Sound Mixing Tips: EQ vs Volume
Here’s a tip for live mixing and mastering, but can probably be used in any area of audio recording: If you can’t hear an instrument, it’s probably because of its EQ – not its volume. Before you push up that volume fader, try boosting the instrument’s defining frequencies.
Here’s an example. I was mixing for our church, and the band was playing one of those numbers that relies heavily on the keyboard strings. The mix was fine otherwise, but you couldn’t hear the strings. The desk I was using had two mid-frequency pots, so I boosted the 250hz (low frequency) one until I could hear the strings. This brought out the full presence of the strings.
Increasing the volume wouldn’t have had the same effect. Each instrument has a frequency that defines it – especially in a mix. For strings on a keyboard, I’ve found that frequency at the low end. Not surprisingly, it’s the high end on acoustic guitars (usually 7-10khz and up).
Vocals are trickier, a whole subject on their own. I find that each person has their own ‘peak’ area that clears up their mix. Males are around 3-5khz and females at around 4-7khz.
To find the defining frequency, create a new peak and boost it until you can hear exactly what that frequency you’re dealing with. I usually go full ball here. Then sweep it up and down the frequency spectrum until you hear the instrument come out. Then take the peak down to a reasonable level.
Other posts you might find interesting:
Speaker Placement
High There?!
Panning for Gold
Live Sound, Monitors and Pepper Spray
Audio Recording in Ubuntu Studio – Part 1: Plan your Project
June 20th, 2011 at 1:16 AM
Hi, this is a great post. Thanks for the tip! Just curious if you find cutting frequencies for a specific track or instrument would also help it cut thru the mix or if one should just stick to boosting.
Also, could you explain more how to “create a new peak” in ardour. Not quite sure what that means.
Thanks in advance!
June 20th, 2011 at 9:43 AM
Hi Djcj,
A nice way of thinking about this is to use a 5-lane highway analogy. Imagine that each frequency is a lane of the highway. Whilst each instrument has specific frequencies that it sounds good at, it can have all frequencies in it. So in terms of the analogy, if each instrument is EQ’ed badly, they will all take up several of the lanes and hence be competing for the same space (as you can imagine this would be a disaster). But if you use the same highway, but allow each instrument to only occupy the lane that it sounds good in, each instrument would come through clearly. i.e. electric guitars sit in the mid range, vocals are a combo of treble and bass, etc.
Note, if you are working with two intruments that occupy the same space naturally, eg. kick drum and bass guitar, choose two different bass frequencies to boost, i.e. boost the bass at 80 Hz and the kick drum at 100 Hz. This way they are both bassy but each have their own space. Using volume would not be enough to divide these two similar instruments. One could also use panning, but that’s another discussion. I do have an article on panning so check it out.
We “create a peak” in order to find each instrument’s sweet spot. So whilst you’re doing your sound check, create a filter that has one sharp peak, i.e. one frequency that is boosted whilst the others are not. Then slide this peak through all the frequencies, from bass to treble and you should hear where the good sound is hiding (sweet spot). Once you’ve found this, you know that this instrument must occupy that sound space and other instruments must avoid it. The peak itself is not used for the final mix but rather just to find the sweet spot then you EQ around it.
I hope that makes sense, and that it clears things up a bit. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Later,
Brian