EQUALIZATION: A Beatmaker's Guide to EQ

1. 1-1 - Using EQ Effectively in Your Songs - Overview [INTRO] : Hey, what's going on? I'm gratuitous and welcome to my newest course. How to use e que in your songs in this course I want to talk to you about e que your mindset that you should have as you're using e que as well A Some kind of best practices I've discovered over the years. So what you taking this course? You guys are gonna understand. You know how to make a lot more accurate judgment in your e que decisions. There are times to be aggressive with your Q is also times to be subtle. We're going to cover you know what isn't Q. How do you actually use an e que the different filters purposes? So if you guys were interested in taking this course, you guys to sign up and I'll see you guys in the course. 2. 2-1 - What's the Purpose of an EQ - Section Overview : Okay, so in this section of videos, I'm just gonna be talking to you About what e que is some of my favorite e que plug ins I like to use, Um you know, what is the purpose of an e que different techniques? Different filter shapes and, you know, uses off them. I also want to cover, you know, digital versus analog music in terms of how much e que processing you need to do with digital versus analog. So the first video is going to be about, you know, with accuse I like to use, um, in kind of a workflow with them and why I like thes e cues, okay? 3. 2-2 - EQs I Recommend : So the key to our left is pro que by five filter. They actually have aversion to out. I just haven't felt a need to upgrade because I like proc use so much as it is. You know, it works really, really good for me. I think you are right. Comes stock with FL Studio is the fruity parametric eq you to? This has been a great e que as I was starting up, which I recommend to you guys if you're you know, if you're not willing to spend money to get 1/3 party plug in. So by no means are you having to get ah, third party plug in like pro que ah, the fruity pair much eq. You two will work great for you and I will be referencing both of them throat this course. Okay, So, for example, if I play a sound here, this is a snare sound. Okay, so we can see on the frequency spectrum just like how they kind of look cause you can see you have been more body here for for the snare sound, you know, and ah, so stuff like that. But just to show you why I like pro que a law is. So, for example, I can click a band here, and as a sweep around, I can use my scroll wheel to make my Q tighter or wider. So when it's tighter, you're making more surgical moves, especially when you're cutting or if you make it wider, it's a lot more gentle, a lot more subtle. Okay? And as you see right down here, Q and Q stands for quality. And so now, in addition, I can you know easily create another band or another band and with pro que I can simply highlight thes and I can adjust the gain knob. And as you can see, you know, you could be very, very, very creative with it. Um, and I just like the workflow. It gives me another really cool thing about pro que is I can click like the headphones, and I can actually solo out the sound. So, for example, the snare sounds like this, But imagine it was kind of giving us some problem area in the song, and it just didn't really know where that frequency waas I can hit the headphones. And as we play the sound so again it allows me to fine tune. So let's say it was right here, you know? So not big and cut somewhere that Oh, if that was the case, But as you can see, it's just a workflow thing. At the end of the day, both of these plug ins are going to do what you wanted to do, which is balance the frequency spectrum of your sound. Or you could be using it for sound design purposes. But like I'm saying, pro que just allows for more flexibility. But Parametric EQ u two is a Knauss, um, plug into. 4. 2-3 - How an EQ Works [and its Purpose in your Music] : Okay, So in this video, I just want to talk to you about what is the purpose of an e que as well as you know, what is an e que de. Okay, so if we look here pro que so on the left are low frequencies. And as we work our way to the right, we have her high frequencies. Okay, so you know, 20 hertz that stands for 20 cycles per second. And if we work our way to the right, we have 20,000 hertz, so that's 20,000 cycles per second. So the important thing to understand here is that your low frequencies air actually moving slower. Okay. And as we work our way to the right, your higher frequencies are actually moving very, very, very fast. Now, just to give you guys like a little analogy. So if I were to create three bands here, this is something that we could probably all relate to. So a car radio typically always has a base amid and high. Right? So you know, you just having your three and allows you just to adjust. If you want to lower the low end causes to Bumi or if you want her removes mids or if you just want to leave the highs where they are so essentially, and e que is just like a frequency volume fader. So it's no different than coming here and adjusting that, except the only difference is we have way more control. Like, you know, if you want to find two and stuff, we have control over how wide or how narrow we want to cut to be. Essentially, it's the same idea just again to give you guys a reference point. But when you're using a parametric EQ, you, it's allows you to have way more flexibility on how to e que and get the sound your warning , so the next thing will talk about is when you're first starting up. EQ. You can be really, really confusing because you're unsure of the actual frequency spectrum. So, like, where is the sound supposed to sit inside your mix? And in all honesty over my years, I've just kind of discovered that it's you have to really listen for Where do you want that sound to sit? Because you can typically usually make us a sound fit in a certain area to paying on how aggressive you are was e que. And one thing to say is, If you just Google e que instrument chart, you will see tons of different images online about where instruments are supposed to sit in your mix, and it's kind of cool to look at. But at the same time, it kind of makes mixing difficult because instead of you trying to be creative and make your music, you don't sound how you want. People are trying to follow these charts for the instruments to sit rather than you know, like I'm saying, like, make the music how you want. So with that said, it's very, very important as your e queuing toe always be listening. Does your song still sound like a song? Because as you start mixing your whole song, you can actually be really manipulating your song. And yes, your instruments might be standing out. Everything might be clear, but it might sound really, really processed, and it might not sound like a song. So that's just one thing I want to tell you is like yes, when your e queuing. Yes, you want things to stand out and you want things to be clear. But sometimes a song is just the way it is, in a sense that it sounds good and it's a song. It sounds like a song and what you're doing with your e que is you just want to enhance things or, you know, kind of remove things to make other things stand out. Um, there are times to be surgical and be aggressive. But at the end of the day, what I'm trying to stress to you is, when you hit play, does your song sound like a song that you could just listen to, or does it sound really, really processed? 5. 2-4 - The Different EQ Shapes and Filter Types : Okay, So in this video, we're gonna be talking about the different bands on E que. So if I just create a band here, you can see right now this is a bell shape, okay? It allows you go wider for a more natural sound, or you can go narrower for a more surgical sound. If you want just to boost a certain frequency or cut certain frequencies, for example, imagine a vocal and there's lots of a s is you can just maybe just a little gentle cut their just for an example. So if we were to just change your filter shapes just for you to see what different types that are on e que. So if we go to ah, high shelf so it typically use a high shelf. When I'm wanting more brightness out of a sound, you can usually be quite aggressive with it, depending on where you've actually adjusted the frequency slope. So, for example, if I have adjusted it back here, I'm starting to affect more of the mids as well, too, right, cause it kind of works its way. And as you adjust the Q, it allows you to get deeper into the mids, okay, or you could be way more aggressive. However, sometimes the sound is too bright and you can do the opposite. You can actually just kind of gently roll off the high end. Okay, so now if we go to another one, so this is called a low shelf. So it's the exact same thing as your high shelf. Except now it's for the lows. So let's say we're working with a guitar, and it just sounds a little too muddy. And what you'll discover over your years is that there's a lot of different terms we could be using to describe audio. And that's what gets a little bit confusing. Frequent season like, kind of like the low mids, you know, it could be like muddy or Bhumi or went to get up in the midst. They could selling boxy or up in like the two K area. They can start to kind of sound nasal e or, you know, appears justice object to bright, you know. So there's lots of different words that you can use to describe audio, and you can kind of get confusing. But so, in other words, this. Just say that I felt that the guitar was imbalanced from a frequency standpoint, and I felt that the lows in the mids were just too much in comparison to the highs. So what I can simply do is, let's say I want to cut this by five decibels. Um, and I could just drag it in. And so what that's doing is it's allowing the highs, and it's just kind of cutting the lows. But if you were to do this and now you kind of feel that the guitar sounds imbalanced now it's like So let's just say you want a little bit of that body. Still, you can still come here and create a bell, but it just kind of boosted in the low end a little bit. But, you know, you kind of as a whole kind of rolled it off, made a little more balanced, and now you just kind of brought back in the frequencies that you wanted. And then again, you don't have to be so aggressive. So five decibels that might be quite aggressive for your actual instrument. Okay, so maybe only want to. But again, it's one of those things that, as you're playing around with your sound. This is kind of how I use these tools. Okay, so our next one is, um we go over the low cut, so there's actually two ways to call low cut, so it's actually a high pass filter or a low cut. Um, and so what you're doing is you're allowing the highs to pass and removing the lows, or you just call a low cut where you're moving the lows. I find that a loca is the easiest way to call it as well as it's opposite with a high cut. So, for example, if we had a high cut or it's also called a low pass filters, in other words, you're allowing the lowest to pass. But you're removing the highest, and again it's just kind of the opposite. So it's just confusing. So I really like how Fat Filter has labeled this. They've labeled at low cut and high cut, and it won't get confusing ever for you. So where a low cut comes into play is it's actually a filter in a sense of your actual song . So I'll let you hear that. So right now I'm on the master. Okay, so this is affecting the whole song. Um, and I just have this little ah instrument part here. Okay, so it goes like this. And as I adjust this local filter up okay, so it's really, really tense, and you bring it back. And if we do the same thing with a high cut filter, so get the same thing. It's just cutting the highs and leaving the rest of the audio. So now that's using ah, high cut filter as an effect and then also have your Q, which is what they also called residents. It also has a lot of purposes. Besides, the effect that is showed you there so sometimes, like an actual instrument, is just too aggressive. So, for example, are snare. Imagine there's too many. Highest here is don't like it. We can kind of, you know, come in. You don't filter out a little bit, Um, and with that said, you also have a slope on your e que as well, K. So if you go for six, you see, it's a way more gentle, so as you can hear, we still have those highs. And if we turn off so they even hire, But you can hear now it little bit muffled, mythical for more aggressive slope, you know, more aggressive and then more aggressive. So these oldest things to play around with as you are playing with your Q. And if you're using automation and stuff like that, you can play around with the slopes different filter types to get the sound that you're wanting. But that's typically just a coward. Use a low cut filter. Ah, high cut filter. Ah, low shelf. Ah, high shelf again. So high shelf, low shelf, low cut. Hi. Cut. I also show you, um, I think there might be one more. So this one's called the notch filter. So this allows you to If there is a really, really problem frequency, you can just really, really totally remove the actual sound. There's also one more is called a band passed. So, for example, if we would take ah, high cut filter could another band and create a low cut filter. Now a band pass would be like this. Okay, so if we highlight both of these actual make this low cut just a little bit, you know, higher up. So now for thus in the snare. Okay, so that's also another technique as well. And so one other thing I want to talk to your boat is in terms of these filters shapes. So let's just go flip the high shelf here, okay? So if you adjust the queue on the pro que, it allows you to create this type of effect like this. And this has been a technique that has been carried over over the years on. I believe it was from an EQ you call a poll tech, and it just gives you a different type of sound. But so what it's doing is it's cutting out these frequencies, but right after it's boosting the frequencies. So it's kind of balancing it, Um, and sometimes you can kind of give you like a sweetening sound, depending on how much you've boosted. That's how aggressive it can be. But it's going to show you that, um, just because over the years, how e que has kind of progressed, and it's just kind of getting to the point where now we can just be super creative, because all these ideas already available now they just make it available to you on your computer instead of having to have, like all these different e que units. And, um, yeah, so you can create this effect just by adjusting your cue right there. 6. 2-5 - The Master Bus vs. Your Individual Instrument's Bus : Okay, So before proceeding further, one extremely important thing I want to get across to you is right now. I actually have my eq you on the Master Channel. So when you're working on the Master Channel and compared to the actual individual instruments insert, you have to be way. We're careful with your adjustments. Okay? So on the master track, you want to be way more gentle. Wimmer's subtle wanted to have, like, a wider Q. So in other words, you're not so surgical. However, there are times to do stuff. At certain times, you don't even but generally speaking on your master track. So right now, my scales only three decibels case. So right now I'm boosted. Let's save 30.5 and doesn't look like much. But when you come here to take the the three decibel scale in mastering, it's like you have to think it's like you are actually boosting up the overall song by 0.5 decibels. So if you have like five instruments, you're boosting all of those by 0.5. So you're affecting the whole song. So in mastering were typically only boosting by like, you know 0.51 decibel is getting quite, you know, quite a big difference in the frequency spectrum compared to what? The original song Waas And but again. So if I come here to this snare and if we wrote it to, like, you know, insert Ah, 10 here, Okay. And if I didn't think you in here, so this one again is on the actual instruments. Insert Skacel snare, which is routed to 10 and then we have it on the master. So again, when you're dealing with the master, you want to be a lot more subtle. And again I'm talking like 100.25 decibels. You know, 0.5 decibels on the actual individual instrument. You could be very, very aggressive because it's just that individual instrument, and you can get away with a lot more processing. And this goes for like, uh, you know, effects to such as, like, compression or distortion and stuff like that. On the individual instrument, you could be a lot more aggressive when you're the master track, especially e que. You just want to be a lot more gentler, a lot more subtle 7. 