Fundementals of EQing, Compressing, and Limiting.

[EricAnthony]

Hey everyone,

I know the subject of the topic covers quite a bit of information, but I'm a relatively new producer trying to familiarize myself with the technical aspect of production.
I understand what "EQing, Compressing, and Limiting" involve on the surface, but I lack the full understanding of each topic. I want to properly process my sounds in order to create overall better music. I'm sure many other producers on this forum could benefit from this information as well. Just wondering if anyone can explain at least one of these things in depth, or even post a link to another topic that someone has already created regarding these things.

Cheers!

[outbound]

http://www.evolutionmastering.com/mixdownfx002.html

[outbound]

That other one was compression, missed that you said EQ as well:-

http://www.evolutionmastering.com/mixdownfx001.html

there you go

[EricAnthony]

That other one was compression, missed that you said EQ as well:-

http://www.evolutionmastering.com/mixdownfx001.html

there you go

These are great, appreciate it!

[outbound]

That other one was compression, missed that you said EQ as well:-

http://www.evolutionmastering.com/mixdownfx001.html

there you go

These are great, appreciate it!

No worries!

While you're there it may be worth keeping an eye on this one too http://www.what-is-mastering.net a startup resource on mastering which is bound to hit on compression / limiting at some point

[Icetickle]

A nice tutorial on compression by our friend triphosphate! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zseEEmYcPr0

[Trichome]

Best advice I can give you is don't go overboard on either of the 3, especially eq. Always try and subtractively eq as much as possible too.

[outbound]

Best advice I can give you is don't go overboard on either of the 3, especially eq. Always try and subtractively eq as much as possible too.

True! But I will expand a bit.

I would say if you are learning you should use as much of all 3 as possible while experimenting. Push each one to it's limits and see what you can get, obviously once you have found something you are liking, back it off so you aren't using as much of it in the mix but while hunting for 'tone' don't be afraid to go overboard.

With the subtractive EQ it is a good habit to get into using subtractive EQ as with additive boosting levels it's much easier for things to sound 'better' when they may actually be getting worse (due to louder sounds appearing better to us). What you'll actually find eventually is that you use subtractive and additive equally (whichever one gets the result the quickest) but definitely practising subtractive at an early stage is a good discipline

[gcraz]

I would say if you are learning you should use as much of all 3 as possible while experimenting. Push each one to it's limits and see what you can get, obviously once you have found something you are liking, back it off so you aren't using as much of it in the mix but while hunting for 'tone' don't be afraid to go overboard.

this is some of the best advice i've come across on the internet. push things to their limits, and tone it back. i've heard this advice from a lot of great producers. you can apply this to basically everything.

With the subtractive EQ it is a good habit to get into using subtractive EQ as with additive boosting levels it's much easier for things to sound 'better' when they may actually be getting worse (due to louder sounds appearing better to us). What you'll actually find eventually is that you use subtractive and additive equally (whichever one gets the result the quickest) but definitely practising subtractive at an early stage is a good discipline

this.....dude gets it. figure out an easy way for yourself to match gains for your track with/without the eq to truly decide if you're helping the cause, or just making things louder. i'm using boosts a lot recently, and i'm getting great results, but yea usually use a gain utility to A/B the eq to make sure i'm not foolin myself in the heat of the moment.

[EricAnthony]

I appreciate everyone's help, taking it all in!