Guitar EQ Mixing for rock, country and pop
One of the most important instruments for producing rock, pop and country music are guitars. In fact, a band alone can be formed by just having guitars, drums and bass (for example it can become “legendary” like Led Zeppelin). Because of this importance, it has been used frequently to produce songs; however some difficulties are encountered during the mixing process.
The common mixing problems in working with guitar frequencies are that it is conflicting with vocals and bass frequencies. If guitars are not properly mixed, it can result to muddy sound. This means that guitars, vocals and bass are not clearly heard in the mix. The most common problem with guitar mud problem is “drowned vocals”. Drowned vocals are not surely acceptable in pop and country genre, where the vocals should be clearly dominant in the mix.
The following are the important mixing tips I used for producing rock, pop and country music. The most important requirement before you can mix guitars is that it should be properly recorded, clean (no noise) and of course “in tune”. You should also have a parametric equalizer to mix guitars. Remember that without EQ you cannot properly mix guitar frequencies at the optimum level.
Quick Guide:
Mixing guitar frequencies for rock music, pop and country:
High pass filter with cut off frequency at 200 Hz (for all applicable genres)– this will roll off guitar low frequencies which can conflict with bass guitar sound. Remember that in order to avoid mud, low guitar frequencies must be attenuated in order to avoid conflict with bass guitars.
Cut -9dB at 3Khz, Q = 1.4 (for pop and country) – by cutting 9 dB at 3000Hz, you are making a hole in these range of frequencies which vocals can sit in. -9dB is a strong cut off which is recommended for pop and country music. However you can extend cutting to a maximum of -15dB, remember to use your ear in judging the sound. Too much cutting will tend to loss most of the guitar sound main character which can be bad for music production. But rock music is more popular with drowning vocals. So instead, you can cut conservatively at -3dB only.
Boost 3dB at 400 Hz (Q =1.0) for rock music only. If you are producing rock guitars (with distortion or overdrive); boosting 3dB can make the guitar sound heavier than it seems. This works best when the bass guitar has been cut off at 400Hz also, if not then it may sound less effective.
Cut -6dB at 800Hz at Q=1.4 for all applicable genres. This will make the guitar sound clean and sound more professional. If this is not done, the “cheap” sound of the guitar will appear prominent which can be distracting to the ears.
Boost 2dB at 6000Hz at Q=1 for pop and country genres. This is particularly important if you have a lot of acoustic guitar arrangements and it will tend to “shine” prominently with crisp at these frequencies. Also, this can be helpful to add more life and sparkle to guitar solos whether acoustic or overdriven guitars.
These are the only settings I care when I mix guitar, the rest of the frequency ranges I leave it as it is.
Producing music for disco house is becoming very common in h...
If you are about to get started in home audio mixing or even...
Someone asked me how to mix horns combined with other instru...
If you are applying EQ in audio mixing, then as a beginner y...
March 17th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Hi, my name is Leo, first let me say, great blog, mostly people that writes blogs are self centered individuals that like to “listen to the sound of their own voice” but not this one, very very informative. Very helpful. Please keep it up..
I’m a beginner in digital recording, I’m using cool edit pro 2, an old version of adobe audition, I think. Can you help me with the high pass/ low pass filters? Do we use the ‘low/
high shelf cutoff in the parametric eq menu? or do we use the fft filter, and just cut off the unwanted frequencies there? Thanks in advance, I’m just confused why they included so many types of filters in the program, I’m having trouble working out which one to use for what. Thanks again. This is going to be the first of many more questions coming ur way, I hope u don’t mind. Cheers..
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Hi Leo,
Thanks for dropping by the blog. I appreciate you find the information helpful. Anyway, lets address your concern one by one:
1.Can you help me with the high pass/ low pass filters? OK high pass means (passing frequencies above the cutoff, if the cut off is 100Hz; then the filter will only allow frequencies above 100 Hz to pass, the rest; like below 100Hz will be cut off drastically). Opposite will happen with low pass filters(which is passing frequencies below the cutoff). If the cut off is 1000 Hz and using low pass filter, it will pass only below 1000Hz while above it will be attenuated.
2.Do we use the ‘low/high shelf cutoff in the parametric eq menu? Yes, low and high shelf cutoff does not use Q and you can find it somewhere above the normal EQ settings.
