The biggest game changer of a tip ive ever learned is: 1. Duplicate the bass into 2 tracks, Low and high, low pass the low at 200htz and high pass the high at 350htz. 2. Limit the low end at about - 10db with something like an L1 and set the release on the limiter really slow, but make the release meter falls in time with the song (so somewhere between 700ms-1000ms). This works on about 90% of mixes. You can process the high track however you want then (chorus, doubler, 1176 eg.). This evens out bass so nicely, espically with a subwoofer. Id be interested to hear anyones thoughts who try it!
Hi Mark, yes! I’ve been teaching how to mix Bass like this since my earliest videos! It’s wonderful to see it being adopted by so many people! Many thanks, Warren
I hate videos with titles like, "You're doing this wrong!" Because they're usually just rebranded "one weird trick" type things with clickbait titles to get views. I appreciate the subtle difference in title here, "We all do this" instead of the accusatory "you're doing this wrong". Wouldn't have clicked on this if it wasn't this channel. And I'm glad I did because I learned a lot. Thanks, Warren!
@@Producelikeapro indeed, I suppose in rare circumstances such as a 20hz / 20khz cut, 30hz / 18khz cut, etc you can rely on just the numbers there because we know frequencies below 20hz and above 20khz cannot be heard, and are therefore unnecessary and you can't use your ears to listen in that scenario, either lol. i guess that's one case where you'd use your eyes to EQ. I've seen some people commenting that they can hear below 20hz or above 20khz and I've got my doubts about that, but who knows, they're not my ears lmao.
@@largepoodle6036 My speakers don't pick it up so definitely using my eyes to rule out those sub frequencies and the upper frequency limits. I do listen for how much further in from 20kHz I can cut but yeah that's just being pragmatic. I agree with you
These are 100% spot on. I've fallen victim to the "overly sweeping for offensive freqs" far too many times instead of letting the mix tell me what's offensive. Great video, as always. -dustin phillips
I generally sweep by cutting rather than boosting. I don’t generally do it, but if I can’t find a frequency without sweeping, I find it’s a lot better to turn a band down and sweep until I don’t miss what is being cut, then back off. In my experience, it will always sound like there is a hole in the frequency response until you hit the right frequency, and if you never hit that point, no cutting is really needed.
This is the best EQ tips I’ve seen on UA-cam. These first points are simple basic stuff but sometimes missed and affects the whole mix on a fundamental level. Basically you just made your starting point a lot worse, which you can’t really make up for despite your best efforts. Sadly I learned (and still learning) this 25 years in, and if I’m really honest, to some degree I’m still doing it. I feel this video was made just for me.
in my beginning in mixing sweeping helped me to hear some frequencies better. But I'm guiltiy of equing way too much. But the sweeping trained my ears - at least I think it. Now I am trying to hear it without sweeping and without soloing the instrument. I am getting better at it, but it is still a long way. Thanks for the video, greetings from Austria
Wonderful tips, absolutely agree with the sweeping ! Was lucky to get a golden tip when I started Mixing to avoid sweeping and rather listening and guessing the frequency that I like to take out from the track: EQ off, subtract/add frequency, turn EQ on in the track - adjust - takes more time, but more time always pays out on a long run !
Thanks for confirming my instincts regarding eq low and hi cuts, which I've been too uncertain about to fully trust, due to not finding any real affirmations, until now. Love your videos!
Slopes are EVERYTHING. Selecting the right slope filter (shape AND rate) made the biggest difference to the overall sound. This became much more apparent with large format digital consoles in the live scenario. Once my ears got dialled into exactly what you're talking about, my channel strips consisted of gain, high pass, low pass and pan. My mixes had never been better.
I just had a teaching a couple of weeks ago, a friend contacted me and my producer collegue. He wanted to know how we made our mix´s because he couldnt get it to shine properly. So we went to hes place and took 2,5 hours of showing him just 1 trick. Why, how, and where. LPF and HPF !!! It was like an whole world was opening up, right before his eyes and mindset of mixing. It was a beautiful and powerfull EUREKA moment for him. Keep up the AWESOME job you are doing. Your tips are MARVELOUS!
You can also use sweep EQ to find good frequencies. Once found, optionally revert the boost in the first source and apply a cut at the same frequency bands in competing sources to create more room for the first source in that band.
@@steamer2k319 this is much more effective but people told "cut dont boost" too dogmatically. The prob with sweeping for these notches of resonance to cut, is high Q scanning always is AWFUL SOUNDING- you basicaly ending up notching any prominent overtone because they all suck when listening to a high Q boosted, scanning. If anything dont boost to scan, just cut to scan for a cut- then maybe once found use the boost scan to fine tune.
WOW!! This is so useful. I've been sweeping EQ's looking for 'bad things' for 20 years! You've explained this mistake so well I now see the error of my ways. Thank you Warren.
I definitely sweep, but not to discover a rogue frequency, just to find one I've already identified and can physically sing. I also occasionally do some broad notching out when two instruments are arguing over an EQ space, perhaps notching out 2 dB on one whilst boosting the other by 2dB or something like that...
A great way to avoid these kinds of mistakes (especially 1 and 2) is to always do a balance mix, using the faders and pan controls only, before you ever load a single plugin of any kind. All of these decisions need to be made in the context of the mix; the time for soloing tracks to get more surgical happens later.