2-6 - Digital Vs. Analog Music / Recordings : Okay, So the next thing I want to talk to you about is digital versus analog music. Okay, So nowadays, most music is digital like so, for example, it all comes from us. So if we open up ah v s t here. So if I go instruments, let's just open up. Ah, silent one. Okay, so silent one is a really, really well known ah synthesizer, and it's all digital. So in other words, your signal is very, very clean. Okay, so it doesn't really have, you know, background hiss or, ah, improper Mike recording techniques or anything like that. So if you think about it So the music that we make nowadays on a computer is typically all digital, except for vocals that we that we would record in. And then sometimes, you know, an artist would also maybe recorder piano or record a guitar in addition to their vocals. But for the most part, as you can see for drums and stuff here, So these air already processed like they're already high quality. Sounds like you know that these air great sounds toe work with rate out of the gate especially. You know, some of these sounds like So So what I'm trying to get across to you is that when we're working in a digital space, our sounds are typically really, really high quality. So when it comes to e que our mindsets a bit different in a sense that we are adjusting e que to enhance our song. Okay, so we might be be doing little cuts, little boosts And the overall picture would be, you know, maybe more clarity, a little bit more punch. But our sounds already sound awesome. But now imagine a song that has been fully recorded, like, you know, a real band where, you know, they're recording their vocals, the recording, their guitars and pianos and real drums. If the engineer didn't put the microphones in the right spot now they're having to use a lot of these technical tools like such as, like Gates and quite aggressive e que to really get the symbols to stand. Oh, but at the same time, maybe there was bleed from the snare And from the kick drum in the symbol Mike at the same time. So as you can see what I'm trying to get across to you. So when you're working with riel recorded music like you know, analog music. There's a lot of room for air. For example, the room that you recorded in could be affecting the recording, right? You know, even though the person could be an amazing musician, you know, they're really, really good at playing the guitar. The sound of the room could be influenced into the recording through the microphone. And because of that, now you're going to have to e que a bit more aggressive than you would in the digital world . So with me saying that when you are creating your music, if it's mostly old digital again, that's just one thing to think about that your settings don't have to be so extreme. You know, a lot of subtle nous builds up to a really, really good end result. Okay, so I just want to pass that on to you just to get your mindset kind of, you know, thinking in terms of when we're in the digital world, our music is a pretty much already really, really high quality. Where does trying to enhance it in the analog world? We are actually trying to make the song. It'll work again if you have really, really good recordings, you know, it's very similar to like the digital world. Then you're just trying to enhance an already awesome song. But if the recording process was poor, there's a lot of room sounding it. There's background hiss from a computer, fans or, you know, stuff like that you are using e que in a different sense, you're now being a lot more aggressive, lot more surgical versus trying to enhance the song. 8. 2-7 - FL Studio's Parametric EQ 2 Rundown : Okay, So I thought doing a specific video on the Parametric eq you two would be an awesome breakdown video for you because over my years, I've just discovered a lot of different things. Ah, with this e que to help my workflow Because, like I'm saying it's a really, really great thank you. I just like the workflow of pro que you know better. But, um, it took a little while to learn a lot of the different tricks that the pyramids iki to allows you to have. Okay, so over the years efforts do you you know, they keep updating all their tools, which is which is amazing. So now this is actually vector base, so you can resize this e que toe whatever size you want. Pro. Uh que The first version doesn't allow you to do that. So that's a huge low perk. You know, you could go with the full screen here when I was first starting to learn e que off of this e que right here. I thought that if I took Bantu and brought it over to, like, band six, that it would give me a different sound than if I brought you know, band 600 have been to and stuff like that. But that's not how it works at all. Okay, Because, like, I'm saying so this is a frequency spectrum, in a sense that you have 20 hertz way down below here and you have 20,000 hertz way up here . So Ah, this one only has 10,000. But the pro que had 20,000 regardless, you know, it's right up here. You can get up to 20,000 hertz. As you can see, that's 20,000. So bringing these bands over discern areas that doesn't have a different sound. The reason why it has a different sound is because you're literally boosting at 1300 hurts , you know, 1400 or you know, 5000 hurts. So, you know, if you bring five over here, it's a yes, your Bussi at 1 45 Same here. You'd be boosting at 1 45 So there's no difference. Okay, Now, with the parents geeky to you can right click, and you can change what you want. So, for example, like I was showing you on pro que You know how we're doing? Different band, uh, types, you know, bell, low cut and stuff like that. Ah, the parent, cheeky to has a high pass and low pass. And that's what was saying where it gets confusing cause you're like, Oh, well, low pass. Well, that's gonna cut my low frequencies. And it's just like, no, uh, the low pass, uh, removes your high frequencies because it allows the lowest to pass through. And like I'm saying, it's just kind of, ah confusing thing. So if you just call it ah, high cut filter and a low cut filter, it would make it really, really simple on you. Now, this week, you also allows you to have steepness as well. So if we go like steep eight, you know, it gives you a different slope. Different steepness. Um, you know, so it almost gentle and stuff like that. So these are all just different tools you can use to play around with. Ah, the key. So frequencies are actually keys. So, for example, if we take the key of a four that is actually 440 hertz, so if you come here to A and go to a four so 4 40 hertz now that's just getting a little bit technical in terms of the frequencies and, you know, stuff like that. But I just want to show you that the option is there. That is also kind of a newer feature that wasn't there when I was learning. Ah, the permits, E Q two. So for the type, I'm just going to go, Um, I guess they're calling it peaking for the bell shape. Okay, Now the same thing here you can use your scroll wheel allows you to tighten your Q and stuff like that if you if you so need to, um, Now ah, really, really cool thing. Which I didn't know about. Ah, the Parametric eq. You too is up here. It allows you to change, like like your filter slope and your type and everything. So, for example, if we go to ah one here case right now, this is that low shelf. So if you just click and hold on the dot it allows you to change. Ah, yours. Your slope. Okay, So I'm just gonna use my scroll wheel on here, and it will allow me to adjust my, um, my steepness here. Ok? And if we adjust this, you could see I could get different steepness is okay again The same thing. You just right click and you go steep. So, for example, most deep eight. And if I come down here, um, you know, kind of adjust it. Let's see what I'm on now. So orders onto Okay, let's just give you a better example. So, at the very, very top now you could be adjusting the actual filter type. So, for example, if I want a low cut, low cut filter Okay, so that's the one I want. So right now it's really, really aggressive. Okay, so now we can adjust. Ah, the steepness of it like this. Ok, so it just kind of saves you a little bit of time, then right clicking and going order and stuff like that. So it's just up here now another way. How I really like to use the Parametric EQ. You, too, is when we get into the sweeping video. And it's just a technique to kind of sweet for frequencies that you either like or don't like. You know how I usually to approach it on the Parametric eq e two is like, let's say, you know, I was at 4 52 the frequencies that I found. So let's just use, like the scroll wheel scroll down a little bit, making a bit tighter. I'll come over here and I'll actually, uh, use this to bring it down, because otherwise, sometimes when you're trying to bring it down, you know you're gonna change your frequency. Also, down here, you have your left to right. Okay? And you also have a cure. Whiteness. So if you want to make a more surgical cut or a wider OK, now in addition to that. So I'm just gonna play on my keyboard here, So right now, this is not on. I'll turn it on. Okay, Now we're going to see it. So, um, you're able to get different monitors here. Okay, so later on, I'm gonna be talking to you about your input and your output in stuff like that. This is where you're able to see that. So your output would be if we boost, like, you know, your frequencies. Here, this is seen the effect of that way. Go to the input. It's reading it before you make those changes. Okay, so it's not as bright that comes in handy later on in the future video I do with you now. Another really, really important thing with, um, the permission E q two here is when we're getting into the A and b comparison. Okay, How you can do it is this is simply right here and be OK. So if I drag and move us over here, and if I flip my state so this is what it is now, but let's just say I want this exactly as it is. So, for example, I want to compare this state to another state, you know, just to see what I like better. So you're gonna click the down arrow and as you can see up in the top left, I always look up here. This is a huge, helpful area without full studio. I'm going to do this to save Ah, this state. Now what happened is is on both states, so I'm on A and B, okay, So just on one of them, let's just say I was maybe that's a bit aggressive, so I was gonna dial this down a little bit and let's just say I wanted to kind of maybe cut a little bit here. So now again, I'm gonna flip the state and you could see that you can compare in between that and then you again. You can kind of level match, you know? So let's just say here, because I cut a little bit. I should be boosted that up and then, ah, come back here or a little This is in go down because I'm boosting some highs and it might kind of make it louder. So it's not gonna be a fair comparison. So that's how you compare in the future. Parametric eq you to really, really powerful thing to always be using is the A and B comparison. And in this h Q button, the high quality button. I guess it's allows you to get higher quality out of this e Q. And it requires a little bit more CPU power. But again, with FL Studio at any time you're confused. Just hit F one and a help menu will pop up on that plug in and you can see right here, says five. So if you come down here to five, um, so H Q. So high quality. So it uses over sampling to improve all your quality, and then it just increases CPU load. So it's just a little heads up. And then the last thing I'm gonna show you on the pyramid, cheeky to is if you click the arrow here. Ah, you have high precision monitoring or legacy monitoring. So what I'm gonna do is it's gonna come here to, ah, the body guitar. Just play it like this, Okay? And now you can see that this. So turn this off and we're gonna turn legacy monitor on. And, as you see, it kind of smears in. This is how I used to know the permit. Sneaky, too. But again, they just improved over the years and every turn off its not like this. So that's just a little overview of the Parametric EQ. You too. Okay, um, the biggest things is just, you know, as your you know, dialing it in, you can right click, and you can change your type. Ah, I used to use this stuff up here a lot in terms of change, my filter type or my steepness. Um, and then you have the big thing is, once I find my sound, uh, you know where I want it. I could either boost it or cut it. I like that a lot. You could use your scroll wheel to tighten or widen. Um, and yes. And your comparison down here is very, very important for you to make more accurate decisions in your queuing, okay? 9. 3-1 - EQ Mindset and Approaches - Section Overview : Okay, So in this section of her e que course I want to talk to your boat A and being okay and am being is just volume matching because when you adjust a sound and then you compare it to the original sound and if that sounds louder, we typically, as humans just feel that the louder is better. So it's very, very important when you A and P that you are level matching. Okay, I'm gonna make a specific video on that. I'm also going to talk about some specific kind of techniques that people use when they're mixing. So some people like to cut more than they boost. Some people like Teoh, um, you know, kind of sweep around fine problem frequencies and then cut. There's lots of different mind sets out there. I'm just gonna kind of reveal them to you. So let's get into the videos 10. 3-2 - A and B Level Matching : Okay, So in this video, I'm gonna talk to you about a and B comparison. Okay, So a and B comparison is a very, very fundamental thing for you guys to understand when you're mixing and mastering your music. So when we hear something that it's louder, we typically think that it's better. Okay. And so what that means is just because that you have adjusted your eq you a certain way, You might think it sounds better in your mix. But in actuality, if you haven't made the volumes the same, it's pretty much impossible for you to have a fair comparison between the two. Okay, So for example, I have this guitar sound and it goes like this. But let's say you know what kind of feel it a little muddy in here, so we're gonna, you know, maybe dip some of that and we're gonna boost some brightness into it just to help stand out and make it sound a little bit more clear. Okay, so on that, bring it back in. So in this case, the rial body of the sounds over here. So you kind of have to play around with this in this case, I feel that my EQ you adjustments have actually made it quieter, so I'm just gonna boost it up. But it's a one decibel. So even though I boosted about four decibels up here and have cut about three decibels here , you have to take into context of your overall sound. Okay, cause you're just manipulating certain frequencies. You're not manipulating the whole sound. So, you know, one decibel boost might compensate for that cut. You know, like the three db cut that we did hear. So well, listen again, turn off. You know, So in this case, maybe it was all Maybe I feel it's a little too bright, so I go out 2.5 and again, I'll compare that A and B. Now, this is something that you just have to kind of do quickly. Okay, So when you're actually in context of your whole mix, if you're doing this A and B comparison, it's kind of a really, really quick thing. You don't want to be spending a lot of time on it because you're going to be wasting a lot of time. And as you're mixing your music as you're producing, you're beats as well as in the mastering stage, it's all about speed. Okay, this is just something to always keep in the back of your mind and always try, because just because something sounds louder and you put it back into the beat doesn't mean that it's actually benefitting it. Now, in addition, ah, lot of these e cues actually having a and B function up here, which I'll show you how to use This is something I use all the time, even on like a compressor. So pro see again by Fat filter has A and B as well. So I'm just gonna mute the e que on the actual guitar. Seven, We'll close that. We'll go to the Master Channel. Okay? And open up this e que and open up the fruity parametric EQ You too. If I boost, that's a band six year and we go over to compare it goes to nothing. But then in this one, if you want to maybe ah, duck a little bit, we can switch it between them. So, in the case of our song again for Listen to that guitar. No. Do we like the brightness or are we just gonna cut Cut some mid. So Okay, so it's just kind of one thing you have toe, you know, kind of think about in terms of the A and B, But again, you just always wanna have a fair level comparison. And so, for example, right here. So let's say we cut this quite a lot. Okay? So we go like this now, we switched to the compare. Now, this isn't a fair comparison, because this one is much louder than this one. So now what I would do is I would use this main gain. Okay, Let the main level here and we boost us up in volume. And now we switch in between and be committed is a little bit lower. So is one of those things that you just want to get generally really, really close in. Mastering this is a lot more important because, you know, you're working on the final product when you're in the mixing stage, you just want to get it close. You can quickly switch in between. But one thing I'm telling you here is actually quite dangerous, because right now we're mixing in solo, and that's a bad product. This you want to actually mixing in context of your mix, so I'll be covering that in her next video. Now, if your e que doesn't have this A and B comparison function, what you would do is just imagine that this is just a single state like we didn't have the compare. So what you would do is you would just adjust this volume, you know, toe where it was. And then when you come here to turn the plug and often on you make the volume of the e que the same volume you know when it's on and off. So that's also another way to do A and B. But when a plug in Ashley has A and B embedded into it allows you to actually get to different characteristics out of the sound. So as you see here, you know, I've cut about 300 hertz, but then on the other state, you know, I boosted around 3000 hertz, but in this case, as you can see actually get two different flavors to different tries at what I like. But when it doesn't have the A m B state, you really only have one state great. And then when you turn often on. You just got to make sure that your level matching from the original signal to your acute signal. 11. 