Mixing Tutorial: Equalization

Tutorial Mixing: Equalization and Why it's Awesome

Cdra

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Cdra submitted a new resource:

Mixing Tutorial: Equalization and Why it's Awesome - Mixing Tutorial: Equalization and Why it's Awesome

Hey everyone, I'm Cdra and people keep asking me how I EQ things.  So, I decided I'd give you guys a cheat sheet on what I know about equalizing.

BUT FIRST: Why is EQ important?​

Equalizers are one of the two key components of mixing vocal tracks, the other being compressors.  In a nutshell, compressors even out the volume of the track and equalizers cut and boost different frequencies in order to make the vocals even more balanced and clear.  It's all about being audible over...

Read more about this resource...
 
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Yue Nagareboshi

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Where is the "Me Gusta" button?

Also... MODS, please make this a sticky at some point pls.

Great tutorial" = w=b!!
 

Cdra

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Yue Nagareboshi link said:
Where is the \"Me Gusta\" button?

Also... MODS, please make this a sticky at some point pls.

Great tutorial\" = w=b!!
On tumblr? xD

Thanks~
 

Berin

Momo's Minion
This is incredibly helpful, thank you very much for sharing your sapience *-* gotta try that in audacity~
 

deactivated

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I would like to make a note here: If you want a "radio" voice (For example, when Miku sings into the megaphone during love is war, the beginning of Kokoro when Rin is still robotic, etc) you should pretty much cut the low frequencies and raise the high. Raising high frequencies can often lead to a more robotic sound, so if you lower the low frequencies, be careful raising the high too much.

And also, every voice has it's own setting! I generally play around with my EQ for AT LEAST an hour or so until I'm happy with it o: so these are more general rules and not strict guidelines!
 

shinami

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Hmm....two questions Cdra.
With ReaEQ I often use the default Clear singer and Full singer preset EQs - would you say they're good or inadequate? Second, do you think ReaFir (Another REAPER EQ thing) is better for custom EQing or worse?
 
D

dCatharsis

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jfdhgkjsgdhfjsdh this tutorial is AWESOME!
Thank you so much for doing it! :smile:
 

KitWistful

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Just wanted to pop in with this:

Equilibre

It's a free equalization VST. I haven't tried it in Audacity but it has a much friendlier interface then the default Audacity one.

I'm not too handy with EQ so I look forward to actually reading this tutorial through hahaha

edit: ah! I never thought of looking at it that way. I usually just section off their voice to a certain frequency range and call it a day...I'm gonna have to play around with peaks more, I think XD;;
 

Cdra

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Misha link said:
Would it be alright if I posted my equalizer settings xD ?
This is great btw :smile:
Go ahead! :3  Thanks~

Princess Aleks link said:
I would like to make a note here: If you want a \"radio\" voice (For example, when Miku sings into the megaphone during love is war, the beginning of Kokoro when Rin is still robotic, etc) you should pretty much cut the low frequencies and raise the high. Raising high frequencies can often lead to a more robotic sound, so if you lower the low frequencies, be careful raising the high too much.

And also, every voice has it's own setting! I generally play around with my EQ for AT LEAST an hour or so until I'm happy with it o: so these are more general rules and not strict guidelines!
Yep, this is all quite true!  Though me, if I want a radio effect, I'll just apply a strong high-pass filter.

PandaLolii link said:
Not a problem 8D

shinami link said:
Hmm....two questions Cdra.
With ReaEQ I often use the default Clear singer and Full singer preset EQs - would you say they're good or inadequate? Second, do you think ReaFir (Another REAPER EQ thing) is better for custom EQing or worse?

*goes to look because so much Reaper noob 8D;*  From what I can see, those presets look fine, but as Aleks and I mentioned, every voice has its own optimum EQ--and that may even be different depending on the song :uhm:.  So while both of those presets are okay (depending on the effect you want), more than anything they'd make a great starting point to build a custom EQ setting from, because they've got a lot of your general settings built in already which makes it easy to tweak from there.  *nod*

As for ReaFir, it looks fine to me--it might be a little easier to use given the way the curves flow, but that's up to user preference.  From playing with it for a minute, I think it's a bit more customizable, though if you're going to use it you should be sure to change the range of volume that you're shifting (with -90 to +24, it's really hard to see the details!).  Most equalizers display from -12 to +12, so I recommend changing your range to something closer to that so you can be more precise.

