UNDERSTAND EQ

HERE IS A VERY HELPFUL OVERVIEW OF FREQUENCIES

Although these definitions were clearly compiled for rock music, with a little bit of abstraction they can be applied to any sound used – even in the electronic realm.

The “low end” is the weakness of many home studio mixes, and the same applies here: if you can’t hear exactly what you’re doing, you should avoid extreme settings.

Popular: dull bass drums, completely filtered out bass, exaggerated “crisp” hihats and cymbals.
Not only does this usually mean that it doesn’t sound good, but you can no longer cut it on vinyl.

It’s best to print them out and hang them up in the studio – have fun!

BASSDRUM

“Mud frequencies” can be lowered at 300Hz.
Try a small boost at 5-7kHz for presence.
50-100Hz – defines the depth
100-250Hz – makes the sound “round”
250-800Hz – “mud” range
5-8kHz – Presence
8-12kHz – Sibilance

SNARE

Try boosting at 60-120 Hz if the sound is too weak.
6KHz for a crisper sound.
100-250Hz – Fullness
6-8kHz – Presence

HIHATS AND CYMBALS

Again: lower the muddiness at 300Hz.
To bring in brilliance, boost a little at 3 kHz.
250-800Hz – mud range
1-6kHz – Presence
6-8kHz – Definition
8-12kHz – Brilliance

BASS

Try boosting at 60Hz to define more “body”.
Mud at 300Hz.
If the sound needs to be more present, boost at 6kHz.
50-100Hz – gives depth
100-250Hz – makes the sound rounder
250-800Hz – Mud
800-1kHz – “meat” on smaller speakers
1-6kHz – Presence
6-8kHz – treble presence
8-12kHz – Sibilance

PIANO

Who would have thought it, lower the 300Hz 🙂 and raise the 6kHz for definition.
50-100Hz – Body
100-250Hz – “round”
250-1kHz – Mud
1-6kHz – Presence
6-8Khz – Clarity
8-12kHz – “stringiness”

E-GUITARS

Again, it all depends on the mix and the recording. Either cut or boost the 300Hz range, depending on the song and the guitar sound. “Edge” at 3kHz boost, or transparency by lowering this frequency. Boosting at 6kHz brings presence and boosting at 10kHz brings brilliance.
100-250Hz – Body
250-800Hz – mud range
1-6Khz – comes through well in the mix
6-8kHz – Clarity
8-12kHz – Sibilance

ACUSTIC GUITAR

Look for and attenuate muddy frequencies between 100 and 300Hz. Small cuts between 1-3kHz help to shift the sound image further upwards. Boosting at 5kHz leads to greater presence.
100-250Hz – Body
6-8kHz – Clarity
8-12kHz – Brilliance

STREICHER

Completely dependent on sound and mix.
50-100Hz – Depth
100-250Hz – Body
250-800Hz – mud range
1-6hHz – “crunchy”
6-8kHz – Clarity
8-12kHz – Brilliance

VOCALS

Difficult, because it depends entirely on the mic used.
Anyway: the usual 300Hz, but either boost or cut depending on the mic and song.
Boost very little at 6kHz to increase clarity.
100-250Hz – brings the voice forward
250-800Hz – Mud

100HZ

Boost to create a harder bass sound for the lowest-frequency instruments.
Boost to give guitars and snare more fullness.
(Rock)
Raise to warm up piano and brass sounds.
Attenuate to make boomy guitars clearer.

200HZ

Boost to make vocals fuller.
Boost to make snare and hard guitar sound fuller.
Lowering to avoid muddiness of vocals or mid-range instruments.
Lowering to eliminate the “gong sound” of cymbals.

400HZ

Boost to give the bassline clarity (especially when listening quietly).
Lowering to minimize the “cardboard sound” of bass drum and toms.
Lowering to reduce the room sound on overheads and cymbals.

800HZ

Boost to increase the clarity and “punch” of the bass.
Lower the volume to avoid a cheap guitar sound.

1.5KHZ

Boost to emphasize the crispness and clarity of the bass.
Attenuation to make the guitar sound less muffled.

3KHZ

Raise to make bass more defined.
Boost for more “attack” on guitars and low piano parts.
Boost to make voices clearer/harder.
Lowering to get an airy, soft sound from background vocals.
Lowering to conceal out-of-tune guitars/vocals.

5KHZ

Lifting for vocal presence
Boost to give bass drums more attack (also toms).
Raise to bring out plucking noises in the bass.
Boost to increase the “attack” of piano, acoustic guitar.
Lower to make the elements in the background appear “further away”.
Lowering to make quiet guitars softer.

7KHZ

Boost to give (bass) drums a more metallic sound (NuMetal).
Boost to give percussion sounds more attack.
Boost to make muffled vocals clearer.
Raise to make the double bass more defined.
The S frequency of the most votes.
Boost to make synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic guitars and piano “sharper”.

10KHZ

Boost to make vocals more brilliant.
Boost to make acoustic guitar and piano more gently brilliant.
Raise to make the pelvis “harder”.
Lowering for an overall less sharp S-sound for vocals

15KHZ

Boost to make vocals “airier”.
Raise to make cymbals, strings and flutes more “expensive”.
Boost to make samples sound more “real”.

AND THIS IS ALSO HELPFUL:

Subbass: everything below 50Hz

Bass drum and bass usually take up the most space in this area.
Sub bass is one of the reasons why maxi singles came on the market: low frequencies need much wider grooves – so you have to cut everything below 50Hz on long albums or 7″ singles.
We recommend NOT boosting in this range unless you have REALLY good studio speakers.
It’s a common mistake that leaves you wondering why the record sounds 10dB quieter than others…

Bass: 50-250Hz

This is where most “bass” controls on stereo systems intervene, although nowadays the bass range is between 90 and 200Hz (with the above-mentioned boosts in the “presence” frequencies.

muddiness/”irritating” range: 200-800Hz

The “most popular” reason for dull and undefined sounding mixes – hence the term “irritating range”.
Most frequencies around this range can lead to psychoacoustic problems: if too many sounds dominate here, the mix quickly becomes annoying, so that you want to finish quickly or boost an exaggerated amount of highs to conceal this, even if the sounds used don’t want to sound like that.

Mid-range (presence): 800-6kHz

The human ear is extremely sensitive in this range, and even a 1dB boost will result in a big change in sound – as if you were to boost 10dB in other ranges!
This is because our voices are located in this area of the frequency spectrum – that’s why you can hear more accurately here than
elsewhere.
Most telephones are loudest around 3kHz because this is where speech intelligibility is greatest.
Work very carefully here, especially with vocals.

Treble: 6-8kHz

This is where the “treble” controls on the average stereo system come into play.
Boosts in this area make the sound artificially more brilliant – one is inclined to say “more real” if one is not careful when mastering.

Highest treble: 8-20kHz

This range is dominated by the high frequencies of cymbals and hihats – but boosting can result in a “more expensive” hi-fi sound.
In any case, only boost very carefully here too – and on good speakers.
The ear tires quickly with too many “high trebles” and you should always have a reference CD to hand.