About EQ (basics)

Equalizers are used to –

• 「Adjust a track tonality, and change the sound scape of a song」
• 「Seperate track sounds to make the mic better」
• 「Greatly change a tracks sound」

It is an important effect with many uses.
When MIXING, its safe to say you will place one on most, if not every single track.

Here we will look at some tips to adjusting EQ, and some important basic knowledge.

EQ basics – Frequency spectrum

↑ Though many types of EQs exist, they work in the same way (click to zoom).
The far left is the low end and moves up in frequency as you move to the right.

EQs will always have numerical values to designate frequency.

• 20〜200hz is low end
• 200〜3Khz is mid range
• 3Khz and above is high end

This aren’t 100% exact values, but memorize these as a point of reference.

Frequency

Characteristics of each area of range

「Low end」

This determines the body and pressure of sound.
Bass and kicks dominate this area of the frequency spectrum.

「Mid range」

This area gives characteristic to sound.
It is the easiest area to listen to with human hearing.
Voice, guitar, and keyboards contain many frequencies within this range.
This area can become overcrowded in a song, and how you tidy up these frequencies can make or break your mix.

「High end」

This area contains airyness and shine to a sound.
Older songs generally are lacking this area of frequency.
This is because the technology didn’t allow for proper recording across the frequency spectrum.
With the advancement in technology, we can now create「hi-fi」sounds.

↓ We will raise/lower sounds in each range to hear the difference.

Check out our「knobs」article here!