3-3 - Solo EQ vs. Using EQ in the Mix : Okay, So building off of her last video, I talked to you about mixing and solo versus mixing in the mix. Now, if you are mixing in solo and what that means is taking an individual instrument and trying to e que it trying to work on it, trying to make it sound really awesome. And then when you add it back in the mix, ah, lot of times it's gonna handcuff you. It's gonna waste your time. It's going to restrict your creativity, because when you are mixing in solo, you're not knowing how that sound is going to sound in context of your whole mix. This is something I did a lot when my beginning years many times solo out the sound. I would tweak it. You know, I try and make that individual sounds sounds so good by itself. And then I'd go in, added into the mix with all the other instruments that I've sold out by themselves to And you know, it just didn't sound as musical anymore. So it's very, very important that you are actually be queuing your instruments while listening to your whole song. Now, if there is a problem with a certain instrument at that moment. That is when you can solo out work on it and then always keep referencing it back into the mix. Don't be doing major changes in solo in solo is when you want to kind of do, you know, fine tuning in a sense of, like, cable. Where is this problem? Frequency? And you can kind of search for it and then maybe kind of, you know, cut it out a little bit, and then now bring it back into the song. So, for example, these accuse these air actual on the master track, and so I'm just gonna disable them because we're not gonna be working with beacuse on the master to effect an individual sound. Right? So this guitar right here is actually rooted to insert seven. So if I go here to this CQ and open it up, you know? So this is how this guitar sounds. OK, so if we listen to this in context of this little song I've created, I'll talk to you in a second after we listen. Now, let's just say on this guitar sound, you know, maybe you around 200 to 500 hertz, I just kind of feel it's a bit muddy or something like that. So you know what I was used to do back in my early days? I would, you know, right Click here, it's solo it out. And now I start listening to it. And I'm like, OK, well, longer than maybe cut some of this out and, you know, start working on it. You know, media was going to start compressing it. I was started, you know, really working with the sound. But if this isn't giving me a reference of how it actually sounds with the song because, like, I was telling you earlier, the more you're queuing this stuff, the more your song could sound process rather than making it actually feel like a song. So when someone listens to it, you know, maybe you might not even be able to hear that one instrument super clear. But when you mute that instrument, you can actually feel that something's missing in the track. But then when you add it in, it does add that kind of body to the sound. But you may not be able to hear super clear, but it is a huge element to the track. So that's just one thing you have to think about when you're making these e que adjustments , you're making it in context of the whole song and you're actually listening to Does this make the song sound like an awesome song versus, you know, trying to do really, really aggressive e que? Just to make it sound clear, just you can hear it. So that's just one thing you always have to keep in mind like Yes, you do. You want your sounds to sound clear, but if it kind of sounds unnatural just for it to sound clear and your song doesn't sound enjoyable anymore, then I don't feel that that is accurate mixing. So now what I would do here. So instead of soloing it out, Andi queuing I would again, let's just leave these bands. Let's bring all the instruments and I would seek you like this. Okay, so it's still a bit muddy, you know? So this actually sounds a lot better. Case what? It is muddy sounding right, and you know, she's brighter. It cuts through the mix a little better. And that was just, you know, just that's only did I just I just cut around, you know, 1 90 at almost five decibels and then I level matched right? So when I turned it off and on So now let's soloed out and let's hear my comparison, my level match comparison. So they are pretty close, you know, maybe a little loud. But again, you don't want to get super super technical when in the mixing stage, like it's close enough. I do feel that that you q decision improve the track. You know, it gave it clarity. It allowed other instruments to breathe and have their own space, and it wouldn't sound so muddy sounding. So that is a huge fundamental I want to pass on to you. Okay, always be working inside of the mix. And then if there is a problem frequency like for example, pads are actually a really, really, really good example for this. So pads are known to be really, really big. They swell to have a long release, which means that when you let go of the note, the sound will keep playing. They have a lot of reverb and delay on them so that they're really, really big sounds. And if they were really, really long sounding. So what that could do for your mixes? It can clog it up, and it could make it hard for other instruments to stand out and have their own spot in the mix. So when you're doing this mixing of solo versus mixing in the mix, what you can do is so if you listen to the whole song as a whole, what you can do is you can actually just mute an instrument and listen for Well, what is the one causing the problem in your mix? In this case, if if it was that pad, you would know. Okay, well, that's my problem Instrument. Now you can further go in, you know, and you start playing some e Q. And if you just can't really get it toe work for you in terms of the whole mix, then you can actually solo it out. You can kind of, you know, boosting to sweep, which will cover in a future video. Okay, so this video was just mixing in solo versus mixing in the mix. When you mix in solo, I promise you it's gonna handcuff you. You're gonna waste a lot of time. You're gonna add it back in and you're going to realize like, Oh, I don't really like it. And then when you export this song as a whole and you compare your mixed version to the unmixed version, you might be wondering why the unmixed version sounds more musical. And again, it's because, ah, you know you're mixing in solo or you are over processing, you know? So you're going to aggressive. So let's move on to our next video, okay? 12. 3-4 - Making More Cuts than Boosts : Okay, So for the next video in her e que mind set and approach section I want to talk to you about an e que technique where people only cut. Okay, they might do subtle boosts, but they're more focused on cutting. So as they're listening to their song and as they're mixing their individual instruments, they're thinking about those instruments. And they're kind of thinking, Well, what is the kind of problem frequencies in those instruments where I could make space for other instruments? And when you're first starting up, I feel that this is a really, really good way to approach e que because you're thinking Maurin context of Well, what could I be doing to make space for my other instruments? Because when you're first starting up, you know, a lot of times you just grabbing a band and you're kind of boosting up here or you're cutting here, you know, like trust me. Like when I first started up, my e que decisions were just sporadic. It was more I was just boosting toe where I thought it sounded good, which is in all honesty, what music issue that is taking, you know, in this case, e que. And cutting and boosting and being creative with it. But as you advance, you kind of know what works and what doesn't work and as well as how aggressive or, you know, subtle. You should be with your decisions. You know, as you progress, you start to understand when too much is too much and when it isn't enough. But again, So, like I'm saying so when you're first starting up, I really feel that the cutting approach right here gets your mind thinking a lot better. And, you know, this is still an advanced technique, like it's it's not something that you know. Oh, well, I've advanced now. I don't cut anymore. No, I'm just saying, when you're first starting up, this is a great approach because it gets you thinking, Where can I make space for these different instruments in my mix? So, for example, if you go to this instrument, which is on nine Okay, so it sounds like this. So when I'm dealing with this guitar in the context of the mix, I'm gonna listen with you on. Let's see if we can cut somewhere to make the other instruments stand out as well as make this guitar sound better. If possible, it might. It might sound good, just as it is. Okay, so we'll listen to it. We'll put up a new Q just to start fresh with you guys. Kids turn off and on, you know, maybe we can boost it up. It was a bit aggressive. So right there, it kind of sounds thin, right? We brought a little bit more body that sound somethin. Turn the volume a bit more over time, Castle. Kind of thin when it's off. Is it a little more body back in? So as you saw there, I was sweeping for kind of frequencies, you know, just to kind of hear what I liked or what I didn't like. And I just kind of reduced it. It's kind of more of just gassing thing at that point for me. Ah, because I didn't really hear any problem frequencies. In all honesty, Um, it was more of I just kind of sweet for, you know, the sounds of liked and the sounds I didn't like, um and then I just kind of cut, But that isn't approach. I really want you guys to try. Oh, okay. so try cutting more than boosting as your first starting up. But again, whenever you're cutting, just make sure the A and B comparison just so that you they're making fair comparisons and you're not getting swayed. ID to the one that's louder. OK, and also just for some terminology, just for you guys to kind of, ah, you know, be aware of if you're ever reading on forums and stuff like that, so what? They usually call a reduction. So in other words, when you're lowering your ah, your gain is there are other Call it like ah, cut or attenuate. Okay, so you are actually reducing the band or just simply called a boost, OK? Or increasing the volume or wherever you know just to kind of fill you in on that because that's kind of ah, a nice thing to know. Sometimes terminology 13. 3-5 - Sweeping for Problem Frequencies : Okay, so one ahead and color coded all the instruments just to make it easier for us to follow as well. You know, it looks better too. So, as you see, body guitars up here seemed down here on the mixer. You know, our kick drum down here as well as the lead guitar. So the body guitar sounds like this waiver kick drum, and then we have a lead guitar. Okay, So what I want to talk to you about in this video is sweeping the frequency spectrum for problem areas on your e que OK, which you have already seen me do in the previous videos. It's just kind of a habit I have, um I personally like to do this a lot. You know, you'll read some people on the forums say that like, they don't like to do this because sometimes you could be choosing wrong frequencies because you have to think that if you are boosting a banned by 30 decibels and your sweeping, you're gonna make any sound kind of sound. We're So, for example, if we listen to this by itself, you can hear you know, it sounds weird, right? So usually boost you know, from, like, 10 to, like 20 some around here just to kind of get an idea, because it will amplify the frequencies that I do like or that I don't like the ones that cause me problems. So, for example, imagine we had a problem frequency around, you know, 1000 hertz that we just didn't like, But we just couldn't really find tune it just by listening to the sounds. So, in other words, we're listening to the sound, and we can kind of hear that there's, like, a certain area that we don't like, but we can't put our finger on it. So this helps to amplify those frequencies, and then it will allow you just solo it. Oh, anybody okay? And you can bring it back. So, for example, imagine it was 1000 hertz, so I would hit play boost in like Okay, well, let's say it was there. So in this case, I might make my Q a bit narrower. Just say we're going to reduce it by, like, you know, however much we feel, um, sometimes you can get quite aggressive, but you have to think that you are affecting the actual sound quite significantly if you are reducing it by, like, 13 decibels. Um, and also, when you are cutting quite significantly, you have to take into account that you're not just reducing this frequency. So as you can see, like we're we're reducing a lot of other frequencies to So in this case, sometimes you can tighten up the cue to, um, be a bit more surgical without it sounding unnatural. But you are reducing those problem frequencies. So that's just a really, really awesome technique to use is I will sweep to kind of find for problem frequencies or frequencies that I do like and I'm just not sure you know what I can enhance. And I might just pick OK here. So I like this. And then, you know, it might be a little more gentle in the Q, and I might not boost it as much like maybe only three decibels or something. So, for example, let's just work with the kick drum here. Okay, so I'm gonna open up in e que and I'm just gonna show you how we do this in a real world practice. OK, so we'll hit play here on this song and I'm going to sweep for problem frequencies or, you know, kind of frequency they don't really like on this kick drum. And let's try and maybe enhanced the kick drum a little bit. So here we go. So this kick drum, I kind of like it as it is. Um, so anything I'm going to really choose here is gonna be I don't Maybe unnecessary, but usually you can always enhance a sound just by fine tuning in a little bit. So let's just kind of keep going here. Que me around here. Okay, a little boxy. So let's just come here and cut this a bit now, especially on the kick drum, because you want your kick drum hitting hard. And when we are having ah, wider band, it is going to start affecting our low end, as you can see here. Right? So we'll listen to it as it is again. I'm gonna have to compensate, and I have cut this by 16 decibels. Let's a lot, but we're gonna listen. Castle's pushed up a little bit enamel social between. Yes, against it. A and B. Okay, so on here stub bring up our cut a little bit. I was just making a bit narrower. Produce the volume. Make it fair. Eso louder, Kissel with without so again, Like I'm saying already. Like this kick drum as it is, I'm just kind of showing you how I would approach something if I didn't like the frequency . Okay, so in this case, I kind of boosted it. I was like, Oh, I don't like that you can cut. Um, and then you just make sure your your level matching again. A really, really nice thing in pro que is being able to hit this headphone thing. So really, listen to that. So, Like it there case, let's cut that. You know, maybe we just bring us over this a little bit like that. So again off. Okay. So again, that is just kind of sweeping the frequency spectrum, trying to find sounds that you do or don't like. Um, typically, this is used for when you don't like a sound, you will sweep it to the problem frequency area. Um, again, you have to take into context if you are boosting it really, really extreme. Every single sound is gonna sound weird and unnatural, but this is Mawr again when you're listening to it in the full context of the mix. And there's that individual instrument where there's just that you know, the certain frequency and that sound, you just can't quite put your finger on it. You can come here, you grab a band, you can boost it up a little bit, help amplify those problem frequencies that you don't like. I would leave it where it is. I'd come down here and I would reduce it. And then again, you could just switch and be, you know? So in this case, let's say I liked this the way it waas someone's gonna copy ego and be Take this, delete it. So again you can switch in between and just make sure that your level matching So it's just Olivo again. Fine adjustments. Even these. These are quite aggressive decisions, like nine decibels, nine decibels. In this case of pro que, I do have a scale. So when I'm at 30 even though it seems like a small cut, it is like 10 decibels like and that is quite a big cut. So they come back to 12. Okay, so you know, you're seeing it. So maybe I can grab both and it's bring him up just a little bit because a lot of times e que is about, you know, just subtle moves and all these subtle moves will build up to an awesome song. 14. 3-6 - Muting a Sound [Going Treasure Hunting] : Okay. So in a previous video, I mentioned to you a boat removing an individual instrument to figure out what is clogging up your mix. And I thought by making actually a specific video on it, it would help clarify this and really, you know, in grain the message in into you. Okay. So what I did was I created Ah, this other instrument. Let's just call it a pad, OK? Give it a color. I just have to do that and come here and hit control in l. So there's our pad, OK? And the pad just like this. So in context of the actual song. Okay, so now if I mute it, you know, so we can actually listening. Like, you know what is clogging up her mix here, You know, So like, that lead guitar fills up a lot of frequencies, face that you could just hear it if I, uh, removed the body guitar. You know, this pad with it sounds really good. Okay, You know, So there's a couple of reason why Why? The lead guitar is filling up quite a bit, even though it sounds thin, Um, has distortion on it, you know, typically distortion fills up more of the frequency spectrum because that's what distortions doing. It's adding frequencies, but yes, so all you could be doing is as you're actually mixing your track and you can't really figure out what is the instrument causing you troubles. You can simply just actually mute it, and then you can actually take A and e Q, and you can kind of start fiddling around with it. So you know you would boost, maybe try and find the frequencies which are causing problems. And then you come here and simply cut. And again, if this is really, really having a dramatic impact on your sound, you can You can just kind of make the cubit tighter and again just volume match. And this will help you, you know, maybe, ah, unclog your mix yet still have the instrument in there for the fullness 15. 3-7 - The Opposite Effect with EQ : now in this video, I want to talk to you about a really, really interesting concept with e que. So I'm gonna open up the parametric eq u to the e que That comes stock with FL Studio computer presets ago default. So, like I'm saying so there's this concept with e que and people call it like the opposite effect. So, you know, when we come here and let's say we boost around 2000 Hertz. Okay, so right now we're thinking, Well, we boosted the highs. It's like, Well, did we or did we actually reduce the lows to see what I'm saying? So it's a very, very interesting concepts and let's do it the opposite way. So let's just say we take a boat. You know, Band four couldn't come here and just, you know, maybe cut about 300 hertz. Okay, so now it's like, Well, did we cut you know, 300 hertz, or did we actually boost all of our other frequencies? So if you're actually wanted to boost high frequencies, it's like, Well, there's actually two ways to approach that you can actually boost your highs, and you're going to get high frequencies Okay, Um, or what you can do is you can actually cut. And essentially, it's like, Well, that's doing the same thing. Because if we are cutting the lows, well, are not the highs gonna be brighter now and then? Same thing here. So if we were to cut the highs, you know, essentially, we're boosting the lows. So again, it's just kind of an interesting concept just to think about. There's two ways to kind of approach that sound to get where you want this. Is this something that's talked about in the industry sometimes, And I just want to kind of bring it to your attention, So I'm just calling it the opposite effect. 