This week we've been talking about mixing a lot.

I gave you an overview of the most important things to think about when you're mixing, then I showed you where you could find more multi-tracks than you would know what to do with, and then I talked to you about all the things to consider before you even start mixing.

Today we're going to be discussing one of the most important plug-in you have in your DAW, EQ.

EQ is all about creating space in the frequency spectrum for all the instruments in the mix.

You give one instrument a bit of this frequency, take a little bit of the same frequency out in another one that's clashing and that creates separation.

Everybody needs to fit in the playground so you need to find the right frequencies for each instrument so that they all play nicely together.

So here's what you do to get started.

Filter First

First things first, take out all the stuff you don’t need.

If you used the tips from yesterday about grouping together your instruments it's easy to filter out all the unnecessary information using only a few EQ plug-ins on the groups.

Here are the general guidelines to get started:

Filter Up to 100 Hz on most instruments except bass and kick drum. Also, if you have a piano or another low-end instrument such as a synth that you consider important in the lows then don’t filter that one as much.

Low-pass filter on instruments as well. This is an underutilized trick Anything that’s just hissy and loud like a rock guitar or even on kick drum to reduce bleed from the rest of the drums can focus your instruments. A good example can be heard with my low-pass filter with a resonant slope trick here.

Clean and Repair

Just like I talked about in yesterday's post, it's more fun to mix after you clean up your tracks. The same goes for EQ'ing, but in this case I mean cutting out the problematic frequencies that are causing resonances or add something negative (like boxiness) to the instruments.

Sweep around to find frequencies that pop out and make the instrument sound worse. This can be a weird resonance because you recorded it in a bad room that caused weird comb filtering or reflections to be introduced into the sound. Or it can just be the typical problems inherent in the recording, like boxiness in the kick drum for instance.

Sweep and Cut

When I hunt for problematic frequencies inherent in the sound, as opposed to cutting out frequencies to make room for other instruments, I tend to solo the track. People say you shouldn't solo and if you're trying to make things fit together in the context of the mix you need to hear the whole thing playing at once to do so.

But if you're repairing or cutting out stuff that's making the instrument itself sound bad then it's easier to do in solo. It's as simple as sweeping around the frequency spectrum with a bell curve EQ with a high curve and then cutting the annoying frequencies you find along the way.

Then it's a matter of going back to the mix as a whole and hearing how each instrument relates to each other. For instance, if you do the same sweeping around exercise in the guitar and all of a sudden the guitars feel really cluttered then you've probably found a frequency to cut in the bass to make room for the guitars. Then you just repeat the exercise with other instruments that need more room in the mix. 

Deciding Where Sounds Should Go

You usually have some choices as to where you want to accent each instrument. Take the kick drum and the bass guitar in the lows for instance. You might want to do the typical trick of boosting one frequency in the kick and then subtracting the same frequency in the bass. But which frequency should you choose?

That's really up to your taste as a mixing engineer and also the feel of the song. Is it the type of song where the kick is felt rather than heard? Then maybe a boost in 60 Hz is where the kick sounds the best.

The style of music can really dictate whether you want the bass guitar sitting on top of the kick or underneath the kick in the low frequency spectrum. And two mixing engineers might do two completely different things but still achieving a great mix. So at that point it's up to you, just as long as you still separate them in some way.

Sweeten the Mix With Some Character

Subtractive EQ is pretty boring. Effective, but boring. Sometimes you still need to add boosts to your instruments to really bring out the character. If a kick drum needs more weight then boosting the lows is the way to go. If the snare needs more attack then a boost in the higher mids is where you find it. If the guitars need more thickness you can bring it out in the low-mids (as long as you don't mask the bass guitar).

Rebalance to Bring Your Static Mix Back

After EQ'ing your whole mix it might be a little bit out of balance from the static mix you had before. At that point it's time to rebalance to get the mix back to where it was before, only now you can hear all the instruments better.

You can do this by rebalancing the faders or adjusting the output gain on your EQ. Depending on whether you used a lot of cuts or boosts you might need to either increase or decrease the output gain. When I use the Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 I tend to turn the automatic make-up gain on the EQ to make it easier on me but not all plug-ins have that option so you simply need to use your ears and adjust the mix accordingly.

Once your instruments are properly balanced (and rebalanced) in the frequency spectrum you should be able to hear everything much better. However, you might have some dynamics issues with some instrument being too loud in some parts and too quiet in others. You could always tackle that with automation on the fader but it’s more fun to give the mix some more character with compression.

That’s what we’ll be discussing on Monday. Be on the lookout for that email and we’ll keep discussing the five plug-ins you need to get a great mix.