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Mixing Acoustic Guitar Part 1 – EQ

High-Pass Filter

Acoustic guitars put out a ton of bass frequencies. You may not realize it, but they do. To prove it, take a low-pass filter and sweep it all the way down to 100 Hz, where you’re only listening to everything below 100 Hz.

Hear a bunch of rumble? I thought you would.

There may be the occasional acoustic singer-songwriter track that calls for this low frequency information, but the majority of the time you need to get rid of it.

How much you roll off is a matter of listening. Some acoustic tracks I roll off at 150 Hz. Others I roll off as high as 400 Hz. Even if you only roll off 100 Hz and below, you’ll be doing yourself a favor.

Low-Mid Cut

The low-mids are where the magic happens. It’s where the core tone of the acoustic guitar resides.

However, chances are the guitar will still sound boomy in the mix if you don’t cut some of these low-mids out.

This is probably the part that will take the longest to figure out. Do I do a deep cut with a narrow Q? Or do I do a shallow cut with a wide Q? In other words, do I want to dramatically remove a small group of frequencies? Or do I want to slightly turn down a large range of frequencies?

Great question. Experiment. Some guitars may resonate at 200 Hz, and you’ll need to do a big ‘ol cut right there. Some may just need to be gently turned down between 150 and 350 Hz.

The low-mid cut will also need to “play nicely” with the high-pass filter. Perhaps you tried the high-pass filter at 200 Hz, but it was too thin. However, at 150 Hz it’s too boomy, and you can’t seem to find some middle ground.

Try leaving the HPF at 150 Hz and doing a cut around 175 Hz. This cut will turn down the offending frequencies without completely eliminating them.

Sometimes simply turning frequencies down is more musical than getting rid of them entirely.

High Frequency Shelf

Finally, you may want to add some sparkle to your acoustic guitar. A gentle high frequency shelf can be great for this. Boost it just a little at a time until you achieve just the right amount of “air” without allowing the track to become harsh.

That’s it for EQ for now. Got a suggestion or a question? Leave a comment. Tomorrow we’ll deal with compression. See you there!

Reverb

The ratio of direct (or 'dry') sound level to reflected (or 'wet') sound level. These two levels are usually controlled from a single Effect Ratio control. (Naturally, if you have connected your reverb unit to a mixer, you can set this to 100 percent wet and then adjust the levels of direct and reflected sound from the console's fader, as described above.) Increasing the level of the artificial reflected sound compared to the unprocessed direct sound increases the perceived distance between the sound source and the listener. By applying different levels of reverb to different instruments, you make some sounds seem closer to the listener than others, and thereby create a sense of spatial depth in your mix.

The next parameter common to most units is that of Reverb Decay Time, which is how long it takes for the reverb to drop by 60dB from its maximum level. Increasing this time increases the sense of size of your virtual room — think of the difference between a small stone church and a massive cathedral. However, an increased inside surface area in a room reduces the decay time, and this is one of the reasons why the presence of an audience 'dries out' the acoustic in a venue compared to that experienced at the soundcheck. Furthermore, the less enclosed a space is, the shorter its reverb decay time — an open field is much less reverberant than a barn.

More well-specified reverberators have additional High- and Low-frequency Damping parameters, which allow you to shorten the reverb decay for the frequency extremes. While simpler reverberators may not have independent control over these damping parameters, you are often given a choice of reverb models (for example 'Room', 'Hall' and 'Plate') which provide different preset damping combinations.

When little Low-frequency Damping is used, the simulated space seems more solidly built and sizeable — large caves, for example, have a characteristic rumble to their reverb, whereas most normal rooms have very short low-end reverb times. High-frequency Damping helps to simulate the absorbance of high-end by soft funishings, carpets, curtains and so forth — furnished rooms usually sound 'warmer' than those which are unfurnished. However, in very large acoustic spaces the reverb time at high frequencies is also reduced by the damping effects of the air itself, which are concentrated at high frequencies.Another common parameter in reverb units is Pre-delay Time, which allows you to specify the amount of time between the start of the direct sound and the start of the first sonic reflection. Decreasing this time moves the sound source closer to the boundaries of your simulated room, but also moves it further from the listener — if you use reverb on an 'in-your-face' pop vocal you should not use too short a Pre-delay Time.

