Find the excitement

There are lots of different ways to conceptualize EQing; here’s a way that I use a lot:

Find a place to do a boost that brings out or accentuates something exciting or useful about the sound in question.

This is often between 600 and 1900 Hz. There are other places too! But the midrange is a great place to look.

What I like to do is to set up a little narrow boost — Q=2.5, EQ gain = +4dB. And then I like to sweep the frequency while the song is playing until something cool about the sound jumps out at me. And then I do more or less of that EQ’s gain at that frequency until the poke sounds dialed in.

This is also a great way to get more apparent volume out of a sound without turning all the parts of it up. Just turn up the part that’s the most exciting, or that’s contributing most to what that sound is doing in the arrangement! This can help you build a clean mix with lots of room for everyone.

Focusing in — jamie