut that I wouldve
added, and then I might remove even more on the individual channels.
You need to be careful, because mix buss EQ can be pretty dramatic. Its essentially the same
as applying an EQ to every single channel. If it starts to sound too scooped, thats because
youre being too aggressive.
Even the lower mids are really important because thats what areas are most susceptible to it
and thats where most of the detail is. So if you remove them too much, its going to sound
scooped and weird, and youre going to lose a lot of that detail.
So you want to keep it subtle, I reckon 2 dBs is probably about the most youre going to want to
cut by, unless you really know what youre doing. Generally on your mix bus, you do want to be
more subtle.
So thats approach #3. Just to summarize those 3 key approaches: first of all, try not to boost in
that problematic frequency range of 200 to 400 hertz; secondly, treat that frequency range on
individual channels; and then #3, treat that frequency range on the mix bus as well.
35
Once youve done all of those things, its going to at least get rid of some of that mud. You can
fix it with arrangement. Think about that first. But if its the typical rock band setup, youre
probably not going to be able to completely remove that problem without EQ as well.
36
How to Fix Thin

Mixes
This is a problem thats not completely related to EQ; its a problem that a lot of the time is
caused by the misuse of EQ. Thats a big cause, but actually its fixed by either avoiding those
causes related to EQ, but mostly something that weve spoken about a lot in this series so far:
arrangement.
First of all lets talk about what a thin mix is to me. When people ask me how they can fix a thin
mix, Ive found that generally what theyre referring to is one of two things. First of all it could be
that the bottom end, the low end in their mix is lacking, so their mix sounds thin. If you play it on
a larger speaker system, it doesnt sound good because theres no low end or the low end isnt
tight, the low end isnt loud enough, or its just not there.
Another thing that sometimes people call a thin mix is a really sparse mix. If theres not much
instrumentation, if theres not a lot going on and theres lots of space in the mix, it can start to
sound a bit thin. Even if it had a massive bass part, if it was just a bass part and a single
melody, thats probably going to sound like quite a thin mix.
Im going to address those two things separately. First of all lets talk about the first thing, which
is a lack of low end.
Theres two ways you can prevent this. First of all, I find the biggest reason people have a thin
mix is because they get obsessed with high pass filtering. Theres a lot of people out there that
give quite bad advice in the sense they tell people to high pass filter absolutely everything.
High pass filter is just when you go in your EQ and you cut out all the low end like this. Now,
there are situations where that is helpful, and when you dont need the low end, get rid of it.
Thats kind of how I like to summarize it. If you dont need it, get rid of it.
This applies to bass instruments too. If youre working on a track and the kick is more
responsible for the sub-bass, and the bass guitar is more responsible for the bass maybe
between 50 and 200 hertz, then cut out everything below 50 on the bass. Thats going to tighten
it up. Even with the sub, put a high pass filter at 30 or 20 hertz, again just to clean it up.
37
But youre only cutting out the low end that you dont need. If you start applying a high pass filter
to absolutely everything and being really aggressive with it, youre going to lose all the warmth,
and the low end of the mix is going to start to sound thin.
So just be careful with high pass filters. Remove the low end if you dont need it. On a vocal,
again, Ill remove everything below 60 hertz usually higher, because it tightness up the bottom
end. But then on an acoustic guitar, if its playing a lead part, then you probably want the low
end. If its supportive, get rid of the low end. Just think about it. Dont use a high pass filter on
everything; only use it if you actually want to get rid of the low end or its causing a problem. So
thats one way you can prevent it.
The second way is through arrangement. If youre writing a piece, think about how the low end
is going to sound. Think about the relationship between bass parts to melodic parts and
rhythmic parts within the piece. Because if theres no bass part, its probably going to sound thin
again.
Even the White Stripes, Jack White, a lot of the time of course it is just guitar and drums, but a
lot of the time he does use a pitch shifter to add in a bass part. Because otherwise, a lot of the
mixes sound thin. Im not a huge fan, because I think most of their songs sound thin. Im a
bassist as well, so thats probably why. But just to give you an example there. Think about the
low end.
If its a more electronic piece, you actually need to think about whats providing the sub-bass,
whats going to provide the bass, whether thats going to be the kick or a sine wave synth just
really low.
And if youre producing rock music, of course, just put a bass guitar in there, but make sure
theyre playing lower on the guitar. If theyre playing on the high octaves, its probably going to
sound thin. Of course, it all depends, but think about the arrangement.
Now, how do you fix a thin mix? If youve composed the piece, youve recorded a piece, and it
comes out thin, how do you fix that?
Well, again, you just need to address the arrangement. The way you go about that is going to
depend mostly on the genre.
