Practical Equalisation 1: Taking out the Rubbish (video tutorial)

OK so we all know what the eq is, we know what the frequency and gain knobs do, maybe we even understand the ‘Q’ or bandwidth, so how do we apply all that in the real world to get the sound we really need? Well for me it’s all about housework! Specifically taking out the rubbish. Let’s work through an example.

We have an acoustic gtr that sounds too muddy and woolly, the lo mids are dominant and so it is dull and not cutting through the mix. There’s two ways to approach it as far as eq is concerned.

1) Boost the hi mids, and the hi’s to try and create some clarity, then you’ll most likely find that by boosting those areas the guitar is getting too loud so now reduce the gain a little to compensate.

2) Identify the lo mid area that is dominant and cut or reduce that first till the overall tonal balance is better then have a fresh listen to the tone and see what’s left. You’ll be surprised how often by cutting one area, it reveals other tones that were being hidden or masked by the dominant frequencies originally. Often the great tone is actually already there, you just can’t hear it under the other stuff.

By removing the ‘rubbish’ first, you get to your target tone more quickly and effectively than if you boost all sorts of other stuff to compensate.