Breeeeeliant advice. Even better hands-on showing us how you do some of it ....low and high passing...invaluable! Shaping low end like a sculptor digs into clay. Thank you!!
Great stuff as usual, Warren! Top Notch! 1) Sweeping IS great for "Search & Destroy" - if you detect a problem with an unwanted pitch or resonance, before you're even thinking about EQ'ing, sweeping to find the precise frequency to scoop out is a great technique! But I agree, it should be used sparse, and not as a tool to go look for trouble! 2) The key to a clean mix is definitely in the realm of filtering - mainly high passing! Although, it is not something that partout should be added to every track IMHO! If there's no bothering low end information on the track, I wouldn't filter it! Optionally double check on an FFT. I often see people try to filter some low end information that's not even there, with steep steep 96dB filters, and it'll create horrible filter resonances and cause phase shifting like hell, which could severely harm your tracks. It might not be audible right away, but low cutting something unnecessary could make your tracks peaks significantly louder because of phase shifting, which could then distort or trigger dynamic processings in unwanted ways etc. Not many people seem to know about this - maybe a topic for a future video? Also, sometimes shelves can do wonders too! 3) Fantastic tip! Creative use of EQ, and in a small way the EQ actually be comes a part of the compositional work! Great!
Finally someone said it!!! I've thought about this on sweeping eq notching for a while. What happens when the pitch changes on the source material? Eq needs to be dynamic
I find your vids very helpful ! At this time I'm forced to do everything with apps in my android phone. It's hard, lost all my equipment in a fire, miss my dog; but trying to stay creative. Thanks
I think the best advice I've ever gotten is high pass filtering nearly everything but the bass and kick, to give the their own space. It's such a simple thing but it's amazing what it can do for the clarity of a mix.
oh god.. thank you. So many tutorials from people that are just searching for ugly frequencies and I tried it myself - ending up being super confused. It's not a fun thing to do and it takes away the character of a sound. Thank you, this was refreshing. And btw: I love how worn your headphones look like and the whole ambience of your studio. Rly sympathetic :) stay healthy!
Man this video is such a relief! I've been getting worse and worse results using that sweep technique. Literally demolished some guitar tracks just yesterday with it and had to start back from scratch. Not the biggest deal but the worse part of it all was why it sounded worse afterwards and what was I doing wrong after seeing it done so many times in videos and have been successful myself but it has always been a hit or miss and confused me. Was both depressing and frustrating. Can't say how much I appreciate this video
I swear when I first started recording at home my mixes were great even with cheap equipment. Once I started doing too much mixes got horrible. I think we forget dont get too technical and enjoy the music.
This was immensely freeing and reassuring to watch 😄 all that sweeping just to find dirt when u can’t even hear it in the first place lol.. thanks Warren!
Your Vlogs are amazing tutorials Ive paid a truck load to learn a tenth of what I've learned watching these Videos Waren. Much appreciated. Sending these to my son who lives in the Studio and is starting out. Going to sign up for your course also. The sound on the vlog is perfect accept it drops slightly on the music inserts. . Having said that it could be this shit box of a tv I'm watching on. Have an incredible day Warren.👍
I am so glad i watched this! Cause i used to do this all the time but eventually figured out ,just like you show here, that every frequency sounds horrible when boosted,lol. Glad I trust my ears. Thanks 🙏
I think you've hit the nail on the head, for me at least, alot of things I've recorded I've either over listened to or have tried to "perfect" by going by guidelines and not my own ears
Thank you! I have been pulling down things I actually hear and sometimes see, but never really swept for frequencies. Glad I'm not alone. Also, I could probably soften my high / low pass curves and get back into EQ automation. All good stuff.
Love your work Warren! Thanks for helping many many artists! Always a great informative video even for those that have been doing it for years! You sometimes forget why you do it!
Why BOOST when sweeping? I've learned to SOLO the suspect frequency as it IS. But that's easier when soloing the track. So, 'context' is important? (I am a relative novice; so I've learned from A.I. (Izotope) and great guys like you, to do these things myself.) Thank you.
As I was listening at around 7:50 when you pulled the Q back to around 90 Hz it sounded like the snare got much cleaner even though you weren't boosting anything with it. Unless my "old" ears are tricking me that was a great example of the value of a high pass filters use and purpose. Thank you for all the knowledge you share.
Really fantastic video! Love how you demonstrated the effect of stacking up a bunch of supposedly good eq choices, and how it lead to lackluster results. Been down that sweep rabbit hole myself and pretty quickly saw the problem with it.
Timely video for me, thank you. Just last night I was fighting with a guitar track and my choices seemed to be lifeless or muddy, this has given me some important things to consider.
@@Producelikeapro always a pleasure Watching you at work! I just built my studio in Shoreditch and always looking for more work! I learnt alot from yourself!
Ear training doesn't just apply to music theory. I can (finally!) hear a sound and think "something sounds weird around 400-ish", and it'll be pretty close, no need for endless sweeping that will confuse you and bring out any harmonic you touch. EQ needs practice. I think the key is to be quick about it. You don't wanna listen to the same stuff in detail too much, it leads to instant blindness. Quick and rough EQ moves, keeping in mind the simple concepts of darker, brighter, less mud, things like that. It's 90% of the EQ work for me, and it's done during the first 10 minutes. Details come later, if it's even needed. And for god's sake, use the shelf more. High pass out the useless junk, but use the shelf to control the level of the fundamental notes instead of getting rid of them completely.
