Good EQ guidelines

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Good EQ guidelines

Postby kowalczyk » Wed Jul 30, 2014 11:22 am

Posted these in another thread, but I'm posting them here, to make them a little more visible. :D

These are great guidelines for EQ'ing.
Of course, the settings don't fit every kick and every snare, but it works for most acoustic and club sounds.

    EQ Settings

    thanatos wrote:one big rule to know is that you is most of the time better to subtract than to add with digital
    don't boost more than 2 Db and don't subtract more than 6 Db
    A good mix is most of the time linked to sounddesign
    If you have two bass you need one less to have room for other instruments

    NetiNeti wrote:Anything 90HZ and below in mono will make that bass come through way harder... for your health


    General:
  • 20 Hz and below - impossible to detect, might pull down the overall volume of the track
  • 60 Hz and below - sub bass (feel only)
  • 80-100 Hz - feel AND hear bass
  • 100-120 Hz - the "club sound system punch" resides here
  • 200 Hz and below - bottom
  • 250 Hz - notch filter here can add thump to a kick drum
  • 150-400 Hz - boxiness
  • 200 Hz-1.5 KHz - punch, fatness, impact
  • 800 Hz-4 KHz - edge, clarity, harshness, defines timbre
  • 4500 Hz - exteremly tiring to the ears, add a slight notch here
  • 5-7 KHz - de-essing is done here
  • 4-9 KHz - brightness, presence, definition, sibilance, high frequency distortion
  • 6-15 KHz - air and presence
  • 9-15 KHz - adding will give sparkle, shimmer, bring out details - cutting will smooth out harshness and darken the mix

    Kicks:
  • 60Hz with a Q of 1.4 -- Add fullness to kicks.
  • 5Khz with a Q of 2.8 -- Adds attack to Kicks
  • Slap (4 kHz)
  • Cut below 60Hz to remove rumble
  • Boost between 80-125 Hz for bass
  • Boost between 3-5 kHz to get the slap
  • Compression 4:1/6:1 slow attack med release.


    Snares:
  • 200Hz-250Hz with a Q of 1.4 -- Adds woody sound to snares.
  • 3Khz with a Q of 1.4 -- Adds attack to snare.
  • 7Khz with a Q of 2.8 -- Adds sharpness to snares and percussion.
  • Fatness at 120-240Hz
  • Boing at 400Hz
  • Crispness at 5kHz
  • Snap at 10kHz
  • Cut at 100Hz to remove rumble
  • Compression 4:1 slow attack med release.

    Vocals:
  • Cut off below 60Hz, it's unlikely to contain anything useful, and takes away volume.
    Treat Harsh Vocals:
  • To soften vocals apply cut in a narrow bandwidth somewhere in the 2.5KHz to 4KHz range.
    Get An Open Sound:
  • Apply a gentle boost above 6KHz using a shelving filter.
    Get Brightness, Not Harshness:
  • Apply a gentle boost using a wide-band Bandpass Filter above 6KHz. Use the Sweep control to sweep the frequencies to get it right.
    Get Smoothness:
  • Apply some cut in a narrow band in the 1KHz to 2KHz range.
    Bring Out The Bass:
  • Apply some boost in a reasonably narrow band somewhere in the 200Hz to 600Hz range.
    Radio Vocal Effect:
  • Apply some cut at the High Frequencies, lots of boost about 1.5KHz and lots of cut below 700Hz.
    Telephone Effect:
  • Apply lots of compression pre EQ, and a little analogue distortion by turning up the input gain. Apply some cut at the High Frequencies, lots of boost about 1.5KHz and lots of cut below 700Hz.
  • Fullness at 120 Hz
  • Boominess at 200-240 Hz
  • Presence at 5 kHz.
  • Sibilants at 7.5 - 10 kHz

    Hats:
  • 10Khz with a Q of 1.0 -- Adds brightness to hats and cymbals
  • Sizzle (7.5 - 10 kHz)
  • Clank (200 Hz)
  • Boost above 5kHz for sharp sparkle
  • Cut at 1kHz to remove jangling
  • Compression use high ratio for high energy feel
  • Roll off everything below 600Hz using a High Pass Filter for clearness and 'ring'.
    Treat Clangy Hats:
  • Apply some cut between 1KHz and 4KHz.


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Last edited by kowalczyk on Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:11 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Good EQ guidelines

Postby thanatos » Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:05 pm

one big rule to know is that you is most of the time better to subtract than to add with digital
don't boost more than 2 Db and don't subtract more than 6 Db
A good mix is most of the time linked to sounddesign
If you have two bass you need one less to have room for other instruments

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Re: Good EQ guidelines

Postby kowalczyk » Wed Jul 30, 2014 5:31 pm

Good point, thanatos. Subtracting leaves more room for the overall volume to be lifted. Gives more energy.
I'll quote you for that in the top of the post ;)

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Re: Good EQ guidelines

Postby PEPCORE » Sat Aug 02, 2014 6:03 pm

Good topic man, yeah i remember that thread/post, was already some while back haha. I really still struggle with eqing and mastering. But ive also seen in some yt video that it is better to cut frequency than boost as said before.

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Re: Good EQ guidelines

Postby NetiNeti » Tue Aug 26, 2014 6:48 pm

Anything 90HZ and below in mono will make that bass come through way harder... for your health

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