Another song, looking for EQ tips

[FretFire]

The song below is one I'm working on for an upcoming instrumental EP. For what it's worth it's probably not a final arrangement and is missing bass/drums. It's also an MP3 on SoundCloud, so quality won't be pristine. That said, I'm looking for some EQ advice.

I'm new to the mixing/EQ world, but it's been fun diving in to the deep end thus far. I'm having trouble with some howling on some of the "ethereal" bits, and am not totally happy with the rhythm guitars in the heavier bit at the end. Any advice from you mix masters on things to try?

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

This is just my 2-cents opinion, from what I'm hearing and what I might do.

I don't know where the bass/drums will come in, so I can only speak to what I heard. I think before any EQ, I was hearing a buzz in right speaker that appeared to be on one of tracks. It disappeared when I paused the sample, so it wasn't my speakers. The buzz goes away at 3:45 when the heavier guitars come in.

The heavy guitars at the end sound fine if you will mix other instruments around them. If you will have bass/drums during the quieter material before 3:45 and you will compress the final mix at all, I would recommend using a low shelf EQ starting around 200hz or maybe as high as 350hz set to -3db or -6db to take down some of the bass content on the guitar tracks (to keep them off the bass and drums and maintain separation/clarity), and maybe punch up mids/treble on the guitars, like +3db @ 7khz and/or +3db @ 10khz or maybe 12khz. Not enough to mess with the dark tone, but to keep it from getting buried in the background; to keep it up front of the drums, bass and any other instruments.

In my experience, usually in the studio the best mixes sound a bit thin and hot in the mids to me, but they travel well on a variety of devices and listening situations. Just try a couple things, then play your mix on a home theater/stereo, a car stereo, computer speakers, an MP3/earbud player, an iPod dock and anything else you can. Each time, play other famous songs you like before and after and carefully notice what frequencies in your mix stick out compared to major releases, then go back to your studio and tame the frequencies that were sticking out.

The music sounded really good. I like the composition and chord changes. I'd really like to hear the completed mix. Good luck man.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

Yeah, I know trying to EQ without the full mix is missing the point, but I'm just playing around trying to learn some things. I'll be having this EP professionally mixed, I don't know enough or have the experience to make the songs sound their best.

Thanks for taking the time to write up some tips, and for listening!

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

Looking forward to the EP dropping.

No mixing advice I could give would be helpful.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

Looking forward to the EP dropping.

No mixing advice I could give would be helpful.

Good riddance!

 

[CTN]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

It sounds good to me so far dude.

I think you might have the levels (overall) slightly too high, but other than that, if you're having problems with howling, a good way to isolate and eliminate them is this:

Load up an equalizer plugin into the offending track and put that track on solo. Take a sorta narrow bandwidth point on the EQ and max the gain on it...sweep from side to side until you find the offending frequencies. Then take the gain down well below the rest of the EQ curve. You might need to adjust the bandwidth until you can effectively isolate/eliminate the problem.

That said, it seems like you probably have a bit too much low frequency information in your keyboard/synth tracks. Don't forget that that area is where the kick drum and bass guitar live and you've gotta make room for them otherwise it'll all get swallowed up and your mix won't sound punchy and well defined. Maybe that's why I felt that overall, the mix sounded very dark - because of the abundant low frequencies without even a bass guitar. I think the guitar tones (both clean and distorted) sounded really good, but I'd probably lop off some of the low frequency stuff from the clean guitars.

Also, I don't think it helps to try and critique an incomplete mix. Without knowing what the drums and bass sound like, it's hard to say what will for sure work and what won't. Production/mixing is as much personal taste as anything else, but there are some ground rules that are worth keeping in mind, like keeping each instrument in the appropriate frequency range.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

It sounds good to me so far dude.

I think you might have the levels (overall) slightly too high, but other than that, if you're having problems with howling, a good way to isolate and eliminate them is this:

Load up an equalizer plugin into the offending track and put that track on solo. Take a sorta narrow bandwidth point on the EQ and max the gain on it...sweep from side to side until you find the offending frequencies. Then take the gain down well below the rest of the EQ curve. You might need to adjust the bandwidth until you can effectively isolate/eliminate the problem.

That said, it seems like you probably have a bit too much low frequency information in your keyboard/synth tracks. Don't forget that that area is where the kick drum and bass guitar live and you've gotta make room for them otherwise it'll all get swallowed up and your mix won't sound punchy and well defined. Maybe that's why I felt that overall, the mix sounded very dark - because of the abundant low frequencies without even a bass guitar. I think the guitar tones (both clean and distorted) sounded really good, but I'd probably lop off some of the low frequency stuff from the clean guitars.

Also, I don't think it helps to try and critique an incomplete mix. Without knowing what the drums and bass sound like, it's hard to say what will for sure work and what won't. Production/mixing is as much personal taste as anything else, but there are some ground rules that are worth keeping in mind, like keeping each instrument in the appropriate frequency range.

I agree that it's pretty dark overall. I originally tweaked the EQ a bit using my IEMs (bad idea), and when I played it in my truck realized there's way too much low end on the guitars. Thanks for the tips on targeting the howling bits.

Also, not sure what key/synth tracks you're referring to, as there aren't any . Thanks for taking the time to listen & respond.

 

[CTN]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

oh for serious? you did all that on just guitar? impressive! I could've sworn those were synth sounds. (I was talking about the ethereal swells)

 

[FretFire]

Re: Another song, looking for EQ tips

oh for serious? you did all that on just guitar? impressive! I could've sworn those were synth sounds. (I was talking about the ethereal swells)

Ah gotcha! Yep, that's a volume pedal (to kill the attack), EQD Dispatch Master, and the Flint's 80s mode at 100% wet.