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hello and welcome back to the channel
today we’re doing a mixing tutorial it’s
all about using eq specifically trying
to learn how to hear four different EQ
changes what you need to EQ what you
don’t need to EQ the idea is trying to
be very purposeful so that you’re not
just turning dials randomly and hoping
for the best so let’s just dive right in
I’m going to try and keep this video
really short clear and concise I’ve got
two examples to show you one’s some
acoustic guitar the other is a
electronic beat but this can be applied
to anything and it’s especially good on
vocals as well I’m going to be showing
with a graphic EQ with a visualizer and
also with an EQ without a visualizer as
well so you really get to use your ears
you’ve probably heard of the typical EQ
technique which is the boost and sweep
method where you just simply take a bail
filter you sweep around the frequencies
until you hear something you don’t like
and then you make a cut now this works
on a lot of material but I’ve been
finding over the last year that there’s
a technique that I prefer much more and
while this method of boosting and
sweeping is tried and tested I want to
do it quickly to show you one of the
limitations of this and where it keeps
catching people out so I’m going to play
the guitar I’m going to boost around and
then I’m going to cut anything out that
I don’t like and I’ll talk you through
every step that I’m doing so initially
let’s boost the top-end
just sounds really fizzy so I’m going to
take that down let’s boost up here so
I’m hearing a load of squeaks there so
again I’m just gonna take that down a
little bit now let’s go to the middle
that sounds really telephonic like an
old radio so I’m gonna take some of that
away and now I’m gonna go to the
low-mids and see what’s happening down
there
just sounds really really Bumi and this
is the problem with this technique so
I’ve punched a whole load of holes in my
guitar and I can say with confidence
that if your EQ curve looks like this on
an acoustic guitar a VOC or something
like that and it’s not just for the sake
of crazy sound design this is probably a
mistake so there are really no mistakes
but this is gonna result in a whole load
of problems trying to get it to fit into
the mix and the reason for this is that
if you boost almost any frequency by
five six DB I mean I’ve seen some
tutorials recommending boosting by ten
while sweeping if you boost any
frequency by that amount it almost
always sounds bad to me at least that’s
just the way my ears perceive it any
frequency range that I boost up by 10 DB
usually just sounds bad unless it’s for
some sort of crazy sound design or synth
effect so what I would recommend adding
to your tool kit to complement the
boosting and sweeping is actually just a
technique where you just start with the
cut and the idea is that you start by
cutting away a frequency and then trying
to find a place in the spectrum where
you can make quite a big cut and
everything still sounds pretty good so
I’m gonna do this and I’ll talk you
through what I’m doing
so in the top range here the guitar is
sort of sounding a bit underwater so I
want to avoid that again this just
sounds really muffled so I can’t make a
cut there
this mid-range here
to me the guitar just sounds like a load
of bottom end and although the top end
is so I don’t want to cut that and now
all of a sudden actually this still
sounds like a guitar it’s still lacking
some weight in the low end but it
actually sounds pretty good so what I
might do is just make a small cut around
there and it just balances things out
and then the only thing I might also add
to this is just quite a gentle gentle
high-pass slope and then all of a sudden
my guitar EQ might just sound like this
and actually to me at least in these
headphones right now that sounds pretty
balanced and I haven’t had to poke a
whole ton of holes and maybe if I want
to add a little bit of top-end
or fix a little resonance later I can
but to me, this was a lot more sensible
and it also gave me a feel for where the
important frequencies in my guitar were
for this sound that I was going for
and it turns out I didn’t need so much
of the low-end that I was maybe enjoying
whilst I was recording the guitar I’m
going to move on to my second example
with the full electronic beat in just a
moment but I wanted to say I was aware
that that was also quite a visual
process with the visualizer on the EQ
there and EQ should really be done with
your ears and as I was mentioning on my
free plug-in video this EQ here slick EQ
it really trains your ears because
there’s no visualizer
it’s a free plug-in by the way it’s
great you should go grab it I’ve just
turned off the low in the high band so
there’s this mid band that goes from 10
kilohertz all the way down to a hundred
Hertz so that’s that covers a very broad
spectrum here so what I’m gonna do is
the same technique you’ve simply got a
gain here so I’m gonna take the gain
down by maybe like 7 or 8 DB and then
I’m gonna sweep through the frequencies
and I’m just purely listening to what I
like the sound of or what I don’t and
all I’m doing is just looking for a
frequency here where the guitar sounds
balanced because that’s all I’m trying
to do with the EQ I’m just trying to
balance it out so it sounds less like a
microphone and just more natural and
balanced so let’s go press play
so this just sounds really unnatural
again really booming and fizzy and
there’s this sort of magic spot around
150-200 where the guitar just cleans up
but it is much too thin so I can just
dial back the gain a bit maybe around
five DBS and the great thing about at
least testing things out with an EQ like
this is that you are training your ears
so much more than your eyes I know that
we’re all guilty of tweaking effects
with our eyes a little bit more than
actually just listening out for them but
this EQ is the one where it really
trains me to listen for certain
frequencies moving on to the second
example here I’ll just let you take a
listen and then I’ll start doing the
sort of boost and sweep and you’ll hear
that in the context of a whole mix when
you boost a small frequency band it can
be really difficult to actually hear the
difference that something’s making when
you’re just adding a little bit extra on
to an already pretty full production so
let’s take a listen
in the top end there I’m hearing that I
am and drag in the hi-hats up I’m
dragging the sort of snap of the snare
up quite a lot but I don’t really know
if there’s a problem or if that’s just
because I’m boosting this part by 4 dB
so let’s keep sweeping around
I mean things are starting to sound
muddy around here but as well as muddy
I’m also pulling up quite a lot of punch
in the kick drum so let’s go down the
low end just a little bit and that just
sounds like too much it just sounds like
I’m distorting things and this is why
boost and sweep can be great but there’s
times it just doesn’t really work
whereas if I just make a cut in the
frequency spectrum you’ll suddenly hear
like whoa okay there’s a lot of
important stuff missing there I
shouldn’t be cutting that frequency away
so let’s take a listen the high hats are
all totally messed up
no good now if I cut in the middle
anywhere in the middle here this whole
mix just feels like lopsided like it
feels really heavy and the high hats are
really bright but there’s no like warmth
in the mid-range
and I found this frequency around 160
150 where actually I can make a bit of a
cut without the mix falls into pieces so
it may let me know that there’s
something building up there but I don’t
want it to look like this video is all
just about me cutting the low end it
just happens to be that case in these
two examples but it might be that my
high hats were like super bright and I
had to reduce those so a feature that I
would recommend also using to complement
this cutting technique is that many EQs
have the ability to solo a band the
frequencies and if you don’t I have a
free plugin in a moment that I’ll show
you how to do this with so in the ozone
EQ, for instance, you can just press alt
and then a left click and then it just
solos a little band like this and you
can widen that band by using the scroll
wheel on your mouse and what you could
be doing is like scrolling around this
thing okay this is 500 Hertz that’s what
that really sounds like okay move down a
bit Wow and you can hear like where the
punch is versus where the snap or like
the crunch of the kick drum is and you
can start really hearing what’s going on
in certain frequency bands the free
plugin that I’d recommend that you could
do the same thing with is span which
again I showed in my free plugins video
all you have to do is press ctrl + a
left-click and it does basically the
same thing just like this so let’s
listen to the whole thing and then I’ll
do that
and again you can raise it up to hear
more take it down to here lass scroll
around I really don’t want to drag this
video out any longer than it needs to be
the real basis of this technique is that
if boosting and sweeping isn’t working
for you you know if adding more doesn’t
help you find the problem maybe you need
to just take it away and then see what
you were missing or what you needed more
of and that’s you know sort of a
principle that can be applied to
anything in life you know sometimes if
there’s a problem you don’t need to go
into that problem even more and keep
fighting to find the problem sometimes
you actually just need to take things
away from your production take a step
back and then you can actually hear or
see the bigger picture so I hope you add
this to your toolkit and get a lot of
use out of it but thank you very much
for watching and I hope to see you in
the next video – bye for now
In this video, I share a simple EQ mixing tip which should help you use EQ with more purpose and clarity. This is primarily aimed at beginners and people who are struggling to hear distinction between frequency ranges. 0:00 – Topics Covered 0:45 – The issues with “Boost and Sweep” 2:45 – Subtractive EQ on Guitar 4:35 – Using Your Ears Only! 6:35 – Issues with ‘Boost and Sweep’ on Beat 7:45 – Subtractive EQ on Beat 9:15 – Soling Bands with EQ 9:55 – Soling Bands with SPAN 10:25 – Final Thoughts Free plugins video: https://youtu.be/EkVc1t_04j0 In this video I am weaing DT 1990 Pro Headphones

