The three principles of Eq

Equalizing is a confusing thing. It's an endless subject and many people are confused by all the numbers and slang surrounded by it. 

Here I will expand on these three principles and prepare you to spend the rest of your mixing career utilizing them in every way possible.

Equalization is used on every track in modern recording. There is always something added, cut or filtered. Boost this frequency, put a notch filter on that, filter out the high end etc. 

There's a lot of jargon that comes with trying to become a recording engineer. Jargon that's actually pretty funny when you get into it.

But what does all that jargon mean?

What are the principles of Eq'ing? For the beginners it can be pretty daunting to hear the producers talking about filtering the guitar, high-cutting the bass guitar and giving the vocal more presence in the mix. So here are a few principles to equalizing.

Filtering

• Filtering means completely cutting out a frequency from a certain frequency. Filters cutting out the low or high frequency are the most common, and are called either High-pass filters/Low Cuts or Low-pass filters/High-cuts. 

• Other filters include band-pass filters and notch filters who either only leave the desired frequency and cuts all the other(band-pass) or completely cuts out one certain frequency(notch)

Boosting/Enhancing

• Repairing problematic sounds are done with subtractive EQ, meaning that you find the problem frequency and cut down on it either completely eliminating it or reducing it until it ceases to be a problem.

Repairing/Cutting

• Sometimes recorded instruments need a bit more shine in the mix. Adding to certain key frequencies in a sound source can make them more present or add certain characteristics to the sound source. Examples include adding a lot of 2-4 Khz for a metal-type kick drum or 5 Khz to make the vocal more present.

Equalizing, with compression is often the first step mixers take when they start mixing a song. And in a way, using only these three principles, these hot-shot mixers go a long way to making that mix sound amazing.

In the mixing page you will able to find more tips on equalizing or if you are all set you can continue reading about the other aspects of mixing.

Do you need to EQ a vocal track? Click here

Go back to the mixing page for more information