EQ Frequencies Reference
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djdunamis
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« on: September 21, 2006, 09:59:57 PM »
heres a eq reference explanation that Ive been using for a while and its been helpful to me, I found it off another forum and thought I would share it.





Hands on experience will quickly replace the usefulness of these charts. I have a lot of the same info presented here in two different ways: 1) instruments and how EQ affects them 2) frequencies and what they affect. After that I’ll describe some ways to use EQ effectively. Drum and bass producers should find this very useful. The info is totally accurate and was compiled from acoustics handbooks and my own experience.


PART I – Instruments and EQ


Kick Drum

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300 Hz. Try a small boost around 5-7 kHz to add some high end.

60-100 Hz ~ Adds bottom to the sound
100-250 Hz ~ Adds fullness
250-800 Hz ~ Muddiness area
2.5 kHz ~ Slap attack
5-8 kHz ~ Adds high end presence
8-12 kHz ~ Adds hiss and rattle


Snare

Try a small boost around 60-120 Hz if the sound is a little too wimpy. Try boosting around 6 kHz for that 'snappy' sound. Snares are often the driving force of dnb and they take on so many forms that it really comes down to "time spent" here. Experimentation is the key... but here are general guidelines:

220-260 Hz ~ Fatness
5 kHz ~ Crispness
6-8 kHz ~ Adds presence


Hi hats or cymbals

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300 Hz. To add some brightness try a small boost around 3 kHz.

200Hz ~ Clank or gong sound
250-800 Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6 kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8 kHz ~ Adds shimmer and clarity
8-12 kHz ~ Adds brightness


Rack Toms

240 Hz ~ Fullness
5 kHz ~ Crack / smack attack


Floor Toms

80-120 Hz ~ Fullness
5 kHz ~ Crack / smack attack


Bass Guitar

Try boosting around 60 Hz to add more body. Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300 Hz. If more presence is needed, boost around 6 kHz. Most of this will apply to any bassline.

50-100 Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250 Hz ~ Adds fullness
250-700 Hz ~ Muddiness Area
700-1000 Hz ~ Pluck sound
2.5 kHz ~ String noise / pop
3-6 kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8 kHz ~ Adds high-end presence
8-12 kHz ~ Adds hiss


Vocals

This is a difficult one, as it depends on the mic used to record the vocal. However...Apply either cut or boost around 300 Hz, depending on the mic and song. Apply a very small boost around 6 kHz to add some clarity.

100-250 Hz ~ Adds 'up-frontness' / boom
250-800 Hz ~ Muddiness area
2-6 kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8 kHz ~ Adds sibilance and clarity
8-12 kHz ~ Adds brightness


Piano

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300 Hz. Apply a very small boost around 6 kHz to add some clarity.

80-120 Hz ~ Adds bottom
120-250 Hz ~ Adds body
250-1 kHz ~ Muddiness area
2.5-5 kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8 kHz ~ Adds clarity
10 kHz ~ Crisp attack
12-14 kHz ~ Adds hiss


Electric guitars

Again this depends on the mix and the recording. Apply either cut or boost around 300 Hz, depending on the song and sound. Try boosting around 3 kHz to add some edge to the sound, or cut to add some transparency. Try boosting around 6 kHz to add presence. Try boosting around 10 kHz to add brightness.

200-250 Hz ~ Adds fullness
250-800 Hz ~ Muddiness area
2.5 kHz ~ Adds bite
5-8 kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12 kHz ~ Adds hiss


Acoustic guitar

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off between 100-300 Hz. Apply small amounts of cut around 1-3 kHz to push the image higher. Apply small amounts of boost around 5 kHz to add some presence.

80-120 Hz ~ Bottom end
120-250 Hz ~ Adds body
2.5-5 kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12 kHz ~ Adds brightness


Horns

There are many types of horns and EQ will affect each in drastically different ways. Here’s a few common EQ affects for most types of horns.

