2 Mistakes People Do With EQ

The very first mistake people do when using EQ and this mistake is one you should never do you should just forget about it just pretend there not even there people tend to trust there presets that come with there EQ. The reason why presets are the worst thing is tack a vocal track track for instant's if you use a preset on your vocal track how dose that preset that you used on your vocal track know what your vocalist sounds like, how do they know what microphone i used, how do they know what pre amp i used, how do they know how i used that microphone and what angle i had it at, what the singer had to drink that morning. All those things you need to think about if your going to use a EQ preset 
So what good is this preset that i used on this EQ if the whole point of EQ is to revel the best part of a track.

So a preset on a EQ i hate to say but its pointless because its not going to help you in the real world, because it has know idea what your audio sounds like trust me just stay away from presets please pretend there not even there they wont help you.

So remember this with EQ you have to decide on your EQ curves you cant let the preset Decide for you, you have to decide 100% of the time


Number 2 of the worst EQ mistake you can do in a home recording studio is boost EQ rather then cutting, so lets say you have a guitar in your mix that you cant hear very well so what do we tend to do we go right for a EQ and we boost until we can hear that guitar and its popping through the mix and then we say hey yeah there's that guitar all i needed to do is grab a EQ and boost it a little and know its popping through the mix. But let me tell you something everyone who is doing that out there please stop because let me tell you what your doing the only thing your doing is adding more volume to your mix and to that track and your adding more gain to that track also. So this is why its better to cut EQ then to Boost because then your left with head room, and all get into head room in a mint. So when you cant hear one of the instruments in your mix don't go for another EQ and boost that EQ until you can hear that instrument come through the mix better hears something els you can do to make your mix sound a lot better is look around your mix at all your track and cut something els like lets say this shaker is covering up the guitar solo go into the shaker track on the EQ and cut a little of it out turn that down don't turn the guitar solo up cause remember boosting your EQ will just make your track clip and you will start to hear popping and fuzz and all kinds of noises you don't want to hear and then your left with know head room. 
Now lets talk about head room what is head room, head room is where the meeter starts and where it ends at the top so tack a craw space in your house when you go into the craw space you cant stand up right now if you try to stand up your out of head room because your going to hit your head so if the meeter hits the very top of the track and you start to see the color yellow of red or organ then you know your single is starting to clip some audio interfaces will tell you when your single is starting to clip. 

I hope this information helped you understand how to use EQ the right way if you have any other question please let me know by emailing me by email is at the top thank you have a great day 

Mixing Secrets For EQ

Hey everyone today I though i would give you some great information on mixing your instruments using EQ, like where to place them in your mix and where to have them sit so you will be able to hear each and every instrument, and have your song come together the way you want it to when you tack it out to share with the world or on the internet so I'm going to give you some great stuff today so if your reading this make sure you really stay focused on everything I'm telling you so your mix when come together and sound better, all start with guitars 

* Acoustic guitar

Placing a HIGH PASS FILTER at around 80 - 100 Hz to leave the low end for the bass guitar and the kick drum. If the acoustic guitar is played strumming as a rythm guitar the high pass filter is often increased up to about 200 Hz to make it sit better in the mix.

If the acoustic guitar has a prominent role in a spare mix ( Like with fingerpicking for instance and the sound is to thin you can put some bottom back into it by very slightly boosting between 80 and 100 Hz. If the guitar has tow much boom in the low end you can tack away the boom by cutting at around 100 Hz. If the acoustic guitar is strummed this frequency range is often taken away by a high pass filter at around 160 - 200 Hz. To kill the low end noise of the strumming and to leave the low end for the kick drum and the bass guitar.

