As you increase the cutoff frequency of your high pass filter, bring it to the point at which you can just make out the effect it’s having, and then dial it back a couple Hz. When you apply a high pass and/or low pass filter to your song, the goal is to remove only the frequency content that you can’t hear. The FabFilter Pro-Q 3 also allows you to engage a linear phase mode, making it another strong mastering option. This EQ provides transparent results, which is precisely what you're looking for if you just want to cut away some low-end and some top-end. It’s a little less likely for your top-end to trigger a device in this way since the energy of most songs decrease as you move up the frequency spectrum.įor mastering purposes, I like using the Waves Linear Phase EQ due to the way it avoids creating a phase shift at the crossover points of the filters. Sometimes you’ll end up with an inaudible part of your sub bass prematurely triggering your mastering limiter, or other plugins that respond to signal using a single broadband filter.
Hardware units and plugins can respond to frequencies beyond what humans are capable of hearing, which is generally 20-20,000 Hz. If You Can’t Hear It or Feel It, Get Rid of It Some instruments like electric guitar may even rely on frequency content down to 60-80 Hz it depends on what else is happening in your mix and how you’re choosing to fill space within your stereo field. Many male vocals rely on frequency content around 100 Hz, while lots of female vocals can be cut at 150-200 Hz. It’s ok for some low-end frequency overlap to occur you need to trust your ears here and think about where the power of the sound you’re sculpting comes from. You'll hear people say “cut everything below 100 Hz,” but some instruments rely on this frequency content. There are no rules when it comes to mixing, but I definitely recommend you keep the slope of your high pass filters quite gradual this will help you avoid creating an inorganic divide between the low-end and top-end of your music.
#How to copy and save eq settings with fabfilter pro q2 how to
Learn how to create punchier songs using phase alignment.įigure 1: An EQ applying a high-pass filter with an 18 dB/octave slope at 87.307 Hz. All of the components of your song interact with one another, meaning that if there’s a buildup of bass content between your vocals, synths, guitars, and pads, there’s a greater chance that you’ll run into potential phase issues in your low-end.
Making room for the bass in a mix often requires you to affect elements other than just your bass. More advanced EQs will provide you with access to extended ease-of-use features, and potentially refined sound quality due to an assortment of processing modes. The stock EQ that comes with your DAW will be able to perform a variety of processes, so upgrading to a more expensive EQ isn’t a requirement. There are some simple EQ techniques you can use to provide increased clarity to your mixes. Using an EQ, you can completely re-shape the frequency response of a sound. It provides you with gain control over different frequency ranges known as bands. An equalizer (EQ) is one of the simplest and most effective mixing tools at your disposal.