Find and Eliminate Ugly Frequencies in Your Mix - The Master EQ Trick

[@B3nJam1n128]

Great Tutorial! I needed a process to follow for Mixing. Still training my ears. Thank you!

[@steevmsteevm]

I found this was a really good way of learning to hear the different frequency ranges; before I started doing this, my idea of what "200Hz" sounds like (as an example) was very different from what it actually sounds like. Being able to sweep through the frequencies and listen to each area in isolation helped me be able to listen to tracks and identify problematic frequency ranges by ear with pretty decent accuracy after a while.

[@B3nJam1n128]

@@steevmsteevm Thanks for the tips!

[@thebarf9235]

Nice one. This really showed how to find and eliminate the noisy frequency.

[@steevmsteevm]

Thanks for the feedback! I saw your other comment (which I think you since removed) about sweeping in SPAN. I'm thinking you probably saw it, but I replied to another similar comment that you can't navigate the project with the sweep in place if you do it that way. So while it's useful functionality for a momentary check, there's a downside. Having a separate EQ that you can toggle on/off means you can actually track down the source of a particular issue while still zooming in on the frequency area.

[@thebarf9235]

@@steevmsteevm I removed my comment primarily because I saw that someone else had already brought up the SPAN sweeping function making my comment redundant. I think people should know the function is available because it's useful for spot checking frequencies, at least. I see your point though. It would be better if the function was toggle on/off.

[@thebarf9235]

@@steevmsteevm I'll also add that the function provides a quick and easy way to practice ear training.

[@steevmsteevm]

@@thebarf9235 Absolutely! It's got its uses.

[@patiencezero1025]

I make many genres too, but it often fallows classic rock band structure. 3 guitar 2ryth 1lead. Even if the rythems are not guitars I have my temple set up like this. A main piano bass, and a live stream mic.

[@steevmsteevm]

I think the real test is always going to be: does it save you time? I found that I'd never stick to my templates and end up replacing things, which made them seem totally pointless as I was redoing most of the stuff from scratch for each track. In other words, I wasn't saving any time. I have added a couple of routings to external gear to my template in the meantime though. That saves me a little bit of hassle setting everything up if I want to use that external gear. I'm guessing that's similar to you having the mic set up and ready to go. I don't do that with guitars though. I've got 8 inputs linked to guitars on my interface because they're all connected to different bits of guitar gear, so it really depends on what setup I'm using which inputs I need. Having 8 inputs active in the mixer when I really only need 1 or 2 seems like a waste of mixer channels to me :D

[@Gloomer2000]

Great tutorial, helped me a lot, but there are still a few things I don't understand. Bit by bit then, thanks man. :-)

[@steevmsteevm]

You'll get there...

[@Vymix]

good stuff, thanks for the help!

[@yimwav]

Great tutorial, ty sm

[@steevmsteevm]

Thanks, glad it was useful.

[@ElitroMusic]

Ty

[@steevmsteevm]

yw, Dorito :P

[@bugman9763]

For the frequencey balance, it's well, but for the Emotion I think it lost some wild feeling，I think this is mixing by your ears not just eyes~

[@steevmsteevm]

I don't really miss the high pitched noise stuff that amp sims tend to add to the guitar, it really tends to give you a huge build up of horrible content somewhere around 4-5 KHz. I personally don't like that noise sound, especially when there are 12 guitar tracks with it on. Originally, all guitar tracks had a huge mass of noise here that needed taming. For the video, I think I just turned off the EQ I had put on the 2 heavy guitar tracks so I could to the "before" and "after" comparison. So that whistling sound from the amps would be a lot more present if I turned off the EQs on all the guitar tracks. While you're right that you don't want to mix with your eyes. I think it's a great way to do a deep dive into your mix before you've reached the point where you can simply listen to a mix and know what frequencies are dominating it. It takes a while to train your ears that way, and I personally found this a great way of doing that. The spectrum analyser on a slow setting really helps to identify whether there are build ups in particular areas. Soloing those areas to listen to what is going on there with the EQ helps train your ears to recognise the sound of those specific frequencies in isolation. Try toggling the EQ on and off and trying to pick out the frequencies in the full mix, once you've had them soloed and now what you are listening for. Of course, you don't have to make any changes if you don't think there's an issue. I would prefer the takeaway here to be that you can use this method as a way to learn the sound of different frequency ranges and to zoom in on potential problem areas, listening to what is really going on in that range. As you do this more and more, you will be able to do it without needing the EQ band and without needing to look at the analyser, because your ears will be trained to know what sound to listen for. Also try doing a sweep from low to high across each section of your track, listening to what is going on in each frequency range. I found that prior to doing this, my guess (and that's really all it was) as to what frequency a sound was was quite a bit off what frequency it really was. Now, I can listen to a mix and say "there's a lot of 200-400Hz content" without the analyser and just using my ears. That's something I learnt from using this technique. So don't use it as a crutch, use it as a tool.