120-240 Hz ~ Fullness
5-7.5 kHz ~ Shrillness


Strings

These depend entirely on the mix and the sound used.

50-100 Hz ~ Adds bottom end
250 Hz ~ Adds fullness
250-800 Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6 kHz ~ Sounds crunchy
7.5-10 kHz ~ Scratchiness
11-14 kHz ~ Adds brightness



PART II – Frequencies and Domains


50 Hz

1. Increase to add more fullness to lowest frequency instruments like foot, toms, and the bass.
2. Reduce to decrease the "boom" of the bass and will increase overtones and the recognition of bass line in the mix. This is most often used on bass lines in Rap and R&B.


100 Hz

1. Increase to add a harder bass sound to lowest frequency instruments.
2. Increase to add fullness to guitars, snare.
3. Increase to add warmth to piano and horns.
4. Reduce to remove boom on guitars & increase clarity.


200 Hz

1. Increase to add fullness to vocals.
2. Increase to add fullness to snare and guitar (harder sound).
3. Reduce to decrease muddiness of vocals or mid-range instruments.
4. Reduce to decrease gong sound of cymbals.


400 Hz

1. Increase to add clarity to bass lines especially when speakers are at low volume.
2. Reduce to decrease "cardboard" sound of lower drums (foot and toms).
3. Reduce to decrease ambiance on cymbals.


800 Hz

1. Increase for clarity and "punch" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove "cheap" sound of guitars


1.5 kHz

1. Increase for "clarity" and "pluck" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove dullness of guitars.


3 kHz

1. Increase for more "pluck" of bass.
2. Increase for more attack of electric / acoustic guitar.
3. Increase for more attack on low piano parts.
4. Increase for more clarity / hardness on voice.
5. Reduce to increase breathy, soft sound on background vocals.
6. Reduce to disguise out-of-tune vocals / guitars


5 kHz

1. Increase for vocal presence.
2. Increase low frequency drum attack (foot/toms).
3. Increase for more "finger sound" on bass.
4. Increase attack of piano, acoustic guitar and brightness on guitars.
5. Reduce to make background parts more distant.
6. Reduce to soften "thin" guitar.


7 kHz

1. Increase to add attack on low frequency drums (more metallic sound).
2. Increase to add attack to percussion instruments.
3. Increase on dull singer.
4. Increase for more "finger sound" on acoustic bass.
5. Reduce to decrease sibilance (the “s”) on vocals.
6. Increase to add sharpness to synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic guitar and piano.


10 kHz

1. Increase to brighten vocals.
2. Increase for "light brightness" in acoustic guitar and piano.
3. Increase for hardness on cymbals.
4. Reduce to decrease sibilance (the “s”) on vocals.


15 kHz

1. Increase to brighten vocals (breath sound).
2. Increase to brighten cymbals, string instruments and flutes.
3. Increase to make sampled synthesizer sound more real.



EQ Applications and Understanding


Although most equalization is done by ear, it’s helpful to have an idea about which frequencies affect an instrument in order to achieve and particular effect (hence my tables above). Let’s start at the very beginning: what is frequency? Frequency is the wavelength of sound. That is to say, it is the rate at which a sound wave completes a cycle of positive and negative amplitude. The number of cycles that occurs in one full second is the frequency of a sound wave and that is measured in Hertz (Hz). You will also frequently see the term Kilohertz (kHz) used when talking about sound waves; 1 kHz is equal to 1000 Hz.

When sound waves overlap they combine into a new wave and the frequencies interfere, enhance, and cancel each other. This is where equalization (EQ) comes into play. Equalizers allow you to control the frequencies of sound and thus allow you to shape your music so it sounds better (or worse). It is not enough to just have a bunch of great samples and sounds and throw them together thinking it will sound good. Once sounds overlap they change each other and you must be able to control that change or you end up with a sonic mess. Equalization will allow you to cut and boost certain frequencies within each of your sounds/instruments so that they do not interfere with each other (at least not as much).

