You Don't Understand EQ
What exactly is an EQ? In this video I go deep into the technical side of how EQs work and share some advanced tips that have helped me improve my EQ and mixing skills. This video goes into depth about impulse responses, minimum phase and linear phase EQs, preringing, and analog EQs. In the second half of the video I give some mixing tips that I don't see mentioned enough.
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Dan Worrall's video on Linear Phase vs Minimum Phase: • EQ: Linear Phase vs Mi...
*EDIT* at 7:34 it should be "EQing HIGHER Frequencies = Less Pre-ringing", instead of 'Lower'
You Don't Understand EQ
► Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
1:04 - What's an EQ?
3:56 - Impulse Responses
5:05 - Minimum Phase vs Linear Phase
8:59 - Analog EQs
10:04 - Practical EQ Tips
16:58 - Outro
Glad to have found someone who doesn't shy away from getting a bit technical in his explanations but doesn't lose the focus on practical applications. That's rare.
aye he def did that lol i love it #theprofessor
Yes man University knowledge for free plus with at home at 4am😂
yeah on god
Yes so good
❤
I love also that you’re not OVERTLY “quirky” and waste time joking like many vids, you add some nice funny humour but don’t stray away from being fast moving, clear and technical. Pls don’t change ur style it’s so mint
Though i laughed hard when he dragged Rebecca Black Friday into his DAW to study a song he loves
Exactly
There's one music production KZheadr I won't name who annoys the hell out of me with all his cutaways to memes. Not necessary.
I do agree.. carefully placed, the E -note plane in back of the piano was funny!
@@rome8180was it edwan?
This guy is straight up brilliant. He clearly has an extremely deep understanding of music production and explains it in very understandable terms. I learned a lot from this video.
Holy crap, I actually get it now. And I've been doing it literally backwards and never understood the idea behind why it wasn't working. I am so excited to rework some things now, especially on a multitracking level, holy crap!
I'm betting he has an engineering degree or something.
Brother I’ve been recording and mixing my own music for ten years and can hear the different regions of the frequency distribution but you blew my mind with the bit about loudness. I just put out my last project and I’m punching the air cause everything I do always sounds quieter than everything else I listen to. Thank you G
Wow
god i'm no professional but this was a revelation to me as well
10 years? Im close t 8 years in and now I'm terrified about things i don't know i don't know when it comes to producing music.
Finally somebody who knows his stuff and can explain it clearly! Would LOVE a video on how to properly master a song
Thank you! I will make a video about mastering
@@sseb_music I second this. Would appreciate a video on what exactly mastering does and basics and how to do it. Liked and subscribed.
Ye my Dude I instantly subscribed
@@sseb_music well, upload videos now then. We're waiting & looking forward to it. & so excited to learn valuble stuffs from u.
@@sseb_music yesss
Exactly what a tutorial video should be. Learned more from this than I did from the 50 other EQ tutorials I watched. Also I have some conversation material for my next date.
100% same situation
Who'd you go on a date with, Quincy Jones ???
Dan Worrall has slept with 80,000 supermodels.
ive been producing for like 5 years and never heard anyone explain EQ in such a detailed manner, very much appreciated! Keep creating :) 💜
He blew an awful lot of transiesnts to learn all this, you can tell from his voice.
5 years ! Wow . Didn't learn much now , did you ?
@@TNT-km2eghe connected a lot of the dots for me regarding the physics and math behind the EQ
bro voice need some eq adjustment 💀
True. If you do mixing content I think the audio of the videos should be super well mixed for reputation purposes.
I think he's probably just using a cheap, hidden, lapel mic instead of a truly good quality one in front of him... Either that or he's just using his camera's built in mic instead of a good quality separate one, because it's the distortion in his voice that kinda makes it sound so "rough"... EQ alone cannot really fix this problem because the input signal itself, from whatever cheap mic he's using, is just badly distorted to begin with, not necessarily just a tonal imbalance, but rather a "muffling" of his voice, due to the mic distorting the lower end of his voice... He really needs a cleaner, better quality microphone to improve this aspect of his audio quality.
He has a gravel voice. I can't listen to him.
Yeah, cut out some of the fry, bro.
Lamo 💀
As someone who studied Fourier Transform, convolution and the likes, I salute you for explaining those concepts quite clearly to your audience. Also - actually useful tips some of which I've never come across in the many youtube videos on production I've watched.
Those concepts did not grasp here. Everything pretty much tho sank the n
Yeah lol, he didn’t go over those..
