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How should I EQ my sounds?

When I create a trance song, one of the most time I spend on is EQing, and level adjustment...

So what are good rules of thumb on EQing a


1. Saw Lead
2. Kick
3. Baselines (mid/high/low)
4. Snare
5. Hi Hats
6. String
7. Vocals
8. Etc etc

Thanks!

-Nektarios

Re: How should I EQ my sounds?

quote:

Originally posted by nectario When I create a trance song, one of the most time I spend on is EQing, and level adjustment... So what are good rules of thumb on EQing a 1. Saw Lead 2. Kick 3. Baselines (mid/high/low) 4. Snare 5. Hi Hats 6. String 7. Vocals 8. Etc etc Thanks! -Nektarios

Kick Drum
low end thump: 80-120Hz
attack transient: 500Hz-1.5kHz

Snare Drum
body & fatness: 250-700Hz
snare rattle & bite: 1.5-6kHz

Hi-hats & Cymbals
cymbal body/metalwork: 300Hz-1kHz
sparkle: above 5kHz

Synth Pads
Depth & Warmth: 80-250Hz
Presense & Edge: 1.5-3.5kHz
Breathiness: 4.5-6kHz

Synth Leads
Depth & Body: 250-600Hz
Presense & Edge: 1-3.5kHz
Top-end Sear: 8kHz and above

Only what i am wondering is if its better to eq the percussion everything at once or each idividual percussion(kick,hatcymbals etc.)

BT said it best.... To shelf anything above 200hz thats not suppossed to be there... Leads efx pads etc... all that should be down there is bass/kick.

Damn I'm glad somebody asked that.

I know this may sound stupid, but I wish i could see the EQ settings BIKKEL mentioned visually for each part on how the eq should looks...

BUT THANKS BIKKEL!!!

Re: Re: How should I EQ my sounds?

quote:

Originally posted by BIKKEL Kick Drum low end thump: 80-120Hz attack transient: 500Hz-1.5kHz Snare Drum body & fatness: 250-700Hz snare rattle & bite: 1.5-6kHz Hi-hats & Cymbals cymbal body/metalwork: 300Hz-1kHz sparkle: above 5kHz Synth Pads Depth & Warmth: 80-250Hz Presense & Edge: 1.5-3.5kHz Breathiness: 4.5-6kHz Synth Leads Depth & Body: 250-600Hz Presense & Edge: 1-3.5kHz Top-end Sear: 8kHz and above Only what i am wondering is if its better to eq the percussion everything at once or each idividual percussion(kick,hatcymbals etc.)

Well, from were I read from other post's, it's best to Cut Freq, instead of Boost.. Anyone agree or dis-agree?

Thats exactly what frustrates me. (Boost or cut) For example, my saw lead in some small CD player sounds like crap (sounds like it's gated) but its not that way with professional trance songs...

Re: Re: Re: How should I EQ my sounds?

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Well, from were I read from other post's, it's best to Cut Freq, instead of Boost.. Anyone agree or dis-agree?

It really kind of depends. I usually will cut freq's first to bring an element out in a mix, for example, if my lead is being buried by the other tracks, I tend to cut them a bit instead of just arbitrarily boosting higher freq's. If that still doesn't do the trick, THEN I'll give it a little boost.

That are general basics , but my experience tells me its not always like since when you use a bassdrum sample the eq-ing is always different since mostly the sample have already been eqed.

You have to do it what sound write butsome tips like that list is alway as sort of helping manual.

Here's a question for Eqin. How many tracks do you EQ at once?

I'll give an example Layout.

Track 1 = Lead Arp
Track 2 = Main Bassline
Track 3 = Supplement Lead, or Other Element to compliment Lead
Track 4 = Kick Drum
Track 5 = Off Beat Bassline
Track 6 = Snare Drum or Claps
Track 7 = OHH
Track 8 = CHH
Track 9 = Shaker or other Percs

how would someone tackle this. Would you guys get the Kick's and Bassline sitting pretty with each other, and then work up to the Percs/Hi's, and then maybe the Lead's? or tackle it all in one wop, or some in a wop

And would you eq as your construct your song, or wait until the end?

