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Hey all. First post here on the forums. Also, I wanna say thanks for all the helpful info I've already found on here. It's priceless.

SO: Forgive me for having very little experience using EQ, but I'm having trouble using the device to help tracks "sit together" and "remove mud."

FOR REMOVING "MUD"
Someone once told me that if a sound is muddy, here is how to eliminate: turn on a EQ band, pull it up in gain, roll the frequency around the spectrum until you find where it is most "wet/resonant" sounding...then cut the frequencies around there. Bam, mud is gone. Does this sound right?


TL;DR...
What is your method for removing "mud" from a sound using EQ? How do you take any particular sound... and decide where it needs boosting/cutting? When do you use a cut vs. shelf?

Any recommended reading for me? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ok drunk response
always cut never boost
it takes practices
at worst cut on sounds and gain up
never boost
best mixing advice youll ever have as an amatuer

The low end is where a lot of mud is

2000 hz is main problem area

you'll just learn by practice, but a very rough guide:

for me, vocals, drums, and potentially midrangey bits like synths and guitars are the main offenders here. yes, you should hipass and lowpass stuff that doesn't have relevant info above or below a certain space, but that won't really help mud in the midrange.

vox can get really boomy at 200hz. sometimes you can fix this buy changing your hipass-- do it at 6db/octave starting at 200hz or so, see if that doesn't thin things out too much. they can also be too present if you've got a bad singer/bad mic/bad engineering, etc. sidechainging out some 4k can help.

drums can sound really weak if there's too much midrange going on. 300-800hz is the real problem area-- you want just enough for character that's right for your song, but not so much that it either masks the rest of the midrange or starts sounding cardboard-y.

electric guitars and most square-wave-y synths don't have a lot useful under 100hz-- unless you're using it as a sub-- and you can usually roll off in the highs somehwere as well. guitars and distorted sounds can get pinchy at 1.2khz-ish, and unbearable at 3-4k.

as always, the right non-eq tool can make you not need EQ-- a vibey compressor, distortion, etc.

yo dave we really need to do a sticky how to work with vocals honestly
seems to be the new topic
(damn it you were the best mod and i feel lost now lol)

Like everything in production, it depends.

But generally the mud range can go anywhere from 200hz all the way up to around 800hz or so. That is your midrange area. Technically power comes from the sub area, but acoustically that midrange area is where the strength of most of your sounds will come from. The body. But frequencies will build up here real quick from all of your different sounds.

So just remove frequencies you don't need from ALL of your sounds (same goes for all frequency ranges, not just that midrange area). I suggest a low shelf over a low cut, but whatever floats your boat, really depends. Just dial in a few db's of gain reduction, a gentle kind of slope and just roll the shelf up until the sound becomes too thin IN THE CONTEXT of the mix. For like more extreme forms of music maybe you want to cut, like aggressive cuts 24db/oct cuts... whatevs.

Also, if a sound does have a specific resonance, you can use a bell shaped cut in that region. In this way, eq will actually affect dynamics, so crazy. Compressors affect frequency, eq's affect dynamics. Strange world this audio realm.

Just note, not all eq's sound the same, some can cut or shelf more strongly without 'hearing' the eq. I hear so often people say all digital eq is the same, not true.

So tricky thing is that a lot of sounds are going to need eq to an extent, but you don't (necessarily) want to be hearing the eq, so you have to do it judiciously. You have to really listen, and decide how much to take out of a particular sound. Too much and it will sound eq'ey, too little and it'll sound muddy (in the lows) or fizzy in highs.

And fuck, as always, best to pick sounds that naturally have the spectral character you need for the mix. Also is good sometimes to pound square pegs into round holes, whatever works for you man.

Happy eq'ing.

ugh this is best time to recommend mixing/mastering thread and books
general ideas nothing is solid

bitch call me goku

Ha, sharm quick posted me and closed with an "as always" too. Get out of my house!

nowaysj wrote:Ha, sharm quick posted me and closed with an "as always" too. Get out of my house!

ah the old dsf...

Helpful thread

watch the kryptic minds masterclass on youtube, they do exactly this and show you where to notch it

heh i wish more people from here were dnb heads knowning who kryptic minds and leon switch back when

deadly habit wrote:heh i wish more people from here were dnb heads knowning who kryptic minds and leon switch back when

Their DnB is alot better than their dubstep, maybe they'll go back someday

Thanks all... I just woke up to a treasure trove of useful EQ tips!

This can help you

laurend wrote:This can help you

YES. This is awesome.

Why is it suggested to always cut and never boost? From the mixing books/tuts i've read it says that its a rule of thumb that you should cut more than boost. However i think its ok to boost things gently too. A more musical eq has an automatic q that gets wider as you boost, so can be used to give a gentle lift to a high end on a part. I watched a dubspot mastering tutorial where he boosted at 50hz and 100hz with a narrow q as the tune was in g. There's tons of times i've seen people boost.

laurend wrote:This can help you

This image is awesome, thanks.

212Hz

On a serious note, as well as attenuating the low-mids of your instruments if you are using reverb / delay sends try EQ'ing those as well for better definition.