Frequency Conflict and EQ Fundamentals [Video]
Understanding EQ fundamentals is an essential part to getting one’s mixdown right when producing music.
The combination of frequency conflicts, listener fatigue and one’s own monitoring environment are just some of the challenges music producers face, especially if you are a home studio music maker.
What is frequency conflict?
In this video tutorial Dash explains how two sounds that play at the same time and occupy the same frequency range will be masked out by one’s ears. When this happens large portions of the sound can be inaudible.
This is where understanding EQ fundamentals and how to use an equaliser to cut out the frequency band of the sound that you don’t want over-powering the other sound becomes very important.
Equally important is being able to identify what the dominant frequencies of a particular sound are.
Watch the demo on Dash’s video to hear what we mean by this as he demonstrates with white noise and a voice over.
The reason he uses white noise is because it covers the entire frequency range and logically, if we EQ out the white noise in the bandwidth that the vocal is in, we should be able to identify how much of the sound’s frequency range we need for it to deliver what we want.
Dash explains how to focus on the primary elements of a sound and how to make full use of the frequency range when carving each element to sit with another part that plays at the same time.
Some additional good advice he offers is to focus on each section individually and with fresh ears. In other words, do percussion in one sitting, then synths in another session with fresh ears, and so on.
Watch the full EQ fundamentals tutorial here.
Dash has an entire series of YouTube videos and tutorials for budding music producers to watch and learn from.
IDM Mag have partnered with his channel to bring you regular Friday tutorial updates.
Yes, please take me to more informative music making tutorials
Previous week’s tutorial…
What are Polyrhythms?