I like to use dynamic low shelves, one within the other very gently. And I emphasize very gently when sculpting lows along with the appopriate roll off or low cut for want of a different term. I smashed the like button as well for you bring da good stuff as usual.
I also discovered this whole sweeping myth because I've seen this technique been taught on youtube videos, however it seemed abit off to me. Every frequency has a purpose. These days I'm only thinking about it in the sense of brightness and darkness, I'm not scooping everything like back in the day.
you sweep for ringing-frequencies that would pinch your ears with the contamporary listening devices. but you need to know what they really are. some come from cheap mics, some come from poorly prepared recording rooms, some are perhaps a trait from the vocalist. do resonances support the music in this instrument or vocal, or do they distract? the auto-de-ring algorithm (Nectar; TDR Nova GE..) probably does not know this well enough.
I totally get what he's saying here, and I agree with his philosophy about trusting yourself to judge the sound as a whole, but my approach to EQing often is not about getting rid of "offensive" sounds. It's about getting it to sound as close as possible to what I envisioned when I first imagined the music.
1: All that notching and you might as well mute the track :P I still need to train my ears to hear when to automate frequencies. That's the one thing I haven't done with an EQ yet.
@@randychurchill9426 I don't think it would be any different than doing volume automation on a vocal or anything you want to bring up or take down or turn off completely.
@@AnitaPotterProductions Possibly, but what if you identify multiple troublesome frequencies on the same track? Watching a Soothe2 frequency feedback and imagining trying to do that with automation makes my head spin. lol
Hi Randy Churchill you’ll still have to automate it on and off! Soothe 2 is amazing! I highly recommend it, however the point of this video shows that sometimes you need that additional fullness to reinforce thinner sounding notes! So you’d have to turn off and therefore automate Soothe during those moments!
One of the takeaways from watching a bunch of these how-to vids is that I find the Renaissance plugins _really_ intuitive. I'm absolutely picking up the Maxx bundle in the future.
So thats why when I go from strumming on my acoustic to a lead line...my acoustic sounds so thin....pulled out all those low mid nasties to prevent low end feedback....not needed for solos. So thank you....great session. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Your channel is legit, thanks for everything man. Also, what song is this? Is this released yet? I would love to add it in my playlist, sounds so good!
Yes this is about all its good for, and this is done in pre mixing and gain staging, it is very tedious and boring, it can take a lot of time but, the end results can be well worth the time.
I agree on the sweeping thing, but you need a trained ear to be able to identify certain problem frequencies in a mix, which takes time to develop. For beginners sweeping around (within certain limits) can be a very valuable tool to train your ear and learn to listen for frequencies. Just don't use a +20db gain and a Q of 20.
Hi Warren, from a subscriptor since 2017. This was what I used to do as a youngster (school doctor told me had really good ears). After my seasoned amateur drumming (still do it), mixing is now much more serious. This video will give so much info to your newbies!
Simple yet brilliant & something I feel like im learning for the first time every time i am reminded because its so easy to give in & forget while lusting for those quick fix deep EQ cuts that dont stand the test of even a few bars let alone the whole song lol. Dynamic EQ & gentle corrections is the way to go for dynamic signals...strong musical corrections are better for percussion & other repetitious notes that stay in the same key & range the entire song. I truly learned this lesson by simply changing the pitch of the whole song...immediately all my work was undone or sounded even better...I quickly learned that there was more of a 3 dimensional way of looking at the mix than my 2d mindset.
The video we didn't know we all needed. I often find myself doing EQ sweeps before I even really hear anything particularly wrong, so this was a wakeup call!
when I realized years ago that it didn't help, in fact it muffed the mix, I stopped doing it myself. Of course back then I was compressing hi-hats - laughs
Great Sweep eq tips. People forget its boosting to the point everything sounds bad. Use it to ‘help’ identify a freq thats still horribly present when the eq isn’t engaged.
Sweeping has helped me maintain one of the cleanest floors in the studio business! LOL I also don’t have any problems AT ALL in my life... because I sweep everything under the rug !! Nice tips as usual. 😊 Is this a good era for you to do a tutorial on “masking“. Yes, pun intended, but it’s also a concept that I was made aware of several years ago that really helped my sound. Whachutink Warren ?
Instead of automating, I tend to prefer to split the take in separate tracks. Maybe the verses, chorus, and solo all need completely different signal chains, and if I want to modify the volume of a part, it's a lot more handy to have it in its own fader.
Love your first point. Don't look for bad - listen. Tip - poss/prob listed already...in Protools, some EQ plugins allow: CTRL+SHIFT when clicking on EQ bands, to make all other EQ s DIP. Brilliant, rather than boosting to hear the band you want! Great ear/speaker saving feature that I hope I can find in other DAWs as well.
So very true! No 1 is disguised as "hunting for resonances". With a sufficiently high Q band, everything sounds like a tone generator. Most of the time, I find that annoying. Great video! Thank you so much.
