Just about every week I receive an email that asks some variation of this question: “I tend to use mostly loops, samples, or virtual instruments. So do I need to apply an EQ to them since they are already professional samples?”
The problem with this question is that it exposes two flaws in how to think about mixing in general, and EQ in particular. I’d like to answer the question today and perhaps help expand your thinking on how to best approach EQ.
What’s The Point Of EQ?
Before we can talk about whether or not you should slap an EQ on your loops or virtual instruments we need to ask the bigger question: What is the point of an EQ? Or rephrased, What can an EQ do for my tracks?
EQ is your most powerful mixing tool. Why? Because it can take tracks that have many overlapping frequencies and help them each shine beautifully within a busy mix alongside many other elements. EQ exists to help you bring balance to the mix (i.e. clarity). Good EQ moves result in a mix where every instrument can be heard and nothing is being covered up.
So if the point of EQ is to help every track in the mix fit together well and be heard, then one can assume that if your tracks already sound good together and nothing is being masked or covered up by anything else, then you might not need any EQ at all. This is an important way to think about EQ.
What’s So Special About Samples?
So we’ve established that EQing isn’t simply about changing the sounds of your recorded tracks, but rather helping them all fit together well. Now we need to address this other misconception that somehow virtual instruments and samples live in some special category of sound elites. That somehow because they are a sample they shouldn’t need any processing (unlike the stuff you recorded in your home studio).
This way of thinking is really pointless. Sure the virtual instruments might have been recorded by top musicians and engineers with great gear and in a good studio. But that doesn’t excuse them from EQ. Why? Because of our first point: EQ isn’t about fixing as much as it is about balancing tracks alongside each other.
SO…it doesn’t matter how amazing your samples sound, if they don’t fit alongside your other tracks or are covering them up, you need to use EQ to help things gel together better. They are not excused from any EQ treatment simply because they are MIDI tracks or virtual instruments.
All Tracks Are Equal
When mixing, you’d well to view all tracks in front of you as equals. Sure some tracks will sound better than others. Sure some will seem to be more “professional” than others. But none of that matters.
Your job as a mixer is to take whatever is in front of you and fit them together in such a way that the final stereo wave file or MP3 sounds big, clear, focused, and musical. No one listening to your mix will care whether you used samples or live instruments. They won’t care if you used one EQ or one thousand EQs.
All they will care about is the song. And if they can’t really hear the song well because something is covering up something else, then the mix wasn’t a success. So change your questions from “Should I EQ my samples?” to “Do these tracks play well with these other tracks?” You’ll get a lot farther this way.
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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. 
Good points. No matter how good NI Studio Drummer samples sound to my ear, I always end up EQ’ing them to get them to fit in with the rest of my mix.
The cool thing about having tracks like that (I use EZDrummer when I don’t have real drums) is that you can pretty much do as little or as much as you want, based on your experience level and your ambitions. For example, when I was first starting out, I used it straight out-of-the box. just put the whole kit on one stereo track and didn’t do much processing. And that actually works fine. But before long, I realized I wanted more control (over kick and snare minimally), so I started separating each drum out on to their own tracks – EQing and processing them individually, and even editing the beat pattern to create my own nuances. You can really spend as little or as much time as you want/need on those things.
Yep. I do this too. Just cuz it comes over as one track doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. I’ve never had a pattern that was exactly to my liking for sound and actual beat so I would take what was close and start working with it. I kinda knew this straight out of the box and was happy that I stumbled in to separating the tracks early on.
great. I have to admit I for some reason was expecting to hear something along the lines of ‘you don’t need EQ at all’ and such but seeing how you say the same with a tad bit difference (as in you don’t need EQ to FIX things) I gotta agree with this 100%.
EQ is not about fixing things, it’s about tailoring things to sit better together. You could record the best guitar, vocals, drums, whatever and you still would need to EQ things. it’s not about the sound being bad, it’s about the sounds sitting together (and you often get tracks that sound bad on their own but sound great in the mix)
props, Vendetta V
I always do something with the drum samples. I used EZDrummer for awhile, but on the recommendation of a friend I bought SSD Platinum. Got to say I really (REALLY) like it, because I feel I have more control over the sound that I want for that particular song. I also have tracks where I have put it on and haven’t really touched what they had. It just fit.
On most synth or percussive vsti, I usually end up needing to high pass filter to get them to sit in the mix better. Sometimes a little boost in upper registers if the song calls for it
I’d really like to know if i should use compression on vsti drums like ezdrummer or xld audio addictive drums. Was these samples compressed, or are they clean, uncompressed, straight from mic’s? Sorry for my english, greetings from Poland 😉
Kacper, EZDrummer is Pre-processed. The samples were run through outboard gear and compressed/EQed. (that’s not to say you can’t do more to them.)
Superior Drummer is completely raw (except for the no longer produced Joe Baressi Evil Drums SDX) and yes, you definitely need some compression and EQ on those. Addictive Drums is already worked on as well but they tend to need even more work than Superior Drummer to sound like anything but shit.
“Addictive Drums is already worked on as well but they tend to need even more work than Superior Drummer to sound like anything but shit.”
And we feel the opposite, SD & EZD sound like over processed garbage, and to a lot of other folks. AD wins hands down in ALL areas, but especially the all-important cymbal area.
Session Drummer 2-3 with the Platinum Samples is right up there with AD, simple to work with, and cost effective.
