EQing part 1/3: knowing your EQ
I EQ things for my living, every single workday of the year, and have done so for 11+ years (technically I've been EQing things since 2000 or so: I started making music in 1992, but there were no EQ in software back then, ha!)
EQ is by far the most meaningful tool in my work, and I've always said, mixes are mostly good EQ work and levels, and the rest is extra.
An EQ series starts here. To keep it all somewhat easy to digest, I will split the series into three parts.
In this first episode, I cover why I mostly use one EQ, the many different ways I use it, and I go thru all the features in it that are important in my daily work.
In other words, you want to know your EQ well.
I cover basics but also deeper stuff like dynamic EQing, spectral EQing and what the difference between minimum phase and linear phase is and when to use either.
Episode 2 will dive into using these features in actual client mix scenarios.
Episode 3 will tell you what frequency ranges to mostly look for when EQing different sounds.
We have a lot to do, so let's go…let's EQ!
Comments (7)
Hey Fanu ! loved your EQ tutorial and the linear phase/ zero latency EQ part was really interesting ! But I don't understand one part : when working on a master EQ you said that you prefer using linear phase EQ that doesn't alter the phase and would not destroy the phase relationship between the kick and bass for example. A linear phase EQ bell boost in the lows would change the phase of the kick+bass, but by the same amount (as both are processed at the same time) so both will stay in phase no ? I don't see the con using zero latency on a master EQ
Thank you for this EQ series, please cover more practical examples of how to setup the q for cutting hats resonances at 2k+, sometimes its hard to determine whether to apply a few sharp Q for specific frequencies cut or just simply a few wide cut to handle the harshness. Overdo it, the hats sound thin. Underdo it, they sound harsh. And what instruments you think are the hardest to EQ? Looking forward to Ep2.
Yessir, good thoughts there. More will come, practical examples etc!
Regarding the sidechaining of frequencies, would you reach for soothe instead because it’ll automatically detect clashing frequencies and sidechain them accordingly?
I use Soothe as kick/bass sidechain for subs quite often; really easy to set up and really tidy in that regard. I also use it sometimes for taming some specific harsh spots. It's a great tool! I don't always agree with it, and there's been times when I think "Really? You're really not catching THAT?" so it is a tool, and to use it well, you have to know where you'd want to use it :)
My audio only mix-downs in Ableton on my 16gb Macbook Pro M4 get laggy AF once I start using multiple instances of Pro Q-4 that are using side-chain spectral EQ. Quite annoying trying to finish the mix when what you're seeing doesn't match what you're hearing lol. I start freezing channels but it doesn't seem to help much. I've tried troubleshooting a bunch of things to no avail. Something I just have to live with?
Oh wow - sorry to hear that. I also have an M4 machine (Mac Mini) and I can't make it cough with anything. Maybe the combo of sidechain + spectral has some quirk in the code? Might be worth asking Fabfilter and see what they think? Might even try different formats (VST, AU etc) to see if it helps; different issue, but I've found that VST3 versions of Pro-MB doesn't scale the elements, and its controls look real tiny, while AU is great. PS: Oh you mean visually lagging? That's a "feature" of Ableton with many plugins that introduce latency! Some plugins like SPAN correct the visual side, but many do not.