If the acoustic guitar is thin and with out body you can boost slightly between 200 - 250 Hz with a medium bandwidth (Q) this is often combined with a cut around 100 Hz with a narrow to medium bandwidth bell curve EQ or a high pass filter up to about 200 Hz to give the kick drum and bass guitar more space 



If you have any other questions about acoustic guitar please let me know by emailing me also there is more information on acoustic guitar if you would like me to send you the rest of the information also please email me so i can do that. thank you

Muting The Instruments

Hey everyone today i have a great tip for you on opening up your mix and this is something you can do if you fell your mix is to muffled and all the instrument's fell like there not in your face to you, so hear a few tips to help you get wider mixes. First one lets say your coming out of a chorus of your song and you cant hear the harmonies to your song hears a great way to bring it forward mute a few guitar after the chorus and just leave the piano, vocals, drums, & bass, in the song and mute the guitar for just a few seconds and then as the chorus is coming up bring them back in. Because hears the thing guys you have to think of it this way just by muting some instruments could make your whole song sound amazing because once you mute then you'll be like wow listen to those harmonies those where all ready there, there was just something covering them up so by muting some instruments to make it more open can really bring your song to the next level. 

Another way you can make your some fell a lot more open is by using volume automation 
like when you get to a part in the song where you fell you just don't want to hear that instrument then bring your volume automation to zero and then build as your going into the chorus and then as your going into the verses you can bring the volume down.

So you have to remember that there are a whole bunch of ways you can do this to help your mix fell more open and come together sometimes its all ready in your mix and you just have to find it or sometimes you need to play around and think like a producer and say maybe i should try this and see if this works cause if it dose then it will really help my mix come together a lot faster smoother and Easter 
So as your sitting in your studio or where ever you do your music think like a producer and don't be afraid to try things because sometimes the stuff you try really dose help. 
I will give you a tip that i do when i fell i want to get rid of something in my mix i just mute it and then play it back to see if it sounds good i don't get ride of it yet because I don't know if it is going to sound good or not but if i cant decide then i leave it and come back to it latter so when your in the studio think like a producer don't think to hard Theo and remember you don't need the biggest and the best equipment in the world to make great music you could just have a one input audio interface and you can still make great music on that

For a year i made great music on a one input audio interface i mean you don't need a lot of plugins just stick to the basics and you can make great music go out there and do it.

Opening Up Your Mix

Hey everyone today i want to talk about opening up your mix all of us want mixes that sound wide and opening and you can hear every instrument,  so I'm going to teach you a great way to open your mix and it is supper easy and it's like the oldest trick in the book because its that easy.
So first thing i want to tell you is something about guitars in your mix, guitars are that number one instrument that just fills up our mixes really easy and over powers all the other instruments so to make a mix sound more open is to mute some of those guitars. So lets say your coming out of a chorus into a verse and you want the verse to sound more open and less powerful. So hears an idea for you instead of having a strumming acoustic guitar over powering the mix go for a picking acoustic guitar in the verse and then the drums still there and the bass guitar and then maybe have like a organ in the back round to fill up the low end and also have the vocals after the verse is done and your going back lets say a chorus then you can bring the strumming acoustic guitar back in. Now I'm not saying that you cant have a strumming acoustic guitar through your whole song i have many songs where i did strumming acoustic guitars, what I'm saying is you just need to know how to control them and not let it over power your mix by learning how to control all your instruments you will be able to have a great mix 

Why Don't Use Digital Distortion

Hey everyone I have a great tip for you guys today I know I have been telling you guys to edit your tracks before you start mixing right and still keep that up but I'm going to give you a tip today that is going to save you a bunch of time on editing your tracks this really counts for guitars and bass but other instruments to like what ever instruments you can use distortion on.

