How do you give instruments their own EQ space?

[Paulie]

I'm doing lots of reading on mixing, in the forums and elsewhere. The concept of giving each track or instrument its own space in the mix makes sense, I'm looking to see how you pros do it.

Do you put up a multimeter to see where the instrument appears and then totally cut out the highs and lows where they are picked up by the meter?

Do you boost the frequencies where the instrument appears?

What do you do when two instruments fall in the same range, say a flute and a piano, or a guitar and a string instrument?

Looking for ideas how to spread my mix out and sound awesome like you guys,

[hummingbird]

Speaking personally, the first thing I do is pan. If I have two higher frequency instruments I will pan them on different sides, for example. Then I work with volume, I'll mute everything but the main line and the one I am setting, so that the volume of the instrument works nicely with the lead. Then I'll mute everything but what's on the Left side and see if they are blending, and each have their space, ditto for the R. Listen to the higher frequencies together, etc. I'll run off a mono to see if each instrument has room and that there is depth in the mix. I'll run off a stereo aiff or wav or 320k mp3 and listen to it on my laptop, on the tv, etc. That's when I'll take note of anything that needs EQing, make that adjustment and go through the process again to make sure I'm satisfied things are vibrant but not sizzly n stuff. I guess you could say 'I EQ by Ear' then...

HTH
H.

[Len911]

Paulie, how about the Melda on sale for $32
http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... tiAnalyzer

Insert it on every track, name and color, and will show each track in it's frequency spectrum and a collisons track.
If you insert an eq on every track you will also be able to tweak as you see. If you are to be doing any panning don't forget to put a "phase correlator" tool on the stereo buss to monitor phase cancellations, if you don't have one, the flux freebie will work: http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewa ... reotool-v3

[Len911]

If you look on the picture of the melda equalizer, you will see that they have presets for color-coding and describing frequency areas
http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/ ... q-5-542079

You can make your own presets as well.

Do you boost the frequencies where the instrument appears?

What do you do when two instruments fall in the same range, say a flute and a piano, or a guitar and a string instrument?

You can forage the web or books, etc. and you will find many frequencies which decribe various thwacks of snares, boom of acoustic guitar, frequencies which will pinpoint the effect of what you are trying to do, the melda comes with basic presets, but you can very easily roll your own presets. This is useful when you have say so many freqs for guitar effects there is room for no other instruments, and you can change presets for whatever instrument or group you are eqing. This can help when you have those collisions you are describing, you will be more enlightened to what freqs to cut and boost for which instrument. You can make a preset for flute and piano or guitar and string and incorporate all of those freqs in one preset if it's easier. Kick and bass is a common one and also one of the included presets if I remember correctly. I used to have a list, but I think I tossed it after I made presets for my melda eq.

Melda has some pretty nifty features. I believe there is even an eq in the free bundle, but in order to save presets, you have to buy the freebie bundle for $54 or so to be able to save presets.

[Paulie]

thanks both of you!

[Kolstad]

I don't feel like an expert mixer by far, and each project has it's own challenges. Sometimes mixes are hard due to the instruments you chose and the sound you recorded them with. I mostly use subtractive eq on individual tracks, and send instruments groups and vocals to busses. On the busses I work more on giving sections their own space with eq. It's not always neccesary, if you did a great arrangement, and if it is, only in small increments.

So, creating that space for each part is a continuing process throughout the process.

1. Considering the arrangement carefully, using instruments in different frequency areas.
2. Balancing volume, panning and depth at the individual track stage.
3. Working with sections on the bus level.

Sometimes mastering as a fourth step can also help to finetune the mix, maybe the last 5%.

I think of these steps, the arrangement is by far the most important. If you spend more time there, you save more time mixing.

Often it's a step by step desicion process, if you started writing a piece on a particular instrument, Vi or not.