[@bugman9763]

@@steevmsteevm yeah，I agree with you， haha，some words I didn't say，I mean everyone have different feeling about same sound，so this is the answer of “use your ears more than eyes”，and this makes so many different mixing engineers. So “lost wild feeling” just for me，I‘m not deny the techniques，just want to comminicate with you~

[@cholkymilkmirage4984]

joey stirgis talks about the 8k vs 3.5-4.5k frequency. Around 4k its so harsh and its good to go there and check if it needs cutting. If you want that energy back just bump some slight 8k

[@kiko8u]

Great advice, i believe you can do the sweep directly on your masters instance of spam. Is there a reason why you specifically did it like that on the eq before the limiter?

[@steevmsteevm]

The limiter isn't doing anything to the track. It is simply there to prevent the final output from going above 0dB before the signal hits my speakers. The signal to my soundcard is 24-bit, so it can go above 0dB; it's a safety feature to protect my ears. I made a video about it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5OknZqJZ9Grn7c

[@7fifty7]

You can just press ctrl click on span. And it will solo the frequency in span as well. You dont need even need toggle

[@steevmsteevm]

@7FIFTY7 You're going to have a hard time doing that while navigating the project though... (unless there's a way to lock it I'm unaware of)

[@7fifty7]

@@steevmsteevm yeah it solos and allows you to hear and sweep the problem frequency then you just adjust it in the EQ

[@steevmsteevm]

​@@7fifty7 But how do you lock it so you can navigate? I always though that it was just as long as you hold down Ctrl and click. Or put another way, how do you keep the frequency selection while you use the mouse for other things?

[@kruppelfield]

Can we get the raw multitrack?

[@steevmsteevm]

Hmmm, why do you want them? I have made the stems available for this track and others in the past, but generally to other users on the IL forums that I've had longer contact with. There's a ska version of the track here (kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKGpopetaN1llbc) that only uses the vocal stems, but I did send all the stems. Thing is, it's not necessarily that simple - for a start, I've used VSTs for all the amps, which means that rendering out the stems with the FX off gives you the dry DI of the guitars; figuring out what effects in the mixer to leave on is actually a royal PITA and a bit of a chore; and I've done some slightly weird things for a couple of the tracks that can't really be replicated using stems, unless you bounce out the groups. And then you'd need the FX for it to work. That's one of the things about doing everything in one project, it makes disassembling it a little tricky as the routing can be integral to some of the parts. There's also some light sidechaining on the lead guitar at the end (ducking it when the vox play), although that's probably not a big deal, as it's pretty subtle. So rendering out stems that actually make sense and don't have all the EQ baked in isn't as simple as just turning all the FX off/rendering without insert effects. It involves going in there and turning off effects on a case-by-case basis depending on the end goal. That sounds like a fair bit of effort that isn't likely to be a whole lot of fun :) But I'm not averse out of principle.

[@AidenOfficialChannel]

limiter on master 😭😭😭😭

[@steevmsteevm]

Yeah, protect your stuff in case you go too loud by mistake!

[@AidenOfficialChannel]

@@steevmsteevm you cant go too loud by mistake bro just tweak with volumes on the mixer pls 😭

[@steevmsteevm]

@@AidenOfficialChannel Obviously, but if you turn on your synth or whatever it its really loud, it's already too late by the time you realise that. That's why you protect the signal on the master.

[@steevmsteevm]

@@AidenOfficialChannel Course you can, it's basic maths. Just load up Harmor in a busy track ;) It's generally considered good practice to have a limiter on the master, albeit have it not doing anything. It's only there "in case".

[@AidenOfficialChannel]

@@steevmsteevm and thats called laziness dood

[@nebroskitheraut6705]

Imo you went a bit overboard; it sounds cleaner but it lost a little tiny bit of character.

[@steevmsteevm]

That might be true - I didn't replicate the actual setting I have in the "final" project, just made some rough cuts on the EQ in a similar area to convey the basic idea. You can always check out the final version of the track (kzbin.info/www/bejne/fISwZJKalLWogbs) and see if you think the same applies to the official final render. The feedback I got for that was overwhelmingly positive. I still think it's better (i.e. less harsh) - even with the quick hack. You should hear what is sounds like if you don't cut that area on all 15 distorted guitar tracks (or however many there are)! A wall of fizz! :D