I know it's all about pref, and creativity, but there has to be a formuala for the groundwork to go by.

Pappa


And Here's a hum-dinger for you, has anyone ever had this happen :

0:00-1:00 everything fits right, and then through out the song, what you had EQ, start's to not sit right?

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Here's a question for Eqin. How many tracks do you EQ at once? Pappa And Here's a hum-dinger for you, has anyone ever had this happen : 0:00-1:00 everything fits right, and then through out the song, what you had EQ, start's to not sit right?

I usually EQ each trach independantly, occasionally when everything is mixed down, I might EQ the final mix as well.

As for your hum-dinger, Yes, its happened, and envelopes are perfect for fixing this. Sometimes its a pain in the arse to set EQ envelopes for each band of each track, but the attention to details like that shows up in the final mix. Sounds more professional, and sounds like you care about what you're doing.

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Here's a question for Eqin. How many tracks do you EQ at once? I'll give an example Layout. Track 1 = Lead Arp Track 2 = Main Bassline Track 3 = Supplement Lead, or Other Element to compliment Lead Track 4 = Kick Drum Track 5 = Off Beat Bassline Track 6 = Snare Drum or Claps Track 7 = OHH Track 8 = CHH Track 9 = Shaker or other Percs how would someone tackle this. Would you guys get the Kick's and Bassline sitting pretty with each other, and then work up to the Percs/Hi's, and then maybe the Lead's? or tackle it all in one wop, or some in a wop And would you eq as your construct your song, or wait until the end? I know it's all about pref, and creativity, but there has to be a formuala for the groundwork to go by. Pappa And Here's a hum-dinger for you, has anyone ever had this happen : 0:00-1:00 everything fits right, and then through out the song, what you had EQ, start's to not sit right?

I first eq-ed every percussion on it self but this time i did it al in one and it sounded more pro.But maybe it can also be archieved with every perc. with eq.

Hihats have always to be eqed (if you want to eq) with a boost on high freq.

- I mostly eq the bassdrum because the bassdrums are mostly not as i want them.
- Shaker is same story as hihat since i useally use it as layering of hihat.
- Main Lead and Lead arp i think it's a must to eq it otherwise it will sound verry flat.
- Bassline is also good to eq it to give it some dynamics but i never but an compressor on it.I think you can only better do that when its strugling with the kick (try to avoid kick-on-bass bassline).

Thy will most likely follow this all up with a huge post making anything I say pointless, but oh well:

Cutting vs. Boosting : Better to cut than boost, definatly.
It isnt recommended that you cut or boost more than 3 dB.
Removing, or shelving off areas that are barely audible for a given sound is a good idea, e.g. high shelf at 20 khz, or cutting off the low end of a hi hat.

I personally use very little eq on everything, very small touch ups, nothing major, this seems to make everything sound warmer. The key is not always to eq to shit, but to ensure your levels are good. It's often necessary to adjust the levels of your elements throughout the song to ensure things come through as you intend. Its not always the best solution just to eq everything to hell and leave it like that. As different things are introduced, the needs of your eq's will change, don't you think? It would be hard for everything to sit perfectly together throughout the entire mix.

Eq'ing in groups is good, in my opinion, but I tend to stay away from eq'ing all of my percs at once. Maybe in groups of two or three is best for me. But thats just me.

BIKKELs table is good, use that to achieve what you want your stuff to sound like.

quote:

Originally posted by nectario Thats exactly what frustrates me. (Boost or cut) For example, my saw lead in some small CD player sounds like crap (sounds like it's gated) but its not that way with professional trance songs...

sounds like youre using an EQ that's not so good

it makes a big difference if you use a good or bad EQ, always remember that!

Cool, some good tip's to try out.

To All: what are good level's to try to achive with each indv sound for the most part? -6 on the Meter? I heard that if you make your ruff draft mix all around -6 that gives you room to boost if needed. Anyone heard of this, or have I lost peeps on what IM trying to explain.