16. 4-1 - Setting a Game Plan for Our Song : Okay, so now we're gonna be moving into a new section. So Section three, where we're going to actually be mixing this track, There's not tons of instruments. It was on a super busy track. However, that will still allow me to show you you know how to get started mixing a song. What your mindset should kind of be and you know how to approach it. So the biggest thing to get across to you is to have a game plan for your mix. Okay, So what I would recommend to you is, you know, if you've made the beat, that's one thing, cause you already know the song inside note. But if the song has been sent to you and it's up to you to mix it, I would really take some time and listen to the song from beginning to end. Maybe a couple times, you know, maybe put it on on, repeat as you're doing something around the house and just really kind of get a feel for the song. Okay? And as you're listening to that song, listen for things that you think should be more prominent or should be pushed into the background and just as a whole. What do you feel is kind of missing in the song? Or is the song perfect the way it is And maybe you to see just to enhance it with some e que for some clarity, or just help things cut through a little better and sound more professional. So that's the biggest thing I wanted to get across to you in this video is just, you know, kind of a game plan. It doesn't have to be super intense. It's just, you know, at least I kind of think about what you want to happen in the song. And as you're actually miss mixing the song, things can change, and that's totally fine. But I just know what I first started up. I would kind of get lost on my direction of where I was really trying to go with the song like you know, Yes, I was e queuing and and yes, I was, you know, using compression in different effects to try and get my song to sound as good as I could. But like I'm saying, I didn't really have a direction. So I was just blindly, you know, using these tools without really, you know, again having that and result direction, game plan. So again, just listen to the song. Know what you're working with? No. What you kind of want to bring out or push back. And that's really gonna help you be more confident in your decisions rather than tweak something and then go back and you know it when you're stuck in that kind of situation like it's like you're wasting a lot of time making these tweaks. Um, rather than making decisions, we shall actually keep throughout your song and speed you up and actually, you know, be productive. And then another thing I mentioned to you in this video is I feel it's pretty important when you're first starting up to save the original version of your song and then work on a new version where you're gonna mix it. And then what you can do is you can export both versions so you can export the original version and export the mixed version and compare in between both and you're gonna be surprised. Like I was saying in my beginnings, a lot of times I felt that my original be sounded better than my mixed version Because again, I was you know, being too intense with my settings was being too aggressive, Um, or maybe not aggressive enough. And it's just kind of hard to know when you're first starting up, you know, where is that threshold? How far can you push stuff or how gentle do you have to be? And when you have the original beat to compare to your mixed be it's really like a humbling experience because, you know, you spend all this time maybe like two or three hours mixing this song, and then you go to compare it to the original version, and you're like, Wow, the original version sounds like an actual song, and my mixed version sounds either too thin or, you know, to processed or it's just It just doesn't sound like, you know, on Energetic Song. So moving forward in our next video, I'm gonna actually mix this track with you again. You know, not tons of instruments, as you can see, have also added in a little Ah, hi hat Shaker percussion loop. I did that just just to give this track a little bit more fullness and just to make this course more worth your money rather than you know, only having four instruments. We have, like, a kick drum and, you know, some instruments. And now we kind of have a percussion elements, So Ah, the percussion loop sounds like this. And with the beat and was it Okay, so let's get into mixing this track. 17. 4-2 - Master Bus Compression for Volume Balancing: Okay, So how I approach mixing a song, the first things I usually do is all my master channel. I actually apply a little bit of light compression. The reason why I do that is because it helps glue with song for you in terms of volume. So, for example, what I'm gonna be telling you in a second here is to adjust all your volume. Fader is because that gives you good reference point. But this kind of does it for you automatically again. Or I'm talking really, really like compression. Um, I'm at 1.25 to 1 ratio and then my attacks quite long. I have, you know, medium to short release and then my thresholds about medium to because you could see my My ratio is very, very, very little. I also have this side chain filter, which means that any frequencies below 3 25 are not triggering the compressor. It just allows your compressor to act more naturally instead of your kick drum and your snare triggering it unnecessarily. So what I'm trying to get across to you is putting a little bit of light compression on the master track when you're mixing the song helps it kind of balance for you. It's kind of little crutch. You don't want to fully rely on it, but it just helps your volume balancing a little bit easier. Okay, because once your song actually goes the mastering stage, that is what you know the master engineer will typically do is, you know, apply some light compression, help the track to balance. But typically they want to be doing that since they have trained ears. So that's one thing I do is that it's a play late compression. Okay, again, I'm gonna stress light compression. So whether that's 1.15 to 1 or 1.25 to 1 ratio, I'm not dealing with a 2 to 1 or 4 to 1 or think that again. It's just like compression to help glue the volumes of all these different instruments. Okay, now the next thing I do is actually hit play. I listen to my song and I'll actually volume balance my whole song. So each individual sound, if one is too loud. If one is too quiet, I will adjust it accordingly to get the song sounding balanced and what that's going to do for you is is going to give you a better perspective into your song of what you need to adjust what you feel You need to adjust. So, you know, for example, imagine clock was too loud. So you just, you know, right away you thought, Oh, we're just gonna take a unique you and you're gonna start queuing it. But in my opinion, that's the wrong approach, because it could just be that you need to lower the volume of your clap. And then now, when you're listening to in context of everything being balanced now you might realize, Oh, well, you know, maybe I'm gonna add just a little bit of brightness onto that clap, you know, just to make it cut through a little bit more. So that's our next step. Okay, I'm gonna hit play. We're gonna volume balance all these individual instruments, try to get them sitting where I feel that it sounds balanced, and that will give us a better perspective into what I feel we will need to e que so here we go. - Okay . So I think that's going to give me a better perspective into the track. So as I was listening. I could hear this body guitar kind of sounded, you know, quite mid, low, low, mid heavy. Same with the pad. So I think we can clear that up and maybe be able to bring up the volume a little bit. Um, but yes. So in her next video, we're gonna start, you know, queuing these instruments, I'm gonna start showing you how I've kind of road, these audio around to give it, um, a better feel for the song, and this kind of, you know, get started on mixing the track. 18. 4-3 - Our Instruments and Sounds [Rundown] : So let's go over each pattern just to show you what each instrument sounds like by itself. And then I'm gonna show you, however, outed some of this stuff around in the mixer, Um, just again to give you ah, better insight toe how my song is sounding how it sounds as you could see this pad I've rented it to what you call sends. And it allows me to play Rick effects like reverb and delay on stuff like that to give it away. Bigger sound, you know, allows it just to fit better in the song too soon. This body guitar. So here is Ah, body guitar. Okay, this pattern. And if I turn off the river with the river, Okay, you can hear right away. Just like Okay, way better. So our next instrument is just the kick drum. Okay, so it sounds a little bit weird, has kind of a little click sound near the end of it. But when I was trying to edit the sound, it's a kind of in the mid, but if I actually ah, cut some of this out. So as you can hear it kind of kind of embedded in the sound. So it's about here? I guess so. I just kind of left it as it was, but in context of the song, you don't hear it again. This is Let's listen to the song. You don't hear this kind of clicking sound, right? You just here as a kick drum. So that's the reason why I have left it cause I feel it. That kick drum suits this song, Um, on my number pad, I'm hitting the plus lost go to next pattern. So this is the lead guitar Patton up here and hit play. And if you click on that so again, all these effects. So it sounds like now, on this actual instrument, I have applied distortion. Okay, so if I remove this these effects, it actually sounds like this. A distortion on so me que and just boost some highs. This one when you're looking at these e cues, I don't really consider this type of e que, um, you know, mixing This was more of a sound design to get my e que to, you know, suit the sound for next sound. We have ah, pad. You can hear it kind of has some like background noise in the recording of the sound. So one thing will tell you is these instruments are all created from a single guitar note actually created a course on this. It's called organic beats. And so the whole idea behind it is they literally take a single guitar note, which sounds like this, and I can manipulate it to create a full composition out of it. So, for example, if I play chords, that's all one single guitar note, which I have recorded. But so as we go back down here to the pad again, it's that same guitar note. So but up here, like I'll make the envelope. And the reason why I'm telling you that is because if we listen, you're going to hear some background noise in the recording because this is actually a recorded note. It's not a digital sound like, for example, like I was talking to you before digital versus analog. So in digital, you know, it's all synthesized. It's all you know, numbers is what it is. It is, you know, mathematical numbers, which allows you to get these digital sounds, the synth sounds and it's very, very clean audio. You're not gonna have noise, you know, hiss because of a computer fan or just because of the room or because of poor preempts which are introducing noise into the recording. So, since this was an actual recording of a real guitar note, actually have background hiss in this sound, which I'm gonna show you how to remove with an e que trick later on. So if we listen to us again, just listen to the noise eso. Anyways, that is the pad. And, you know, you do have to remember in context of the mix, a lot of times you don't hear this stuff and really, sometimes it just helps the song. So you're not gonna hear that noise just right here. There's the noise, but be so again. That's kind of what I'm trying to tell you. As you're mixing your track, you have to be always referencing the full song because you have to always think it's like , does this sound like a song? And if it sounds like a song like you know, you're doing a good job, that's that. That's the biggest. I think I want to get across to UK, so we'll just go to our next pattern here. So this is the ah, the hi Hats and shakers. Okay, the next sound is collapse. Okay, so I have three collapse here and then I used a reverse clap. So this is still a clap. If I un reverse it sounds like that. But I reversed it and I get that kind of swell sound. Another thing I did here. So this sound, we're going to copy the value. So if the length was where it waas it sounds like this, but I just found that was this way too aggressive for this track if we listen to it again. So context of the whole song. OK, but if we paste in what I had, it sounds like this case. It's a lot cleaner, A lot tighter. Um, now, to be creative, you could be working with this stare in the verses or whatever, but when you came into the chorus, you know, if you really wanted to, you could right click Oh, clone. And then you could just, you know, open it up for the sake of the course and I want to go back to a verse. You can come back to this right. So it was all about You know what? What do you want to achieve As well as try to kind of help your listeners emotions get toe where you want them to get with the tools that you have. So those are all the patterns, as you can see, um, And then now, just in terms of the mixer. So as you can see, I voted to track seven and then ah, on here. I have ah CQ this is filtering out. Um, some of the highs. That's to help with the noise, which I will do a specific video on and then here, have a compressor on it. But I'm not using it as, uh, volume compression match using a side chain compression. So I have it as an external input. So what's happening whenever the kick drum places actually lowering the volume? So if the kick drum doesn't play, this compressor doesn't work as students. The kick drum plays. It actually lowers the volume of this body guitar. That is a really popular technique in dance music. So I wash you let you hear that? So if we go kick drum and body and come back here to the compressor. Okay, so with it off, it sounds like this. Okay, If I enable, it says he could see whenever the kick drum was playing, it's lowering the volume. Okay, so what I'm gonna do is hit and be, and I'm just gonna be with more aggressive, So go back. And then on this threshold that you can understand. Copy it over. I could bring the threshold up the move more aggressive on the ratio. So in comparing these sounds and if I turned off the compressor now back on. Okay. So again, like I said, it's a really, really popular technique in dance music. So that is how I set up this body. Guitar is I've allowed the kick drum to turn on the compressor, and it reduced the volume whenever the kick drum plays to get that pump. So that's what I've done to the body guitar. And in addition, I've also wrote it to ascend. Ah, and this is a reverb send. And this allows it just to sound, you know, way folder. Turn it off. Listen again. So that reverb just really helps for ambiance and fullness and just helps your song sound You know just better. You do have to be careful with reverb. Reverb is known to kind of clog a mix to, in a sense, that it kind of smears a lot of like your frequencies and stuff, especially if you're river was set too long. But at the end of the day, reverb is such an awesome tool to have in your soul. Okay, here we have a kick drum on here. Let's see what I did in the e que Okay, so I've actually kind of cut some. Ah, some here and here, which I did in a previous video. I believe with you. I kind of showed you how to, you know, e q and what to look for in the sweeping and stuff like that. So if we listen to this kick drum just by itself, okay? And I'm gonna turn it off and on case right now, it's on off. Okay, So listen to it. Of the body guitar now on the mucus is a little bit loud. So 1.1 or something instead, off Castle, this kind of just enhances the low end a little bit and kind of makes the kick drum feel more like a kick drum. Um, in my opinion, So that's all I have done with that. And as you can see down here, ah, NFL studio, if you right click, you have the option to go wrote to this track and side chain to this track. So that's all I've done is I've just ah, you know, right clicked one side chain to this track. Now, one thing to know is these air just settings in caves. They're just kind of ah, you know, pre created settings that speed you up. So, for example, it's no different from you to go left clicking on here. And right now, this is wrote to this track. So what you're doing is you're actually sending the audio that's audible to seven. In other words, you're actually sending the audible audio to seven and you're actually getting duplicate audio. But when you just want a side chain. So in other words, you just want seven to be able to see the audio of eight. This is what you do. You just put it to zero, which is the same thing as a czar. Right clicking, going side change to this track, okay. And then, in my case, on that compressor when I went external, I have to actually set the kick drum as an input. So if I come up here to the gear, go to processing and have a right click the stereo side chain, you'll see I have my kick drum. So again, what's happening? Whenever the kick drum plays, it's lowering the volume, giving it that dance kind of pump. Okay, it's let's sites in compression. Let's go to the next sound here. So this is the lead guitar again. Already showed you I used ah, plug in called camel crushers is what used for distortion. Ah, when you're creating a song out of a single note using tools like distortion and like chorus. And you know, plug ins like that allow you to manipulate the sound to make it sound like a different sound, because when you're only working off of an individual sound, this guitar note right, you have to be able to manipulate it so it sounds different. Otherwise, was, Could happen is you're gonna have frequency clashing because you're using the same sound for multiple patterns, right? Multiple loops and you could have frequency clashing because you know, they're not really able to stand out because you're playing with the same sound. So when you're using tools like distortion and chorus and stuff like that, it introduces, you know, new frequencies, and it makes it sound different. That way you can eq you it differently. And you can, uh, give it its own space in the mix because it's not gonna be fighting for those