The Mysterious Lost Art Of Subtractive EQ
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- Today we're diving in deep with one of YOUR questions from Instagram!
Get ready to change the way you think about using EQ on every instrument in your mix!
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👁 About this video: In this video, Johnny dives deep in to how to effectively use subtractive EQ in your mix. It'll change the way you use EQ forever!
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Love this! Especially the sculpture analogy.
Additionally:
1. As the saying goes "always cut before you boost!" (Applies to live audio more than studio recording.)
2. Especially for live vocals, subtractive EQ really is necessary for the proximity effect (unnatural build up if mid range when the source is too close to the mic) which you mention.
3. It would be worth talking about the difference between live sound and studio recording/music production since they use the same tools, but are applied differently.
4. In live audio, boosting frequencies adds more information to the stage sound, so if you have tricky spots where feedback might arise, subtractive EQ is the safer option. (again why #1 is such a great saying!)
Exactly! You nailed it! Awesome observations Alex!
One thing that I find to be really helpful with this EQ technique is affectionately known as seek and destroy. By narrowing the Q, increasing the gain for a band and then sweeping that in the area you are sensing problems, you can hear the resonance frequencies more easily. From there you can lower the gain for that EQ band and widen the Q and voila. It tends to be easier to hear the bad frequencies more accurately when they are booseted, but the end result sounds much better when they are brought back to size.
Yeah for sure! That's a great way to find those nasty problem frequencies!
I agree that using subtractive eq in general and for vox in particular is a valuable technique and of course it is taught in most audio engineering courses as the ideal method. However I have noticed the emphasis placed on subtractive eq when being introduced to beginners tends to make them adverse to boosting at all and if they do it's too conservative. Live, I realize there is more operational value to cutting but I hear so many kick drums that desperately need boosting in the top end to sound anything like the track. Subtractive eq first, but don't be afraid to boost because sometimes it's mandatory if you need a source to cut through the mix.
Yep! We always say "if it sounds good, it is good" and we'll definitely have a video on how to boost the RIGHT way coming out soon! I didn't say it in this video, but the way I think about it is that if you take the sculpture analogy that I talked about, and you think about subtractive EQ as the chisel to help you unlock the shape of your sculpture from the raw block of stone, then additive EQ is like final polish/buffing at the end that can take it to the next it to its full potential. Especially with drums, we're so used to hearing samples on albums and meticulously recorded studio drums, that you absolutely have to boost to get that kind of tone.
Super helpful!
Also, just as a matter of curiosity, it sounds like there’s a little bit of “dirt” (for lack of a better word) in the female vocal. Is that something that’s being added? Something that’s just kinda there? Something I’m totally making up?
Thanks Matt! There wasn't any saturation being added to the vocal... she's a pretty loud singer and I know during that section of the song the mic was very close to her mouth, so it may have just been a little grainy from that. This was also recorded off an Avid SC48 which to be honest doesn't have the cleanest preamps ever (the difference is literally night and day from DigiCo/Midas) so I bet that's playing in to the sound as well.
Worship Sound Guy makes sense. Certainly doesn’t sound bad, and probably isn’t even noticeable in a mix. I’m just squarely in the “know just enough to be dangerous” camp (I’m really just a musician with a decent ear who tries to be helpful, lol) and wanted to make sure there wasn’t something obvious I was missing
@@mattsnyder4754 Absolutely! It definitely wouldn't be noticeable in the mix, but good ear for picking up on it!
What do you think? Do you typically use Subtractive EQ (cutting) or Additive EQ (boosting) first in your mix? Let's talk about that!
that autotune though
Actually there's barely any on there ;) The untuned version sounds almost identical. She's got a really unique voice!