Subtractive EQ Using Instrument Frequency Charts

In this video, ‪@EricDavidSmith‬ will demonstrate some techniques that he uses to clean up a mix and allow room for other instruments. More specifically, we will be using a technique called "Subtractive EQ'ing" which basically removes the unused frequencies of instruments. This creates an overall better balance and will make your mixing process much easy to work with.
It is important you do not JUST remove frequencies because people tell you to do this. Only cut what needs to be cut and boost what needs to be boosted. You obviously need to trust your ears and your listening environment first and foremost.
Follow along with this helpful interactive instrument frequency chart below and be sure to use this technique in your next mix alexiy.nl/eq_chart

[@TewwaTekle-1]

this video is just amazing. I never understood frequency charts before. This video made it all clear. Thank you.

[@RallyDon82]

awesome it sounded great before and even greater after the eq, its amazing what subtractive eq can do.

[@deanjoseph25]

Fantastic video. Definatly noticed a big difference in regards to sound placement during the 'before and after' test

[@hobodivine]

15:15 Yes! Thank you for asking. Great demo.

[@BETHEONE77]

Thanks so much! I didn't understand this for the longest time and you made me understand. Had to subscribe :)

[@iangibson3000]

Hey brother, this is a really awesome video. Thanks for sharing, the perspective that you gave, I never really thought much about it, I had always looked for tutorials on the frequency chart and found nothing, then decided to look yesterday and found yours. Really awesome stuff, thanks again!

[@oinkooink]

Gibbo, bro, no worries cuz. Keep it real stay on point pull the trigger heads up bro beatz yeah. Bro.

[@mikemathieson3700]

Very helpful mate thanks

[@TheMetronomic]

Great video thanks!

[@Freedomintertainment]

You did a good job teaching about cleaning up a mix. Thank you for the good advice. I also like the frequency chart. I got to add that to my study, too. Peace

[@igorbreda7453]

Loved it!

[@VichooIyer]

Great video.

[@diEgita]

well done !

[@DeepakKumarBairwa]

Thanks for making this video

[@LoLchilled09]

Great video, clear explanation! Finally, understanding how to mix my instruments! Thank you!

[@axanderofficial8619]

HOFA college online campus brought me here. The lecture was about knowing the different frequencies of certain instruments for a better frequency arrangement. I think the frequency chart is a good tool to use, though!

[@MRJ023]

Very good!

[@thomasleonard7459]

this is great dude

[@simonlarson7230]

Really good vid.

[@ewillzmusic]

Great information thank you!

[@ZakiWasik]

Great video and thanks for the tip on the frequency chart. One point I'd like to drive home: I understand that you use a drum library to do a simple tutorial video without having to mic up a drumset, but there is one important difference that actually makes this technique even more viable for "live" drums. Bleed between the mics. So take the bottom SD mic - it'll probably pick up a lot of kick drum and there is a great risk that these low end frequencies will be out of phase with the actual kick drum mic. By removing them from the SD mic you remove the phasing issues. I don't understand why you would adhere so strictly to that chart when what we could hear in the video often suggested cutting frequencies higher or lower.

[@225maine]

He said he doesn't...duh!

[@oinkooink]

You're welcome man. Let me know if I can help out with anything else.

[@peterbrusch1493]

Very helpful. Thank You!

[@Howtorecordmusic]

awesome! thanks for your support. We're happy you found this video helpful!

[@usmankhan-vm2wj]

Good work, if you could mix a whole song with this chart that will be awesome and very understandable for beginners

[@CortneyWarren2050]

Thank you!

[@JamesJohnson-hb1me]

Cool!

[@brodienero1706]

i had trouble hearing the difference. Im on a laptop and im new to sound engineering. However your explanation and visual guidance was very easy to understand. Thanks for creating this content!

[@SaeOfficial_Music]

Brodie Nero your problem is the laptop buddy. Please put on some headphones and you'll hear all sounds

[@karan35fdk]

nice sir

[@hijo407]

nice

[@zeobas1384]

EXCELLENT

[@RoboticusMusic]

Hmm, wondering how much of this improvement was due to the phase shifts caused by the EQ, since you barely cut anything.

[@Jose-oq6kj]

22:12 before and after

[@dwaynerobare1153]

great info! any idea how to get this interactive chart? The site referenced is not working. thanks.

[@alibravo2919]

Excelente video. ¿Dónde se puede obtener ese mapa de frecuencia interactivo?. De antemanos gracias.

[@SteveStockmalMusic]

I agree with many of the comments below. I commend you for trying, one constructive criticism would be prep your material more, and then also maybe get a friend or somebody in the room with you. You’re doing a lot of banter with yourself, silly jokes to people, and it didn’t really come across. But reading between the lines, and waiting for you to say “again“ for the 40th time (lol) I was able to gleen something ...so that’s good Thanks again

[@oinkooink]

In my experience, the first shot is by far the hardest to achieve in first attempt. the masse shot would be the 2nd and the "easiest" to make is the 4 cushion shot. What makes this runout unbelievable is that he executed those shots in the same rack in a tournament. That was such a show of perfect technic and iron nerves.

[@joerod0]

It would seem that the page doesn't exist any more. Do you know if it will be published again?

[@Geedygeedy]

LPF and HPF are WAYYYY to sharp... Besides that this is a pretty cool experiment to try..