Kit Wistful link said:
Just wanted to pop in with this:

Equilibre

It's a free equalization VST. I haven't tried it in Audacity but it has a much friendlier interface then the default Audacity one.

I'm not too handy with EQ so I look forward to actually reading this tutorial through hahaha

edit: ah! I never thought of looking at it that way. I usually just section off their voice to a certain frequency range and call it a day...I'm gonna have to play around with peaks more, I think XD;;

Hnn... while that may be true, Audacity is still stuipidly flawed in that you can't listen to the track while you're altering the EQ--you can't listen to it while you're applying any effect as far as I can tell, so that's what the problem would be.  Being able to see/hear your volumes as you EQ in Reaper and FL Studio is really helpful ewe  Equilibre looks nice though!  Honestly this tutorial can be carried over to basically any equalizer you may have access to, so yeah~


Thanks everyone! ovo  Feel free to keep asking questions!
 

IceeBlue

Momo's Minion
And here I thought that you don't need to EQ much. xDD (As in go insane adjusting those bands xDD)

Great guide! Now I finally know what to do with each frequency range and stuff. ouob

I have a question though... How would you go EQ'ing the harmonies? Is it just the same thing as the main vocals, or is it a bit different? (Or maybe you don't have to? xD) I've been thinking about it since I first started fiddling with the settings.
 

Cdra

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IceeBlue link said:
And here I thought that you don't need to EQ much. xDD (As in go insane adjusting those bands xDD)

Great guide! Now I finally know what to do with each frequency range and stuff. ouob

I have a question though... How would you go EQ'ing the harmonies? Is it just the same thing as the main vocals, or is it a bit different? (Or maybe you don't have to? xD) I've been thinking about it since I first started fiddling with the settings.

Of course you should EQ your harmonies!  Hmmm... I usually do them a lot like I do the main vocals, but I don't make them as strong, and obviously not as loud.
 

Hentai

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Re: Re: Mixing Tutorial: Equalization and Why it's Awesome

Yue Nagareboshi link said:
Where is the \"Me Gusta\" button?

Also... MODS, please make this a sticky at some point pls.

Great tutorial\" = w=b!!
Its called [upgrade] and is right under the username to the left of the post.

I'llSeeU-P has been trying to preach the importance of EQ and Mixing for ages. He wrote his guide but didn't go into detail as you did. Excellent guide, I am sure this will benefit many people.

Also yes, sticky indeed. Awesome guide!

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
 

Cdra

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Re: Re: Mixing Tutorial: Equalization and Why it's Awesome

Hentai link said:
[quote author=Yue Nagareboshi link=topic=1534.msg1#msg1 date=1335077149]
Where is the \"Me Gusta\" button?

Also... MODS, please make this a sticky at some point pls.

Great tutorial\" = w=b!!
Its called [upgrade] and is right under the username to the left of the post.

I'llSeeU-P has been trying to preach the importance of EQ and Mixing for ages. He wrote his guide but didn't go into detail as you did. Excellent guide, I am sure this will benefit many people.

Also yes, sticky indeed. Awesome guide!

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
[/quote]
ovo I learned a lot from I'llSeeU-P's guide when I first started mixing with some seriousness~  that's something people should check out, too.  I have it bookmarked. -w-

For those of you who don't know about I'llSeeU-P's guide, it's a good one to look at.  Though, vocaloids and utau do mix a bit differently.  It's still helpful~  You can click on this paragraph to check it out.

;A; *flattered* thank you so muchhhhh
 

PKLpikachu

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Defender of Defoko
This tutorial is very useful! My UTAU covers sound 1000 times better with equalization. I would love if you made a compression tutorial as well. :D
 

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