Do you ever find your mixing process gets bogged down in a repeating circle of changes, which end up different but often no better? Maybe your approach to EQ is to blame. Find out how to avoid this downward spiral of mix decisions in this free two-part tutorial from FabFilter.
Mixing is fundamentally finding the right levels at which to blend instruments and voices to make a pleasing result which is easy to understand. Faders control how loud these instruments are overall compared to each other, dynamics processors control how that level changes over time but it is EQ that controls which parts of a sound are louder than others. Rather than control relative levels between instruments, EQ controls the internal balance of frequencies within an instrument - its tonal quality or “timbre”.
In the first of this pair of tutorial videos, Dan Worrall explains the purpose and layout of a conventional desk EQ and compares and contrasts with FabFilter’s Pro Q2. the current version Pro Q3 has this same functionality but with some additional features.
In this second free tutorial, Dan uses Pro Q2 to identify areas of the spectrum where unhelpful amounts of energy build up between instruments, which are not apparent when listening to tracks individually but become more noticeable when heard in context.
There are several features in Pro Q2, also available in Pro Q3, which speed up this process. The spectrum analyser can be useful but in most cases using your ears is the only way to get good results, though using features such as bandpass mode and auto gain matching can help ensure your decisions are the right ones.
These are very useful videos and while aimed at guiding the novice though one of the most difficult skills in mixing, there is value in these videos for user at all levels. Though specifically demonstrating FabFilter products these videos deal in approach more than specific features and there is something here for everyone whether a FabFilter user or not.