At the end of the day it will all get compressed down to a 128kb mp3 & posted on the net to get ripped off, so just make music with what you like & move on! LOL
Maybe YOU allow your stuff to be turned into overly compressed garbage but I control the quality of both my releases and most of the leaks (which I tend to do myself, in 320k mp at the WORST quality :p )I’m curious as to how SD is “overprocessed” when there’s no processing done to Superior except the samples having been recorded through a console and the usual dampening, etc that occurs on real kits.
Same as eq – if you need to have them compressed, then do what you need to. If you are not sure, then better leave them alone.
I use Toontrack Superior Drummer in pretty much all of my music, and the best thing I ever did was buss it out of its native software into my DAW so I could mix it from there, instead of mixing them in SD’s own software window. It made my workflow much smoother, and helped me really pay more attention to getting the drums to sit with the rest of the mix, and vice versa.
Those last two paragraphs are awesome.
“No one listening to your mix will care whether you used samples or live instruments. They won’t care if you used one EQ or one thousand EQs.”
Awesome quote. This doesn’t apply to samples, it applies to everything in the musical process. All the elitist-thinking needs to stop. Who cares if the bassist uses a pick, or if the amps are sims. Just make GREAT music! It’s the art that matters, not the paint or brush.
Yes! There needs to be buckets more of this attitude.
I’ve seen several videos by a famous recording engineer who always notches the guitar around 300Hz. If you are going to always notch the guitar, why not record it that way? You’re not going to screw up a track by cutting it -3db at 300Hz when you record it, and it saves you a plugin later, which reduces load on the CPU.
Same with a high pass filter… if you like to high pass every track, record it that way! I even have a hardware HPF that I run guitars through before sending the signal to the DAW. Saves time and processing power later.
Its’ pointless, it depends on how much db your guitar has in the first place. first listen, then eq, because maybe cutting 3 db at 300hz will completely make 300hz frequency invisible for Your ears (un-hear-able? ;P don’t know english well)
Awesome post Graham. I’d think it would always be best to listen to your mix with the sample or vsti and “sculpt” it with EQ to suit the style you are trying to achieve.
As always, keep up the great posts!
Another thing to bear in mind with virtual instruments, especially drum samplers, is that they give you a lot more control. You have the opportunity to tune the drums so that they are more sympathetic to your song before even reaching for EQ. There are so many variable parameters now in VI’s that most of the time it should be possible to get pretty close to the sound your looking for without heavy processing.
However, Graham is absolutely right. You shouldn’t treat them any differently to anything else in your mix.
The post made me realize that I was mindlessly EQing stuff. Now I know when and why I should EQ. Btw, my biggest question is about EZDrummer, too. I haven’t been able to appreciate the difference between using EZD’s own mixer vs. routing to multichannel in the DAW. And I generally don’t know what effects I should apply to the separate drum channels and how to EQ them. Can anyone recommend any reading on this?
EZDrummer’s Samples are already compressed and EQed. You don’t really need to do much more to them unless you’re desiring to create specific sounds out of the samples.
EZD’s samples are pretty much drop in and go, while Superior Drummer is for those of us who require absolute control 😉
EZD’s mixer is complete shit, it only allows for leveling. If you don’t need to make any sonic changes, dont bother routing anything out to the DAW. otherwise route each track in EZD to its own track in your DAW and apply compression and EQ as necessary. I also find a transient shaper on the kicks really helps bring out a nice smack.
If you want some help, just respond to this comment with a way i can get in touch with ya. I’ve used EZD and SD on multiple albums, I’d be happy to give ya some help 🙂
Hey, I really appreciate it. I’m inclined to just use EZD via stereo, but I’m curious as to what I could do more with it. I’m not interested in effects, but perhaps EQ and compression is useful. I just don’t know when and how. If there are any pointers you could give, that would be swell. My e-mail is beberuhimuzik at yahoo dot com. Thanks much!
EZD can still benefit greatly from some processing. It’s pre-mixed to sound good on its own. To make it work with your guitars you need to split it up and process to taste. It’s a thing that you don’t notice unless you do it and then try bypassing to see how far you’ve come. See it for yourself.
Here’s rough mix, just volume, no EQ, no nothing:
https://clyp.it/0ovndoib
Here’s the same thing after an hour of setting up multi-out and doing slight, 3dB EQ moves and 3dB of GR max
And sure enough I forgot the second link. Here it is. https://clyp.it/z0e4vcpx
I had been using EZ/Superior Drummer but the cymbals just were not what I wanted. I now use the SSD Platinum 4 drums. Even though they are more processed than Superior out of the gate, I still process them to fit my mixes and I’m very happy with the results. Like others have said, great music is the #1 priority. Do what you gotta do to get there.
Yep, couldn’t agree more Graham. Really it’s all about listening to your work and making sure it sounds the way you want it to. The tools are there to help you accomplish your goals but there’s no magic combination of tools without using your ears to decide how something should sound. There are some things that I don’t really put any EQ on, and some that I have to really beat into position. Thanks again Graham!
Over my first few years of engineering all I can really say that it has been a personal learning experience. Won’t bore with details and blah-blah-blah. Lately, what I’ve found works best for me is to just put a preset EQ on everything first. Which one is up to your taste. You can muck around with a second, third, fourth one later. Every person has a set of ears that hears things differently. There is no set formula. It’s really just what you feel is good and work on it and work on it and work on it some more. But, for a basic formula…just come up with your own basic mixture of preset EQ’s, compression, and limiter for a start. From there everything will be much more in your control and a lot more even overall. I’m still learning every time I try this stuff and I still have no clue what I’m doing.
surely every song calls for its own treatment, besides we use the same samples to produce music at different registers and in different keys, I guess hence the need to EQ tracks as they demand, or as the color you try to create, sitting in the mix is most important indeed