If youre working with rock music and youve got a bass guitar in there, but the tone isnt right
maybe you cut the bass too much on the amp, or the bass just doesnt sound good, maybe the
tone of the bass itself youre not happy with so the mix comes out sounding a bit thin.
With rock, youve got two options. If its modern, more alternative rock, you could use a sample
that provides more low end to the kick bass, or you could just use a sine wave and gate it to the
38
kick bass so that every time the kick hits, the sine wave comes on at like 50 hertz. Thats a good
trick just to add some low end.
If youve got RBass or a plugin like that, RBass is a plugin from Waves that just creates new
frequencies. Because its important to note that you cant fix this by boosting the low end.
Generally thats not going to sound great. It depends how you go about it. If you use multiband
compression or parallel compression, it can be a bit more convincing. But something like RBass,
what it actually does, it creates new frequencies. Youre not just boosting whats not there;
youre actually creating new frequencies, and this adds in more low end. So something like
RBass works well for that.
If youre working with older styles of rock where maybe samples wouldnt work kick samples,
that is and you dont want too much sub-bass, then youre going to have to rely on a plugin
like RBass and just tune it a bit so its a bit higher.
Or with multiband compression, you can just really heavily compress the low end, maybe
between 50 and 150 hertz, and leave everything else uncompressed. That should give you
more of a constant, solid base to the track.
Now, for electronic music, you need to think about just adding in parts. Add in, again, a sine on
a kick or a good sub-kick sample, or you could add in a constant sine wave synth just as a sub,
like a tune synth with just a sine wave, and thats going to provide a really nice low end.
This track Ive got here is kind of electronic. It uses electronic drums. It has got guitars, but its
mostly bass guitar and electronic piano, so its kind of an electronic track. Lets have a listen
with everything in first.
Now lets listen to that kick. Youll see Ive got two here. Ive got kick and sub-kick. The kick on
its own is just a sample, but its more of an acoustic kick sound. Just to bring it a bit more low
end and give it a bit more thickness, Ive also got a sub-kick, which is very electronic-sounding.
Depending on what you listen on, you might not be able to hear it that well, if youre listening on
a phone or a laptop. Together, it sounds like this. That just provides more of the sub-bass, a bit
more low end to the track.
Equally, in the chorus, Ive got a bass guitar. But then Ive got a sub-bass part as well thats on a
synth. And together. That only comes in on the chorus; it gives the chorus some nice thickness,
if you have a listen to that.
So just think about arrangement. Think about new parts you could add in in that sub-bass or
bass area that could make your mix sound less thin.
Two more genres worth mentioning. If its hip-hop, focus more on the kick and providing a really
good kick sample with lots of sub-bass. If its pop, then it purely depends on the kind of pop it is.
If it leans more toward the electronic side, think more about sub-kicks, sine synths, and really
39
low constant synths or other ways you could provide bass. Or if its a rockier pop track, then
think more about multiband compression, RBass, and maybe kick samples as well.
If its a sparse mix, which is the other problem that sometimes people are referring to when they
say their mix is thin, then youve got a different problem. You could have a sub-bass part, you
could have a bass part, it could be a really thick, full mix yet if its only two instruments or two
parts, its going to sound quite thin.
Thats where effects and automation really come into it. Because youve got so much space in
the mix, you can afford to be more liberal with your use of reverb, your use of delays, your use
of creative automation, and various other effects.
Just to summarize now, thinness comes from normally an arrangement problem, as with most
things regarding EQ. Try and fix it by introducing new parts, but also try to avoid using high pass
filters, because thats a big cause of thin mixes, when you start really high pass filtering
everything too much or cutting too much low end out of absolutely everything. Your mix is going
to start to sound thin.
You can introduce new parts depending on the genre. For rock, try samples as well as
multiband compression, plugins like RBass. Electronic, think about samples and low sine
synths. For hip-hop, samples. Pop, it depends what kind of pop it is. And if its a sparse mix, try
to use effects to fill it out a bit.
40
Ear Training
Exercises
Golden ears are a myth. As long as you have never damaged your hearing, your ears are just
as good as the best mixers in the world. In fact, they probably have worse hearing than you
after years of listening to music at high volume.
So whats holding you back? Why cant you mix like them? The difference is that they are better
at listening. Listening and hearing are two different things
You have the physical ability to hear the full extent of your mixes. What youre really lacking are
the listening skills that the professionals have developed. Over time, your listening abilities will
naturally improve. EQ becomes easier, you gain the ability to instantly identify frequencies, and
the finer details of compression reveal themselves. However, you can speed up that process
with 3 easy steps.
Better Listening in 3 Easy Steps