Here's example

Kick Drum is going, and nonthing else.

my Hardware Mixxer Meeter is showing -6 or Green LED 6 before it get's to Yellow

and then say I add Snares. my level of Snares should sit right with the KickDrum, and maybe my Level as a total may go up to say 5 or 4 on the Green LED scale. as I add sounds, I guess just volume them in as they need to sit in the mix? Just asking how you guys do it.

Pappa

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa To All: what are good level's to try to achive with each indv sound for the most part? Pappa

I may be mistaken, but I don't think you can pick -6 or any other value as arbitrary. If I understand correctly, the Ideal spot for your meter to fall is going to be at the edge of red, but not in it, and that's going to be at a different level on some mixers.

On mine though, The best results I've gotten are from sending each set of tracks through a group send, then routing each of those sends to a master bus, then from there to the main. That way, I can process groups of tracks with the same effects, then process all the tracks at once, and then master. Doing it this way, I can have every track hitting the red, but I can cut further down the chain to eliminate clipping. You get a louder mix by using the main as your FINAL volume cut.

quote:

Originally posted by Pimp_fu I may be mistaken, but I don't think you can pick -6 or any other value as arbitrary. If I understand correctly, the Ideal spot for your meter to fall is going to be at the edge of red, but not in it, and that's going to be at a different level on some mixers. On mine though, The best results I've gotten are from sending each set of tracks through a group send, then routing each of those sends to a master bus, then from there to the main. That way, I can process groups of tracks with the same effects, then process all the tracks at once, and then master. Doing it this way, I can have every track hitting the red, but I can cut further down the chain to eliminate clipping. You get a louder mix by using the main as your FINAL volume cut.

Wow, interesting Idea, what kinda Mixing board do you have to do all that fancy shit? I just got an Behringer UB16622FX, I got it cheap, and it's something to get me started. Here is how my metter Reads.

Clip Clip
| 10 | <-- Yellow
| 7 | <-- Yellow
| 4 | <--- Yellow
| 2 | <-- Yellow
| 0 | <--- Green
| 2 | <-- green
| 4 | <-- Green
| 7 | <--- Green
| 10 | <---- Green
etc
etc

So, it's cool to go past 0 and get into the yellow?

Pappa

I'm actually not using a hardware mixer at all, I'm running Sonar 3 Producer and using a Radium49 keystation as the control surface. All of the routing is done internal to Sonar. The audio output faders
from each synth are assigned to a slider on the midi controller, busses are assigned to knobs, and the main is assigned to the data input slider. That way, I can control the levels on up to 16 faders plus the master.

The meters go From -39 at the bottom up to -3 by 3db intervals. 6 is where it hits red, and there is no yellow exactly, yellow only shows up if you're peaking in that zone, and then the value that you peak at is displayed under the meter in yellow lettering. There's a pretty good sized red zone above -6, but not numbered.

As for clipping in the yellow, I think that's going to depend on your gear, I can be pegging out every track AND the busses, and as long as the main isn't in the red much, I don't clip.

At this point I have problems EQ:ing my strings/pads. If I leave too much low frequencies, they start to interfere especially with my sub bass. If I EQ away most of the lower frequencies, they start to sound too thin, and especially on bigger monitors they almost disappear, while they can sound pretty okay on my Sennheisers.

quote:

Originally posted by BetaFactory At this point I have problems EQ:ing my strings/pads...

what are you using to eq them?

quote:

Originally posted by Pimp_fu what are you using to eq them?

Just a basic software parametric EQ. I also have a Fisher hardware EQ-unit, but I use it only for final output or what to call it, so count that one out.

If you want, export whatever to .wav and send it to me and I'll see if I can help you out.I've got about 12 different EQ plugins [email protected]

quote:

Originally posted by Pimp_fu If you want, export whatever to .wav and send it to me and I'll see if I can help you out.I've got about 12 different EQ plugins [email protected]

Which one do you like the best that you use?

quote:

Originally posted by Pappa Which one do you like the best that you use?

Sonitus FX Multiband and Cakewalk DSP-FX Parametric equalizer.

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