A Weird, Counterintuitive EQ Trick to Clean Up Your Low End

Published: Wed, 06/07/17

Low-end clarity is a common problem for home studio musicians, so when I stumble upon a trick that works I feel like it's my duty to share it with you.

I've been working on a song with a band that found my site and hired me to mix their song. I don't work with all genres and styles of music but their song was definitely up my alley so I got excited about helping them out.

During the initial rough mix, I was trying to make the low-end thick and clean so I added a Pulteq EQ emulation (I use the PuigTec from Waves) on the master bus to see if I could get some power in the lows.

But instead of just adding or subtracting the low frequencies, I did both at the same time!

That's what's kind of weird about the Pulteq EQs. You can actually attenuate (cut) and boost at the same time.

This trick is often used on kick drums to get some power in the bottom end but it works great on the entire mix as well.

Here's a screenshot:

You would think this would cause weird phase issues and destroy your low-end but in this case, it did the exact opposite. It tightened everything up and made the low-end clean and out of the way, while still staying thick and powerful.

Try that out next time you're struggling with the low-end.

As you can tell, I'm constantly discovering new EQ tricks all the time. However, I've compiled most of my best ones inside EQ Strategies - The Ultimate Guide to EQ.

Check it out here:

www.EQStrategies.net

P.S.

Check out Chris Selim's Vlog from our One-Day Recording Challenge Session. We had a blast and accomplished a lot during the 6ish hours we were in the studio.

FRENCHIE VID #5 - Recording challenge with Björgvin Benediktsson