frequencies. Um, so that's what I've done here is this is just called camel crusher. I believe it. Just a free distortion plug in that you could find online. I believe the company went out of business. Ah, but I'm sure you could still find this for free to download if you just google it. So again, without the effect my lead guitar sounds like this. Okay, I tried on on, and then you get home. Getting like that pitch bend is if you come here to the wrench, its port aumento and then this slide dictates how fast or slow that happens off a right clicking go copy just so I can keep that value. So right now, if I go from, you know, load high. Okay, Turn down. Never go way too extreme and listen to it. Ah, the pattern itself. You're gonna hear it. It's too long for it to actually change. So Okay, so if I have it where I said it, it's long enough for you to hear the effect. But it's not slow enough for it to sound bad and kind of know take too long. So Okay, so that's how I've set up that sound. And then I actually didn't put the sides in compression on this sound because I wanted it to stand out. I want to stay kind of constant and consistent and you can just see down here I've routed it to a reverb. Ah, to re verbs. Actually, this is a technique to kind of give ah, you know, a different sound to you re verbs and everything sounds the same. I've puts Mysterio separation on it for some wide nous puts amore distortion on it just to kind of help that that sound stand out a little bit more. And that's this, however, approached that one thing all the share with you. Ah, on Ascend. And if you have more information on the stand, I actually have another courses called fl Studio Mixer workflow, and I break down the mixer, show you how to set things up. How sends work and you know how to get professional results of your tracks through mixing case was just called fl studio mixer workflow. So the biggest thing with a send is if you click on the river, you have what's called a dry and a wet signal. Okay, so the dry signal isn't is not the effect. The wet signal is the effect. So since I already have the original signal here, I simply just want the West. So the most important thing on Ascend is to take the dry and put it to zero and keep the wet at 100%. And then when I'm on this insert, I can simply blend in what I want. Okay, so that's just what I've done with the lead guitar. We're gonna go our last instrument, which is the pad, because I haven't done anything with ease in terms of mixing, because I just added them in, you know, within the last video or two. So this is the pad on the pad, um, again, lots of effects again. So reverb both three verbs. Ah, little bit of delay. Um, just to kind of, you know, maybe help it sound a little more atmosphere e And then again, stereo separation, which is just wide nous. It just helps the sound so bigger than what it is. And then you are last to patterns are just the high hat shakers and the clap. Okay, so let's move on into actually kind of working with these individual instruments and getting them sitting. Ah, where we want with EQ. You and I might be using a little bit of light compression, but I will be explaining what I'm doing. Ah, and when you know why I'm doing it. 19. 4-4 - Mixing Our Percussion Elements : Okay, so in this video, we're just gonna get right into it. Okay? So I'm gonna hit play here, and I'm just gonna start tweaking. I'll stop. I'll explain why I'm doing stuff and water school from there. So here we go. Okay. So these high hats, I want to Ah, just kind of process them about harder and just try and be more creative with them. So what I've done is I have, you know, again, color codings really important. Help you visually see where things are faster. So each of these air of the individual sounds as you can see from 12 to 15 12 to 15. And what I've done is I've actually sent them to a subgroup. And also what this does is it allows me to put one e que on here, and I can essentially affect all four of these sounds. Ah, through one insert. And as you can see, you just follow the cable. And how you do that is you get is right. Click and go wrote this track on Lee. And if you hold on control, shift and click, you can click many. And that's right. It here, right click and wrote this track on Lee. So let's try this. Let's just boost these highs up, okay? And I'm going to reduce the volume a bit. Just help compensate that boost. Elissa. Sensuous again, kit. I'm just gonna play a little bit of compression on there just to help it really stay super , Super consistent In our track up here is what you call a knee. There's a softy and a hard me. A soft knee allows the sound to be compressed gradually as Theseus ound goes above the threshold. It kind of actually starts compressing a little under the threshold. Ah, where we have a hardening, it doesn't really start compressing below the threshold. So soft knee kind of eases this way in Where is the hard knee starts compressing kind of a little bit more aggressively. So I'm gonna use the hardening. You know, that's just kind of one of feeling Bring this down a bit aggressive on my ratio and stuff like that, because this is these artists high hats, and we kind of play with it to see how it sounds. So here we owe turn off the auto volume, and you don't do it manually. So often on. Okay, so I just feel it in general, the actual high hats are just too quiet. So I'm just gonna boost it up in general. And now we get when I'm turning up often on it's just gonna be louder. But it still gonna be a fair comparison. So here we owe I think so. This sound eyes I feel, is quite a bit louder than the other sounds. It's kind of just a clicky sound. That one. So what I'm gonna do is I'm just going to reduce the volume of this one Mrs Cold with me four decibels. And now I don't have to be so aggressive with my ah compressor settings because I just found that that one sound was cutting through more aggressively than the other sounds. So we'll listen to that again, and I'm just gonna zoom in on this scale so we could see a little more. So bring it up a little bit on cancels out. Okay, so now this is where I do a lot of the A and B comparison stuff, so I'm just gonna copy. Ah, Mr. Go over. Little bit lower thresholds. 30. And this just like me five instead. So let's listen. This is too out. So school, like three five and goes a little louder. Can't closest five kind of like that where it is. Okay, so what I've done for those high hats is I just took out e que We just really boosted the highs on that. Um, again, Let's just listen to it with it often on with it on. Okay, so I I personally like that decision. It kind of makes the hi hats feel more like high hats before, it was kind of, you know, stuck in the middle without the clap and some of the other instruments. But we've kind of helped shift it over to the high frequency region and then just ah, the compression just helped it stay more consistent in in the mix case if we listen to that with and without our effects. So this this is the kind of the master to turn off all effects. So we listen to the hi hats within without the effects way can actually turn up the volume a little bit of school 7.5 case. So here we go. Way a little bit louder. Still so 8.25 can a little bit, so I like that as it is now. What I do when I'm mixing is a lot of times this is where I would now we start. You send So after I've kind of got the pattern to sit where it is, you know, now, in this case, maybe I can apply some distortion distortion again. It's very, very similar to compression, but it's way more aggressive to the point where is distorting. But in terms of the dynamic range, control distortion is pretty much doing the same thing as compression. And it's kind of lower in the dynamic range to make it more consistent in your track. So this is how it sounds with the distortion. We'll just play the pattern. Sorry, got trainers on cereal. So without the distortion case, it was just kind of, you know, turned down a little bit. Is it to be so aggressive? So listen to in context of the whole song. Now move distortion with Okay, so it's really, really subtle, but I hear how it helps it stay consistent and on top of the mix because you're high hats. For the most part, It's like even older, so quick sounding. They're so fundamental to a songs rhythm. So it is something that you want to have in catchy in your track. You want them to be audible and prominent, but you don't want them to overpower the song you know to be too loud. So again we listen to that again, turned on here for So I was referencing appear when I'm saying four like that night's event of minus four decibels, A little more distortion. So again, what I was doing is, as I was increasing this send. What you're doing is you're actually still increasing the volume because you're creating a parallel path for the audio. And so, in other words, the volumes getting louder, some just compensating by. If I dial this up, I'm just dying this down a little bit just to kind of get exiting where I wanted to sit. Okay, so in this video, this is work on the clap. Otherwise it's gonna start getting too long. Ah, we'll work on like a kind of our percussion elements. And then in our next video, we'll start working on our instruments. Okay, so we'll move toward clap now. so listen to a clap. Okay, so no one working with my clap. I actually used the start with compression. Um, and this courses is about e que. But I'm just kind of showing you Ah, how I would use you know, e que to help enhance stuff. But I'm trying to show you in a really world contacts, you know, in a real world contacts, you don't just use e Q and you don't just use compression like they kind of go hand in hand . So with a compressor, you can actually be using it to mold a sound. Okay, so when we hear the word compression, a lot of times, you know, you're like, Well, I thought compressor was just to a level of the audio. So, for example, if you're listening to my voice and I speak really loud, um, and then I speak really quiet in that recording. A compressor will help that loud and quiet sound be more consistent in volume. Okay. And the hope that that's like the whole purpose of really compression. Um, now, that's just leveling audio leveling okay to get more balanced. But when you're working with the attack and release dogs, you can actually be shaping a sound. So in other words, the longer your attack, the more of the initial transient that you allow through. Okay, So if we look at one of these snares here, so I'm just going to zoom in on the sound So the transient is typically, you know, the first initial part of your sound. And as the sound plays depending on your compressor settings, it clamps down. OK, so if you have a fast attack, the compressor might start clamping down around where my mouse is. But if you have a longer attacks, just maybe where I've adjusted it here, um, you know, instead of it clamped down here, it might clamp down around here. So what? What's happening is you're allowing that snare to kind of hit you in the chest a little bit harder. But if you're attack us faster, your clamping down around here and what that's doing is is essentially kind of like this. So right now I'm much from full, and I'm gonna just the end. So what you're going to see is because more of like this, it's almost like a fat snare, so you know, it doesn't really have Ah, peak as if it was like this, but with a compressor that with a fast attack, your clamping it down, so it would be more kind of like this. Okay, so it's more of like a an even hit. You know, that's kind of the really quick and dirty way to explain it to you. So what I'm trying to get across to you is now, depending on my attack and release settings with my compressor, you can mold how a snare sounds or you know, any sound for that matter. But in this case, since we're working with our clap slash snare, let's be aggressive on our threshold, aggressive on a ratio. And let's just listen to our snares. Okay, so we're pattern will listen to just the snares hit, and you'll hear how, uh, my attack settings can affect how the snare sound. So casting that up okay without it. Okay, um, so now let's bring the attack way down, so open it up. Let's just clamp this down. Then what? Trump the volume? A lot said like this. Okay. So, as you can hear him totally getting a different sound out of clap But what I'm doing again is bad practice. So I'm mixing in solo. So I have no idea how this is gonna sound in context of her song. So when you're listening to your song is when you start, want to start doing these aggressive kind of tweaks and stuff like that? So let's put this into song mode. Let's listen to the settings that we've dialed in. I'm going to assume that we're gonna be going with a little bit of a longer attack to help that transient can A pop through kind of emphasized the hit, but we're going to listen toe how this sounds off. So now the beauty of working inside a doll like this, you know, when you're not, you're being sent audio files is this is the reverse sound, and you could hear that it's almost louder than the actual clap now. Okay, so if you go to this, we turn off the compressor, you can't even hear that reverse. Barely right. But we turn it on and the reverse is actually louder than the claps. So now And like I'm seeing the beauty of this, we can simply come here in this dial this down so down more without it, it's over the tax a little bit, actually. One sex. Solis, bring the back. We're in a copy, you know. So right now we're at 10.55 milliseconds, which is extremely fast. When you're working in these fast settings, you kind of still have to dial in really small numbers. Because if I were to go to 10 now, that's quite a significant difference. So we'll listen ankle back. So it was just like 10. Back and forth Caso again. We're a 0.55 right? So let's just put the spinach like 1.5. Okay, let's hear that. Compare it louder. Okay, so I like it the way how we've dialed it in here with Thea 0.55 and stuff like that. So let's just turn the effect often on waken Just bring it back a little bit so desperately . 18. And so there you go. So that's kind of how I molded the sound with compression. Let's take on e que now and kind of helps sculpt That sounds a little bit more. And then maybe we will apply some effects on, uh, like you don't descends. The reverb and delay, and sometimes I will even apply of reverb directly onto the sound. But when you have thes sends, it makes it really, really fast for workflow. It also helps your CPU because instead of having multiple re verbs out which reverb zehr typically known to be really CPU hungry, they're really hard on her computer. You be using multiple instruments for one reverb, and you're kind of benefiting off of using one reverb. So CPU power, Um, and then also it saves time because you're only working with one reverb instead of like, you know, 10 Rivers kind of thing. But like I was saying so sometimes, actually do apply a river onto, like listening to clap just to give it a different reverb sound than the other stuff. I even do that sometimes, like certain leads and stuff, too. Okay, so let's see what we could do with our clap. Let's see if we can find some frequencies that we like to enhance or even to cut, um, to kind of get it suiting. You know, this song. So listen, So I kind of like that their school maybe, like, you know, 1.5 really really gentle without. I kind of didn't like these frequencies here again. This is a really, really bad way to mix. You don't always want to be doing this, but sometimes I just feel by approaching it this way, I kind of get the sound toe where I want it to be. So, um, this isn't that again. Okay, So maybe we'll do is gonna take a high shelf here, and this is where you can use it. That poll tech thing. Okay, so I kind of like the highs here, but I don't like him really around here, so So try this. There's a little bit aggressive. Let's just set this scale a little bit smaller so we could see more beautiful with that. Okay. So minus one helps us down a little bit more. Let's be the work of this body here a little bit. Cousin. This low end now, this is sometimes they have a common myth. Um, you know, a lot of people will say, remove all the low end out of your Ah sounds that don't need it. It allows more room for your actual kick drum to hit. I don't mean myth. As in bad. Um, but, you know, sometimes people overdo it. So in this case, you know, if we listen to the individual collapse by themselves, Okay, So I'm gonna copy this A and B, and I'm just going to remove this. We're gonna hear the difference, Calf. So, you know, it just sounds maybe just a little bit cleaner. Um, as we sold that out, I hear there's one sound Kind of has a little pop. That's the one that doesn't have it that doesn't. So is this right at the end of the sound? So in the case of fl Studio, what you can do is you can just take this out knob. And since I have my trim up full, usually your sound doesn't have trim up. So increase the trim and I'm just going to increase the outs a little bit and it's gonna help with that little pop. You know, it kind of sucks, because I kind of like that little tail on it. But we could maybe help that with river. Okay, in context of the beat within without effects. Okay, so let's just be over 80 on this train may boost on body. So with a snare. A lot of times, Like I was saying earlier, I around here has the frequency that kind of hit you in the chest and kind of give Ah, this clap or stare hit little body. It is something that I was test out to kind of hear if it improves or if I need or don't need it. So if you listen to that, okay, so maybe let's just boost a little bit here. It's just me caught a little bit there. Okay? Going to go a little bit lower on that and bring this back a little bit. So on what a lot of people do here is they're using a low shelf. A low shelf is just a really, really gentle way to do this. Ah, lot of times I could even kind of bring it over into He's more like, uh, lower mid frequencies. And it kind of helps instead of coming here and doing ah, low cut filter. So, for example, if I delete this one, a little filter, as you can see, is just way more aggressive. It actually just like you, no filters and out removes it. Whereas when I have just the low shelf. You could just be more more gentle with it. So you would you like a four decibel cut? But you can bring it over far you want, Right, So that's kind of a cool little trick. So it's just kind of cut this too. Like me, Like minus eight animals. Okay, so we'll leave it around there. Okay, So I know that was kind of ah, little bit all over the place, but I just felt that as I was proceeding with that, you know, there's just a lot of information which have learned over the years, which I just feel would be really valuable to you. So this quickly, one additional thing we'll do is we'll set up these Ah, descends quickly. So if we take the clap and we just, you know, I'm on the sub group right here of the collapse again follow the cables and they're all going to the subgroup of the clap sub If I come here and apply reverb again. All of these sounds are being applied with reverb. I'm also gonna, um, taken e que and I'm just gonna remove some of the low end on that. I distinctly like how it was sounding can, Who's bringing up a little bit now, And I'm just going to remove this river for now. I was pretty good. Okay, so again, this turn on that reverb one more time when we'll dial that in a little bit, Yes. I don't like in this case. We'll try this reverb lose and whiteness. Sorry. Now, you hear that center kill a bit wider, Bring it down a little bit. And this system find some distortion. That sounds some kind of thin. It doesn't help. Kind of like it a little bit. Okay, so that's just a good starting point to kind of work off of. Ah, in our next video, we're gonna start working on to the instruments, okay? 20. 