Humans tend to complicate things. Remember the last time you didn’t have anything to do and just sat there in the quiet and let your mind rest? Yeah, me either.
EQ looks complicated. But it is actually really simple.
When things get simple, we get uncomfortable and find some way to make them complicated again. The same thing happens when it comes to church sound.
EQ looks complicated, so we assume that it is complicated (after all, we want it to be complicated). But it is actually really simple.
You can think of it like trimming the fat off a piece of meat. A very simple task when you get your knife in the right place.
The purpose of EQ is just that: trimming away the fat of unneeded frequencies. This brings me to what I like to call the EQ golden rule:
Default to cutting frequencies, not boosting.
When a vocal lacks clarity, our mind automatically says, “Boost the high frequencies.” This probably comes out of our constant desire for more. But the truth is, less is more. And this truth applies to most areas of life, including EQ.
Take the same example of a vocal that lacks clarity. Now challenge your mind to find a solution where you are only allowed to cut frequencies. How does the answer change?
Less is more. And this truth applies to most areas of life, including EQ.
Well, if we can only cut frequencies out, that means we need to remove what is making it unclear --- which just so happens to be the low frequencies.
In this case, you simply apply a low-cut filter, usually somewhere between 120 Hz and 180 Hz and vualá, the vocal now sounds clear as a bell.
This brings me to the most important EQ filter you’ll ever use:
The low-cut filter is your secret weapon.
If I were stranded on an island and could only take two things with me from my mixer, I would take gain and low cut filter. Seriously, these two things alone hold the power to create a great mix.
If gain is a mystery to you, I have a video to help you out. You can watch it here.
When it comes to the low-cut filter (some mixers call it a high-pass filter), if it were the only EQ filter you mastered, your mix would be better than 90% of the mixes out there.
You may be thinking, “How could something as simple as a low-cut filter make it sound so great?” It’s called trimming away the fat, my friend. Less is more. And the first place to start when trying to make things clearer is cutting away the low frequencies.
Every single channel should have a low-cut filter
Even the bass guitar and kick drum should have a low-cut filter because even they create low frequency fat that messes up your mix.
The frequency placement for the low-cut filter is going to be different for every channel. I’ve put together a low-cut filter cheat sheet to help you out. Download it for free.
Download: Low Cut Filter Cheat Sheet
If your EQ strategy stopped right here with simply mastering the low-cut filter, you’d already have a great mix. But let me give you one more thing that will solve pretty much any other frequency issue.
Use frequency sweeping to search and destroy.
Think of it like a game. It’s more fun that way. Frequency sweeping is the only strategy you need to find troublesome frequencies and get rid of them. Here’s how:
- Activate a PEQ (parametric equalizer) filter
- Set the Q value to around 4
- Boost 6-9 dB
- Slowly scan through the full frequency spectrum, listening for what sound bad
- Destroy the annoying frequency range by cutting around 6 dB
That’s your mission, and the strategy is really that simple. So don’t try to make it complicated.
