We all know that EQ is a critical part of the mixing process. But how do you know what you’re supposed to do with it? What frequencies should you be cutting or boosting? Where do you start? Are their good rules of thumb to follow? These are all questions I get on a weekly basis from readers. I understand the frustration, so today let me give you three questions to ask yourself to help guide your EQ decisions in the future.
What Frequencies Are Not Adding To The Track?
Let’s start with a basic question: what frequencies can I take away from this track that simply do not bring anything of sonic value to the table? Have you ever thought about the fact that there is sonic information in every track that just doesn’t do anything for anyone. It’s a waste of headroom. Usually this is the low frequency stuff, below 40hz. Do yourself a favor and use the most classic of tricks, the high pass filter to roll off that unneeded information, because it’s not adding anything but it is taking up volume in your track.
For anything that’s not a kick drum or bass guitar you might as well take that high pass filter up even higher to somewhere around 100hz. Why? Well the sonic information below 100hz is best handled by the low end instruments, so free up some room for that kick and bass combo, and let the rest of the band do what it does best: low mids and up.
What Frequencies Are Hurting The Track?
Once you’ve cut out the neutral, pointless stuff from your track, it’s best to go on the hunt for those problematic frequencies that are making your track sound like poo. Don’t ever assume that your track was perfectly miked and contains only quality stuff. Just about every track, even if professionally recorded, contains some sonic information that is only making things sound worse than they could be. Find them and cut them out.
What I do is boost a frequency something like 12db (extreme, so I can hear it) in a pretty narrow Q and begin sweeping around. What am I listening for? Nastiness. Good old fashion nastiness. Many times I find mud in the 400-500hz range. Sometimes there’s boxiness in the midrange, or a painful brain piercing frequency in the upper mids. Sometimes there’s a awful ring that is exposed on a drum. Whatever it is, I go hunting for what sounds horrible, then I cut it out by 3db to 6db.
This subtractive EQ process does two amazing things for you: it makes your track sound better by removing the nastiness, which in turn better illuminates what DOES sound good in your track. All the while freeing up precious headroom. It’s a win win.
What Frequencies Make This Track Sound Great?
After carving out what’s un-needed and un-wanted you’re left only to ask yourself, what frequency or two are the hidden gems in this track? What do I really like sonically about this track? Maybe it’s the body or crack of a snare drum, or perhaps the air on a singer’s vocal track. Whatever the case it’s not a bad idea to slightly highlight that with a subtle EQ boost if you want the track to stand out a bit more.
Much like when hunting for the nastiness, go on a search for the strengths of your track and simply feature them a bit more. If I do any boosting I prefer a gentle 3db boost or less, with a wide Q. I do this mostly to keep things subtle and sounding as natural as possible. Remember, we’re not trying to completely change the sound of the track (too late for that). Rather we’re trying to enhance what’s already there. Subtle moves are key.
Rinse And Repeat
There you have it, the three questions you should ask every time you pull up an EQ on a given track. By simply removing frequencies that either hurt the track or don’t help and then potentially boosting what frequencies really make that instrument shine, you’re on the path to cleaner, more musical tracks using simple EQ moves.
One final tip for you though: every few minutes make sure to bypass the EQ plugin to gain perspective on how far you’ve come. These small subtle moves don’t sound like much at first, but they add up quickly and your ears have a bad memory.
Do Not Create Another Song Until You Read This Guide
(Price: $17 Free Today)
Discover the 6 Steps for Creating a Radio-Worthy Song From Scratch
My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
When I discovered subtractive EQ (thanks to you by the way!) my mixes totally changed! It’s great to discover how much you can do just “cleaning” tracks 🙂
I disagree on the part about the 40 Hz highpass. Yes, if you listen to the music on radio, headphones, most hifi-sets etc., it doesn’t matter, but… if you got a subwoofer or play it on an adequate PA, for example in a disco, you still can’t hear the extremely low frequencies, but you can FEEL THEM and it adds a lot to the experience. There’s a reason people play music loud. It’s because they not only want to listen to it with their ears, but also physically feel it through their skin, in their stomach… Of course that depends on the kind of music you’re making. So if you make dance(able(ish)) music and stuff like that, don’t cut at 40 Hz. You can still cut, but at a deeper frequency, like 25 Hz. – That’s about EQing in the (pre-)mastering stage though. Fully agree on everything else. Cut off everything that might clutter up the extremely low frequencies in the mix and – if making that kind of loud music I mentioned – only let distinct impulses pass, like the bass and bass drum and don’t compress the ELFs (too much), so you get a sharp physical blast on a loud system and not just rumbling.
Otherwise excellent article, like always. Learning so much from Graham.
Permit me to combine and restate what you and Graham said:
Cut inaudible, sonically useless content, but don’t just pick an arbitrary frequency and blindly apply it to all tracks. Use your ears, and make sure you only cut what is truly inaudible and/or useless.
