In my last blog post, I revealed a method to
avoid muddy sounding mixes before you even
start to mix your songs.
In this article, I want to focus on how to avoid
a common EQ mistake, that’s another common
cause for muddy mixes.
I’ve been guilty of this mistake for quite a time
until a producer friend of mine told me his
recipe for transparent mixes.
In fact, it’s so simple that you can easily oversee
its importance – as is the case with most super
simple things.
The EQ mistake I’m talking about is ..
N O T U S I N G S U B T R A C T I V E E Q
For some reason, we are always tempted to add
something when we are missing something. And
yes, it’s way more intuitive than taking something
away.
So when we want an instrument to cut through in
the mix, we grab that EQ and boost one or more
frequency bands.
On the other hand, we tend to oversee – or
overhear in our case – what may be masking the
instrument that we want to cut through.
.
Take a vocal for example. Vocals often compete
with synths, guitars, pianos and everything else
that’s happening in the midrange.
You may want to push certain frequencies of that
vocal to make it come more out of your speakers.
But I suggest you also lower the same
frequencies in competing instruments.
Sometimes just 1 or 2 dB will work wonders, other
times you will need to take away more until you
hear the effect.
As always trust your ears. As soon as the vocal
(or any other instrument that needs more
presence) starts to come through you’re fine.
.
Okay superhero, that’s it for today.
Try it out in your next mix and hear the difference!
Enjoy and stay creative:-)
Marc