To understand EQ and its intricacies you need hands-on

experience, but to help you get started, heres a table of general

uses and the different ranges that EQ can affect. As every sound
is different, though, these are necessarily very general
guidelines

Kick Drum
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Try a
small boost around 5-7kHz to add some high end.
50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom to the sound100-250Hz ~ Adds
roundness250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area5-8kHz ~ Adds high end
presence8-12kHz ~ Adds Hiss
Snare
Try a small boost around 60-120Hz if the sound is a little too
wimpy. Try boosting around 6kHz for that snappy sound.
100-250Hz ~ Fills out the sound6-8kHz ~ Adds presence
Hi hats or cymbals
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. To add
some brightness try a small boost around 3kHz.
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area1-6kHz ~ Adds presence6-8kHz ~
Adds clarity8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness
Bass
Try boosting around 60Hz to add more body. Any apparent
muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz.If more presence is
needed, boost around 6kHz.
50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness250800Hz ~ Muddiness Area800-1kHz ~ Adds beef to small
speakers1-6kHz ~ Adds presence6-8kHz ~ Adds high-end
presence8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss
Vocals
This is a difficult one, as it depends on the mic used to record
the vocal. HoweverApply either cut or boost around 300hz,
depending on the mic and song.Apply a very small boost around
6kHz to add some clarity.
100-250Hz ~ Adds up-frontness250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area16kHz ~ Adds presence6-8kHz ~ Adds sibilance and clarity812kHz ~ Adds brightness
Piano
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Apply a
very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.
50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness250-1kHz
~ Muddiness area1-6kHz ~ Adds presence6-8Khz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss
Electric guitars
Again this depends on the mix and the recording. Apply either
cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the song and sound.
Try boosting around 3kHz to add some edge to the sound, or cut
to add some transparency. Try boosting around 6kHz to add
presence. Try boosting around 10kHz to add brightness.
100-250Hz ~ Adds body250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area1-6Khz ~
Cuts through the mix6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity8=12kHz ~ Adds hiss
Acoustic guitar

Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off between 100-300Hz.

Apply small amounts of cut around 1-3kHz to push the image
higher. Apply small amounts of boost around 5kHz to add some
presence.
100-250Hz ~ Adds body6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity8-12kHz ~ Adds
brightness
Strings
These depend entirely on the mix and the sound used.
50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end100-250Hz ~ Adds body250-800Hz
~ Muddiness area1-6hHz ~ Sounds crunchy6-8kHz ~ Adds
clarity8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness
__________
50Hz
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.__________
100Hz
Increase to add a harder bass sound to lowest frequency
instruments.Increase to add fullness to guitars, snare.Increase to
add warmth to piano and horns.Reduce to remove boom on
guitars & increase clarity.__________
200Hz
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.__________
400Hz
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.__________
800Hz
1. Increase for clarity and punch of bass.2. Reduce to remove
cheap sound of guitars__________
1.5KHz
1. Increase for clarity and pluck of bass.2. Reduce to remove
dullness of guitars.__________
3KHz
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
5KHz

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.__________
7KHz
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 s sound on singers.6.
Increase to add sharpness to synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic
guitar and piano.__________
10KHz
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 s sound on singers.__________
15KHz
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.
__________
Low Bass: anything less than 50Hz
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 its almost impossible to
determine any pitch. 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
50Hz you couldnt fit a full track onto a 7 vinyl record. However
we 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!
Bass: 50-250Hz
This is the range youre adjusting when applying the bass boost
on most home stereos, although most bass signals in modern
music tracks lie around the 90-200Hz area with a small boost in
the upper ranges to add some presence or clarity.
Muddiness/irrational area: 200-800Hz
The main culprit area for muddy sounding mixes, hence the term
irritational area. 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,

