Recording - September 2013 - 62

Of course, reading magazines like Recording,
books, scanning the web, and watching instructional YouTube videos are also great methods of
discovering useful techniques.
The most crucial step to learning how to eq is to
simply practice. Audio engineering is a life-long
passion, and repeatedly honing your craft on a
variety of sound sources and music styles will
eventually make you a proficient mixer. In time,
you will amass an arsenal of techniques and know
just what eq approach will work best in a given situation.

Equalization is the most common form of audio signal processing.
Used to adjust tone, eq can manipulate the relative loudness between
various frequency components in an audio signal. Troublesome
frequencies can be reduced or eliminated, while desired frequencies
can be boosted and highlighted. Previously, this column introduced
and investigated various equalizer types. This month, we will look at
workflows, myths, tips, and tricks.

Take the less obvious path
In last month’s issue three primary equalization
methods were introduced. The first is creative,
where eq is often used to make things sound exciting, weird, or larger than life. Equalizing a kick
drum to be huge in the low end or a hi-hat to sizzle
in the treble range is an example of creative eq.
The second approach is corrective. Problems such
as hums and buzzes, weird acoustic resonances,
dead drumheads, and mediocre guitar tones can
often be rescued with corrective processing.
The third approach is a combination of creative
and corrective techniques that I call “blend eq.”
Using a mixture of boosting and cutting, blend
eq can tweak the sound of separate instruments
so they blend more effectively together in a mix.

By Eric Ferguson

Chapter 21: Equalization—Part 2
When to eq?
Many knobs on a traditional analog console are dedicated to
equalization. Seasoned pros quickly move around a desk equalizing various sources to make a mix, while newbies often freeze and
think, “I know what eq is, but I’m not sure when to use it.”
The first step to addressing the what-to-eq predicament is simple:
train your ears by listening to music. To work in music, you need to
know music, so listen to as much as possible, in as many styles as you
can find. If you don’t know what something is supposed to sound
like, or if you don’t have an opinion about what you do or do not like,
how can you grab a knob and make a change toward the better?
Critical listening, the act of intellectually analyzing the various
sounds in a recording, is key to developing your ears. Search out a
genre’s standard bearers and listen, listen, listen. John Coltrane,
Led Zeppelin, Billie Holiday, The Beatles, Hank Williams, The Sex
Pistols. All of these artists inspired generations, and their work set
the standards for the sound of today’s records. To work as a competent engineer, you must become an encyclopedia of sound.
Knowing a style and the various sounds that embody it enables you
to grab an eq and tweak to either personal taste or to match stylistic requirements.
The second step: Learn a variety of techniques to become proficient in the equalization arts. If you have the opportunity, watch
other mixers work—this is one of the best methods for gathering
new skills. You’ll be surprised to see how two engineers may take
radically different approaches to the same sonic problem; watch
and learn—seeing them mix will help you learn different workflows, one of which will best suit your equipment and sonic taste.
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RECORDING September 2013

Surprisingly, blend equalization techniques are
often counter-intuitive. A perfect example is the
eq-ing of a rock and roll bass guitar. While it
might initially make sense to boost the low frequencies to make the instrument big and bold, in
reality this usually makes the instrument fight in
the mix with both the kick drum and distorted
electric guitars. Surprisingly, a better approach is
actually to reduce the low end on the bass. This
technique can both carve a space for the kick and
make the mix less muddy in the area the guitars
and bass overlap. Try it; cutting bass from the bass
can actually make the instrument easier to hear!
This bass trick can also apply to other instruments. I recently saw an audio-engineering student walk by with a T-shirt embossed with the
phrase “High Pass Everything.” This mantra is
common for many professional mixers. A variety
of musical instruments naturally produce low-frequency resonances that get recorded but are ultimately inaudible in a mix. This excess bass energy can make a song muddy and/or can eat precious headroom (low frequencies, even when
quiet, contain a lot of power). To reduce these
effects, many engineers engage highpass (lowcut) filters on non-bass instruments to clean up
the mud and save the low frequency range for the
bass and kick.

Recording - September 2013

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