For example, my low-cut is typically between 80Hz and 160Hz, depending on the track. But it’s sometimes as low as 25 or 30Hz. I may not even have one on something like a sub-drop/sub-hit.
Yeah, on second reading, Graham pretty much said the same thing. I guess I was just startled by the general 40 Hz recommendation. Of course, as Graham so often states, there really is no such thing as a general setting that works for everything.
The thing is that you will never hear the fq under 35 hz you will feel them .If you are in the EDM stuffs, play with the slope cut at 35 40 but use a large slope, don’t over use these fq because they affect the song all along the fq spectrum.
I agree….I’ve heard of some engineers who cut out at least 25Hz and at most 35Hz, depending on the style of the track and the tuning of the kick and bass.
I think especially in hiphop, which isn’t necessarily supposed to sound “polished”, leaving some of those really low frequencies can really benefit the sound. If you can tame those low frequencies (i.e. automated high pass filter) during the parts when you need the other instruments to stick out, but allow them them to come through when the kick or bassline is hitting, you get kind of the best of both worlds without losing too much headroom.
I think Graham would agree that it is largely a matter of preference because mixing always involves sacrifice – some people want their stuff to sound really good on boomy speakers, and some are aiming to sound really good on the average listeners’ speakers.
The thing is, leave it for bass guitar and drum. You dont need that 40 (or even 100) hz on the hi-hats.
The first thing i discovered in Pro Tools was the subtractive EQ and when i saw your article i thought “i’m not the only one that does that” but it’s really normal haha, what i learned was to use the HPF and LPF, and what you said in this article, i discovered it from myself just playing with the EQ, i feel calm to know that i’m doing it “right”, thanks Graham, God bless.
Good reminder of excellent EQ techniques! Thanks for all your easy to understand tutorials.
WOW!!! That Sweetwater deal for Trigger EX is super sweet for us poor europeans!! Music gear is generally more expensive in europe compared to the US but there’s always the shipping costs… HOWEVER the Trigger plugin is a downloadable only product which means that there is no shipping… SUPER DEAL!! It’s half the price compared to what I would have to pay in europe!! 🙂
I would also touch on “solo syndrome” here. What works in the mix is rarely full-frequency and will sound weedy when soloed and that is just the way it should be to leave space for the bass and kick.
Unfortunately solo syndrome often starts at tracking time when inappropriate mic choices are made because the selection isn’t made in context of the mix. People should watch especially for piano and acoustic guitar where it is tempting to record them with full rounded sounds which rarely what you need.
A similar mistake is made at the other end of the frequency range where only a few instruments need brightness and air. Again the usual sinners are acoustic guitar and piano.
One last point – sample-based synth sounds are often EQd by the manufacturer to sound good in isolation and will need to be EQd to cut low end and notch out excessive brightness to get them to blend.
Right on Mike.
Thanks Mike, will try these tips out!
I swear, your no tricks, just concepts approach to mixing is fantastic. It completely supports creativity and invention over gimmick-chasing. A thousand salutes to you.
What an encouraging comment. It’s always about the music and creativity.
Man after reading and watching your videos for more than 2 years I just have to say merry xmas to you and your family, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience, thanks to people like you, Brandon Drury, Dave Pensado, Joe Gilder, Ronan Chris Murphy, Fab Dupont and more, I’ve turned internet and my studio into a classroom I attend so gladly to, as some people say in other comments all the time, and not trying to sound like a smart-ass, some of the stuff I read and watch here is not new at all to me, but the reinforcement in the concepts, ideas and creativity are so encouraging and are actually helpful to create not a criteria based on your knowledge but in our interpretations of your concepts and others learned elsewhere, I just wanna ask for an applause to you! Graham I salute you!
Thanks so much!
Merry xmas to all the readers too!
I can’t thank you enough. You’ve already made me into a much better mixing engineer through your videos and articles, Graham.
May God reward you greatly.
Thanks
Robere Acare
Thanks Robere!
Graham, just stumbled upon your site. A half hour’s worth of reading on your site and I already know that my next mix will be the best one yet.
I’ve been really proud at what I’ve been able to accomplish with a cheap laptop, interface and some great plugins and sims.
I’ll be a regular reader from now on.
cheers
Ron
Glad to have you Ron!
Graham
Graham, I found your site at the perfect moment in my life, just as I’m recording my first song in over 3 years. I’ve learned so much already and am totally glued to this site and its wealth of information. I love this article in particular and can’t wait to put this process to use and get my musical journey back on track. Cheers!
Glad you found it Chris!
Graham…stumbled upon your site from work… and I haven’t done a stich of work for the last 3 hours. Brilliant tutorials, tips and tricks. I’m a songwriter and producer in South Africa and I’m delving into mixing and mastering now. This is such a HUGE help.
Welcome!
Agree! Does that apply to all the EQ’s I have added to the channels or only on the master bus? Sometimes I have boosted certain frequencies that I have cut in a previous EQ setting(to add effect). A peak, a boost which plays with automation as the song plays.