There are 3 steps to better listening.
1. Learn the frequency spectrum

2. Train your ears with dedicated exercises and software
3. Pay attention to frequencies when mixing
Try not to do all of these at once. Focus on one step at a time, following them in order.
Lets break down each step.
Step 1 Learn the Frequency Spectrum

I can remember when the frequency spectrum seemed very daunting. I had no idea what 10kHz
sounded like compared to 500Hz. I knew one was higher than the other but that was about it.
To be honest, it took me years to really grasp the entire frequency spectrum. Your goal is to be
able to hear a frequency and identify it by ear (within a reasonable margin).
41
Before we go over the important frequency ranges within the range of human hearing (and how
they sound), we need to briefly cover some sciency stuff. Dont worry. It wont take long
You might already know that the frequency spectrum is logarithmic, not linear.
This means as the frequency increase, the gap between octaves grows. We dont measure the
range of human hearing in a linear way (more info here). Instead of counting up in a normal
fashion (10Hz, 20Hz, 30Hz, 40Hz, 50Hz etc.), we count in a ratio of 1:2 (10Hz, 20Hz, 40Hz,
80Hz, 160Hz etc.).
An octave above 100Hz is 200Hz. But an octave above 1kHz is 2kHz.

In the first case one octave is 100Hz, but in the second case one octave is 1,000Hz. Thats ten
times larger! A 100Hz difference in the low end is HUGE. But 100Hz in the top end is nothing.
100Hz and 200Hz sound very different. But 1kHz (1,000Hz) and 1.1kHz (1,100Hz) sound very
similar.
Every frequency range can be described as having a certain tonal quality. Having the ability to
pinpoint certain frequencies is great, but if you dont know how that relates to tone, it isnt much
help. We covered this in the first chapter with frequency charts, so head back there if you need
to recap.
42
Step 2 Ear Training Exercises and Software

Over time, you will learn how to identify different frequencies by ear through mixing. But you can
significantly speed up that process through focused practice. Its worth the small amount of time
it takes. Its a great skill to have, as it can significantly improve the quality and speed of your
mixes.
For example, if I notice a ringing on a drum, I can hear that its around 800Hz. It might not be
exactly 800Hz, but that gives me an area to start in. If I couldnt identify the frequency of the
ringing, it would take me much longer to find it.
Another example on a vocal, I might hear that the aggression of a voice is pleasing, and I
want to enhance it. Rather than using the boost-and-sweep technique to find that element, I
can instantly identify it (around 6kHz).
43
The quickest way to train your ears is with dedicated software. There are many options. Some
free, some paid. Compared to the cost of a new piece of gear or a new plugin, its worth
investing in some ear training software. It will get you MUCH further than a new plugin ever
could.
Here are some suggestions. I am not affiliated with any of these companies. These are just the
best options I have found.
Free Training Exercises