Great stuff!
almost lost the last of my 2 braincells while watching this video 😵still a cool and informative video nontheless
Ily " rami"
Aye, the guy who produced soft boy
This guy is a god tier music educator
I haven’t mastered EQing yet, but, this confirms what I have learned, so far by, trial and error. I got braver with cutting frequencies on an instrument. I’ve notice a bit more clarity in my mixes. There is a lot of theory here, but this video is Gold for understanding what to do to make it work. Thank you so much of this. Great job of laying all out for us newbs.
15:34 those folder names got me dead hahahha
I had forgotten about Rebecca Black's Friday till this guy reminded me again. Sheeeeeeet...
Lmao same Huge Corn Collection *6TB* xdd And then there is Shrek Soundtrack lol
Top quality 10/10
This is the best EQ tutorial I’ve ever seen and real things that will help me. Everything about your editing is great as well. I feel if it had examples of how sound was effected would be a great addition to the video.
As a mechanical engineer and lead / rhythm guitar player, your explanation was incredibly awesome and insightful. Thankyou!
10:25 Tip1 - EQ parts create definition 12:29 Tip2 - Understand which parts of the sound you *need* and which parts you *dont* 13:30 clever thing with the guitar XD 14:28 Tip3 - Boost to find where the sound should sit in your mix 14:57 Tip4 - Listen 15:33 Have a good folder structure XD 16:56 Bonus Tip - EQ with your eyes closed Thanks for the informative video man! Also I really appreciate those subtle jokes XD
The problem with boosting freqs to "sit in a mix" is that you end up with melodic instruments that sound like ice-picks in your ears. There are a couple of KZhead videos directed at guitar players out there which explain the success of productions and bands who have music you can blast without getting a migraine, and they show by EQ (ProTools, Amplitube, etc.,) demonstrations what some familiar songs would sound like with the range of about 2500-2700 bumped as opposed to scooped out, as they are on the LPs. So if you want a good listening experience, arranging your instruments by frequency isn't the most commercially or aesthetically viable path. It's an amateur pitfall? So if you want to make a sonic distinction between the melodic instrument, vocalist, the bass player and some of the drums/keys/horns, then you do it with variations between chords/keys/modes. That's what I'll do once I finish learning to read and play music, then start my own band!
Thanks
XD
XD
Lol. Yeah, that is, the author simply listed a banal routine approach that everyone uses anyway. Secret, wow!
this tutorial is amazing and DEF fills a much needed niche in the community. 10/10
You made me remember things I'd forgotten. I must be getting old. Nice to see these explained well for people without going to deep but giving the info needed. You've done it so well that it will encourage a lot of people to go deeper and learn more. Great job.
I just gotta say I have learned so much from these videos I watched every one of them today. And I spend hours every day watching music and audio videos have and like to think I’m knowledgeable. Your knowledge and expertise is completely off the charts. Thank you for these videos, they’re all 10/10 no question.
Yeah this is absolutely a cut above what we'd normally find in "production tips" youtube.
This is honestly the best eq vid I’ve ever watched
I have never found anyone who could explain this so comprehensively and break it down in a way I could appreciate it. God bless you, sir!
Your videos are insanely good. I love the technical detail you go into. It's helped me understand a lot of my bad mixing techniques and how to correct them, as well as give me ideas on how to mess things up intentionally.
The first KZheadr I’ve ever liked, commented, and subscribed to. I’m pretty versed on EQ but when people ask me how I do it I’m just like “idk man use your ears and just turn shit til it stops sounding like ass.” Now I can just send people this video.
these are genuine gold nuggets of information that many of the pro producers on youtube don’t give the time of day to. i’ve been looking so hard for this kind of info and the algorithm blessed me today
I just used some of the subtractive eq techniques in this video and I got my melody sample sounding louder without increasing the output vol. Good stuff fam!! Hope you return with more great videos again soon. If we can help in any way please let us know
Your video was just the last one I wanted to watch today, as I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out why my EQ is just not working even with all my understanding, and I think the best thing in this entire video was your addition of the exercises with playing with professional tracks, white noise, the saw wave and just overall tracks. I never thought about that and I think and hope it will be effective for my success. Great video
It's totally awesome that you went through the relationship between FIR and IIR filters and how they affect EQ and then on top of that giving actual principled advice to help someone get good at listening. Hearing, "just listen to songs you think are well done" doesn't compare to the detail in this video. Great job.