The first ever plug ins I purchased many many years ago was the renaissance plug in bundle. To this day I still use the R-Eq and R-Vox on every mix. Although the fab-filter Pro Q3 is absolutely phenomenal. After going through a computer upgrade here at my home studio I realized I rather do without my hardware before I go without my most used plug ins. These are tools I depend on. And even the 7 band eq that comes with protools is awesome! Another Great video! Thanks
Well now, don't all you guys who've been saying boost-sweep-cut for years feel foolish? And....why is it that all of a sudden all the UA-cam teachers are now saying don't do it...seems like just in the last few weeks they're all saying don't do it that way.
Hi Ed, I wonder who's been saying that? Every professional I know (list hundreds of names we all know ever! Haha) not one of them uses this technique, unless they are specifically trying to pin point a frequency that are unable to hear, maybe once every year or two? Haha
Hi@@RudalPL are you suggesting I'm copying someone? Haha Who's posting these videos? I do love UA-cam, it's amazing, however I don't have enough time between recording and mixing to see what the professional UA-camrs are doing! I would love to know! Many thanks, Warren
Hi@@Jake_Godsil_Music yes, it's something we shouldn't be teaching to beginners, it's not making the mixes better. The best to learn is to do less and learn how to do more when you can hear the differences you are creating!
Excellent as ever. Sweep EQ: When I first sat in front of a DAW, that's what I was told to do.. BTW the Academy is excellent, highly recommended to anyone who regularly visits Warren's videos.
What are some of your favorite EQ tricks?
Having a distorted bass with low and high pass, boosting the mids for more clarity !
eq on toms.. there always "tong" 'tong".. 😂
Reverbs need always an eq. Tracks no.
I've really been cheating a lot with AI lately
Splitting a channel and processing the highs different from the lows :)
The biggest game changer of a tip ive ever learned is: 1. Duplicate the bass into 2 tracks, Low and high, low pass the low at 200htz and high pass the high at 350htz. 2. Limit the low end at about - 10db with something like an L1 and set the release on the limiter really slow, but make the release meter falls in time with the song (so somewhere between 700ms-1000ms). This works on about 90% of mixes. You can process the high track however you want then (chorus, doubler, 1176 eg.). This evens out bass so nicely, espically with a subwoofer. Id be interested to hear anyones thoughts who try it!
Works well, do the same trick with the bass drum as well :)
@@PinballLunatic never thought that, cool!
Hi Mark, yes! I’ve been teaching how to mix Bass like this since my earliest videos! It’s wonderful to see it being adopted by so many people! Many thanks, Warren
PinballLunatic yes, we have a video with Bob Marlette showing that technique as well! Works wonderfully
@@Producelikeapro A friend showed me that, he must have learned it from you! Great tip, thanks Warren!
I hate videos with titles like, "You're doing this wrong!" Because they're usually just rebranded "one weird trick" type things with clickbait titles to get views. I appreciate the subtle difference in title here, "We all do this" instead of the accusatory "you're doing this wrong".
Wouldn't have clicked on this if it wasn't this channel. And I'm glad I did because I learned a lot. Thanks, Warren!
Here's the biggest EQ mistake of all time - eqing with your eyes instead of your ears.
Agreed 100%!! Find the frequency using your ears!
@@Producelikeapro indeed, I suppose in rare circumstances such as a 20hz / 20khz cut, 30hz / 18khz cut, etc you can rely on just the numbers there because we know frequencies below 20hz and above 20khz cannot be heard, and are therefore unnecessary and you can't use your ears to listen in that scenario, either lol. i guess that's one case where you'd use your eyes to EQ. I've seen some people commenting that they can hear below 20hz or above 20khz and I've got my doubts about that, but who knows, they're not my ears lmao.
@@largepoodle6036 I can hear sub 20 on good days, but I'm 46 and I'm lucky if I can make out anything around 14kHz!
@@largepoodle6036 My speakers don't pick it up so definitely using my eyes to rule out those sub frequencies and the upper frequency limits. I do listen for how much further in from 20kHz I can cut but yeah that's just being pragmatic. I agree with you
@@JoeySchmidt74 so it's just 14kHz you have trouble hearing? Or you can't hear anything above 14kHz in general?
'Don't go looking for things to be offensive.' Great EQ tip. Try telling Twitter users the same, though. xD
Haha genius Jie Pon!!
Oh, yeah >_
@@yrussq hahaha
I totally agree I’ve stop doing that unless I hear something really annoying during the mix
haha I thought the same thing - you can apply that basic axiom to all of your life: don't go looking for things to be offensive!
the first couple of minutes when you swept through the frequencies really made me laugh
Haha great! That was exactly my intention!
@@Producelikeapro made me laugh too 😀😀
Yes LOL ugly, oh ugly again !
😂
I was watching that, and thinking... who the hell does that? But I guess if you've seen it happen, then er... someone does. LOL!
And this is why I’ve just signed up to your Produce Like A Pro academy. Everything you explain is thorough and makes complete sense!! Thanks Warren 😊
Spot on. Finding homes for each instrument especially utilizing HP and LP filters first is the best advice - great topic!
These are 100% spot on. I've fallen victim to the "overly sweeping for offensive freqs" far too many times instead of letting the mix tell me what's offensive. Great video, as always. -dustin phillips
I generally sweep by cutting rather than boosting. I don’t generally do it, but if I can’t find a frequency without sweeping, I find it’s a lot better to turn a band down and sweep until I don’t miss what is being cut, then back off. In my experience, it will always sound like there is a hole in the frequency response until you hit the right frequency, and if you never hit that point, no cutting is really needed.
