Quote Originally Posted by alpha_unit
ok you said about the boosting killing the headroom, this will effect the overall volume of my toon?

my stuff is eq'd quite well in general, but when i listent to something like alphazone there is just so much better and i no the main thing with eq is time as it takes years for your ears to get as good as there's but i need to no my fundementals are correct.

i do cut a lot of shit out of samples and i only use hi quality samples too, ill try n start cutting more and see what it does.

also what band eq'd are you ppl using?
Yeah, try this as an exercise on the next track.

1. Make your maximum boost 3db, if you need to change a sound more than this then cut instead and push up the fader for the channel if necessary after cutting.

2. The only exception your allowed is a high shelving EQ to add the mysterious air if you need it which you can boost to about 9db if you really need to (but don't unless it's obvious that you need it and this should add more volume to the sound, this is more for bringing out really subtle detail in a sound that's not got a lot of top, don't for example add 9db of top to a hi-hat, it'll sound foul usually particuarly with digital eq). Actually maybe ignore this point, it applies more when working with acoustic instruments, vocals and stuff ... but might apply with a dark sounding sample.

3. Cut the bottom out of sounds that you don't want in the bass, but avoid over filtering so everything goes thin. Sometimes it's good to do this with a high pass filter (around the 200hz -> 500hz mark depending on the sound). If it's not obvious how much bottom is in a sound, just play with a filter and you'll hear it, then you can put it back in and make a good judgement on how to sit it in the mix.

4. Sometimes it's better to cut the bottom more gently with a low shelving filter (say 5db of cut from 600 hz sloping down then a HP filter from 100hz). Depends on how much space you've got in your mix really and how thick you want the sound to be.

5. High hats and stuff can often really muddy the middle of your mix, but using a filter on them is sometimes too brutal in a sparse mix. You can try a parametric to knock out stuff from about 2-3k down to the 500hz ish mark then a filter to get rid of any weird bass.

6. Finally, and this is really important. If something isn't sticking out in the mix, first try just pushing the fader up before you reach for the EQ. When you get the mix right you should find that moving a fader 1db makes a considerable difference to the sound. At the start of the mixdown then 6db sounds like a subtle enough change, but sometimes you can get into moving things a quarter of a db and find that it really helps.