Wow, this channel will take off. Zero time wasted, amazing tips that are very rare on the internet, great explaining. Wish you good luck, I'm subscribing and switching the notification button as well.
Love the way you present this information - just the right amount of technical detail and practical tips from experience. Great stuff!
Probably the best EQ video I've ever watched. I have never heard ANY of these tips, usually people are telling us the opposite (boost & sweep to identify sounds to cut), which I stopped doing a good while back because it never helped! Yes, PLEASE keep making these, you have my sub, man. Great work!
Dude, you nailed this. Best EQ tutorial I've seen and instant inspiration to go through some of my tracks and strip them back to the premix state and just figure out how much can be done with EQ alone. Definitely going to try out the white noise exercise. Would love to see more content like this with all of the major mixing techniques. Subbed.
Dude pick proper sounds and use an eq as little as possible.
Dude you crushed it! Your videos are amazing! Thank you for taking the time for all this. Do not stop what you are doing. You are by far one of the best tutorial and online educators i've seen.
Hey, I just wanted to thank you for this video. I clicked on it because I like music produktion, but what I got was a detailed help for my digital-signal exam I have to write in a few weeks. So this was an absolute blast, where I learned something for my studies at the University, but at the same time I learned something about music production. Thx a lot.
There are good teachers and then there are naturally great teachers. The only difference in effectiveness, is the naturally great ones possess the natural ability to convey information in a easy to understand and absorb manner. It's as if they can always recall their state of mind when they first began to learn about a topic or subject, so it's easy for them to reanimate their absorption process to new beginners, or even intermediates. This was a great video and taught me a lot about EQ that I haven't previously been presented with. Thanks again mate and keep up the great work! I'll 100% be back for more
7:58 cracked me up haha, love the little jokes interspersed between the extremely clear explanation: finally made the things I learned about waveforms and convolution make sense in the context of EQ (and why EQ has phaseshift or latency in the first place). Hope you make more of these insanely high quality videos!
i have full confidence, as of right now this channel being 1.2k subs, it will grow to 100k+ easily if the content keeps up like this. it's not just the info which is niche as well as relevant, but the presentation and the flow of the video as well and straight to the point
sadly he just popped up, saved all of us and just disappeared...
@@k9nevienna A true hero. Hope he's doing well, whatever he's up to.
LOVE the nerdy explanations of what all the graphs and other things are in my mixing software. Thanks.
I am absolutely blown away at the level of detail and helpfulness in this video
definitely wanna see more videos about other topics that are is in depth & informative as this one. i like the editing as well, it was very concise and helped with your explanations. im certainly subscribing to see what else you put out
Guy just comes right out of the gate with a perfect video. Damn.
great video. i've been studying this stuff for a few decades and i've not had anyone (teacher, mentor, colleague) ever go that deep on the eq. fascinating.
musician since a young age, studied electronics engineering, hifi audio, recording studio, music production hobbyist, etc etc., and I have NEVER heard/watched a better explanation of what an EQ actually does to an audio signal/wave in my life brilliantly explained/outlined; what a great find youtube has sugested today, wow! great job!
Whenever I watch Dan Worrall, I get my notebook and write down lots of notes. That is what I did with this video too. Thank you for making such a quality video. You can't find these anywhere else. I don't have any specific topic request but I wan't you to continue with these kind of deep knowledge tutorials. Appreciated a lot, cheers!
You are a genius! I want more. Thank you for all this solid information. Stuff like this is so hard to find here. And i watched mixing videos for so many years.
I went to grad school for music tech and have several years of education in signals, and you're helping me understand things I didn't in school.
Damn! One of the best EQ videos I've seen in a while! This actually gave me something useful while most production videos are like "10 eq tips to up your producer game" and they just say some values you should go with and don't tell you why it works. The style you use is super helpful, you don't say what to do, instead you guide how to think when you work (
All your videos are incredible! Nothing like throwing in the mathematics and concepts that build the digital signal processing domain! Your understanding of these topics are probably the reason we don’t get new vids. I hope you are ok and these videos helped you land your dream job!
