Target your low-end boosts as precisely as possible
Sometimes you need to boost a sound’s EQ in the low end. To give a kick drum more heft, perhaps, or thump, or impact. Or to warm up a bass part.
Something that I’ve learned is that, whenever possible, it seems to work out much better for the mix if I can target that boost as precisely as possible.
It’s not that a shelf wouldn’t work in some of these situations? It certainly would. But the thing is, the low end in a mix can get clogged up really quickly. So I’ve learned to make my low-end boosts as specific as I can get away with and still achieve my desired outcome.
What this equates to in practical terms is doing not shelf-shaped EQs but bell-shaped EQs, and doing them with as narrow a Q as I can get away with and still have it work.
For bass, this might mean a Q of 2.5, targeted on the note that I want to anchor the warmth of the sound. So if the song is in G, and I want the warmth to live on the root note, I might do a little +2 dB poke at 98 Hz with a Q of 2.5.
Or if I want the root note to be more open and light-feeling, and I want the 5 chord to carry the warmth when we land there, then I might do that boost at 147 Hz instead (or 73 Hz, depending how the warmth shows up in that sound and what I’m specifically going for).
What I’m not doing is putting a +2 dB low shelf at 150 Hz. Sure, it would make the whole low end of the bass nice and warm — but it would also swamp out all those other in-between frequencies a bit, not to mention obscuring the kick, taking up extra headroom in the bus compressor, etc. And I’m going for clean mixes! So I make precise choices, as opposed to more general ones.
Same with the kick. I’ll frequently do a boost at the first harmonic with a Q of 4 — we’re talking somewhere in the 100-120 Hz range. The boost helps the impact of the drum be felt, and the narrow Q helps it stay clean.
It’s super important to choose exactly the right frequency when you’re working with such narrow boosts — the difference between 97 Hz and 98 Hz can be night and day.
Keeping it clean — jamie