8 Frequency Viruses You Need To EQ From Your Mix’s Immune System

Being sick for a week gave me a different perspective on mixing music.

Specifically when it comes to EQ.

Isn’t EQ’ing a mix kind of like healing something that’s sick?

You can look at it like surgery. Your mix is brought in with a case of boxy drums or nasally vocals and you take out your frequency scalpels and get to work.

And here below you can find eight of the most common symptoms of a sick mix, and how to fix them with your surgical EQ skills.

125 Hz

This frequency can cause an overload of boominess in your mixes. I often find that I need to cut the bass guitar here to make it less muddy while still keeping it thick and juicy.

200 HZ

If you’re having trouble with additional muddiness, cutting around 200 Hz in your bassier-sounding instruments might clear up your mix’s lower end. A good technique is to solo just the low and full-frequency instruments one by one. As they build upon each other you can usually spot the instrument that has an overload of muddiness.

300 Hz

This is the frequency to cut in your kick drum for a juicy rock sound.

400 Hz

A nice cut in this frequency can often add more weight to your other drums. There’s something about 400 Hz that’s simply not flattering in your drum sound.

800 Hz

If you’re having problems with a jangly and cheap-sounding acoustic guitar, some cuts around this frequency can make it sound more smooth.

1 kHz

Usually, if the vocal has a very nasally sound to it, a cut here can clear it up. However, I’ve found that it sometimes makes it worse. By boosting slightly above the nasal-sounding frequency you can’t often mask the nasally sound by hiding it behind your frequency boosts.

4 kHz

A heavily distorted and raunchy rock guitar also brings a lot of annoying hiss to your mix. Reducing 4 kHz in your rock guitars can often cut the hiss and noise without compromising the edginess of the sound.

7 kHz

Sssssssss. That’s one of the most annoying sounds of a great vocal performance. Sibilance can make even the most soulful of performances sound lispy. Pointing a De-esser at the areas around 6-7 kHz can save your vocal sound.

EQ Fixes for a Healthier Mix

You may face other problems in your mixes when it comes to EQ. These 8 frequency areas above are just the most common ones I keep hearing about.

For and in-depth guide to EQ and the Audio Issues EQ plug-in that helps you learn how to EQ as you’re doing it, check out the EQ Strategies – Your Ultimate Guide to EQ here.

Image by: Sanofi Pasteur

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