On the whole the audio spectrum can be divided into four frequency bands: LOW (20-200Hz), LOW-MIDDLE (200-1000Hz), HIGH-MIDDLE (1-5kHz), and HIGH (5-20kHz):



LOW: 20-200 Hz

This range is often known as the sub bass and is most commonly taken up by the lowest part of the kick drum and bass guitar; although at these frequencies it's almost impossible to determine any pitch. Anything below 40 Hz is not heard at all by human ears but can be felt, especially in the chest. Sub bass is one of the reasons why 12" vinyl became available: low frequencies require wider grooves than high frequencies - without rolling off everything below 50 Hz you couldn't fit a full track onto a 7" vinyl record. However I do NOT recommend applying any form of boost around this area without the use of very high quality studio monitors (not home monitors - there is a vast difference between home near-field and studio far-field monitors costing anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000). Boosting blindly in this area without a valid reference point can and will permanently damage most speakers, even PA systems. You have been warned!


LOW-MIDDLE: 200-1000 Hz

This is the range you're adjusting when applying bass boost in the upper ranges to add some presence or clarity to your low end instruments. This is also the main culprit area for muddy sounding mixes. Most frequencies around here can cause psycho-acoustic problems: if too many sounds in a mix are dominating this area, a track can quickly become annoying.


HIGH-MIDDLE: 1-5 kHz

Human hearing is extremely sensitive at these frequencies, and even a minute boost around here will result in a huge change in the sound (almost the same as if you boosted around 10 dB at any other range). This is because our voices are centered in this area, so it's the frequency range we hear more than any other. Most telephones work at 3 kHz, because at this frequency speech is most intelligible. This frequency also covers TV stations, radio, and electric power tools. If you have to apply any boosting in this area, be very cautious, especially on vocals. We're particularly sensitive to how the human voice sounds and its frequency coverage.


HIGH: 5-20 kHz

This is the range you adjust when applying the treble boost on your home stereo. This area is slightly boosted to make sounds artificially brighter when mastering a track before burning it to CD. The high end area also includes the higher frequencies of cymbals and hi-hats, but boosting around this range, particularly around 12 kHz can make a recording sound more high quality than it actually is, and it's a technique commonly used by the recording industry to fool people into thinking that certain CDs are more hi-fidelity than they'd otherwise sound. However, boosting in this area also requires a lot of care - it can easily pronounce any background hiss, and using too much will result in a mix becoming irritating. Anything over 20 kHz cannot be heard by human ears.

One way to zero in a particular frequency using an equalizer is to set the amount of boost for all frequencies to near maximum and drop out each affected range one at a time until the problem frequency is found. If you find yourself boosting one frequency and then subsequently boosting most of the other frequencies to bring your sound back to how you want it you should probably just increase the overall gain of that sound. If an overall gain increase doesn’t sound satisfactory, it may be that one range of frequencies is too dominant and requires attenuation.

Recording with EQ is a highly debated subject. Some people record with EQ in order to make up for bad microphone placement or room acoustics. If you are unsure of how you want your finished sound to be heard then you should probably record without EQ so that you can make dramatic changes to the sound sample later. It is easy to boost frequencies, but it is a thousand times more difficult to cut frequencies out, and you may find that you need your sound to take on totally different qualities once it is thrown into the big picture of your song. Recording with more than one mic is the perfect solution as you can EQ one and leave another flat. Later you can take what bits of EQ you want from each and combine them.

An equalizer is one of the most powerful tools of the musician and used properly it can greatly enhance or restore the sonic balance of your mix. Experimentation is the key so don’t think I gave you any real knowledge just now; this is just a guide and a suggestion. Keep in mind an equalizer won’t be able to make up for dodgy recording techniques. It is simply a tool for correcting the minor problems of acoustics, enhancing what you have, and for cleaning the extra junk out of your mix.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2006, 10:02:06 PM by djdunamis » Logged
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« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2006, 11:04:04 PM »
Hi Dunamis,

Thank You. God Bless.

