Complete EQ settings to Start when doing Audio Mixing

31 Responses

1. You can read some related articles here about brass: https://www.audiorecording.me/related-articles/wind-and-brass-instruments
   Cheers!

2. Great page. I use a lot of brass in my hip hop productions. Would that be categorized as a Violin lead or do you have different settings for that?

3. Hi.. This EQ settings are very helpful..I am trying to mix a film soundtrack..and I need some tips about Eq-ing instruments like..cello, bass, flutes, oboes…( all orchestral instruments).. My mix is kind of muddy, and with a low volume..and I think some proper Eq settings will help me improve it.. Thank you.

4. Glad to know you manage to get some great mixes out of those tips. You’re welcome.

5. Great mixes here, thanks for helping with clearing out the mud of my audio mix 🙂

6. Always your ear when doing EQ adjustment. 3000Hz for vocals may not work for both male and female singers or even for rock/heavy metal genre. I would suggest to find the optimum frequency to adjust by doing a frequency sweep in your parametric EQ.

   You can read this tutorial for more details about this technique: https://www.audiorecording.me/using-parametric-eq-to-find-the-%E2%80%9Csweet-spot%E2%80%9D-of-any-musical-instruments.html

   You can also find the correct instrument frequencies to adjust by doing some notch filtering, you can read it here: https://www.audiorecording.me/finding-instrument-frequencies-using-notch-filtering-in-audio-mastering.html

   Good luck!

7. Hi mate I was wondering with the mixing of the acoustic guitar it says to cut 3000Hz to make room for the vocals and I saw that u boost 3000Hz for female vocals would u do the same with males? Males you boost 1000Hz so do I cut 1000Hz insted of the 3000Hz or should I cut at 3000Hz regardless. And I was also wondering it u knew anything about EQ for screaming vocals like in heavy metal, EQing for high pitch screams and like the low growls. I’m sure this probs isn’t in your area of expertise but if u could help that would be awsome cheers 🙂

8. That’s awesome! Thank you Christopher.

9. I’ve made a link to this post from a blog I made, this was very helpful stuff! Thank you.

10. No problem. You are very welcome.

11. Like this post.
    thnx for helping.

12. Thanks so much , it s very nice and detailed !Now my congas will sound the best ! bless !!!

13. Hi Ken, you can read some of my conga audio mixing tips here: https://www.audiorecording.me/mixing-conga-eq-panning-compression-and-reverb.html

14. Thanks so much , this will be very precious , cause i can never find it anywhere on the net, bless

15. Hi Ken, Glad to know the suggestions work well with your mix. Yes I will look into congas and write a tutorial about it in the future. Keep subscribed to the blog feeds to get the latest updates.

16. Hi , wonderful tips , it improved my mix so much , i d like to get some settings about how to EQ congas , and also comp congas , thanks !

17. Glad to know you are enjoying the site tips.. About your inquiry, yes its going to be a big problem. If you record all of your drums in one track. How can you be able to apply specific EQ to each drum parts such as snare, tom-tom, kick drum, etc? There is no way because you have record the drums into a single track.

    I would suggest using at least 4 microphones in your drum kit. Then in each microphones has a dedicated track in your software. All in all you need to create 4 track for those 4 microphones. Prioritize the more important drum kit components, such as one microphone for snare, one microphone for kick, one microphone for overheads, etc. Then you record in multi-track. Each track occupies a specific drum kit and you can apply EQ on them.

18. Hi, I’ve just started home recording. I use Ableton and a Tascam interface. I have come across your site today and really enjoy your tips and info. I do have a question regarding the mixing of drums: I notice that the various drums in a given kit seem to have their own specific EQ settings in your suggestions. Does this mean I need to be recording them as separate tracks, for instance kick drum on a track, snare on its own track, hi-hats on their own track, etc? I just pieced together a 10-minute song, drums only so far, but I recorded all the drums on to one track. Is that going to be a problem? Thanks for all the great info!

19. Like it!

20. There are lot of techniques to spot the sensitive frequencies of clap. You can find out in the following tutorials below:

    https://www.audiorecording.me/finding-instrument-frequencies-using-notch-filtering-in-audio-mastering.html
    https://www.audiorecording.me/how-to-mix-instrument-frequencies-for-best-sound.html
    https://www.audiorecording.me/musical-instrument-frequency-range-analysis-in-audio-mixing-tutorial.html
    https://www.audiorecording.me/mixing-horns-trumpets-trombone-sax-eq-techniques-for-best-clarity.html

    Even though you said that it has a wide range of frequencies, all instruments tends to have a fundamental frequency where they are strongest and more defined. Once you know this frequency, it will be easier to mix them. If you are in a hurry, sweeping through a parametric EQ to find sensitive frequencies mostly solves the problem. Good luck!