Great video man. I was already doing a lot of these in my mixes but it was great to hear you put words to it. Looking forward to more content :)
First of all I wanna say thank you because it feels like I just learned something that takes thousands of dollars to learn. Unfortunately I still don’t understand it perfectly but you just opened up a whole can of worms that I never even thought about. This information seems invaluable in terms of music production. I feel like if I’ve been focusing too much on the sounds together but not on the actual frequencies and how they mix. Even though I don’t understand the technical stuff yet because I am fairly new to music production, I appreciate it wholeheartedly. thank you for this and I hope that if I am subscribed I will learn a lot more. One more thing of note, the whole thing of doing the equalizer with your eyes closed it feels like something that I would’ve told my students back when I taught photography. Sometimes the best way to do something is to do it through instinct not your actual senses. You’re actually a great teacher and I hope that you consider teaching kids because you would actually change lives.
Keep talking
Thanks for taking the time to thoroughly explain the technical details of EQ; it’s made everything click for me. Great work & looking forward to more.
Instantly got my respect when referencing a Noisia track in the same example pool as Justin Bieber. This guy knows his stuff.
Rebecca Black was also in there and I can't even.
This is some top quality content! Helpful and very deep, visuals are well done, and you put a few jokes here and there
Fantastic video. Its great to have a tutorial that actually gets in depth instead of just surface level!
Such an in depth and informative video on the dynamics of eq while being clearly conveyed, thank you! This videos going to be responsible for much more great music entering the soundscape
wow... I watch a lot of videos - very often I feel like wasting my time. but this is amazing! thank you so much - this is university quality.
bro need to eq the audio for this video
sounds like he cut the fundamental frequency of his voice
His speaking voice is muddy af.
This is an absolute goldmine of information.
I have never seen a music production video so informative! It's honestly like a discrete signal processing lecture. Thank you very much 😁
I learned some great things from this video and can't wait to use this info on my own mixes. One thing I've figured out that I think would help new producers is to make sure you take the time in the very beginning to find sounds that already work great together. Put together a mix that sounds great BEFORE eq and you will be set up for success.
yes many people stick to the first few sounds they pick... go through presets and see if anything will fit better... just like swapping drum samples later into your productions. you may notice some presets fit VERY well together before surgical eq if required
As kind of a corollary to that: If you're having trouble fitting a sound into your mix, consider using the mute button 😆
‘Casually scrolling reddit and came across your video. I found this helpful and felt compelled enough to leave a comment lol
me too!
That tip on cutting around a frequency region instead of boosting said region, pretty clever! Just tried that on a mix I've been struggling with, I was a bit skeptical at first but man does it clean things up! Thanks a bunch for the tips buddy, keep up the good work
This is one of the clearest tutorials i've seen on KZhead. Subscribed!
Really incredible stuff man. I will 100% keep following you
Dude, thank you! The only thing I would also want to see out of the videos is some sound reference to what you are talking about. This video was super informative.
2 years later and you just taught a newbie something so effective and in a great way bro, thank you
Awesome video. I love it. The way you present it is very professional and interesting without losing the listener. I totally enjoyed the little "fun surprises" you've put in. Thank you.
Bro the distorted layer on your voice in this video is wild 💀 jaw dropped once i realized how clean that was? Idk if you were just hot on the mic but it sounded so clear with a heavy distortion under it. Sounded nice
This had the potential to be the greatest production channel on the internet
This is the best breakdown of EQ that I have come across.
Great video!! Love the technical explanations! Keep ‘em coming please 🙏
This is super dope and in depth. Thank you so much! Could you please talk about compressing? I imagine it's an important topic as well. Thank you in advance. Big fan!
Very helpful video! Covered a few things that I currently struggle with. If you are looking for video ideas, I would love one about low mids/mud. Its something that when I see people talk about it it tends to be 'if it sounds muddy, cut somewhere between 150/200-about 400, maybe a little higher...'.
Really appreciate it. The deeper you know your work the easier it is to fix problems in the way.
This was absolutely awesome. I feel like this video went more in depth in just a few minutes than some of my college classes. Or at least I've forgotten! As someone who likes both the creative and technical / scientific aspects of audio this video was perfect. Thanks for all the effort put into this, from your newest subscriber!
This video was exceptionnel. I didnt understand everything in the « neardy technical » part and I will have to watch it over and over, but we need more adventurous popularizer like that. As someone who’s trying to learn Smaart, it’s important to understand the physics of sound to be able to make more informed decisions / to understand what you’re doing. Unfortunatly, I see that all his videos are two years old. If you read this comment Sseb, I’d like to know if you’re planning to continu this channel. By the way I’m french so sorry if my english isn’t the best. Thanks!
Nice! I have a feeling that tip about cutting either side of a frequency is going to be worth its weight in gold, subscribed for that. Could you do a video on compression? I struggle to do it nicely on vocals without them starting to sound like the microphones are super cheap... Thanks!