Even if you only adjust parameters for Direct/Effect Levels, Reverb Decay Times and Pre-delay, you have enough control to create a wide variety of useable reverb settings. A good way to find the one you need is first to decide on the type of environment within which you want your sounds to occur. Then, by considering the physical design of that imaginary space, and by applying what you know about the basic reverb parameters, you can often get pretty close to the ambience setting you're after straight away.

Magic Frequencies 5

Tricks and Tips
General Tips
Use a narrow Q (bandwidth) when cutting; use wide Q’s when boosting
If you want something to stick out, roll off the bottom; if you want it to blend in, roll off the top

For Snare —

To find the “point” on the snare, boost the upper midrange starting at about +5 or 6dB at 2kHz or so. Open up the bandwidth (if that parameter is available) until you get the snare to jump out, then tighten the bandwidth until you get only the part of the snare sound that you want most. Then fine-tune the frequency until you need the least amount of boost in order to make it jump out of the mix.

For Drums—

Dave Pensado: A lot of the music I do has samples in it and that gives the producer the luxury of pretty much getting the sound he wanted from the start. In the old days you always pulled out a little 400 on the kick drum. You always added a little 3 and 6 to the toms. That just doesn’t happen as much any more because when I get the tape, even with live bands, the producer’s already triggered the sound he wanted off the live performance and the drums are closer.

For Bass —

The ratio between the low bass (80–120Hz) and the mid-bass (130Hz–200Hz) is important. Try using two fairly narrow peaking bands, one at 100Hz and another at 140Hz and boost one and cut the other. If the bass is too warm, sometimes reducing the upper band can make it more distinct without removing the deeper fundamentals that live in the 100Hz band. Also, try boosting some of the 1kHz area since this is where a lot of the sound of the Fender bass lives.

For Fatter Guitars —

Boost midrange a lot (9dB or so) and sweep the frequencies until you hear the range where the guitar sounds thick but yet still bright enough to cut through. Now, back the boost down to about +4 or so until the guitar cuts through the mix without being too bright.

Don Smith: I use EQ different from some people. I don’t just use it to brighten or fatten something up; I use it to make an instrument feel better. Like on a guitar, making sure that all the strings on a guitar can be heard. Instead of just brightening up the high strings and adding mud to the low strings, I may look for a certain chord to hear more of the A string. If the D string is missing in a chord, I like to EQ and boost it way up to +8 or +10 and then just dial through the different frequencies until I hear what they’re doing to the guitar. So I’m trying to make things more balanced in the way they lay with other instruments.

For Vocals—

Boost a little at 125Hz to 250Hz to accentuate the voice fundamental and make it more “chesty”-sounding. The 2kHz to 4kHz range accentuates the consonants and makes the vocal seem closer to the listener.

Ed Seay: On a vocal sometimes I think, “Does this vocal need a diet plan? Does he need to lose some flab down there?” Or sometimes, “We need some weight on this guy so let’s add some 300 cycles and make him sound a little more important.”

David Sussman: If I’m recording vocals, I like to roll off quite a bit on the bottom end so the compressor doesn’t start kicking in and bringing up any low end rumble or noise. If I’m EQing a piano or something that’s already been recorded, I sometimes roll off a lot of the bottom so I leave a lot of room for the bass and the kick drum to occupy. A lot of times I don’t need anything under probably 100Hz. I’ll do some rolling off with the filters and then I may take a bell curve and zone in on a couple of other woofy areas on certain instruments.

Dave Pensado: I think of EQ as an effect much the same way you would add chorus or reverb to a particular instrument or vocal. Like, I might have a vocal where I think it’s really EQed nicely and then I’ll add a little more 3k just to get it to bite a little more. Then it just makes me feel like the singer was trying harder and it brings out a little bit of passion in his or her voice. So I tend to be most effective when I do the standard equalizing, then take it to the next level, thinking of it as an effect.
Source: ArtistPro

Magic Frequencies 4

Magic Frequencies 3

Easy-To-Remember Golden Rules Of EQ

1. If it sounds muddy, cut some at 250Hz.

2. If it sounds honky, cut some at 500Hz.

3. Cut if you’re trying to make things sound
better.

4. Boost if you’re trying to make things sound
different.

5. You can’t boost something that’s not there
in the first place.