Aaron.
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« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2006, 12:58:51 PM »
do you know how long i've been looking for something like this?!


you ROCK!  Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool
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Just Drew
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« Reply #3 on: September 24, 2006, 03:25:55 AM »
I have a pdf somewhere of this, in picture form!!! PM me if you (or anyone else) wants it.
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« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2006, 02:05:49 PM »
^ Found it: http://download.yousendit.com/AAB919CF7AFB3E75
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« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2006, 02:14:39 PM »
Imhotep! Where did you find this???
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djdunamis
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the DUNAM!S ninja kickin it DRUM N BASS style!!


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« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2006, 03:16:45 PM »
nice, I also have this:



in one of my books.  maybe in some free time, I might scan it or anyone can just get the book.

Bob Katz's Mastering Audio or find the Carnegie Hall Musical Instrument Frequency Range Chart.
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« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2006, 12:47:08 PM »
Quote from: redsavior on September 25, 2006, 02:14:39 PM
Imhotep! Where did you find this???

The wonderous publication of Computer Music Magazine (by Future Publishing - can be ordered at: http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/store/displaystore.asp?sid=424&custid=26@09@200671022@398182184)
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« Reply #8 on: December 09, 2006, 05:25:10 PM »
 laugh

I actually laughed out loud when I read the Tom description for 5k: "smack attack"

That's freakin hilarious  Grin
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« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2006, 09:25:13 PM »
This is awesome stuff, however... I guess it's a sign of having done this for so many years and of how good Berklee College of Music was for me because this stuff is second nature to me.

I encourage everyone to learn this stuff and use it all the time.  Get a good lightweight spectrum analyzer VST, put it on every track along with an EQ, and work it like a {mmm...tasty}.  being a BT fan for so long taught me this.  BT always shelves off the frequencies above and below where he wants a sound to live and thats always helped make his stuff super clean and not muddy.

- - Dan
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« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2006, 01:28:24 AM »
Quote from: HELDbyWILL on December 09, 2006, 09:25:13 PM
how good Berklee College of Music was for me because this stuff is second nature to me.
Dude, you went to Berklee?!?! That's freakin awesome man! I went to MTSU myself. What kind of work do you do with your degree? smiley25
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HELDbyWILL
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« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2006, 10:14:51 AM »
Spike,

I never finished my degree at Berklee due to my real life job as a software engineer, although I do intend to finish it some day Smiley  I actually dont intend to do anything with it that I couldnt do without it - I just started going because I wanted an academic approach to my music production for heldbywill and sheltershed.  I only need to finish about 5 classes to be done there, Ill get around to it soon.  Hypostatic and I were going there at the same time, although I think he may have actually finished his program at this point Smiley

Im also partway through a biblical studies degree at moody bible institute and a computer science degree at university of phoenix.  My education is all over the spectrum, yet always gets put on hold because of my job which requires me to travel 5 days a week, every week.  That makes it tough for school heh.

What are you doing these days??

Best,

- - Dan
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Mookinx
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ohhh yesss!
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2007, 03:17:41 PM »
WOW ...that is so cool. I've just started to look into this kinda thing after downloading a spectral analyzer and looking at the whole frequancy thing.
 Infact, I've just got back from work and was about to go looking for this kinda information on the web when I decided to check these forums again, now I've got some spare time.(weren't there more catagorys in the forum...have things changed)

Praise God  Smiley
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« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2007, 03:33:03 PM »
yeah...changed this week. We're condensed Tastyfresh now. Just like milk. Just add water.
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« Reply #14 on: December 10, 2007, 07:15:44 AM »
I'm new to this forum, and I was so completely not expecting to see Christian DJs and producers talking about stuff like how to un-muddy kick drums by tinkering with frequencies.

To be honest I was expecting to find a bunch of Christians talking about how they knew a guy who's friend's brother had a mate who knew a DJ who owned a set of Technics  Embarrassed

Very impressed guys  Cool
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