4-5 - Mixing the Body Guitar: now how I typically mix my song is I will actually adjust all my volumes so that they all sound good inside of the chorus. Okay, And then once it leaves the course and goes into the verses, you know, if you need to de changing your volumes, you can kind of manipulate them with automation. I usually never have to. I usually find that you know how I have adjusted my volumes inside of my chorus is good. And then once it goes into the verses, I usually find that blends really, really well. But I usually like to adjust my chorus as it is because usually how I make my beats. It is my instruments typically all complement each other. So in other words, when I start adding and different instruments, they're all kind of helping building up to that chorus. And then when they're all playing at the same time, typically that is my chorus. Okay. And then when I start removing instruments, then I have creativity on how I want to build my verses. So, for example, you know, for my first verse, I might just go Ah, you know, just the body and the kick for my second verse, I might introduce the pad, but, you know, whenever bring that chorus in, I'm going to be playing all the sounds and then, you know, for a bridge or something, I might, you know, uh, remove, You know, this kind of stuff and only have these plane. So it's just all about leaving options for yourself. But in terms of the mixing for the volumes, like I'm saying, I usually mix on my volumes so they sound good in the chorus once it goes into the actual versus, Usually I don't have to be adjusting volumes and stuff like that. It's more just it comes down to arrangement. And when I wanna have instruments in or not in. But if you want to adjust volumes, you could be doing that with automation if need be. So I'm just gonna enter here. It's gonna put it right back where it was, and, um, we will start mixing our instruments. So let's let's check out this body guitar here first. Okay, so just click on the body guitar and come up here to body guitar Sources sent this. Okay, so I'm like how it sounds. I feel that it's kind of being buried a little bit. So let's try and boost in these highs. So let me try and cut some of that. So let's move a bit aggressive. Let's go. Minus eight will make the Q a little bit tighter, though, so listen to it again. Musical minus 12. This could be really aggressive, but on I'm gonna boost his highest here to compensate that. So can we put this to, like, you know, minus nine on was gonna, uh, kind of cut the lowest here a little bit to just kind of thin it out a little bit. Uh, make this cule a bit wider, and we're gonna turn it often on kind of here where we are in terms of volume balancing and being. Yes, this is minus 15 again because I'm on the 30 scale. You know, it looks like only little cuts and boosts that I'm doing, but these are actually quite aggressive, you know, minus nine minus 15. So this is good about his 12 here and this 15 decibel cut. Let's just put that to, like, eight. Uh, this one were to open up the Q a little bit, you know, just put us like five, and this is quite a big boost. So it's gonna open up the Q a little bit too, and put this to, like, you know, maybe 6.5. So Okay, let's have some whiteness on this kind of get it stretching out into the speakers a little bit. - Okay , so in this case, I kind of feel that this is a good time to use the high shelf. Okay, So I'm just going to, you know, maybe put it to Mr say one que so 1000 hertz and then I'm just gonna give us a four db boost. And what this is going to do is it's just gonna help tilt the song to be more high frequency. So, for example, if you come here to a and B and this is removed this so if I come here to the one k again one que and we boost this, you know, score four DV again. So it's kind of slanting it. Ah, so it's helping it be, you know, brighter instead of kind of muddy. You know, if we come here, Toto one k now too, uh, like, you know, minus two de Beers. I'm like that. So listen to that. Okay, let's go back to our settings. So as you can hear thistles, What I was talking about is a sound of starting to get really processed. So this is really intense of, you know, in terms of settings and e que. So in this case, you know, we really don't need this aggressive of settings. So in this case, you know, um, we've cut some of the lows here cases instead of money. Can you bring that up a little bit? And I think maybe we'll try and boost this up to, like, school, like seven without it. What I'm feeling here is, you know, it's kind of reaching into that body. Still, let's just put this, like, five K, and we're just gonna help with air, okay? We're just gonna help it stand out in terms of just the really, really highest frequencies of the sound without it with. Okay, so I do like this a lot better. I know that that's all that was all over the place, but a lot of times, that's kind of how we tweak stuff and it's just kind of how we work so in this case. So when it was over at one K, because again, like I was saying so when you have a high shelf filter, let's just remove these for a second when you're high shelf filter. So even though I put it out five k, you can see that it actually dips down to like one K like you know, it might only be boosting it by, you know, one or two decibels, but it's going to see you know it is reaching over into these other frequencies other than five k, you know, So two K's getting up to two decibels. Three k is that three decibels, and it's just kind of working its way. So it's just one thing to think about that when you have adjusted it to one K that you are also boosting the frequencies as it slopes towards them. Yes, you can adjust your cue, you know, kind of like this, but that's kind of getting, you know, quite aggressive. You know, a lot of times it is you just want to be just doing really, really gentle kind of, you know, slopes and stuff like that. Um, but the reason why I decided to go around the five K is because again, I'm just wanting to help boost the high frequencies to help this sound just not sound so muffled, wanting to kind of open it up. And I feel that when it's like this, it does open it up, you know, just a little bit to the point where it's just not sounding muffled, sounding. So without it, bring back the best seven. And these were just kind of boost this one, I think I want to keep down around five now. Another thing I'll tell you is depending on where you have put your e que in your chain, it can affect the sound a little bit. So, for example, right here this again is on a compressor. It's a side chain, and what this is doing is again. It's just the kick drum lowering the volume. But I haven't compressed this sound in a sense of getting it to sound consistent. But if I were to have a compressor over here, which is really gonna help this sound state more consistent now, um, depending on where you have placed individual plug ins in their chain and this a lot of times isn't drastic, but sometimes it is a noticeable difference Case so ridiculous that this one is actually a compressor now, So let's just kind of be a little more aggressive with it. I'm gonna have a little bit of a longer attack. And the faster release on this is going to 24 something. So we would just work with this right now? I have no idea. I'm just putting in random numbers here because I'm hoping that this is gonna be a good starting point. And then it will work with the compressors. Aereo also proceed has, like, different styles. Let's quit classic thing Quite aggressive. Compression for the volume case over goingto bring me back down on, uh, copy this. Do less ratio. Bring down the volume, like, three. Okay, So as you can see, it's never really releasing it. It's just constantly compressing, So I'm gonna go and be I'm gonna come up here to late 18. Now. We're gonna keep the quite aggressive ratio of school auto release fast, and I will Scinto can go up a little bit. So school 15. Okay, so now we're gonna do is I'm gonna try and put the compressor before the key was stuff like that, because sometimes this can give you a different sound. You could just use your scroll wheel to do that on your most, and I put the compressor before the EQ, you know, so listen a little quieter. Exploring three five faster release without it within Castle on there. So with the with the release being a little bit longer, I just found that it allows the sound to kind of be a little bit smoother and stay more consistent in the mix. So again, if we listen to the compression often on, it's on you, it's really, really consistently. So on the pump of the body guitar, you can really hear it come in like it, but I feel that rate away. After it pumps in, it starts to get lost. But with the compression that I've dialed in, I feel that even with the pump in, you know, kind of stays a little more consistent. So as you here, you know it really Here it's kind of adding to the group without it. Let's get a boost empties on. I have a little bit on one sex. So where's that shaker sound. So 15. So this was just a little bit loud. So And if we actually come here to this, this one, take all the queue. So spruce something really realize, like, run their questions. Now, Theo getting at the do level, matching so again. Seven. And I know it is kind of this quickly, but this is this how we work. If I notice something kind of, you know, out, or I feel like maybe I can improve it. I just start working on it right away. So candidate was tighten that Q a little bit. Candice will lower. That is a little bit on the actual band. Sources put like, 11. Okay, so that body guitar did take quite a while to get it to fit where I wanted to. But I do feel that I got it to sound how I wanted. Like so what I found when I was listening to the body guitar before was certain chord sounded fine. But when we went to other chords, it kind of sounded a little bit to me and a little bit kind of muddy in the low mids. Um, so that's why I kind of kept tweaking it in a sense of, you know, my e que settings were getting quite aggressive. Ah, here. Um, but, you know, it ended up being not that aggressive. I just You know, this one was already there from previously when I showed you, however, do some of the low mids, and it actually made the other sounds stand out. That was a previous video. I just didn't like these frequencies here, I guess, Um, that's kind of what I cut. Um um and then I used a high shelf, just a, you know, help bring air is what they call it. Ah, lot of times that would be even mawr, like sometimes people go like 10-K and they were just really, really boost that up. I still wanted some of the high frequencies in there with it boosting up because this sound if we if you see as a play cosom cords, you'll see that this sound again. Since I have recorded the sound, it doesn't have super high frequency content. That's why I'm boosting it to, you know, help compensate that. And, you know, hopefully kind of bring back some air 21. 4-6 - Mixing The Song: Okay, So in this video, we're gonna work on the pad and the lead guitar. Okay, so here we go. We hit play or just kind of kind of listen to both of them King and increased a little bit on the lead guitar. So my each you of the pad So nothing's going on with it. I'm sure I've compressed it. Um actually, no. Sorry. This this again Inside chain. So usually what I do like to do it? It's gonna push for my middle scroll wheel and press kick and side chain, and I press f two to kind of give it a color. This is just usually what I like to do, because So, for example, if I come here and open up that same proceed compressor, I don't know if I'm using this for sightseeing, compression or as a real compressor. In this case, this is Thailand is a little bit of late compression just to help the pad stay consistent in the mix. And again. So the side chain, I'm gonna put it as the last plug in because I can affect the sound I want. And the side chain helps with pumping. Okay with it so smooth of longer attack. Give it media seven kiss on this cheek. You know, this kind of play around with this and let's see if we can make this pad kind of sit in here a little better. I kind of like how it is sitting Ah, this lead guitar. It was really just cutting through all by itself. Soul. It sounds great, but the pad let's see if we can kind of tweak it to make it fit. Maurin this song It was custom list low in a little bit, you know, more of a gentle kind of filter their way we can boost some low end here. Kids more aggressive school like 100 12. The case was actually put this before the compressor because the compressor will help kind of tame. Ah, you know, some of the unbalancing that we're doing here. So let's listen to this again without it. So sometimes what I've dialed it in like this, um, again, the really, really awesome thing with pro que is I can simply just click highlight, And I can just kind of dial back and just kind of like, Well, let's just not be as aggressive as what I've dialed in Reno. Alysia Sort seven, six and eight. So, you know, maybe it's just kind of put it down to, you know, you're, like, five ish area again. I'm on 30 and it's it's making it feel is if my settings aren't that intense, but, you know, those are actually quite big settings, you know, Quite big numbers of change. Uh, getting in comparison. This is five to be cut. This is a five db boost, which is really equivalent of, like, a 10 db difference now. So we were really they doubled it. We've amplified even more. Is that the volume of this Campbell like, minus five now before. Okay, with you, a little bit cleaner will lead this one here. Lets try and add some air into it. We're gonna go really, really intense at first. We can kind of hear how it sounds. You hear that? It's actually background hiss recording, which isn't good. So with it, with it off with it on, you make me kind of some cool, right? Cause again, this is being pumped with the kick drum. So that background hiss, but actually kind of some cool right with the searching off and actually this body guitar. Um, when I was doing A and B with you earlier, I think I decided on my different settings. So what I'm gonna do is about you're gonna save preset as and drag it over to my pad, and I'm going to replace delete. I'm gonna call this one kick side chains. So what I did was I just copy and pasted the value privilege over so kick side chain. So under pads, e que. I'm actually just going to take this high shelf, and I'm just gonna boost it to, like, let's say 20 okay? And I am gonna bring it to be able to K. Maybe I will be aggressive on this Q. Just so it's not getting into, like, more of the mids. Uh, and listen to this down this a little bit can look a little better that lead guitarist back up, so I'm not lead guitar. Let's just see if we could do something creative here. So what I'm gonna do, you just gonna right click No clone. Okay. I'm gonna copy and paste the same notes in, but what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna bring down in pitch. So now it sounds like this. So without it, So if I come here from a e que So I've only boosted the highs and the other one, I have just kind of cut there a little bit, too. So what I can do is just lower the volume of it a little bit. So it's still giving body. So without it, but with it, listen to that. Okay, So and with my cue, I can kind of cut some not low end to Okay. So in addition, let's just do a little bit more compression. I usually just really use a compressor to really help mold it into the song. So, uh, it's just not going to touch anything Gonna hit play and listen to it what it is. - So what I've done there is have just really shaved off the tips of this lead guitars. You could see it's only shaving us a little bit, and it's releasing very, very fast to so that's cool. But what I'm gonna do is we're gonna copy the value. I'm just gonna go a little bit lower. This is a 28 and I'm just gonna open up that attack a little bit that might allow the transience actually kind of cut through even a little bit harder. Um, again, you could use a compressor to help mould a sound. So it just put two maybe like, 15. And wasn't this and we'll compare it to what we had. So let's put 27 actually, and I will go 2.25 without it. If we are listening to the sound again, just kind of listen to what What we want when we don't. So what was happening there is it is probably hitting the compressor pretty hard. And that's why it sounded weird, you know, kind of sounded quiet. See that? So this is where depending on how you've put your e que in your chain to your compressor, which can have a good and bad effect. Sometimes you just week around, things just happen. But as you can hear, it's like a kept the volume still kind of consistent, but it sounded almost quieter than without it. Yes, so let's be ah, add on an effect here like a ah. So this is what you call a parallel track. So it's gonna take 21 gonna hold down Ault and the Arrow key and bring it over Now, this is kind of getting away from queueing. However you know, you're just you're