This is the best EQ tips I’ve seen on UA-cam. These first points are simple basic stuff but sometimes missed and affects the whole mix on a fundamental level. Basically you just made your starting point a lot worse, which you can’t really make up for despite your best efforts. Sadly I learned (and still learning) this 25 years in, and if I’m really honest, to some degree I’m still doing it. I feel this video was made just for me.
in my beginning in mixing sweeping helped me to hear some frequencies better. But I'm guiltiy of equing way too much. But the sweeping trained my ears - at least I think it. Now I am trying to hear it without sweeping and without soloing the instrument.
I am getting better at it, but it is still a long way.
Thanks for the video, greetings from Austria
Wonderful tips, absolutely agree with the sweeping ! Was lucky to get a golden tip when I started Mixing to avoid sweeping and rather listening and guessing the frequency that I like to take out from the track:
EQ off, subtract/add frequency, turn EQ on in the track - adjust - takes more time, but more time always pays out on a long run !
18 minutes of genius wisdom 👌🏻🙏🏻
Aw shucks!! Thanks ever so much James!
Thanks for confirming my instincts regarding eq low and hi cuts, which I've been too uncertain about to fully trust, due to not finding any real affirmations, until now. Love your videos!
Truth! In a very beginning I was mixing like this too, cutting a lot of things with a narrow shape band dips, and every time it was ruining the sound.
Thanks ever so much for sharing
I didn't really understand the importance of high and low passes until a couple months ago. Makes a big difference!
Dude!! Your Chanel is pure gold!! You have. I idea how much knowledge I get every time I watch your videos 🙏🏽
Wow! Thanks ever so much
Slopes are EVERYTHING. Selecting the right slope filter (shape AND rate) made the biggest difference to the overall sound. This became much more apparent with large format digital consoles in the live scenario. Once my ears got dialled into exactly what you're talking about, my channel strips consisted of gain, high pass, low pass and pan. My mixes had never been better.
Fantastic! Agreed 100%! Very well said
"Don't be afraid to automate". That's something for on a t-shirt ;)
Thank you Warren, great tips!
I just had a teaching a couple of weeks ago, a friend contacted me and my producer collegue. He wanted to know how we made our mix´s because he couldnt get it to shine properly.
So we went to hes place and took 2,5 hours of showing him just 1 trick. Why, how, and where. LPF and HPF !!!
It was like an whole world was opening up, right before his eyes and mindset of mixing.
It was a beautiful and powerfull EUREKA moment for him.
Keep up the AWESOME job you are doing. Your tips are MARVELOUS!
I don't sweep to pull out offensive stuff. I only do it to identify the frequency of something offensive that I already hear.
Perfect! That is exactly right my friend!
Yup that's how it should be done. I'm not sure why ppl sweep in order to hear bad frequencies. If they're in there, you should already hear it lol
You can also use sweep EQ to find good frequencies. Once found, optionally revert the boost in the first source and apply a cut at the same frequency bands in competing sources to create more room for the first source in that band.
@@steamer2k319 this is much more effective but people told "cut dont boost" too dogmatically.
The prob with sweeping for these notches of resonance to cut, is high Q scanning always is AWFUL SOUNDING- you basicaly ending up notching any prominent overtone because they all suck when listening to a high Q boosted, scanning.
If anything dont boost to scan, just cut to scan for a cut- then maybe once found use the boost scan to fine tune.
Yes sir.
WOW!! This is so useful. I've been sweeping EQ's looking for 'bad things' for 20 years! You've explained this mistake so well I now see the error of my ways. Thank you Warren.
Thanks for watching. I'm glad it was helpful
I definitely sweep, but not to discover a rogue frequency, just to find one I've already identified and can physically sing.
I also occasionally do some broad notching out when two instruments are arguing over an EQ space, perhaps notching out 2 dB on one whilst boosting the other by 2dB or something like that...
Nice
Explaining while demonstrating in real time made this a treat to watch! Even a Cro-Magnon like myself can learn something. Much thanks! 🙂
A great way to avoid these kinds of mistakes (especially 1 and 2) is to always do a balance mix, using the faders and pan controls only, before you ever load a single plugin of any kind. All of these decisions need to be made in the context of the mix; the time for soloing tracks to get more surgical happens later.
Great GREAT advice. I do this and my mixes always come out really crisp and accurate. I think simple is better.
Yeah. It's very bad to overthink. Some time we self-critique soo much to our decisions. Love you Warren for ur advice. 👍👍👊
Nice tips! I sweep rather with a cut than with a peak to find where the sound opens up :)
Thanks ever so much for sharing
Breeeeeliant advice.
Even better hands-on showing us how you do some of it ....low and high passing...invaluable!
Shaping low end like a sculptor digs into clay.
Thank you!!
Great stuff as usual, Warren! Top Notch!
1) Sweeping IS great for "Search & Destroy" - if you detect a problem with an unwanted pitch or resonance, before you're even thinking about EQ'ing, sweeping to find the precise frequency to scoop out is a great technique! But I agree, it should be used sparse, and not as a tool to go look for trouble!