So hears what you don't want to do is don't use digital distortion that comes with your DAW because it causes way to many HARMONICS in your DAW, and now some of you might be asking me what are harmonics harmonics are sound wave that are caused when you like pluck a guitar string so if you have distortion on your guitar it's going to be a bigger sound wave but if you don't use distortion then it's going to be a littler wave form now I'm not saying to stop using distortion I mean I'm a huge fan of it and I still use it in my songs all the time but just try not to use it in your DAW use a distortion pedal or a DI Box and hook that to your interface and then you will be set I hope this tip helped you and will save you some time from editing and more time to finish your song and making more music enjoy 

Background Vocal Tip

Hey everyone i got a tip for you on back round vocals back round vocals can be a little tricky because you also don't want to over power the lead vocal so you cant hear it you want to hear back of the vocal together at the same time so hears a great trick you can use and its supper easy and its fast and it helps. On your back round vocal track add a EQ and put a low pass filter in around 100 Hz is a good starting point then play the song and start adjusting the EQ when you start to hear the back round vocals and the lead vocal start to sit better in the mix then you know you did a good thing 

If you want more information on mixing you have my email at the top of the page 

And also if you would like some of my best mixing information on getting great sounding tracks just email me and ask me can you send me your best mixing information 

Have a great day

Vocal compression

Hears a great tip for you all that cant get your vocals where you want them like do your vocals sound like there really fare back in your mix to where you cant even hear them that well.
Well i have a tip for you guys that will fix that and its supper easy to do and fast all you do is grab a compression and compress your vocal track next thing you do is copy that plug in and drag it under neath the other compression so stacking tow compression is a great way to bring your vocals out and help it sit better and sit on top of your mix because i know that is what we want we want vocals that sit on top of our mix 

Hope this helped if you have any other questions you know how to reach me

Edit Kick Drum With Bass Guitar

The most importing thing well what I should really say is one of the most importing things is in music when your editing your song is to make sure your kick drum lines up with your bass guitar so hears a good way you can do that start by zooming in on your tracks and see where the bass guitar dose not line up with the kick drum then tack your slicing tool every daw comes with one of these and slice your bass guitar where it dose not line up and drag it to where the kick drum lines up this is one of the most importing things you want to do cause if your bass guitar and kick drum sound off your whole song will to 

How To Free Up Head Room

Hear are some of my best mixing answers for you guys on how to help your mixes come together a whole lot more easy and faster the first one is. Giving your mix head room and what do i mean by head room letting your mix breath making sure you can hear every instrument that you record. Because buy not letting your mix breath and have air its going to sound all muddy and flat and just sound bad that's not what we want right we want mixes that we can hear every instrument and that are going to blow us away we want our friend's to put on those headphone and be like wow this song is awesome i wish i could make music like this. So hears some tips you can do to give your mix more headroom turn down your fade rs in your mix by turning down your fade rs in your mix its not going to crowed up your mix buss and have your mix breath a lot better so there's one way you can give your mix headroom number 2. turn down your audio interface when you record stuff some of you guys are recording stuff to loud and what that's doing is crowding up your mix bus also and making your tracks sound all bad so keep your audio interface down. Another one is using a high pass filter on every single one of your tracks now i talked about this before on the blog about using a high pass filter on all your tracks but not your kick drum and your bass guitar leave those black. Buy add a high pass filter to all your tracks besides your kick drum and your bass guitar your kick drum and bass guitar are going to pop through the mix even more  and that's what you want to hear. Let me talk about guitars for a bit we all want our guitars in our mix to pop and punch through our mix but we just don't know how to get there well hears some good tips that will help number one using a high pass filter starting at 100Hz if 100Hz is not enough bring it up to 200Hz the highest you should go is about 400Hz for an acoustic guitar know higher then that that will tack out a lot of the low end and you will be able to hear a lot more of your instruments in your mix. Because guitar load up so much in our mix that there sometimes hard to control so that's why using a high pass filter and compression and all those plug ins to keep them under control should help. Hears another good tip for you if you record in stereo that needs to end because that's another way to fill up your mix but and to build up head room in your room make sure your starting to record in mono tracks so that you can mix a lot easy er 

I hope these tips and tricks helped you if you have any other questions for you about mixing and audio please email me my email is at the top of the page thank you and go out and make some great music and use these tips and tracks i've been teaching you enjoy guys.