just seeing how I use e que Teoh kind of work on a song. So a parallel track is a really, really awesome way to be really creative and totally, you know, mash up and screw up a sound But then you just blend in the volume What you want again? This is all in the fl studio mixer workflow Course I've done. But I'm just going to show you how to do it because this is a really, really powerful way to make your sound fit. So again, I pressure a middle scroll wheel. This came up, I hit enter. The reason why I did that is because it gives me the same color. So I come here, give that same color and I'm going to go. Ah, lead. I always thought I was having capitals so lead Ah, par k So for parallel track. So I'm no delay and fruity chorus. So this is just kind of give it ah de tune sound a little bit would be really really aggressive with that case. I'm just gonna right click. I'm gonna go save preset as and just duplicate that. Let's just do it twice. We're gonna be really, really aggressive with this. Okay? So without it on me, well, just dial in different settings for this one, and we will compress this will help it stand out. We could blend in what we want with it really, really settled compression. But just for consistency. Okay. Okay. So it sounds really, really intense right now, but we go harder and compression thing again. This is more like a sound design kind of thing that I'm doing right now. Um, but longer release just so it doesn't come back in so fast. It's just a lot smoother theories of why I'm just gonna leave the volume up so loud is because I can just blend in what I want right here. Let's just hear how it sounds with with the beat. Okay, so now let's take her e que And this just kind of fine tune a little bit. I e just can't hear kind of a little bit flabby. Um, we can really tighten it up and just get it really where we want. I really find that this make is making this leads on really, really cool. So well, listen to this again. So I just want to hear what frequency like Like there's a certain frequency that kind of sounds. It kind of sounds to swirly. That's how it connects. Describe it. I think it's wrong. There you can hear. It's kind of swirly, you know? So that sure down volume. Okay, so one final thing, I will try his. We will try some just distortion on that parallel track. Uh, nothing intense. What is true is just a random when here, more beef is what will choose analysts. So really, really intense story. I'll dial down the mix. So as you can see, you know, there's just a lot of back and forth. Tweaking is what I'm doing, doing a lot of a and b comparison. Just do I like it before that. I like it after, and if I liked it before, but I still kind of like where I'm going with it, you know, maybe I'll kind of dial it back a little bit, and then that's just how I working as you see this was it before without the sound with it ? Can you get down a little bit without it with it on again, depending on where you place different plug ins and as it can affect your sound too? Okay, so as you saw, that's kind of how I mixed my instruments together. I know it's a little bit, you know, long also a little bit random and sporadic. Sometimes my settings were been aggressive, but as you could see, you know, I sometimes I realized it's like a that's just too much. Or sometimes it was just like, Well, I don't even really know where I'm going with this anymore. Um, and even after doing this for many, many years, you know it's still for me. It's just kind of boost and cut and boost and kind. And then kind of tweak it where want or sometimes it's like, Oh, it's just not even gonna work. Um, now, another thing that I didn't even do in this song at all is panning and stuff. To patting is also a great tool to help sound stand out. So, for example, if you're always trying to fight with e que and stuff like that you know, sometimes e que isn't the right choice in certain situations. Sometimes, you know, if I had ah, you know, this body guitar and this lead, you know, I could, you know, panel in this way and then pan, when the other ways that might that typically a lot of people like toe work in terms of really symmetrical. So, for example, in this song way only have really three instruments, right? We have a body guitar with a pad and the lead. So in this case, you know, people would wanna have a baby One more instrument that they could, you know, if they pan when left by 25% then they would want to pan the other one by 25% to the to the right, just for the sake of balance and symmetrical. So the only sound really haven't touched Ah is pretty much the kick drum, you know? Yes, I did see me Que in terms of that sweeping video. Um, but really, really awesome Way to help Your kick drum stand out is honestly a parallel track with distortion on it. And you can simply just apply some distortion on it. and honestly, this is such an awesome way because it's just like parallel compression. But it's also adding some frequencies, and it's just giving your kick drum a little bit more body. It's helping it hit through a little bit harder, and you only need just a little bit. So I'll show you that just quickly. And then we'll move on to some ah, you know, type different tricks you could be using with e que. Okay, so this is it without the distortion with their sources, you know? So it's pretty amazing. So even if I turn this off and watch, if I turn on the volume, you will hear that the kick drum. You know, it does start to get lost in the mix, obviously, right, cause I'm lowering the volume. But with the distortion on and I still lower the volume, you'll still here is that the kick drum is still there. And it just because again, that distortions adding frequencies and body again. You don't want to overdo this, and you don't want to use it as a crutch. You just want to use it as a tool to enhance your picture would make it sound better a sold out closet assertion, you know, with the distortion with it. And in this case, this distortion probably isn't being driven super hard. So writing off a copy of value increases a lot. Okay, So felt the distortion. Put that into the beat again. So one thing I just want to point out is remember this distortion send is actually affecting many instruments. So, for example, um, the lead guitar is going there. Uh, you know, some of the high hats as the clap, too. So when I'm adjusting this, it's also adjusting those sounds too. Okay. So again, let's move on to some little tricks that, you know, I kind of discovered over the years and, you know, so you can know how to use e que No, for creative purposes. 22. 5-1 - Breaking the Fear of the High End: So in this section of our course, I'm just gonna be making kind of quicker videos going over specific tricks when dealing with Q. Okay, so in this video, I just want talk about boosting your high end. So, for example, if we go to our lead guitar here and that is, open up a new e que just to start fresh When I was first starting out a lot of times I was always really, really afraid to push the boundaries. And what I mean by that is it's just because I didn't know, You know, it wasn't aware of what you could do or what you could try. And here's a trick for you. You can take a high shelf filter, and it's actually quite surprising how bright you can push something if you reduce the volume back to that fair comparison. Because what's happening when you boost your high frequencies is is actually allowing a lot more clarity out of that sound. But when you boost the highs without reducing the volume, it starts to sound really harsh. So right away you're like, Oh, I don't like that, but when you're dealing with some of these sounds, that we're dealing with, you can actually get away with boosting quite a lot of the high end and again by reducing your volume for fair level matching, you will be really, really impressed by this boost. Okay, Like again allow for a lot more clarity, Articulation out of the sound, some of vocals. So don't be afraid to try this and and, you know, kind of pushed the boundaries. You know, from running were around one k to two k or you, and around you don't even five K Because a lot of times when you have mawr ah, high frequency content your track and sound a lot more energetic, you know, a lot more engaging to your listener. Um, it can make your song sounded a little bit tiring over the long term. But a lot of the time, you know, someone is only listening to your song for two minutes, three minutes kind of thing. And a lot of times, this sound might not be playing for that whole time to. So when you bring it in, you know, it might just give that little bit of extra excitement into the sound. So try that. Oh, don't be afraid to push the boundaries. Just don't forget to compensate your overall volume for your boost. OK, 23. 5-2 - High-Cut Filter Tricks: Okay, So in this video, I'm just going to be talking to you about, Ah, high cut filter. So again, that is removing the high end. So if I open up an eq, you here again to start fresh? Ah, high cut filter is again removing the high end. So if we listen to the pad here, so we have noise here. Okay, So a trick with high cut filter is you can actually be using it to take out that noise at the cost of losing a little bit of the high end clarity. Okay, so again, let's listen to that pad and listen to the noise. And if I dial this in a bit, it here noise will go away. Okay, so it's gone. It's there a little bit. But if it turned off Casey here it. Okay, so that's a cool little trick to know. Ah, when you are working with a sound and it has no ways within the recorded signal and you don't really know how to get rid of it. Yes, there are tools out there that allow you to d noise stuff, or you could be using, like, a gate, you know, So that the gate closes whenever the audio signal goes below. But when you start dealing with compression, you know heavy compression again, like all your audio kind of starts becoming the same. Which means that you're loud parts of getting closer to that noise, which means that the noise is becoming louder because it's more consistent in volume with the regular audio. So by using a high cut filter, it's a little trick where you can kind of cut out some of that noise. But again, at the cost of a little bit of the clarity in your sound, it kind of makes it a little bit warmer, sounding a little bit more rounded, but it has reduced the noise. So now, in addition to using, ah, high cut filter for noise, Ah, high cut filter is extremely powerful for automation to build up your song in insecure songs arrangement. Okay, so toe automate your filter and fl studio, you just like right click and you can create automation clip with this knob. But so, for example, if I sold out this body guitar and we listen to it now, what I'm gonna do is I'm going to remove some of the high frequency content with this high cut filter, and it will give you a really sense of rush. Okay, Like it's almost like, um, you'll get, like, the goose bumps feeling on your arm and and as we start to bring it back, Okay, as we start to open the filter back up, you know it's again give you this rush, feeling that it's just like all the songs building. It's just such a awesome tension tool to help transition your song to help build structure and stuff like that. In addition to that, you can also be using the Q, which is your residence, and it gives you quite a different sound. It gives it a little bit more prominent effect. Okay, so again, let's just listen to the body guitar and I'm gonna cutouts of frequencies and we're gonna bring it back. I'll do it with and without lots of residence. Okay, so Okay, so that is the sound that you're like a lot of music, you know, it starts to kind of build that, you know, rushing feeling, and it start to open it up, you know, nice and slow. But again, this sound doesn't have tons of high frequency content, so we're getting the effect but were not really hearing it tremendously as if we were dealing with a high frequency synth. So now again, we're going to try one more time with the residents. Kassai, Rio cases that rushing, Let's open it up. Okay, so that's not rushing feeling that you hear in a lot of music in general, on the radio everywhere. Another thing you can play around with when you're dealing with this is just the filters slope. Okay, so, um, if you only have six db per octave slopes gonna be way more gentle And in this case, I'm not even able to adjust the Q. If you're on a 12 db is you can see it's just not as aggressive on. And if we were like a 48 you know is way more aggressive. So we listen to at one time bring back in. OK, so that is the high cut filter 24. 5-3 - Low-Cut Filter Tricks: So in the last video I talked to you about the high cut filter. Now the opposite is the low cut filter. So now where a low cut filter comes into play is again. If we're dealing with a song, structure and automation, it also builds that tension, so it allows you to build a song structure. It gives it a different feeling, however, it's still the same approach. So let's listen to that, okay? And then they just drop it in, you know, so you hear that a lot of times in a lot of media music starts to build up, build up, build up and as it gets up to here is just like it puts such attention on, like your ears, you almost feeling like it year drums, and then you're waiting for it to drop waiting for it and also boom. Then a lot of times the song will drop in a hit until that chorus Oh, are you know it'll hit that next part of the song. So that's where you would use that in the sense of automation song arrangement, stuff like that. But some other uses of a low cut filter is it's a quick little tool if you're wanting to remove low end out of a sound. So, for example, on a voice Typically, I always have a low cut filter on a voice for, you know, peas and other types of close is it's It's really amazing how powerful this cleans up a vocal. So in addition, a low cut filter can also be used to clean up noise within the signal. You know, typically like a lower frequency noise, such as like a computer fan or other types that kind of rumble, like if an air conditioner was outside or stuff like that. And then at the same time, there is that saying in the industry that you'll read a lot, Ah, where people say that you could be using a low cut filter on the sounds that don't need low end. So, for example, these high hats and shakers, they're typically, you know, mostly high frequency sounds. However, I just want to stress to you be careful with the amount that you're cutting because you may feel that it's not really affecting the sound. But if you're doing doing that to every single sound, sometimes it can take away a little something in your in your music that you know it only it's only noticeable once you kind of do it toe all the sounds because every single sound you know, when you when you chose that sound of the beginning like he chose it for a certain reason. Um, you know, sometimes it might be a better option just to use a low shelf filter. And it's kind of, you know, we become a little bit. Or just use a gentle or slope or just not be so aggressive on your actual cut off point. And then also, when you're dealing with, like kick drums and stuff like that, if you have more than one kick drum, sometimes you do want one kick drum to be like the main kick drum that has the low end. So in your other kick drums, you do have to be very, very careful. Sometimes this doesn't work at all, but on some kick drums, you could just apply the low cut filter to allow the other kick drum toe. Take the low end, Um, and then you can have another kick drum here and then. In addition, you could be using the residents to help, kind of, you know, get that other kick drum still hitting you in like the chest. But it's just not like that low end kick drum, but in my personal opinion, what I'm dealing with multiple kick drums or, like, you know, couple kick drums and a bass line and stuff like that. I typically find site in compression is usually the best wrote to take for that. It avoids all frequency clashing, and it allows. You know, your kick drums to hit hard and you still hear your base. And you know it just allows each to have its own space because you're literally making space for by reducing the volume of certain sounds when certain sounds play. But this is something just to try again. If you have many kick drums and a bass line, you know you could be using this on the kick drums where you're not warning the low end. And then sometimes, if that low and kick stops playing for a bit and then this kick drums playing and now it sounds like too thin. It's almost like, Well, where did this kick drum go? You can also automate this you know. So, for example, when it's playing with the kick drum, you have it here. And when it's playing without the kick drum, you automate it so that it's back to normal or another way around. That, too, is you could have this kick drum, you know, set up the way how we had it. And you can just simply, like clone that kick drum, and you can read it to a different mixture. Insert. Um, if you want to do it that way, that's in my opinion. That's probably the easiest way to do it is just to clone the kick drum and set it up so that whenever they played together, you don't have to be wearing about an automation clip and stuff like that. Okay, so that's a low cut filter. You know, I just showed you different ways. You can use them and be created with them. Just the biggest thing I want to stress to you is if you are using a low cut filter to remove the low end of a lot of your sounds, just be careful on how aggressive you are, you know, with your filters cut off point 25. 