2) The key to a clean mix is definitely in the realm of filtering - mainly high passing! Although, it is not something that partout should be added to every track IMHO! If there's no bothering low end information on the track, I wouldn't filter it! Optionally double check on an FFT. I often see people try to filter some low end information that's not even there, with steep steep 96dB filters, and it'll create horrible filter resonances and cause phase shifting like hell, which could severely harm your tracks. It might not be audible right away, but low cutting something unnecessary could make your tracks peaks significantly louder because of phase shifting, which could then distort or trigger dynamic processings in unwanted ways etc. Not many people seem to know about this - maybe a topic for a future video? Also, sometimes shelves can do wonders too!
3) Fantastic tip! Creative use of EQ, and in a small way the EQ actually be comes a part of the compositional work! Great!
YOU HAVE A REALLY CLEAN SOUND. SUPER INFORMATIVE
This might be the most important eq video I’ve ever watched!! xD
Thanks ever so much Connor!! That is an amazing compliment!!
Same
Fr
Finally someone said it!!! I've thought about this on sweeping eq notching for a while. What happens when the pitch changes on the source material? Eq needs to be dynamic
I find your vids very helpful ! At this time I'm forced to do everything with apps in my android phone. It's hard, lost all my equipment in a fire, miss my dog; but trying to stay creative. Thanks
Sorry to hear that! Wishing you all the best
I think the best advice I've ever gotten is high pass filtering nearly everything but the bass and kick, to give the their own space. It's such a simple thing but it's amazing what it can do for the clarity of a mix.
First three minutes, hilarious "arggh ugly, urgggh ugly!"
Haha thanks Philip!
🤣🤣🤣
oh god.. thank you. So many tutorials from people that are just searching for ugly frequencies and I tried it myself - ending up being super confused. It's not a fun thing to do and it takes away the character of a sound. Thank you, this was refreshing.
And btw: I love how worn your headphones look like and the whole ambience of your studio. Rly sympathetic :) stay healthy!
I gave you the Like number 400, and I love your stuff.. I hope you are doing marelously well too.. Best studio teacher on the web.
Thanks ever so much Jack!!
Man this video is such a relief! I've been getting worse and worse results using that sweep technique. Literally demolished some guitar tracks just yesterday with it and had to start back from scratch. Not the biggest deal but the worse part of it all was why it sounded worse afterwards and what was I doing wrong after seeing it done so many times in videos and have been successful myself but it has always been a hit or miss and confused me. Was both depressing and frustrating. Can't say how much I appreciate this video
I swear when I first started recording at home my mixes were great even with cheap equipment.
Once I started doing too much mixes got horrible.
I think we forget dont get too technical and enjoy the music.
This was immensely freeing and reassuring to watch 😄 all that sweeping just to find dirt when u can’t even hear it in the first place lol.. thanks Warren!
I laughed pretty hard at the 4th and on "Ugly! Horrible! Let's cut that"
Haha thanks ever so much Stephen!
Thanks again Warren for an outstanding lesson. Trusting my ears is a constant struggle, but the techniques you outlined will help.
Your Vlogs are amazing tutorials Ive paid a truck load to learn a tenth of what I've learned watching these Videos Waren. Much appreciated. Sending these to my son who lives in the Studio and is starting out. Going to sign up for your course also. The sound on the vlog is perfect accept it drops slightly on the music inserts. . Having said that it could be this shit box of a tv I'm watching on. Have an incredible day Warren.👍
www.swvstudios.com wow!! Thanks ever so much for your wonderful comment!!! You Rock
You blew my mind with the sweep demo.
wow thank you. that sweeping eq section made me embarrassed of myself
It’s ok we’ve all done it!!
I’ve actually seen a lot of folks do that, you get a great sounding track and suddenly it seems crap.. 😅
I am so glad i watched this! Cause i used to do this all the time but eventually figured out ,just like you show here, that every frequency sounds horrible when boosted,lol. Glad I trust my ears. Thanks 🙏
"this incredibly horrible weird phasy mess of disgustingness" xD
Haha thanks!!
Yeah, i loved that one too.
Comb Filter Central!
I think you've hit the nail on the head, for me at least, alot of things I've recorded I've either over listened to or have tried to "perfect" by going by guidelines and not my own ears
Yeah I completely stopped doing this years ago. I focus more on getting a good original sound and correcting things from the start.
Amazing! Thanks ever so much for sharing
Thank you! I have been pulling down things I actually hear and sometimes see, but never really swept for frequencies. Glad I'm not alone.
Also, I could probably soften my high / low pass curves and get back into EQ automation. All good stuff.
"Trust your ears" as had the biggest impact on my mixing. Cuts out a lot of that self doubt.
Love your work Warren! Thanks for helping many many artists! Always a great informative video even for those that have been doing it for years! You sometimes forget why you do it!
Why BOOST when sweeping? I've learned to SOLO the suspect frequency as it IS. But that's easier when soloing the track. So, 'context' is important? (I am a relative novice; so I've learned from A.I. (Izotope) and great guys like you, to do these things myself.) Thank you.
So happy that you showed how ridiculous the frequency sweep technique is. Cheers to that!
Just like cleaning the back of the studio, we're afraid to sweep... Scared of what we might find! ☮️♥️🤘🏼
As I was listening at around 7:50 when you pulled the Q back to around 90 Hz it sounded like the snare got much cleaner even though you weren't boosting anything with it. Unless my "old" ears are tricking me that was a great example of the value of a high pass filters use and purpose. Thank you for all the knowledge you share.