resulting in a rush to finish mixing it as you get bored or irritated

by the sound of it.
Mid-range: 800-6kHz
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 10db at
any other range. This is because our voices are centred in this
area, so its the frequency range we hear more than any other.
Most telephones work at 3kHz, 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. Were
particularly sensitive to how the human voice sounds and its
frequency coverage.
High Range: 6-8kHz
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 (although this artificial boost is what we now
call lifelike) when mastering a track before burning it to CD.
Hi-High Range: 8-20kHz
This area is taken up by the higher frequencies of cymbals and
hi-hats, but boosting around this range, particularly around
12kHz can make a recording sound more high quality than it
actually is, and its a technique commonly used by the recording
industry to fool people into thinking that certain CDs are more
hi-fidelity than theyd 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.
Okay when thinking about mixing and EQ never lose sight of the
purposewhich is to create an intelligible mix with clarity and
power.
Surprisingly this technique works really good for getting that low
end down. When I am done with a mix I usually run another
high-pass filter over the whole mix around 55-60hz to eliminate
a lot of frequencies that you cant really hear or feeland arent
reproduced on most stereo systems. This low end mush can
really sap a power amp and speaker of its ability to pump. Once
cleaned up it is amazing how punchy your tracks will be, without
any apparent loss of low end.
I do a similar thing with a low pass filter on most of the
instruments as well to eliminate any extraneous high
frequencies. I usually start rolling off guitar around 8khz gently,
the kick drum around 6khz, toms around 10khz and snare
around 12khz. The only things I want to inhabit the area above
10khz are cymbals, high hatsand most importantlythe air of

the vocals.
It is amazing how much vocals can cut through a mix and still
keeping a high sheen on the overall mix using this method. Your
separation is often enhanced as well. And you dont have to
resort to awful harmonic exciters like BBE and Aphex which
are usually poorly used and can sound very sour to me.
After I have filtered my frequencies I actually begin to EQ things.
Now I have a few rules of my own when it comes to using EQ
that keep things under control. Once again, these are just
guideline rules that I occasionally break but I have found that
they are applicable for me 90% of the time:
1.) Always use a parametric EQ. Graphic EQs are for wusses.
2.) When boosting Q must be wider (less than) than 2.
3.) When cutting Q should be narrowfrom 1.5 or greater.
4.) No cut or boost may be greater than 6db +/- in any case
(occasionally broken for cutting).
5.) 75% of my boosts are less than 2 db. 90% are less than 4 db
of boost.
6.) Never cut more than 8db of anything unless notching out
specific small frequencies.
7.) It is okay to occasionally pile on a wide Q boost or cut with
another narrower boost/cut if you need a radical increase in that
particular frequency (this makes it sound more natural and less
like a resonant peak).
Okay, when I am using EQwhich I admit I do a lot of *subtle*
EQingI always aim at doing one of two things:
1.) Remove the bad qualities of the sound such as rattles,
hums, hiss, muddy frequency areas and so on.
2.) If there are no bad qualities that need to go, then accentuate
the positive elements.
After I have taken care of those problems I then move on to
actually mixing the instruments together. I always ask myself
where does this particular track live? and aim towards cutting
other tracks that intrude on that area by a few dbs. The idea is
to cut away parts of interfering signals to allow certain
instruments to shine in particular bandwidths. This is my general
schema (these are relative and only guidelinesindividual
mixes/use may vary):
80hz rumble of the bass100hz thump of the kick200hz
bottom of the guitar250hz warmth of the vocal350hz bang of
the snare400hz body of the bass500hz clang of the high hat
600hz clang of the cymbals800hz ping of ride cymbal1000hz
meat of the guitar1200hz body of the snare1400hz meat of
the vocal1600hz snap of the kick/plectrum on guitar (attack)
2500hz wires and snap of snare3000hz presence of the vocal
4000hz ring of ride cymbal/top end of bass guitar6000hz

sizzle of the high hat7000hz sizzle of the cymbals8000hz top

end of the kick9000hz brightness on snare and cymbals
10000hz brightness on vocal12000hz air on vocal14000hz
air on cymbals
Hopefully this helps. I didnt give away too many of my good
secrets.