[@ottawareggaeoulet4250]

To download frequency chart go to google n search frequency chart..u will c many..DL the one u like

[@santoshgujar5237]

Sir, Please can you share frequency chart, Thank you, Sir

[@amarnathsingh8840]

The link mentioned above for frequency chart is opening a different page are there any other kinks available?

[@kikodasneves1]

kinks

[@damiana5268]

for everyone asking you can still view the chart page on the wayback machine

[@loudlout4767]

What the date when it had been working?

[@damiana5268]

LoudLout you can find it any date from the main source page. load up the home page, click resources and its in there as well as a few other charts

[@loudlout4767]

@@damiana5268 oh, I didn't guess to check the home page, thank you very much!

[@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn]

I got porn, never did get to a home page.

[@auclixgg6182]

hi. i have had read that is not good to cut the frequency with the tool you do use. for a better result for the hihats is better to use a bitcrusher plugin.. whats your opinion about it

[@Howtorecordmusic]

hi, I'd say whatever sounds best to your ears is what you should rely on. The tooling or gear is not the magic here. You are. We hope you're recording music daily!

[@lar57jsy]

I have some hearing loss above 2KHz, so no surprise - I couldn't hear any difference bf/aft.

[@evensbeatz637]

Hi my friend the link that you post to purchase that eq sheet is no good Google send a warning about it.like virus stuff is not safe to go to that website.

[@peterpedant]

"..and i'm starting to hear it right around around 12k" Welp, either my HD 600's or my eardrums are fuked.

[@LosFicosMusic]

DUDE sell those presets for each instrument!!!!

[@cameronc.362]

The link shared here is spam. You might want to update it.

[@gregoryvilfranc9306]

I wish the link was still working. I wonder if anyone else has it up? 🤔

[@Howtorecordmusic]

I looked around and it's not found anywhere. I am thinking of making an interactive frequency chart to publish for the community. May take me a month or so to code. I will follow up with you if it comes to life.

[@Abdou-uq4ln]

with me als plz

[@TheBigLou13]

The link isn't working. Is the chart available somewhere else?

[@ArtOnion]

Watching this in 2020, I love it! But! The link seems to be dead? I only get malware clicking the link. Anyone know where to find it today?

[@ottawareggaeoulet4250]

Go to goole n search frequency chart n u will see many..DL the one u like

[@rafaelpimentel5548]

Those steep high pass fucks up your low end, you should use gentle slopes when working with low freqs

[@el4ment]

The link in the description takes you to a suspended page. Does this chart exist anywhere else?

[@Howtorecordmusic]

I looked around and it's not found anywhere. I am thinking of making an interactive frequency chart to publish for the community. May take me a month or so to code. I will follow up with you if it comes to life.

[@mrawallace101]

lot of info

[@eugenekolodiy3616]

Ok, but what about phase??

[@YosbelOropeza]

another phase obsessed kid! the video tittle says: substractive eq..... not phase shift!!!! in any case... phase is a simple story... your correct phase is the one that contains the lowest frequencies ... when you record a source, make sure that the distances between the source and the mics are the same and if your tone definitely depends on different distances between them then ... live with it and change the phase so they do not cancel each other ... that´s it!

[@paice95]

There is really more to phase than just mic placing. Sure, you should always check your phase correlation between mics, but the thing is that equalizers (except linear phase ones) affect phase, especially filters. I suggest you watch this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6TPf5SElsusqJY and see what the guy above was actually saying. Also, this one is interesting too kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJLKqKxtnNuDqNk

[@artdesireboutique]

What does this achieve? If you cannot hear anything from those outside frequencies what the point in cutting them?

[@artale4404]

When all instruments are adding together there will be competing and overlapping frequencies. The accumulative process will create a mix with less clarity and definition. Best to get rid of those frequencies in all instruments which will leave more breathing room for your specific arrangement.

[@t.farris1631]

Why not just sweep the Low Frequencies with a narrow Q boost.

[@Luke_Stoltenberg]

For a second I was like "WTF are you talking about?" then it clicked, hey great idea!

[@briancase6180]

Or, you can use a narrow cut to see how a cut would change things. This works well when the mix is playing or just a part of the mix, e.g., drums.

[@lesreplicants3064]

DAMN NOW IS DOWN :(

[@sumkidjay6741]

holy shyt i didnt even WATCH THE VIDEO AND HAD TO SUBSCRIBE!!!

[@kvenkatesh1199]

10Min Got Exhausted With Your Theory.

[@gitarman666]

Izotope to the rescue, lol, seriously though some of their presets aren’t to bad at least as a starting point

[@bronson1392]

even the joe public can hear the difference!, Good Video! but that subtractive EQ stuff does my head in. Not one decent video out there to prove it makes any difference for the consumer listener.

[@jivexero]

the link above is a spam link and locked up my browser. You have been warned.

[@ConnectionsDigital]

This video links to "Flash Player" malware!

[@samjones6191]

all the balls went after you eq beofre was better to much equing

[@davidnika446]

I disagree, with both of my balls. Sounded crisper and punchier with the unnecessary frequencies of each instrument subtracted. Each instrument had more room to shine, and the full mix of instruments sounded stronger and better, while actually taking up less headroom. Perfect!

[@tubedLeVeNdiS]

Also, the contours in the groove became subtly more pronounced.

[@rafon.]

Waste of time...