Eq Tips

[Grooven]

I guess this is right place for this question if not I'm sure you guys will tell me so.I'm using Reaper to record and my tone is kinda harsh,and I do not know the first thing about Eq nor where to start.Any tips would go a long way.Just trying to manage my tone.My rig is pretty much SGR C7 (low end Schecter)GSP1101 and a Marshall MG30.So like i said anyone that has experience with ReaEQ or anything.Also i have the full ver of izotope ozone but can't use it cause my computer is so s*ht.Can you say laggg

 

[QuantumCybin]

Typically you'll want to use the EQ to at least do some filtering of the extreme ends of the spectrum. Eliminate any frequencies below ~200hz (this can vary) and above ~8000hz (again, this can vary). You want to leave room for the bass guitar and kick drum to do their job, and eliminate any harsh fizz that may exist in the upper sonic register.

Around 300-500hz is sometimes called the "cardboard zone"--try sweeping around this area and eliminating some volume from it and see if it helps your tone. Remember, you want your tone to sound as good as possible from the beginning. The less EQ, the better.

 

[Grooven]

Typically you'll want to use the EQ to at least do some filtering of the extreme ends of the spectrum. Eliminate any frequencies below ~200hz (this can vary) and above ~8000hz (again, this can vary). You want to leave room for the bass guitar and kick drum to do their job, and eliminate any harsh fizz that may exist in the upper sonic register.

Around 300-500hz is sometimes called the "cardboard zone"--try sweeping around this area and eliminating some volume from it and see if it helps your tone. Remember, you want your tone to sound as good as possible from the beginning. The less EQ, the better.

I removed some highs self round 20k and lows self round 50k and boosted band mids to 2k and sweeped some harshness round 5k but it still sounds ehhh to me if you would like to hear i could record something and if u dnt mind see if it sounds good or not but i dnt know what to do next

 

[Grooven]

Here it is https://soundcloud.com/groovenx/chug-eq

 

[Deadnightshade]

Generally, as QuantumCybin said, you need to have the best tone possible before you make adjustments from your DAW. I know that it's hard to do, but focus on creating a balanced spectrum that's coloured in the right places, rather than overboosting amp controls and EQ to have a superficially interesting mid and high end. It's piss easy to overdo it because your ears adjust themselves and ignore a great deal of the harshness, as well as it's the knee-jerk response to your patch's actual sweet spot for the mids and high end not sounding realistic enough. Long story short, balanced tone before anything else, that occupies the correct pockets in the mix.

- High pass filter typically is used in the 80-120ish range. Some people go even as high as 200 Hz, but it depends. If you need to go lower than 80 Ηz, most likely you haven't tweaked your bass the right way. Try another amp or cab or mic. Also make sure that you don't overboost the bass in order to compensate for the harshness. It's a no-no.

- Low pass filter can be anywhere between 8ish to 10ish kHz. An alternative is to use a really wide notch. If any more harshness bleeds through, you can use an additional low pass filter but kind of higher, for example at 15 kHz. It's an interesting tool, as by setting in really low, you can judge more objectively if you overdid it with the low end in order to compensate for the harshness. If you did, tweak your patch.

- Harshness can come from different places. From 800 Hz and onwards you can fvck up your tone really easily. You mentioned that you boosted 2 kHz. It's a kind of twangy area that can indeed sound harsh if you overdo it.

 

[Deadnightshade]

I just listened to the clip. Are you sure that you're using a cab emulation? Sounds like you don't to me!

 

[QuantumCybin]

Can't listen since I'm at work, but really be careful in that 2 kHz area, especially if there's a vocalist involved. There can be a lot of harsh frequencies you don't want to enhance in that upper-middle region of the spectrum.

 

[Grooven]

I just listened to the clip. Are you sure that you're using a cab emulation? Sounds like you don't to me!

Well I'm bypassing the cab sim cause Its coming through my marshall mg30 watt with my multi effect processor gsp1101It sounds cloggy when i would use the cab sim before the eq tips and pointers but not anymore sounds alot better now

 

[Deadnightshade]

Well I'm bypassing the cab sim cause Its coming through my marshall mg30 watt with my multi effect processor gsp1101It sounds cloggy when i would use the cab sim before the eq tips and pointers but not anymore sounds alot better now

Do use some kind of cab emulation, or it's gonna sound weird till the end of times. In your case, if you're hell bent on using the marshall output, use a cabinet impulse response, or some kind of cab emulation plugin (recabinet, torpedo wall of sound etc).

 

[Grooven]

Do use some kind of cab emulation, or it's gonna sound weird till the end of times. In your case, if you're hell bent on using the marshall output, use a cabinet impulse response, or some kind of cab emulation plugin (recabinet, torpedo wall of sound etc).

Oh not at all I was under the impression that its the only way it would work?Im really noob at this stuff as you can tell,are you telling me i don't need the marshall i though i needed it as some kind of audio source.Thought it was required

 

[PlumbTheDerps]

Eliminate any frequencies below ~200hz (this can vary) and above ~8000hz (again, this can vary). You want to leave room for the bass guitar and kick drum to do their job, and eliminate any harsh fizz that may exist in the upper sonic register.

Around 300-500hz is sometimes called the "cardboard zone"--try sweeping around this area and eliminating some volume from it and see if it helps your tone. Remember, you want your tone to sound as good as possible from the beginning. The less EQ, the better.

Everything is correct about this post except 200 hz. That's absolutely insane. Most people do between 60 and 100 hz. Absolutely not 200 hz- that's the entire bottom end of the guitar and then some. The low-pass filter is more open to interpretation but I also think most people leave it closer to 10k-13k. 8000 is doable but you'll have a rather dark tone.