3. or do we use the fft filter, and just cut off the unwanted frequencies there? No I do not use this one in the mixing process, it just to complicated.
April 2nd, 2010 at 6:54 am
Hi Emerson -
Is there a rule of thumb on cutting other instruments and vocal frequencies for the guitar? I seem to be having trouble getting it to stand out clearly in the mix.
Thanks.
Mark
April 5th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Hi Emerson, Thanks for the reply. Now I understand using the LPF and HPF.
Another question, regarding your explanation on drum recording using midi (programming drum), right now I’m using fruity loops to create drum tracks, do I still need to mix the drums, or should i just leave it as it is? what’s the common practice? do people still mix the drums even though they’re using midi drums? thanks again, love the blog… Cheers
April 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Oops forgot something, I also meant to ask you, whats the ‘common’ practice for mixing snare drums, hihat, toms, etc? I read your mixing arrangement for kick drum, how bout the rest of the kit?
. thanks again…
April 5th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Hi Mark,
It is the mixing engineers role to identify the main objectives of the mix. This is coming from the producer itself. Some producers advise engineers to make vocals stand out of the mix (like for those artists in pop and country), so guitars are being cut in favor of the vocals. However, there are also very rare instances where guitar needs to stand out also since the guitarist is a superstar(like Joe Satriani playing in a band) as compared to the vocals. In this case, I would use the following EQ settings:
Vocals and guitars occupy the same frequency space, so:
Vocals= cut -2dB at 3000Hz Q=1.4
Guitars= boost 2dB at 3000Hz Q=1.4
Other instruments= cut -1dB to -2dB at 3000Hz, Q=1.4
The above setting is a good way to start, remember to use your ear in the tweaking process. The settings above will work whether the guitarist is playing lead or rhythm.
April 5th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Hi Leo,
Yes of course, once the drum tracks created by fruityloops are in placed in the software mixing session project, you still need to mix the drums in adjust the panning and EQ. So that it will fit with the rest of the instruments(like vocals, guitars and bass).
Below are the important tutorials written about mixing drums (snare, kick and hi hats):
http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-mix-snare-drums.html
http://www.audiorecording.me/kick-drum-eq-settings-and-compression.html
http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-make-loud-snare-and-kick-drums-in-the-mix.html
http://www.audiorecording.me/mixing-cymbals-and-hi-hats-getting-it-sound-right.html
http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-pan-drum-instruments.html
Good luck in your mixing
April 7th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Hi Emerson, thanks for the quick reply.
I’ve read your posts on all drum instrument mixing, once I’ve finished programming all my drum tracks I’ll try to implement all your suggestions.
Another question for you, what does normalization do? In cool edit pro the normalization option says “normalize ‘to’ (fill in numbers) db, but in your tutorial says to “normalize ‘at’ (certain) db, is this the same thing? Like i said, I’m very new at all this hope you don’t mind the constant trivial questions. Thanks again dude, cheers…
April 10th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Hi Leo,
Good to know you are making some positive progress.This tutorial can help you understand on the topics of “normalization”: http://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-maximize-volume-in-audio-recording.html
May 20th, 2010 at 7:45 am
Well, I am completely befuddled with mixing. During recording you can just keep trying till you get it right, but in a live application I pull my hair out. During practices I try like the devil to get it right, but for the sake of time, I just get on with practice. Other than guitar technique, what do I do???:( I primarily play a mix of rock and country if that means anything. Some of my recordings are on my myspace which is .com/bradleysherrer if you can give me tips and pointers. I will be greatful for any and all help. Thanks in advance
May 25th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Hi Bradley,
When mixing live performances, I tend to simplify the EQ as much as possible with these settings:
Guitars: high pass filter cut at 200Hz, Cut -6dB at 3000Hz, Cut -3dB at 800Hz
Vocals: high pass filter cut at 200Hz, Boost 3dB at 3000Hz
Kick: Cut -9dB at 50Hz Q = 1.4, Boost 6dB at 100Hz, Q=1.4 Cut -6dB at 400Hz, Q= 2.0
Bass: Cut -9dB at 100Hz Q=1.4
Then tweak the volume during the rehearsal, as you can see, you need a mixer and a parametric equalizer to get the best sound.