One common EQ problem on an overall mix is harshness.

Usually, you're so scared of the low-mids and causing muddiness that you end up adding too much of the high-mids to compensate.

This happened to me this week actually.

And the solution to the harshness was something that is scary to think about, in theory.

You see, the overall mix was really aggressive and punchy, but it was still slightly piercing when I turned it up.

Our ears are most sensitive in the 1 - 4 kHz area so if your mix has a lot of high-mids it will sound painful if you turn it up too loud. Your ears just can't handle it.

The thing was, I wanted to turn it up! 

So I did something I didn't think would sound good but absolutely saved the entire mix. It kept all the aggressiveness of the punk band in there while leaving your ears unharmed.

In fact, the band thought the song sounded so good they didn't even ask for a single revision! That's pretty rare.

You know what I did? It was simple really, and I'll tell you all about if you purchase my brand new....

...Just kidding :) Not even I can be that sales-y!

No, I just added a wide cut of 2.4 dB around the 3 kHz area. I thought this would make the mix sound muddy and lack clarity and presence.​​​​​​​