Mnsonthebeat™ Beat Merchant

Mixing with EQ properly and effectively is a dark art and precisely knowing how to use EQ properly, when, and on what instrument is one of the hardest aspects of balancing a mix to make it sound as good as possible. EQ is one of the two fundamental tools used in making a recording sound livelier and more musical, sitting alongside compression. Other things like reverb and spatial effects are also very important. Before of all of those, though, knowing how to use EQ in your mix will be your first step to the best results. Here is an in-depth guide on  types of EQ  and their individual functions so you can prepare yourself for mixing with EQ. Mixing with EQ properly has many benefits You allow instruments to balance tonally by carving spaces for them to sit alongside each other in the frequency spectrum. Imbalanced instruments will sound odd when playing together – for example, a loud synth and guitar can’t sit in exactly the same areas of the frequency spectrum...

Whilst most of us recognise that mastering and mixing are two different things, it’s often a blurred line that separates them. Although distinctly different, both are equally important and you cannot have one without the other.  Mixing  is the stage where each of the separate instruments and sounds in your song can be treated and processed individually. They are then combined together into a singular stereo mix down ready for mastering.  Mastering   is where the stereo mix down is enhanced, balanced and adjusted to ensure continuity across sound systems as well as an industry standard, release ready sound. So what is mixing in more detail? Mixing is the step that occurs once all the writing and tracking has been completed. The initial steps of mixing will include labelling and arranging all the audio clips within a session. Once the session is prepared, you can set out implementing processes such as equalisation, filtering, compression and panning to...

Luftikus  is a digital adaption to an  analog EQ  with fext half-octave bands and additional high frequency boost. As an improvement to the hardware it allows deeper cuts and supports a keep-gain mode where overall gain changes are avoided. Luftikus has half-octave bands at 10, 40, 160 and 640 Hz, completed by a high shelf at 2.5 kHz. For adding sparkle to recordings a further high frequency boost at 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 40 kHz can be used. The overall design was improved to allow deeper cuts. The range -5 to +10 is the original range while below -5 results in cuts unavailable in hardware. Modes The hardware adds overall gain which can lead to clipping. To counter this an output trim as well as the “Keep Gain” mode is available. While the trim allows manual adjustments the “Keep Gain” mode will keep (more or less) the overall loudness by reducing gain in non-boosted areas. The “Analog” mode models a more analog behavior while in “Mastering” the controls become s...