This is a lot like life. If you go looking for problems you'll find them. Look for solutions. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Very well said!!
Really fantastic video! Love how you demonstrated the effect of stacking up a bunch of supposedly good eq choices, and how it lead to lackluster results. Been down that sweep rabbit hole myself and pretty quickly saw the problem with it.
Cool how you turned that eq into a comb filter in the beginning. 😂 Good point though. Never liked the sweep method. Only eq if it needs it.
Haha yes, indeed!!
Man this is very philosophical … We always find what we are afraid to find, especially when we look for what we do not really want to find
I’m obsessed with that epiano sound
Nice! Thanks ever so much Adam!
Timely video for me, thank you. Just last night I was fighting with a guitar track and my choices seemed to be lifeless or muddy, this has given me some important things to consider.
Do you know why it's obnoxious? Because the frequency's too loud! 😆
Hahahaha Exactly my friend!!
He knows that i think
Video Quality ON-POINT!!
Thanks ever so much!
@@Producelikeapro always a pleasure Watching you at work! I just built my studio in Shoreditch and always looking for more work! I learnt alot from yourself!
Thanks ever so much for sharing that! Best of luck to you in your place!! Happy Christmas
Ear training doesn't just apply to music theory. I can (finally!) hear a sound and think "something sounds weird around 400-ish", and it'll be pretty close, no need for endless sweeping that will confuse you and bring out any harmonic you touch. EQ needs practice.
I think the key is to be quick about it. You don't wanna listen to the same stuff in detail too much, it leads to instant blindness. Quick and rough EQ moves, keeping in mind the simple concepts of darker, brighter, less mud, things like that. It's 90% of the EQ work for me, and it's done during the first 10 minutes. Details come later, if it's even needed.
And for god's sake, use the shelf more. High pass out the useless junk, but use the shelf to control the level of the fundamental notes instead of getting rid of them completely.
@Dbomb Danny Thank you for your valuable contribution
I like to use dynamic low shelves, one within the other very gently. And I emphasize very gently when sculpting lows along with the appopriate roll off or low cut for want of a different term. I smashed the like button as well for you bring da good stuff as usual.
I also discovered this whole sweeping myth because I've seen this technique been taught on youtube videos, however it seemed abit off to me. Every frequency has a purpose. These days I'm only thinking about it in the sense of brightness and darkness, I'm not scooping everything like back in the day.
Haha exactly! It's unfortunate that people are teaching things they yet have to learn themselves! Haha C'est la vie!
@@Producelikeapro So true haha!
Heinrich The Guitarist exactly!!
you sweep for ringing-frequencies that would pinch your ears with the contamporary listening devices. but you need to know what they really are. some come from cheap mics, some come from poorly prepared recording rooms, some are perhaps a trait from the vocalist.
do resonances support the music in this instrument or vocal, or do they distract? the auto-de-ring algorithm (Nectar; TDR Nova GE..) probably does not know this well enough.
I totally get what he's saying here, and I agree with his philosophy about trusting yourself to judge the sound as a whole, but my approach to EQing often is not about getting rid of "offensive" sounds. It's about getting it to sound as close as possible to what I envisioned when I first imagined the music.
1: All that notching and you might as well mute the track :P I still need to train my ears to hear when to automate frequencies. That's the one thing I haven't done with an EQ yet.
Man, automating eq like that would be a pain and a half. I'd probably use a dynamic eq instead.
@@randychurchill9426 I don't think it would be any different than doing volume automation on a vocal or anything you want to bring up or take down or turn off completely.
@@AnitaPotterProductions Possibly, but what if you identify multiple troublesome frequencies on the same track? Watching a Soothe2 frequency feedback and imagining trying to do that with automation makes my head spin. lol
@@randychurchill9426 Hahahaha that is true. Might end up getting cross eyed and my head would explode ;)
Hi Randy Churchill you’ll still have to automate it on and off! Soothe 2 is amazing! I highly recommend it, however the point of this video shows that sometimes you need that additional fullness to reinforce thinner sounding notes! So you’d have to turn off and therefore automate Soothe during those moments!
OMG!! The first one is a life-changing. Thank you !!
Thanks
Thanks ever so much Serge!!
One of the takeaways from watching a bunch of these how-to vids is that I find the Renaissance plugins _really_ intuitive. I'm absolutely picking up the Maxx bundle in the future.
What mic is on that snare? It sounds drop dead gorgeous.
It is an SM57!
@@Producelikeapro Aahh, the snare workhorse strikes again.
That's what they taught me to use in 1987! And a 58 for vocals! Can't beat the classics.
So thats why when I go from strumming on my acoustic to a lead line...my acoustic sounds so thin....pulled out all those low mid nasties to prevent low end feedback....not needed for solos. So thank you....great session. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
I don't make mistakes. I do things a little "differently" lol . I'm just kidding. Awesome video
Haha I hear you! You and me both!!
Your channel is legit, thanks for everything man. Also, what song is this? Is this released yet? I would love to add it in my playlist, sounds so good!
sweeping is a fantastic way to find a resonance in your room
Yes this is about all its good for, and this is done in pre mixing and gain staging, it is very tedious and boring, it can take a lot of time but, the end results can be well worth the time.
I agree on the sweeping thing, but you need a trained ear to be able to identify certain problem frequencies in a mix, which takes time to develop. For beginners sweeping around (within certain limits) can be a very valuable tool to train your ear and learn to listen for frequencies. Just don't use a +20db gain and a Q of 20.