EQ Training
EQ Match
PureMix Quiz
Premium Frequency Ear Training Software

QuizTones
Train Your Ears
44
Step 3 Pay Attention to Frequencies When Mixing

Its easy to mix without paying real attention to the frequencies that you are boosting or cutting.
This is one major downside of the boost-and-sweep technique. Its a great technique for
beginners, but try to avoid it where possible. But, if you do use this technique, at least make a
mental note of the frequency that you decide to cut/boost.
Instead of just finding an ugly frequency range and instantly cutting it out, take a second to
observe the frequency. Think about how it sounds when you boost or cut this range. How would
you describe the tone? Heres my preferred technique
When I notice a resonance or frequency range that needs addressing, I hum the frequency.
Then I think about what frequency that might be. You dont need to be exact you just want to
be in the rough area. With some practice, this is easier to do than it might seem. This is a much
better way to work. It fits with the rule of having an intention before you reach for an EQ, rather
than loading up a plugin and just playing around. Plus, you are training your ears at the same
time. Even if you like to mix with templates and dont like my approach, thats fine!
45
Just take note of the frequencies that you are adjusting when you load a template. Listen to how
those different frequencies ranges sound.
Spending time on your listening skills is an important step in becoming a better mixer. Even if
you only set aside an hour a week, it shouldnt take too long to really develop your abilities.
You will see a significant improvement in both your mixes and your enjoyment in mixing.
With that, I bid you farewell. Thanks for reading, and please dont hesitate to contact me at
rob@homestudiocenter.com if you have any questions.
Happy mixing!
Rob Mayzes
46

Stop Using Eq Wrong

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Stop Using EQ Wrong by Rob Mayzes

Chapter 1 - How to Use an Equalizer...p. 5

That's when the biggest low of my home recording career began.

I'm just like you.

Are you ready? Lets not waste another minute.

So now lets look at the frequency spectrum in a bit more depth

So there you go. Thats a breakdown of the entire frequency spectrum.

Frequency Range Description

200Hz-600Hz Lower mids

3kHz-6kHz Upper mids

Description Frequency Range

Rumble 25Hz - 40Hz

Bottom 60Hz - 90Hz

Boom/Punch 100Hz - 170Hz

Warmth 130Hz - 220Hz

Fullness/Mud 250Hz - 450Hz

Honk 450Hz - 1kHz

Tinny 1kHz - 2kHz

Crunch 2kHz - 4kHz

Edginess/Brittleness 3.5kHz - 6kHz

Sibilance (in voice) 4kHz - 10kHz

Definition 6kHz - 10kHz

Piercing 8kHz - 12.5kHz

Air 15kHz - 20kHz

#1: Have an intention

#2: Dont rely on EQ alone, especially to shape the tone

#3: Prioritize cuts, but still use boosts

#4: Try to avoid applying EQ in solo

#5: Small changes soon add up

#6: You can be more aggressive with filters

#7: Try to be subtle with parametric EQs

Approach 1 - Remove Nasty Elements

Approach 2 - Enhance the Pleasing Elements

Approach 3 - Make Things Sound Different

Approach 4 - Create Space in the Mix

Step 2 - Compare to Your Reference Track

Step 3 - Mix Buss EQ

Step 4 - Group Buss EQ

Separation (Or Making Every Part Audible)

Arrangement in this context refers to two simple things:

1. The instrumentation of the piece

Achieving Separation with EQ

Focus on the Mid Range

Clarity (Air, Brightness and Shimmer)

High Cuts and Low-Pass Filters

High Shelf Boosts

Beware of Harshness and Brittleness

How to Fix Muddy

#1: Avoid Boosting this Range

#2: Address 200-400Hz on Individual Channels

#3: Mix Buss EQ

How to Fix Thin

Better Listening in 3 Easy Steps

1. Learn the frequency spectrum

Step 1 Learn the Frequency Spectrum

An octave above 100Hz is 200Hz. But an octave above 1kHz is 2kHz.

Step 2 Ear Training Exercises and Software

Free Training Exercises

Premium Frequency Ear Training Software

Step 3 Pay Attention to Frequencies When Mixing

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