 

[QuantumCybin]

Yeah, I personally don't filter up to 200hz either, but some people are into having the bass do all of the low end work. It all depends on the aesthetic you want--how it works in a mix. Same deal with the upper end of the spectrum, depends on the way you want it. But yeah, I do agree with you in terms of only filtering out up to 100hz.

 

[Grooven]

Ok I know you guys are getting tired of me lol,First set of eq is Low Self-almost 50ish band almost 2k ish,and another band at 52k ish and last is highs coming in at 20k ish.And the 2nd Eq HP almost almost at 90ish, Band at 300 and the other band is at 1k and the LP almost 9k.https://soundcloud.com/groovenx/eq-test A little dark to me

 

[PlumbTheDerps]

Delete everything and start over with only three bands. I basically never use more than 3 in anything I do. If your source tone is good, it will be fine. You might not even need the third band:

1. High-pass filter between 60 and 100 hz. Despite its name, this cuts the LOWS. (It "passes" the highs.)
2. Low-pass filter between 8000 and 13,000 (8k-13k) hz. This cuts the HIGHS.
3. A 1-3 db reduction with a fairly wide band at around 300 hz. It depends on the source, but you shouldn't have to cut any more than 3-5 db in most cases.

 

[markerece]

Alrighty, here's my input. There's a ton more i could probably say but whatever, lol.

1) reference tracks
2) rest your ears often
3) consider other instruments
4) Distortion

1) Reference music that is widely considered balls awesome. Seriously, just do it. Switch back and forth quickly between your mix and their mix and hear tonal differences. There will be HUGE differences that give your ear a goal to get to

2) Don't mix for super long periods at a time. Not only do your ears get tired (literally), but you get biased on how your tone sounds baller.

3) EVERYTHING you cut or boost makes a difference. The guitar is a huge ball hog. It takes up pretty much the entire frequency spectrum and swallows it up.

Boost 150-220 too much to thicken your tone? You're robbing your snare of meat
Boost 1k to increase presence? You're interfering with the low end of the click of the
Too much 500-1000? your guitars can be overpowering the other instruments in terms of perceived loudness
Increase 2-3k to hear more of the drive of the guitar? You're killing the presence of the click of kick, possibly the pop of the snare, and the snare wires themselves.
etc.

It may seem obvious but i'm gonna throw this out there. The first thing you need to do before eq is ride your faders up and down. If the instrument NEVER fits in the mix perfectly, THEN you need to eq. This is because like lets say you have a guitar that has awesome bottom end. When you get to the optimal volume or higher, your bottom end is too present and sounds dumb. When you ride the fader down to where the bottom end is tame, then the high end is not there at all. Thus, you need to adjust something. This is also a good way to evaluate what is too low or high in the frequency spectrum of your tone.

4) Don't overdo the drive on the guitar, it can really get messy and drive is absolutely one of the things you can't modify post processing. you can't eq it, compress it, or whatever. I like to compare to reference tracks and when i hear the distorted tone i like to visualize a tv with white noise on it. The more distorted the tone, the more dots i see on the tv. The less distorted the tone, the less noise on the tv i see.

 

[thisiswhywefight]

I've never heard of anyone high passing guitars up to 200hz, except if you're going for a certain effect.

I tend to stay away from filters in general

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Ok I know you guys are getting tired of me lol,First set of eq is Low Self-almost 50ish band almost 2k ish,and another band at 52k ish and last is highs coming in at 20k ish.And the 2nd Eq HP almost almost at 90ish, Band at 300 and the other band is at 1k and the LP almost 9k.https://soundcloud.com/groovenx/eq-test A little dark to me

This tone is not bad at all, I can see something like this being used for more extreme types of metal like doom or melodeath.

However, if you're going for a chug tone, it's better to introduce way more mids. You're saying it's a little dark to you, but probably what you're missing are high mids (around 3khz is what I'm after). That and something from 600 to 1000 are lacking. Then again, I would go to the source of the problem here, which in your case would be the amp. Just try tweaking some more mids from your amp and just a tad more treble and see how it goes.

 

[Grooven]

This tone is not bad at all, I can see something like this being used for more extreme types of metal like doom or melodeath.

However, if you're going for a chug tone, it's better to introduce way more mids. You're saying it's a little dark to you, but probably what you're missing are high mids (around 3khz is what I'm after). That and something from 600 to 1000 are lacking. Then again, I would go to the source of the problem here, which in your case would be the amp. Just try tweaking some more mids from your amp and just a tad more treble and see how it goes.

Took this advice added a lil bit more mids and treble and i stopped using the ss as a speaker and just used a ir loader vst i think the two IR's i used go well together... as always feedback can nvr hurt so here https://soundcloud.com/groovenx/cool-idea

Also HP-80ish
Band-300 -3db
LP-10kish
https://soundcloud.com/groovenx/cool-idea

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

That sound might be usable, but if you can get your hands on a set of proper monitors/headphones (just something that goes below 60hz properly), you'll hear whats the problem. There's a huge low end boost in the tone for some reason and its ruining it. Kinda makes it sound chorusy as well, dunno what thats about...

 

[QuantumCybin]

I've never heard of anyone high passing guitars up to 200hz, except if you're going for a certain effect.

I tend to stay away from filters in general

You can high pass all the way up to like 500hz if you want that beat-to-death cliche of the beginning of a djent song (think volumes or something similar).

But that's probably the effect you were thinking of anyway