When I started mixing my own tracks, I didn’t waste any time and quickly added equalizers to my tracks based on advice gathered here and there, online or elsewhere.
If I realized that setting an equalizer correctly was more complicated than it seemed, at least it was one effect whose operation I understood… 🙂
But in doing so, I fell into pretty much all the mistakes to avoid regarding equalization.
To help you avoid making the same ones, here is a selection of the 10 most common mistakes made by beginners in mixing — along with a series of best practices to follow.
1. Trying to equalize poor quality recordings
The context of a home studio is not always conducive to perfect recordings.
Even with good equipment, a number of factors come into play such as experience, but also and especially the acoustics of the room.
This often results in imperfect recordings — and it’s important to be aware of that.
However, under the pretext of recording in a home studio, it would be a mistake to say “Oh, I’ll leave the recording as it is, I’ll fix the problems in the mix!”.
Sure, EQs are powerful tools.
But they cannot create frequency content that does not exist. They are not magic wands.
If your guitar take is completely lacking in bass and therefore does not have the timbre you are looking for in the first place, you won’t be able to add it with an EQ.
If your voice sounds very dark because the microphone you used is not bright enough or poorly positioned, you will have a hard time correcting that during mixing.
In the same vein: if your room resonates a lot, and thus colors all your recordings, don’t expect to get a beautiful recording after equalization. You may be able to attenuate the main resonances, but that’s about it…
Conclusion: make sure you have recordings that come as close as possible to the sound target you have set.
2. Equalizing without a goal
Do you sometimes find yourself adding an EQ to a track out of habit or because you’ve heard somewhere that, for such an instrument, you should boost such a frequency band by so many decibels?
If you answered “yes” to this question, this point of the article will particularly concern you — because you absolutely should not do all that! 🙂
Let’s say you have this guitar track:
Maybe you will choose to boost the mids, which are clearly lacking:
But if the starting track looked like this, would you make the same choice?:
Probably not.
Each track, each recording is different.
If presets can sometimes be acceptable starting points, it is much more important and essential to define your goal before adding an equalizer.
Ask yourself questions like:
- What is the problem I hear and want to correct?
- What aspect of the instrument do I want to highlight?
- What type of sound do I want to have after equalization?
Once your goal is set, you can then select your equalization plugin and correct the track.
By the way, an EQ is not always the solution. For example, when mixing vocals, you can very well use equalization to bring out a voice in the mids, but compression can also contribute to that.
3. Equalizing Tracks in Solo
Often, we tend to equalize tracks in solo mode, meaning listening to the track alone — out of the context of the mix.
To fix recording issues, such as resonances, this is ideal as it allows for precise application of the effect without being distracted by the sound of other tracks.
However, once we start balancing frequencies to highlight or attenuate certain frequency bands, it is absolutely essential to equalize the track while listening to the entire mix.
I like to talk about the “mix context” in this regard: mixing a track means mixing it in relation to the others.
For example, even if it’s a vocal track, you don’t equalize a lead vocal the same way you would background vocals.
Another example: the kick and the bass are two instruments that are difficult to coexist because they have energy in the same frequencies.
So, if you equalize them separately, you won’t have any way to predict whether the blend of the two will be effective.
Conclusion: always equalize while listening to the rest of the mix.
In this perspective, two strategies can be followed:
- either you listen to the entire mix;
- or you only listen to certain tracks (I often disable the vocals, which can be distracting).
Finally, it is important to emphasize that it is not forbidden to put a track in solo: I do this very often, but I constantly check what’s happening in the context of the mix after each equalization action.
4. Amplifying Frequencies Before Cutting Them
The first reflex when using an equalizer is to boost what we like.
“Hey, I really like the bass from this kick, so to hear them better, I’m going to set them to +6 dB.”
While this isn’t necessarily wrong (Andrew Scheps is particularly fond of this technique), it’s more of a false good idea, especially if you’re just starting out.
Indeed, it’s a much better practice to first cut the problematic frequencies.
The reasoning behind this technique is quite simple: if you remove or attenuate all the problems in a track, only the positive aspects will remain.
It’s only after controlling the frequency issues that you can use additive equalization to amplify certain frequency bands that need it — but this time, your boosts will likely be less pronounced and therefore much more transparent and musical.
5. Thinking that Boosting +10 dB is Bad
It’s often said that you shouldn’t equalize more than 5 or 6 decibels.
In other words, if you exceed 6 dB, “it’s not good.”
The argument behind this is quite logical: if you need to boost a frequency band by more than 6 dB, then it’s probably because the recording was poorly done (see the very first piece of advice in this article).
However, one must not forget one of the main adages of mixing, which is that “if it sounds good, it is good.”
So, you should not be afraid to boost a frequency band by +10 dB if it sounds better afterwards!
Certainly, if the recording can be improved to avoid this kind of equalization, it’s always better.
But in many cases, this 10 dB boost will be essential for your track to take the shape you want.
So don’t hesitate to make marked and bold equalizations, rather than limiting yourself with overly strict rules.