The video_title video was embedded from Youtube channel “”. Video source

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In The Mix is all about simplifying the recording, production, mixing and mastering process and helping you unlock your creativity.

No matter which DAW you use or what equipment you have, I’m determined to help you succeed.

I try to share as much as I can about the industry and give an insight into the world of music production and the business behind it by showing you how to release and sell your music online. Being an FL Studio Power User I also focus tutorials on getting the most out of FL Studio, My DAW of choice.

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About In The Mix

In The Mix is all about simplifying the recording, production, mixing, and mastering process and helping you unlock your creativity. No matter which DAW you use or what equipment you have, I’m determined to help you succeed. I try to share as much as I can about the industry and give an insight into the world of music production and the business behind it by showing you how to release and sell your music online. Being an FL Studio Power User I also focus tutorials on getting the most out of FL Studio, My DAW of choice. Micahel Wynne is a recording artist and mixing engineer with a passion for teaching (and instant ramen). In 2015 I discovered my enthusiasm for music and audio; I learned how to record and produce songs in my university student room with a just cheap laptop and FL Studio. After several months of working in audio sessions between school assignments, I decided to leave uni with a 2-year engineering diploma to pursue a career in music. I wanted to learn everything I could about the industry and the artistic process, so I started making original music as half of the duo “Miavono”. In late 2016 I began my journey on YouTube, sharing my knowledge and experiences with audio in the form of tutorials on “In The Mix”. I quickly grew a community of over 120,000 producers, artists, and audio professionals, a group of people whose passions aligned with mine. Last year I built my own home studio from the ground up in my back garden, set in the rural highlands of Scotland, and have since been supported by and involved with some of the greatest people in the industry.