Equalizing your record is a must if you want to produce a marvel. For all the practical and aesthetic reasons it is essential that a record must be well equalized before the audience gets to hear it. Undoubtedly, the many types of equalizers make your life easy when it comes to equalization but there are certain mistakes that most of us commit while using an equalizer. Although unknowingly, but it ruins all the efforts that you give to make your record perfect.
So, what are these common mistakes? Let us talk about them in detail:
Equalizing without listening to the record:
We all tend to make our records better and to do so, we add so many plug-ins to the audio to refine the quality, WITHOUT EVEN LISTENING TO THE TRACK. Yes, a blunder it is, at times, you can get the best results by just turning the knobs little. No doubt you will need to Equalize the record to make everything sound clean and purdy but before you do anything with your record, ‘listen to it’. When you listen to the raw record you get an idea of what exactly is required, what you like or dislike in the track and how will you change and make it perfect.
Work towards a goal:
Working without a goal while using an equalizer is just like stepping out of the house without knowing where you need to go. This is the first thing you will be taught under audio mixing courses; set a goal before you start equalizing. Until and unless you have a clear idea what you need from the track you won’t be able to derive a plan and thus will fail to execute.
Moreover, if you start equalizing without a goal just listening and making the changes, the final product will come out unshaped, imbalanced and distorted. You need to listen to the record and find out the loopholes and how you will make it perfect with your EQ skills.
Moving the wrong knobs
Now coming to the more practical grounds, the first blunder that most of the sound professionals make is moving the wrong knobs. You must know how to use all the knobs to strike the perfect balance. If you are moving the frequency knob without touching the gain knob, the results can be disastrous. With gain knob at zero, moving frequency knob will do nothing to your record.
Forgot to filter:
If you know EQ’ing, you must know that the first step to an efficient EQ’ing is filtering. It’s just like sorting the clutter before you finally sweep your room neat and clean. In a record, there are many instruments used and each instrument has a frequency that affects the other one. So, filtering is a must.
It is an incredible way to eliminate low-end buildup and all the clutter around the instruments.
Making aggressive Boosts:
Boosting is necessary to make the frequencies sharp and thus the record pop. But, you must know where to stop. Boosting is a process where basically we manipulate the phase relationship of the frequencies, which ultimately fetches potential noise and gain to your tracks. So, to make it effective, you must go for subtracting the frequencies.
This means eliminating the unwanted frequencies and thus making room for the frequencies that you feel are required.
Boosting same frequencies for more than 5 instruments:
If you want one step clash of the record, it is to boost the frequencies of as many instruments as possible and just wait to have an unclear, cluttered and completely messed up the record. You need to wise while boosting the frequencies. You only have a set frequency spectrum and now have to divide it in all your instruments. You cannot give them equal share rather you must strike an equation that flatters each instrument perfectly. Also join
If you wish to make a melodious record, the first thing you need to do is make EQ your best friend. These are some common mistakes that we make while EQ’ing. You can also pursue some music production courses to become a pro in EQ’ing.Music Production Courses will give you in-depth knowledge which will help you in making your base strong.