Volume and EQ

There’s no wrong way to do music. Let’s stipulate that to begin with.

So really the only question ever in my mind is: is the thing I’m making internally consistent? And is it “error free,” for what it is?

It’s cool if sounds are weird. It’s cool if things have unusual EQ. It’s cool to put instruments in imaginary, surrealistic spaces. You don’t have to make boring, “normal” recordings.

But just make sure that, for whatever it is you’re doing, every sound in the song is pointing toward the center, wherever you’ve defined that as being.

When people send me their work for review — either before I master it, or in a mentorship situation — if there’s going to be an issue that needs correcting, it’s almost always with one of two very simple things: volume and EQ.

It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the first thing you do when you’re building a mix, before you put any plugins on, is balance out the volumes as well as you can. And the second thing? EQ.

So I would suggest listening to whatever you’re working on with an extra focus on those two items! Odds are good that if you have something in your song that’s working against where the song wants to go, you can fix it with volume or EQ.

You can do anything you want — just make sure your volumes and EQs are tight.

I do what I want — jamie