[TheElement]

Paulie, how about the Melda on sale for $32
http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... tiAnalyzer

Insert it on every track, name and color, and will show each track in it's frequency spectrum and a collisons track.
If you insert an eq on every track you will also be able to tweak as you see. If you are to be doing any panning don't forget to put a "phase correlator" tool on the stereo buss to monitor phase cancellations, if you don't have one, the flux freebie will work: http://www.fluxhome.com/products/freewa ... reotool-v3

Wow! Thanks Robert! This plugin is just what I need. can definitely put it to some good use on the kick and bass and other low and mid frequencies.

[MattCurious]

I'm far from an expert but, for what it's worth, I find frequency analysers really useful for connecting what I'm hearing with what I'm doing on the DAW - but the ears are the most reliable tool for creating space.

The best advice I've had so far is that you can't give space to absolutely every instrument - there are only so many frequency ranges available! So you need to decide what instruments (including vocals) really need to stand out at any given moment in the track, and then be prepared to sacrifice the clarity of other instruments to give space to the most important instrument. One reference (not intended as a self-promotion, I promise - it's the ref that sprang to mind) is the chorus of this track, where I've wiped out the acoustic guitars (doubled) except for their attack transients, because I wanted them as a rhythmic device but needed the heavy guitars in the mid range the acoustic would otherwise have occupied.

To illustrate the concept: Mike Senior ("Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio", 2013) describes setting all faders to silent and then fading them in "most important instrument first". If you fade in a second (or third etc) instrument and it does something detrimental to the preceding, more important instrument, you need either to adjust the level or EQ of the less important instrument to preserve room for the first. Thinking about it in these terms helps prioritise the instruments, because you have to sacrifice the EQ space of some instruments in order to create room for others.

Hope that's useful
M

[guitargurumike]

Those are some great responses everyone, and I'm learning a lot here, my 2 cents:

I use subtractive eq and love it, BUT one must take care not to eq the life out of your track--I've over-subtractive-eq'd so everything fit like a puzzle and in the end found it to be very flat in the mix, i.e. easy to mix, but bland to the ear.

When a piece has the impetus of feeling, sometimes I just go with my "gut-ears" and say, "It's a clusterf**k, but I love it anyway."

Ava great day all,
Michael

[andygabrys]

a lot of great stuff here.

IMO its the following:

1) arrangement - You can make a mix work purely by arrangement
2) orchestration - small differences in what you choose to play a certain part can make it really easy to hear, or conversely a mess. Obiviously I don't mean which orchestral instrument you use, although it could be that if its an orchestral arrangement
3) pan things to where they make sense on the virtual soundstage
4) roughly level everything to have a basic mix
5) clean up mud / stabilize level on vocals et al by high passing
6) clear up trash on guitars going through amp sims / set things back on the soundstage (if they are supposed to be background elements) by cutting a little high end / low-passing
7) use parametric boosts and cuts to dovetail / knit things together

Step 7)

if you need to use a freq analyzer. Or do it purely by ear. Boost a narrow Q and start sweeping the freq of a particular instrument up and down with the whole mix running.

Make a note of:

A) What is ugly on the instrument? - these would be things you might cut. They are the ugly / boinky sounds, and there might be a half dozen frequencies that ring / sound ugly. Usually a couple dB is all you need to cut by (like Michael said, its possible to make it lifeless).
B) What is the characteristic sound of that instrument? These might be things to boost - 500 hz area on a banjo to emphasize the hollow boing. 3khz on a vocal to give it bite. 65 hz on a 22" diameter kick drum to make it "bloom". Guitars respond really well to mid range boost and cut. You can make it present or not, make it clear or not, make it cut or not. Vocals often will really speak at 200-300 hz and 1khz, slight boosts can make the singer sound bigger and more authoritative.
C) Make a note of any frequency you can cut on one instrument and boost on another. Does it make both instruments clearer?
D) make doubled parts sound wider by cutting a little on one side and boosting on the other size at the same frequency. EX a doubled guitar part, cut 2 db @ 1500 hz on Left, boost 2 dB @ 1500hz on the R.

note that every time you cut or boost on an eq, the level of the instrument might change. So tweak the output volume of the eq plugin. Try to make it roughly equivalent by ear with the plugin active / by-passed.

just my 435,647 cents.