21. Hello, in electronic music and pop nowadays in the percussion rythm “claps” are used; what could be the generic settings of claps??? im having a bit of a hard time pinpointing the fundamentals of claps because they kind of have a wide range of frequencies and because some claps are low and others are high.

22. Hi,
    You’re welcome. You can start with the tutorials below for some orchestra/classical music production tips:

    https://www.audiorecording.me/symphony-orchestra-panning-and-reverb-settings.html

    https://www.audiorecording.me/mixing-tips-for-violin-in-classical-music-production-and-pop-music-projects.html

    I will write more about this topic. Keep posted and subscribe to the blog feeds for the latest update. Cheers.

23. Thank you very much for that document.
    It is very useful for me studying mix.

    I would like you to give me a advice of mixing orchestra instruments to be cinematic sound.

    Thanks.

24. You can use a parametric equalizer for better tone control of the voices(such as how wide or narrow are the EQ adjustment). To use in parametric mode, you need to add an additional setting called as “Q” to the EQ settings suggested before. Here is some few guidelines to get started:

    Cutting (excluding low shelf): Q=1.4
    Boosting: Q=1.0

    If you find that the cutting is too broad, you can narrow it from 1.4 to 2.0, then experiment until you get a great sound. The same with boosting, you find the boost is to be to broad, you can narrow it from 1.0 to 1.4. Q defines how narrow or broad are the EQ adjustments, lower values affects a wide range of frequencies while high values are narrow.

    You can read more about that here: https://www.audiorecording.me/parametric-equalization-theory-relationship-of-bw-q-fo-3db-points.html

25. Thanks for replying to my question on setting EQ of my karaoke system.
    I have Behringer DEQ 2496 so it does have both graphic and parametric EQ.
    Would it better to use parametric or graphic EQ for my case?

    If I have to use parametric then how to set it up?

    Thanks again

26. Hi Hulinning,
    Your situations appears slightly complicated, you only have one mic for both female and male singers? If this is the case, you need to manually set your EQ for both of them. Also I am not sure what type of EQ does your karaoke system have, I suppose its not a parametric EQ type but a graphic EQ (with no Q setting). So here are my suggestions:

    Male voice:

    Low shelf 100Hz, -4.5dB (remove sub-bass of male voice), probably not optimal but start with this setting and gradually increase the frequency if the male singer needs to have that lesser bass content in the voice.

    Boost +3dB 500Hz – this is for male baritone range. Optimal for most male with mid range voices. You can vary this between 500Hz and 1000Hz.
    Boost +1.5dB 15000Hz – put some high end frequency on the male voice.
    OPTIONAL (for male/female duets) = Cut -2dB at 2000Hz

    Female voice

    Low shelf 200Hz -4.5dB , same with male voice, there are some female singers where bass content are important. So you might want to reduce this down to 150Hz or even 100Hz in some scenario.
    Boost +3dB 2000Hz
    Boost +1.5dB 15000Hz
    OPTIONAL (for male/female duets) = Cut -2dB at 500Hz

    General EQ (for both male/female)- if you cannot set two EQ settings for each of them due microphone/mixer limitations, this does not however produce the best result but its doable.

    Low shelf 250Hz -4.5dB
    Boost 1000Hz +3dB
    Boost +1.5dB 12.5KHz

    For best results, I recommend using two microphones and each microphone plugged into two different channels in a karaoke system, diagram as follows:

    Male singer === > Microphone 1 ==== Channel 1 of Mixer/Karaoke system using Male voice EQ
    Female singer === > Microphone 2 === Channel 2 of Mixer using Female voice EQ

    In this type of setup, you do not need to manually adjust the EQ because they are set per channels. So for a male singer, connect it to channel 1 while channel 2 for a female singer. This is also works very well for singing duets. Although you need a karaoke system with more than one channel and requires that you have at least two microphones. Good luck with your audio mixing!

27. Hi Emerson,
    I am trying to set my EQ for my home karaoke system which has mixer, EQ, compressor, etc.
    Since this is karaoke the EQ needs to be set such that male and female voice can be benefit from. What is the best EQ setting for both man and female vocal?

    I only have 1 mic so it must be set for both male and female singers.

    I have tried to set the EQ for my voice, but when my female friends try on it then it sounds a bit harsh or more treble.
    But if I try to make female vocal sounds good then male vocal sounds too bassy.

    Thanks

28. You are welcome..I am glad you found the site content helpful. 🙂

29. Thanks you so much, i very like your page cause i don’t know anything about mixing. My english too bad to say so much, sorry for that…

30. Hi Cuong,
    I have updated the tutorial above to incorporate your suggestion. Please refer to this tutorial for audio compression tips. Thank you for dropping by this post.

31. Thanks for that tips, can i know lead guitar distortion settings? And can you make some compression tips?