Don’t look for anything offensive is great advice for life 😂
Haha yes, indeed
Hi Warren, from a subscriptor since 2017. This was what I used to do as a youngster (school doctor told me had really good ears). After my seasoned amateur drumming (still do it), mixing is now much more serious. This video will give so much info to your newbies!
I looooove you you’re my daddy in mixing world for real 😍😂
Haha thanks very much!
Simple yet brilliant & something I feel like im learning for the first time every time i am reminded because its so easy to give in & forget while lusting for those quick fix deep EQ cuts that dont stand the test of even a few bars let alone the whole song lol. Dynamic EQ & gentle corrections is the way to go for dynamic signals...strong musical corrections are better for percussion & other repetitious notes that stay in the same key & range the entire song.
I truly learned this lesson by simply changing the pitch of the whole song...immediately all my work was undone or sounded even better...I quickly learned that there was more of a 3 dimensional way of looking at the mix than my 2d mindset.
I can't help but notice, why do you solo the tracks when you EQ them? Don't you need the context of the whole mix too?
I’m teaching, it’s much easier for people to hear the differences in solo! Especially if they are fairly new to mixing
The video we didn't know we all needed. I often find myself doing EQ sweeps before I even really hear anything particularly wrong, so this was a wakeup call!
when I realized years ago that it didn't help, in fact it muffed the mix, I stopped doing it myself. Of course back then I was compressing hi-hats - laughs
Hahahahaha oh, ugly, horrible! ..I love it😂
Haha yes, indeed
Great Sweep eq tips. People forget its boosting to the point everything sounds bad. Use it to ‘help’ identify a freq thats still horribly present when the eq isn’t engaged.
Most common EQ mistake: using high-passes when there's no LF clash, killing the character of the sound.
unless you're doing weird bit reduction sound design that has subsonic reflections/low harmonics
Understandable, sometimes i do that to cause the sound to not be picked up on a low or high end crossover within a component system.
Thank you very much for this lesson!! I especially found the EQ sweeping mistake very interesting.
Haha thanks ever so much! I’m glad to be able to help
I'm still a bit guilty of SWEEPITIS, but I've gotten better over the years ;:-)
Haha nicely put John!
You may need a sweepectomy.
Sweeping has helped me maintain one of the cleanest floors in the studio business! LOL
I also don’t have any problems AT ALL in my life... because I sweep everything under the rug !!
Nice tips as usual. 😊
Is this a good era for you to do a tutorial on “masking“.
Yes, pun intended, but it’s also a concept that I was made aware of several years ago that really helped my sound.
Whachutink Warren ?
Always great to learn about these mistakes, number one way I've been learning is from the mistakes I make
Instead of automating, I tend to prefer to split the take in separate tracks. Maybe the verses, chorus, and solo all need completely different signal chains, and if I want to modify the volume of a part, it's a lot more handy to have it in its own fader.
Love your first point. Don't look for bad - listen. Tip - poss/prob listed already...in Protools, some EQ plugins allow: CTRL+SHIFT when clicking on EQ bands, to make all other EQ s DIP.
Brilliant, rather than boosting to hear the band you want! Great ear/speaker saving feature that I hope I can find in other DAWs as well.
funnyyyyyy😁😁
Haha thanks ever so much
So very true! No 1 is disguised as "hunting for resonances". With a sufficiently high Q band, everything sounds like a tone generator. Most of the time, I find that annoying. Great video! Thank you so much.
The late "hope you're doing marvelously well" in the intro threw me off.
The first ever plug ins I purchased many many years ago was the renaissance plug in bundle. To this day I still use the R-Eq and R-Vox on every mix. Although the fab-filter Pro Q3 is absolutely phenomenal. After going through a computer upgrade here at my home studio I realized I rather do without my hardware before I go without my most used plug ins. These are tools I depend on. And even the 7 band eq that comes with protools is awesome!
Another Great video!
Thanks
Well now, don't all you guys who've been saying boost-sweep-cut for years feel foolish? And....why is it that all of a sudden all the UA-cam teachers are now saying don't do it...seems like just in the last few weeks they're all saying don't do it that way.
Hi Ed, I wonder who's been saying that? Every professional I know (list hundreds of names we all know ever! Haha) not one of them uses this technique, unless they are specifically trying to pin point a frequency that are unable to hear, maybe once every year or two? Haha
Produce Like A Pro I know musician on a mission recommends it in a lot of their videos. They’re mostly aimed at beginners and quick tips to get views
I've noticed this as well. It's like 3rd video in last 7 or 8 days I've seen that says "don't sweep and cut".
Hi@@RudalPL are you suggesting I'm copying someone? Haha Who's posting these videos? I do love UA-cam, it's amazing, however I don't have enough time between recording and mixing to see what the professional UA-camrs are doing! I would love to know! Many thanks, Warren
Hi@@Jake_Godsil_Music yes, it's something we shouldn't be teaching to beginners, it's not making the mixes better. The best to learn is to do less and learn how to do more when you can hear the differences you are creating!
Excellent as ever. Sweep EQ: When I first sat in front of a DAW, that's what I was told to do..
BTW the Academy is excellent, highly recommended to anyone who regularly visits Warren's videos.