5-4 - Comparing In and Out - Frequency Analyzer: Okay, so in this video, artist won't talk to you about an n ended out in terms of meat. Oring. So what's really cool is Fab Filter has both Ah, pre que at a post e que spectrum analyzer. Okay, so when I play this sound, this is before I applied any Q. Okay, so if I take this bad, if I create a bad here boost, you could see nothing's changing on the spectrum. OK, but if I could a post eq you, you could see that my boost, it's actually starting to change can. So you can see right here. So if I remove it, it's gone down. Put it back in its up there. So now the reason why I want to bring this up is because as you're mixing your music, it's really important to use your ears as well as you could be using a reference track. So, for example, one of your favorite kind of commercial tracks and you could drag it into your song here so that you can keep referencing it. So, for example, you know, you, you come to your this song and then you go to your whole song and then you come back here and this will give you an idea of an e que balance. Now the reason why people use reference tracks is because a lot of these well known songs that we hear and listen to have been produced by professionals and very, very expensive studios, right? So, in other words, there acoustics have been properly treated. So as they're mixing their music, their making accurate and proper adjustments. Because again, acoustics are a big part of mixing your music. If your room is not acoustically treated and you're trying to mix, that's gonna have a huge impact on the result of your song. Okay, so there's two things right, so you have to acoustically treat your room. And then you also have to get to know your room in a sense that when you listen to the music in your studio and then you bring it out into the real world, how it's gonna translate. So that's the whole goal Behind. Mixing your music is translations. When you make your music in your studio, you want to hear it exactly as it is right, and then when you listen to it on other speakers such as your phone in your car headphones , all that stuff. You want the music to be very, very similar in terms of being very, very balanced, Sounding like you don't want on your headphones. All of a sudden, it sounds really, really way to Basie. But then you go to like your car speakers, and it is just way too much high end. So the reason why I'm telling you about and in and out Spectrum Analyzer is because when to get into the mastering stage off E queuing, it is quite important just to take a little peek at your songs. Frequency spectrum. OK? And if you're looking at the frequency spectrum and if there's in certain areas like you know, there's quite big dips, you know, your song shouldn't really have that. Like, it should be a quite balanced sound. Um, you know, yes, you're low end could be hitting, you know, a little bit harder because you know it's your base. Yes, the high end is going to be a bit lower, because if it was so high is gonna hurt your ears, you know, So over your years, you're going to start understanding. You know how an analyzer looks towards your song, but that's why you could be using a reference track toe. Look at how the frequency spectrum looks with theirs and you'll typically notice like it's quite balanced. But, you know, having these huge peaks and Knowles Okay, like, you know, everything is quite balanced in that sense, and that's why their music translates so well again. This isn't something I totally look at or, you know, totally follow, and I don't mix my music off of it. But it's just another thing toe look at from time to time as an indicator, letting me know. Okay, so if there's a huge gap or huge null in a certain area, it's just like you know, is my Is there something going on with my song here? And that will kind of be a little indicator, and again, referencing to a commercial track will give you an even better indication. Now you don't have to mix it exactly in terms of the EQ you balance of your favorite song. But that will just give you an idea off how a song sounds and how it translates to all these different systems. Okay, so, for example, for this into this whole song here, and we look at the end, the out. Okay, so there is calling it the pre in the post. Okay, So as I'm looking at this frequency spectrum, you know what? This does look quite balanced, you know? So that's a really, really good indicator that, you know, it seems like a nice balance song. Maybe this kick drum is just a little bit loud. We can just kind of bring it down a little bit, and then you would be into the mastering stage at this point, Like where you're looking at the full frequency spectrum. But if you're not gonna be mastering your own music, you know, you could still be looking at the frequency spectrum. You can kind of just use it as an indicator to know it's just like a So, you know, my song is looking pretty balanced. It sounds balanced. All I'm trying to get across to you is just to use your frequency analyzer as an indicator just to kind of look at it to see where is your track at and maybe isn't missing something . And can you boost or cut to help make your overall song a lot more balanced. So, for example, if we do go to the Master Channel, we open up the EQ. You here, you know. So let's just look at this frequency spectrum again of this Be I've been working on with you throughout this whole course here, so, you know, So maybe let's just take a little out of here. A little boost here, maybe, and get in mastering. It's very, very subtle. Stop soul for a three, Briscoe 0.5 and the school minus 0.35 And watch if ego pre is what it looks like here that people post, you know, maybe a little more. So School one. That's quite that's quite excessive in mastering again. Why cues? Straight off. Okay, so level matching. So minus 0.5. Really, really subtle stuff, Remember, on cancer, maybe it's a little bit right. This is what 0.75 and are okay, So just to kind of give you an idea, even if you're going to mastering a track. So you know, this is typically Howard work, and this is very, very gentle stuff, like even 0.75 could be quite aggressive because you have to think in terms when you're mastering, You're not just a queuing a single instrument anymore. You are actually e cueing the whole song. So in this case of me boosting at 0.75 as around 6000 hertz, it's like licious. Look at the instruments that you know I'm affecting like I could be affecting the hi hats I could be affecting the clap. You know, maybe this lead guitar is being affected too. And surprisingly, I'm probably even affecting the kick drum because you're kick drum, as you can see has high frequency content, you know? So a lot of times, if you're kick drum is a standing O. This is a little trick. You can come here and you can use a high shelf in your kick drum. Okay, so in this case is very, very aggressive. So without it and with it was here in the song que okay with it. So in this case, obviously it's very, very aggressive, but we're also boosting it by 13 decibels. So let's just say if we went to five decibels, let's just put it 2.8 or something like that. So listen to it again, uh, back another one A little bit more seven eso just to let you know. Okay, When you're dealing with mastering, you have to be very, very careful in your e que decisions because you're not just affecting a single instrument . You're affecting the whole song. But yeah, again. So with the frequency spectrum analyzer, just use it as an indicator. Don't follow it, Okay? Doesn't have to be perfect. But again, when you're comparing to the commercial track to your track, if everything's kind of looking decently balanced, I'm sure you're gonna be having a great song. However, you'll never know unless you actually take your music and you start listening toe on different devices, making sure that it translates. And you know, if it if it doesn't, then you just bring it back to your studio. And it's just gonna take your time to start getting used to your studio. And, you know, again it all comes down to ah, properly treated room. That is going to be what's gonna actually allow you to mix your music accurately. So as you can see, audio is very, very complex, and there's a lot to know with audio, and I know I'm going on different tangents here and there. But the thing is, it all relates to E Q and everything because, you know, it all relates like So, for example, if your room isn't properly treated, you're gonna be spending time queuing, making inaccurate decisions, and then you go and test it on different systems. And you're like, Why isn't my music translating very well? And it's like, Well, it's because your room. And so that's what I'm saying. So everything kind of relates to what I'm trying to tell you in terms of, you know, with compression and with, you know, sound treatment for your room. It all deals with e que because this whole course I've been talking to about e que in a real world practice like I'm not just trying to single o e que more trying to explain how a use e que in my productions in a real world practice as I'm using these other tools to kind of how cute integrates with my workflow 26. 5-5 - Boost and Cut Opposite EQs: Okay, So in this video, I want to talk to you about an advanced CQ technique. It's where you used to eke use and you cut in one and you boost in the other. And it allows both sounds to stand out now. This isn't a technique I use very often. And that's because e que is what you call static. And what that means is so right here. If I just create a band, let's just say I put 2000 Hertz, okay? And let's just say would reduce it by, you know, three decibels. So this e que decision is going to be staying like this for the rest of the song, and it can work out in your song. That might sound great. However, it's this like, Well, we're actually reducing you know, these high frequencies, which we might actually want in this guitar. It could just be a couple notes that are causing us trouble and so something you can look into. Is it something called dynamic e que? Or is pretty similar to a multi band compressor. So what it's doing is only one. The certain frequencies go over a threshold, then it will reduce this band and why that's better, in my opinion, is because you're you're allowing your sound to sound natural for the whole song and tell those certain frequencies play which will reduce those frequencies at a certain spot. And it would just be like this. It would be just like a compressor. But in this case, this is something which you can do to help to sound stand out. So imagine we have our lead guitar here, and then we have a body guitar and imagine that they're both clashing in certain frequencies. And this is pretty believable because in this case, you know, we're using the same guitar note for multiple instruments. So how this works, I'm just gonna delete this band deliciously on our lead guitar around 2000 hertz again. So I'll put it back there to can, Let's just say we wanted to stand out here at two decibels. Now what we can do on our body guitars, you can come here and we can put this at two K, and we can maybe now reduce it by two decibels. So what we have done is we've actually carved some space in our song toe, allow for the lead guitar because we're reducing it in this instrument, which we feel is clashing with our other instrument, and we made a spot for it. Now, in addition to that, we can actually come to our body guitar. And let's just say we like the frequencies around 3 50 in our body guitar. So let's just say we boosted by one decibel we can come here on our lead guitar again 3 50 and you can reduce it. But one decibel Now you have to take into account of remember, you want to be mixing your songs with Still sounds like a song When you're doing this type of processing, it could be making your song sound again unnatural, really processed sounding because you have to think on this e que we've boosted by two decibels at two doesn't hurts. But you come here and we've cut it by two decibels at 2000 Hertz. So that's now a four db difference. So, for example, like imagine you went and you're like, Oh, well, I'm gonna boosted by four here and now we're gonna cut it by four. It's like, Yeah, but now that's actually an eight decibel difference in between. You know, it still might sound fine in your song, because again, when you're working with individual instruments, you could be more aggressive on your e que decisions. It's not like when you're on the Master Channel, but this is just something. This is a technique you can try if a certain sound isn't standing out. You know, typically, this is a really, really good technique for vocals. Even with the vocals, I might not use the cut. I might just simply use like, a boost and then a cut, you know, on the instruments that kind of clashing with, um, But in all honesty, the best way to approach that stuff is with either dynamic e que or a multi band compressor with side chain compression that gives your music mawr control because you're literally carving out space on Lee won the vocal plays, and then it dynamically just comes back in, and it's the little allows your music to have lots of energy and breathe and stuff like that. Where's again? This is static. Okay, so our adjustments are staying where they are unless you automate them later on in this song. But in my opinion that starts to kind of get tricky kind of starts to make, you know, making your music take longer and this more finicky. So this is just a technique which I want to pass on to you. You can boost and cut on separate accused of different instruments. But again, in my opinion, the best approach to go about this would be Teoh use like a dynamic CQ or multi band compressor, so that when this sound plays, it reduces these frequencies. Or you can set it up that when these certain frequencies go loud, it would actually reduce in volume just a little bit. 27. 5-6 - Creating an Exciter [Parallel Processing]: okay. And I'm just gonna show you one final technique which I like to do when dealing with an e que if I want some extra brightness So earlier I talked to you a boat. Don't be afraid to, you know, have a high shelf filter and boost it. But you have to make sure that you're actually reducing the volume. And let's just get rid of this CQ because it looks like we have tons of excuse on this guitar sound so we could be using a parallel channel. So I'm just gonna taken insert here and hold on Ault in the arrow key And let's just put it in line here with the lead guitar. So I'm gonna push my middle scroll wheel just hidden enter. So I get the same color and I'm just gonna go lead highs, okay? We'll just be using a parallel track, which we're gonna be using to boost the highs. I'm gonna open up in e que on here now, and what we're gonna do is we're simply just going to take a high shelf and just boost it. And now what you can do in addition to this is you can open a compressor, and the reason why you would predict pressed her on here is just it allows it to stay super , super consistent, like what we're doing is, we're pretty much creating what you call an exciter. So let's just put 24 a little bit more aggressive ratio, you know, the faster attack on a little bit longer release because he wanted to be consistent. So if we just solo out this lead guitar and I just want Robert to here, I would be very, very careful because it's gonna be very, very loud. So let's just dial it back because high frequency content can really hurt your ears, especially when you're dealing with stuff like this. And like Cymbals and white noise and instruments like that. You hear the actual brightness. Theo, you know, again doesn't be so aggressive. We could dial it back a little bit, and you can see it's a subtle thing. This is what you just call an exciter, and you simply just blend in the volume that you want, and it will really help your track have the extra brightness. Now the cool thing with this is we don't just have to use it for the lead guitar. You can actually just label like par highs or something that, you know, maybe give it a different color. And this just has put it with all my other sends. Now we can also be using it for, like, the body guitar. You know, the pads, the hi hats, You know, the clap if warning just a little extra brightness out of our sound Just understanding how the mixer works. It just opens up so much doors for creativity, as you can see. And this is usually a really, really awesome trick for vocals. Because sometimes what happens with vocals, it's if is if you do boost, you know, with high shelf, you can actually be introducing the S. Is So instead of the vocal standing brighter, yes, is brighter, but it's starting to sound sibilant. Okay, so by you approaching it this way, it allows you to get more clarity. But you're not handcuffing yourself by introducing more siblings. You're just introducing more brightness. So it's kind of a cool little work around. Let's listen to in context of the whole track here. Okay? So, again, right now, this is being routed to the parallel highs where I took an e que I boosted the highest here , okay? And by 20 decibels. And then I compressed it quite hard to and I compensated with some makeup gain. So so, as you can hear is, is way too aggressive. So just dial it back a bit and if we come back here but this gold from, like one K or something, one kid, dial it back a little bit. Let's add in this body guitar Try the kick drum. Hi hats. Let's bring it in a bit. 3.5 k Try that. Try the collapse. So again, like I was saying, when you're doing with sends, you don't want to ever use it as a crutch. I'm simply using it to help gives more clarity summer body to help blend my song as a song . Okay, so I actually work on the individual sounds, you know, whether that be on the subgroup, which is affecting all the sounds. And then I use these things to help increase in clarity or get us more grit. So this is a super handy trick again. If you want more info on it, you guys can check out my course. Fl studio mixer workflow 28. 6-1 - Conclusion: All right, guys, that is our course on. You know how to use Q. In your songs, you know, there's a lot of different tangents I went on. I felt their super super important for you guys to understand because, like I'm saying, I use e que in context of all these other tools. But the biggest thing when you're dealing with e que is when you're boosting or cutting that your volume matching and that goes for any effect. OK, that's just my workflow is how I work. It allows me to compare. Do I like it before or after? So if you guys like this, course I really, really appreciate you guys can leave a review. And if you guys would like to see a specific video inside this course, which I didn't cover, for example, if you want me to deal with you know how to eek you vocals or how to eek you a kick drum or whatever, it's very, very easy for me to create, you know, new sections at later dates. So don't be afraid to leave a message or comment, and I'd be happy to create future videos for you. So thank you so much for taking this course I'm gratuitous. Please check out my other courses. If you guys want to continue, you know, learning fl studio with me. So hope you learned a law and I hope the best in your productions.