Magic Frequencies Mag ic Frequencies Editors’ Note: The following excerpt from "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" by engineer Bobby Ousinski discusses how EQ can affect different fequencies in an Jaudio mix. A Tips and Tricks section at the the end features various professional longinoors offering thoir porspoctive on EQ tochniquos. Before we examine some methods of equalizing. it's importantto note the areas of ihe audio band and what effect they have on whet we hear, The audio band can lefiectively be broken down into six distinct ranges. each one having enormous Impact on the total sound. + Sub-Bass — The very low bass between 16Hz and 60Hz that encompasses sounds that are ofen felt more than heard, such as thunder in the cistance. These Frequencies give the music a sense of power even if they occur intrequently. Too much emphasis on this range makes the music sound muddy. + Bass —The bass between 60Hz and 260Hz contains the fundamental notes of the rhyihm section, so EQing this range can change the musical balance, making it fat or thin. Too much boostin this range can make the music sound boomy. + Low Mds — The midrange betwoon 260H2 and 2000H2 contains the low order harmonics of most musical Instruments and can introduce a telephone-Ike qualily to te music if boosted too much. Boosting the 500Hz to 1000H2 octave makes the instruments sound hom-like, while boosting the 1kHz to 2kHz octave makes them sound tinny. Excess oulput in this range can cause listening faligue. ‘High Mids — The upper midrange between 2kHzand 4kHz can mask the important speech recognition sounds ifboosted, intoducing a lisping quality into a voice ané making sounds formed with the lips such as “m,""b" and ‘V'indisiinguishable. Too much boost in this range — especially at 3kHz— can also cause listening fatigue. Dipping the 3kHz range on instrument backgrounds and slightly peaking 3kHz on. vocals can make the \oca's audible without having to decrease the instrumental level in mixes where the wice would otherwise seem buried. + Presence — The presence range beween 4kHz and kHz is responsible for the dlarily and definiion of wices and instruments . Boosting this range can make the music seem closer to the listener. Reducing the 5kHz content of a mix makes the sound more distant and transparent. + Briliance — The 6Hz to 18kHz range controls the brilliance and clarityof sounds. Too much emphasis in this range, however, can produce sibilance on the vocals: ae ia Ha —“Eqution The Ht, Mot Sind Spann of acre Hr” Racring gine atin, Vel 3, Mab 6, NestaMagic Frequencies For hase of you whe have an eager time visualizing the audio spacirum in one-octave increments (like those found on a graphic equalizer, he'san ociave lookat the sme chart. Easy-ToRemomber Golden Rules Of EQ 4. If it sounds mudsy, cut ‘some at 25048. 2 Wit soundshoniy, cut some at 500HE. 3, Cutityou'e thing to ‘make things sound better 4, Boost if you're tying to ‘make thinge sound iflerent, 5. You can'tbeos ‘something that'snot there Inthe fri place. athe Fumble, “cheat He Batiom 125K Boom, thump, warmth 250K Fullness or mus 00H Henk ‘Khe Whack KH ccunen aKHe Edge ake Sitilance,detiniton, “oven! 416 Kis air Tricks and Tips Genera! Tipe INSTRUMENT _| MAGIC FREQLE NCKES Use a narrow @ (banowiath) when Semen [Baer A Olmak OO ap cutting: use wide Q's when boosting vue goon wu vue; balmomana wn poe Ifyou want something to stick out, roll off the bottom : if you want it to blend in, roll off the top. For Snare — To find the ‘point’ on the snare, boost the uppor midrange starting at about +5 or 6dB at 2kHz or so. Open up the bandwidth (i that parameter is available) Until you get the snare to jump out, hen tighten the bandwidt until you get only tho part of the snare sound that you want most. Then fine-tune the frequency unt you need the least amount of boost in ‘order to make it jump out of the mix. For Drums— Dave Pensado: A jot of the music| do has samples in it and that gives the ase Farnese 120- 210H bog at DOE: ign Bite ene a Te Fusoassat 240~ 200 anach w= 7042 hte for dx12 cabinet cured Feoaasot Ove: body a 210% presence a? Sete Regn tale w HE producer the lusury of pretty much getting the sound he wanted from the start. In the old days you always pulled out a little 400 on the kick drum. You always added a lito 3 and 6 to the toms. That just dosn't happen as much any more because when | get the tape, even with Ive bands, the producer's already triggered the sound he wanted off the live performance and the drums are closer. For Bass — The ratio between the low bass (80~120Hz) and the mid-bass (130Hz-200Hz) is Important. Try using wo fairly narrow peaking bands, one at 100Hz and another at 140Hz and boost one and cut the other. If the bass is to warm, sometimes reducing the upper band can make it more distinct without removing the deeper fundamentals thatlive in the 100Hz band. Aso, ty boosting some of the 1kHz area since this is, where a lot of tho sound of the Fender kass lives.Magic Frequencies For Fatter Guitars — Boost micrange a lot (948 or so) and sweep the frequencies until you hear the range where the guitar sounds thick but yet still bright enough to cut through. Now, back the boost down to about +4 or so until the guitar cuts through the mix without being too bright, Don Smith: | use EQ different from some people. | don't just use it to brighten or fatten something up; | Use it to make an instrument feel better. Like on a guitar, making sure that all the strings on a guitar can be heard. Instead of just brightening up the high strings and adding mud to the low strings, | may look for certain chord to hear more of the A string. Ifthe D sting is missing in a chord, like to EQ and boost it way up to +8 or +10 and then just dial through the different frequencies until | hearwhat theyre doing to the guitar. So I'm trying io make things more balanced in the way they lay with other instruments For Vocals— Boosta litle at 125Hz to 250Hzto accentuate the voice fundamental and make it more “chesty™-sounding. ‘The 2kHzto 4kHz range accentuates the consonants and makes the vocal seem closer to the listener Ed Seay: On 2 vocal sometimes | think, ‘Does this vocal need a diet plan? Does he nead to lose some flab down there?” Or sometimes, “We need some weight cn this guyso let's add some 300 cycles and make him sound a litte more imporiant” David Sussman: If 'm recording vocals , | like to roll off quite a bit on the botiom end so the compressor doesn’t start kicking in and bringing up any low end rumble or noise. If I'm EQing a piano or something that's already been recorded, | sometimes roll off a loto! the bolom so | leave a lot of room for he bass and the kick drum to occupy. A lot of times | don't need anything under probably 100H2 I'll do some rolling off with the fiers and then I may take a bell curve and zone in cn a couple ofother wooly areas on certain instruments. Dave Pensado: | think of EQ as an effect much the same way you would add chorus oF reverb to a particular instrument or vocal. Like, | might have a vocal where | think its really EQed nicely and then I'l add a litle more 3k justto get it to bite a litle more. Then it just makes me feel lke the singer was tying harder and it brings outa litle bit of passion in his or her voice. So | tend to be most effective when | do the standard equalizing, then taka it to the nex leval, thinking of it as an effect. Source: A\tis Pro Related sites: © Digital Post Production e Digital Pro Sound Digital Producer Related forums: «