Tips for Mixing/EQing

[CTN]

This is awesome. It's a cheat sheet for understanding the frequencies as they relate to instruments.

http://www.cheatography.com/fredv/cheat-sheets/eq-tips/

I'm gonna study this and hopefully come out with better mixes.

[Demanic]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

THIS should be a sticky.

[uOpt]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

"Limit Stereo Width to 30% except special effects"

I wish some of the metal bands on the nuclear blast label would be allowed to mix using this simple and correct guideline.

[Demanic]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

^^
They would be too devastating.

[uOpt]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

^^
They would be too devastating.

On the bright side, this particular stupidity is easy to revert.

Overdone compression, also a Nuclear Blast specialty, is a different matter. And the 2012 Within Temptation live CD (from the 2012/2014 double album) is missing most of the drumset. I think that should have been in the mixing guidelines, no?

[Demanic]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

Are you looking for an argument?
I do most of my recording live, and my goal is to be able to set the live mix to sound good enough straight down, to avoid any after processing. Not an easy feat.
Here's an example. https://forum.seymourduncan.com/show...a-few-old-gems

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

Charts like these are great reference points, and a great tool for learning. Still reference them on occasion (after while you start to memorize them).

Tip: Instead of just memorizing the chart, pull up a few mixes and start adding/ cutting extreme amounts to really HEAR what these are doing. Might as well train your ears a bit at the same time since at the end of the day we should mix with our ears and not our eyes.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Tips for Mixing/EQing

The chart is really nice and I love the layout. I do feel that it oversimplifies matters a bit, because if a recording is carefully planned out, very little EQ aside from band passing is really required. Phase is much more likely to be an issue and EQ'ing will often make matters worse. The other big culprit after bass eating up headroom/adding mud and phase, are midrange frequencies getting taken up by too many elements. Selective subtractive EQ is the key here, and you really don't need a chart for that; just do like Kamanda suggests and sweep around until it sounds correct.

What the chart DOES do really well is give specific frequencies attached to subjective terms like crack, presence, air, mud, boom, etc.