6. Spending too much time equalizing
Here’s a mistake I’ve often made in the past: when I wanted to equalize a track, I would take my favorite parametric equalizer and try to detect all the tiny problems, no matter how minimal, to correct them.
Similarly, I tried to apply all the advice I had read or heard in terms of EQ.
The result was that I often ended up with curves that looked like this (after a good half hour spent correcting things):
In comparison, on many mixing consoles or other analog devices, the equalization modules look like this:
So, two filters and three or four equalization bands, with less detailed settings than many software EQs.
In this case, there is no native possibility to add 10 different bell filters.
The conclusion is immediate: rather than spending hours making micro-equalizations of problems you are not sure you can hear, try to get to the essentials.
Tip: try using EQ plugins with few different settings, or even reproducing console strips, to help you focus on the sound.
Fix the main issues of the recording, boost the aspects you want to hear more, and that’s it.
Especially if you are a beginner, getting to 80 or 90% of the target is already very good!
So avoid complicating the equalization to not harm your mixes.
7. Putting high-pass filters on everything
When equalizing a track, the first actions generally consist of cleaning it up.
That is, removing resonances and attenuating frequency bands that are unpleasant to the ear because they are too cluttered, too nasal, or too aggressive.
To do this cleaning, we often tend to start with a high-pass filter (or low-cut, it’s the same thing), to remove the low end of the spectrum.
On certain instruments, adding such a filter is almost automatic: you will likely have trouble hearing your bass clearly if the low end of your guitars is not cut a bit.
However, I advise against applying this filtering too systematically, by cutting lows < 50 Hz on all tracks.
Indeed, if you do that, your mix will lose power.
While some tracks will undoubtedly benefit from the addition of a high-pass filter, if you apply this treatment to all tracks, those frequencies will simply be nonexistent and the mix will lose warmth/body.
Note: of course, these remarks also apply to low-pass filters.
8. Correcting frequency problems on the busses
Again, a fairly common mistake: starting a mix by adding an equalizer on a bus (= a group of tracks) or even directly on the master.
Or worse: pre-setting an equalizer (+2 dB on the lows, high-shelf filter on the highs…) and positioning it like that on the master.
Yes, it is possible to use EQ on a bus.
No, you should not start there to equalize a track.
What happens when you equalize a group of tracks?
Well, the tracks are first summed, so added, at the group level to become a stereo signal — then this same signal is sent to your equalizer.
Now, let’s say you notice that certain frequencies are accumulating in the mids and that this makes your mix cluttered.
If you attenuate these frequencies at the bus or master level, you will not have corrected the problem: you will have decreased its volume relative to the other frequencies — but you will also have lost power in the mids.
In other words, your mids will still be cluttered, but less audible.
The consequence of all this is that it is preferable to take the time to identify track by track what is causing problems, and thus to correct your EQ at the track level.
Sure, it may seem lengthy, but it is essential for achieving a quality mix: in mixing, there are rarely shortcuts.
9. Do not use the Bypass function
Equalizers often have a bypass feature, which is a button that allows you to activate and deactivate the effect at will.
If there isn’t one, there is always the option to disable the plugin directly from your DAW.
This button, unfortunately, is used too little — while it is essential for equalization actions.
Let me explain:
When you equalize a track, it can be tempting to keep going further, to always add one or two dB here or there.
As you make equalization adjustments, you lose sight of the goal you were trying to achieve: the slight lift in the highs that you imagined to give air to the voice turns into a marked boost of +6dB.
To avoid this, it is essential to continuously do “before/after” checks using the bypass function, to verify at every moment the impact of the changes you have made — and especially to ensure that these changes truly improve your mix.
10. Never try dynamic equalization
To conclude this article, I suggest we look at a mistake that isn’t quite a mistake, in the sense that it involves experimenting with other types of effects.
Most EQs are static: the equalization curves you apply will be the same throughout the piece, regardless of the volume level of the track.
However, in some cases, you may encounter problems that only manifest at certain times.
For example, a resonance of a particular note that becomes aggressive.
Or a vocal track with a band of somewhat nasal frequencies that only bothers on certain words.
In this case, it may be interesting to use a dynamic equalizer, an effect that resembles in many ways a multiband compressor.
Instead of having static equalization, the dynamic EQ will allow you to apply equalization based on the level of the frequency band.
As a result, you can ensure that your equalization of a resonance is only applied when it is present.
In conclusion
By forcing yourself to avoid these mistakes (even if some may already be habits), you will see the quality of your mixes improve.
You will have a better mastery of frequencies, and mixing will be easier.
However, if there were only one point to remember, I think it would be #6 about spending too much time equalizing. With your equalizers, try above all to get to the essentials.
At least, initially — rather than seeking to equalize your tracks to an absolutely perfect state.
It’s better to have a good mix that is 90% close to the quality target you set, rather than a mix that is never finished 😀
To go further, I recommend reading my detailed guide on equalization, which contains links to a number of similar resources.