EQ'ing - Tutorials or info ??
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  1. #1

    Default EQ'ing - Tutorials or info ??

    Good Afternoon Techtoolers,

    Does anyone know of any good reading or watching or learning or Tutorials, lectures, whatever...

    ... to teach me how to better EQ my mixes?

    Cheers
    M I S T E R M O L E Y M O L E
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  2. #2
    Tech Wizard riley's Avatar
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    I second this!

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    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    Honestly, for me, it was all trial and error. I had a friend explain to me what EQ does and how it interacts, and then it was just twisting those knobs until it made sense.

    Lots of recording and re-listening too.
    It's the FAQ. Read it.

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    Tech Mentor janzak's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DvlsAdvct View Post
    I had a friend explain to me what EQ does and how it interacts, and then it was just twisting those knobs until it made sense
    What did he tell you?
    I used to link music in my signature but nowadays I don't.

  5. #5

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    Two of the main points that have served me well with EQing have been:

    1) Bass is much more powerful than the mids and treble so while you will almost always have to EQ the bass channels, you can get away with a lot more for the top and mids without it sounding bad

    2) Subtractive EQing: You don't always have to boost the weaker sound; it can work equally well if you remove the target frequency from the other channel

    e.g. If track A is playing and you are brining in B whose mids are sounding weak, you don't necessarily have to boost the mids on B, you can take some away from track A to create some space.

    Both very basic I guess and sounded a whole lot better in my head before I tried to put them into words!!
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  6. #6
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    Theres always the smart mixer...
    Silly DJ loops are for kids!

  7. #7
    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    I remember I did a post a long time ago about EQ here, but I can't for the life of me remember what the thread was.

    Here's how it goes.

    If you're looking to mix with your EQ you need to make sure you have the energy flow of your tracks in mind. If you play too hard with it and don't compensate in the next song then the oomph that the EQ can give you will just disappear and the energy will dissipate before you can save your dance floor.

    For me, EQ is the way to gradually and completely control the energy of songs you're playing. You know that new track will be killer with more bass, so you pump it. The vocals were mixed too hot so you pull the mids and highs back a bit. That's the basic way of using EQ. It's handy, and everyone should know how it works.

    But now you need to focus on your mixing, and using your EQ in conjunction with the flow of the tracks together.

    you start with your songs:
    A
    and
    B.

    A is playing, pumping, boosting up the energy beyond all belief, the crowd is going nuts and you are feeling happier than you've ever felt. And you KNOW that next song is killer, that hot new banger you've been sitting on, waiting for the right moment to kick your crowd's ass with and break your best friend's act in the process.

    Now, you want to lead the track in, make the crowd not realize the change is happening until that break and then pound them over the head with it.

    You need to find that point in track A (we'll just call them A and B) where something goes away. For example, the high hat goes away, and you pick the point in B where the high hat starts. but all you want is the high hat, so you kill the lows and mids. Now, for me, I would lower them to about 8 or 9 o'clock, assuming 6 o'clock is a full kill. This way you can gradually create the feel of the bass of the second song without making it too sudden.

    Now, we'll say for the sake of argument that the high hats in A go away after a breakdown. So during the breakdown you're going to lower the mids and lows just a bit, maybe to unity, so they don't seem too suddenly going away, and pull just a bit more off the highs. Then the break down ends and you hit play on B. This way, there's still a bass line from A, but you can introduce the bass from B gradually, making it more seductive in the take over.

    Now you're objective in this is to make A go away and have B take over without the energy getting too high or too low. If it gets too high then B will seem weak unless you pound it out, but if it stays too low the crowd will get bored real quick. So it's a trade. Every 8 beats, or 16 beats, lower the bass of A while raising the bass of B. When you feel it's taken over then lower and raise the mids respectively. Hold the melody of A going, though, so that it doesn't disappear. I usually let the song itself lose the melody and line it up with the initial breakdown of B, which is where I'll usually kill A and pump B.

    Now, this is one situation. EQ is a great energy driving tool when used properly. When used wrong it'll be worse than a train wreck because you'll just steal the energy off the dance floor, and there's no saving it without know why it's gone. Used in conjunction with really smart volume control you could easily just rule the floor.

    This is how I approach it. Granted, it's taken me a LOT of trial and error, and a lot of good advice from DJs in real life and from here (hat tip to Tekki) to get my style going. But the idea is that too much of anything gets overwhelming, and when you take it away completely it can be too jarring and you'll be sapping the energy.

    That's the name of the game, essentially: energy. It's your best friend, and it'll make you amazing, but if you abuse it and forget how fickle your crowd is then you'll lose your dancefloor every time.

    While smart mixing is great I consider it just like "sync"ing. If you don't know how to beat match, and you never learned the technique then you'll never be able to use "sync" as well as a DJ who has learned it. Same goes for EQ. if you don't know how the frequencies interact, even instinctively, then you'll never be able to really appreciate the control it requires.



    How's that?
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  8. #8
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    i remember this article (below) was posted awhile back, it should help you out if your a little unfamiliar with the subject.

    http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/02/2...-sonic-mixing/

    gotta love DJTT

  9. #9

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    hey


    yep, everything said above is good advice, to add my 2 cents (or 2 pence here in the UK :P)

    a) Always try whenever possible to CUT when you're EQing, rather than boost. For complicated sound engineering reasons that I wont go into here (although can explain if someone is really interested) the way EQ works it introduces a phase change into the sound which can have a fairly noticeable and bad effect on the sound quality if overused. In general this is minimised if you always try and cut rather than boosting frequencies, even in situations where it may mean that instead of boosting the top you instead cut the mid and bass a little then bring the gain up slightly to even out the volume.

    b) the 99% of the time, the two situations that i tend to find myself using EQ are to fix the sound of a track or selectively add things and to control the bass as you mix the track comes in.

    for the first one, to fix the sound of a track, simply adjust it by ear if a track isn't the best copy or for whatever reason doesn't sound perfect. Remember to always try to cut rather than boost, and also remember that your ears gradually get used to things, so over time your ears may get used to a certain sound and you EQ it a bit more, and then you get used to it and EQ it a bit more, and you can find yourself drifting pretty far away from where you started.

    for eqing while mixing DvlsAdvct's advice is spot on as is the article on sonic mixing have a read.

    k
    Last edited by kevinmcdonough; 10-05-2009 at 07:13 AM.

  10. #10

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    many thnaks guys. Some great reading there. I will go home this evening and practise
    M I S T E R M O L E Y M O L E
    part of the digital revolution

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