EQ: Basic Principles
An equalizer, or “EQ”, is a tool used to control an individual range of frequencies in the audio spectrum. EQ’s come in many different forms but all of them do the exact same thing. Audio mixing involves detailed EQ’ing, but almost everyone has encountered and used an EQ at some point; probably in your car’s audio settings. Understanding these basic EQ principles will help you to develop better techniques for EQ’ing.
Input - Level of sound coming into hardware/plugin.
Output - Level of sound coming out of hardware/plugin.
HPF - High Pass Filter - Filter used to kill sound from low end of the spectrum.
LPF - Low Pass Filter - Filter used to kill sound from high end of spectrum.
Frequency Points
LF - Low Frequency
LMF - Mid Frequency
HMF - High Mid Frequency
HF - High Frequency
Q - Range of frequencies that will be affected by particular frequency point.
Frequency - Frequency at which particular point will be affected.
Gain - Amount of volume added or subtracted at selected frequency point.
We will dive deeper into my specific uses and opinion on how to use EQ hardware/plugins later in the book. For now I will say that I prefer subtractive EQ over additive EQ. Subtractive EQ is when you take away volume from specific frequencies in order to achieve your desired sound. Additive EQ is when you add volume to specific frequencies in order to achieve your desired sound. We will get into why I choose to use subtractive EQing later in this book. As previously emphasized, it is vital that you trust your ears first when EQ’ ing. Eq’ing is a very powerful tool that can drastically alter, for better or worse, the sound that your are working on. It is important that you understand the key principles of EQ in order to properly use EQ hardware/plugins to enhance your sound.
On this page of the site you can watch the video online EQ: Basic Principles with a duration of hours minute second in good quality, which was uploaded by the user KENDAL AT ICON STUDIOS ATL 10 September 2022, share the link with friends and acquaintances, this video has already been watched 30 times on youtube and it was liked by 3 viewers. Enjoy your viewing!