Best explanation I’ve ever seen! and I’ve been EQing for over 35 years! Really great!!! Thank you
Just came across this and your way of explaining is really entertaining, love learning with a few laughs along the way! Extremely disappointed to see there are only 5 videos on your channel!
Top quality, damn!
I love this! This was great. I know you have time stamps but can you also add the Chapters in the progress bar to make it easier to go to the part the viewer might want to watch
That's weird, they show up for me.. maybe try refreshing the page?
@@sseb_music AHh I see them now! Great! Literally perfect video now
Great video! Most youtube videos about the mix and master shows or describes the technology of how to achieve the final sound, but does not stipulate what happens from the inside. As a math, physics, etc. geek it was great to hear about the Fourier transform. Best of luck with the new content.
Your explanations are clear and concise, much appreciated!
15:34 would love to see a tutorial on how to use that toaster
Fantastic, one of the best tutorials ive watched in months. One question though, with turning volume down then boosting tip at 14:50. I presume you can't just leave it boosted once you've found the sweet spot, as you said earlier cuts are preferable. So what should one do? Raise the volume back up then cut the frequencies that arent in the boost, and lower the boost back to it's normal level?
There are no hard rules, but what I usually do is boost to identify the most important frequency region, then lower the volume back down and start sculpting around that frequency region with subtractive EQ
This wasnt even something I was looking up, but as a nerd I listened to the whole thing. very engaging and well presented without dumbing things down too much.
Interesting, educating and, even though technically in-depth, presented in a very understandable, relaxed and "easy" way! Great contribution, thx for sharing!!
That's a nice set of basic stuff you need to be aware of when equing sounds. I would like to contribute a couple of tips I have figured out during my career. 1. If you like cutting low-end rumble by HPF, try not to do that right before the fundamental frequency; cut one octave below that. For example, if your sound has a fundamental around 100 Hz, imagine where the fundamental could be while the instrument is playing an octave below, and cut there. If you really need to cut right below the fundamental, try a notch or high-slope peak. 2. Master using low shelves and high shelves to do three jobs at once, utilizing one band. If you pull a low shelf on hi-Q, you can boost the desired part of the spectrum by taking advantage of the boost that a low shelf creates when Q > 1. This technique sounds much better than HPF. Also, you can find EQs that allow you to shift shelves, which makes more bumps if you want them, or trade this bump for more cut right after (or before) shelf frequency. 3. If you like cutting resonances on vocals, try to keep your peaks in even order. I found that resonances mostly come from certain parts related to the construction of the microphone, such as capsule resonances and the body of the microphone. The same happens in speaker drivers and contributes to a parameter known as distortion. These points you want to cut in the upper mid/high spectrum of vocal recording are, for the most part, quite a periodic pattern (i.e., resonances appear at a fixed distance from each other). This helps with cutting out what really makes your vocals sound bad and keeping phase response relations between bands organized. 4. Properly managing the output of EQ helps the digital side of things preserve a good representation of your sound. 5. As a starter, try to use separate EQ instances for different approaches. Keep your cutting resonances separate from broad boosts; digital EQs can handle that much better. 6. Think of low frequencies as highways for everything above(or as a highway for other instruments). If your low-end sounds solid, every detail in the highs will be represented much more clearly. Sometimes while doing stem mastering, I see how the mixer tried to compensate for the lack of highs on vocals with boosts, where I can hear that bass is having quite a resonance in the highs, even if there's not much musical information in there and you can't hear resonance clearly. Eq on bass can drastically change how your other instruments sound. 7. If you're claiming yourself as a pro and you haven't utilized FIR eqs in free phase mode on critical sounds yet in your workflow, try it. DMG equilibrium is a killer in this type of approach. I'm able to shape sybilants not only by volume but also by phase, which is like time-managing certain sybilans.
You're gonna blow ur channel!
You just explained why my mix eq always works and I have never seen it presented anywhere. Yes people do say I.E: Lets cut 250 from the Cello and Boost it on the Bass to get them to sit better in the mix, but I never boost the frequencies I cut, I just listen to the whole mix and cut what makes more room and compliments everything. What you said about the complimentary cuts around 300hz instead of boosting it makes so much sense and I have been doing it and eqing with my eyes closed the whole time without knowing exactly why it works, thanks!
By far, the best and most informative video about EQ I have found. The only exception was when I had an experienced elder try to explain to me how a sound board works with high and low noise, filtering out what wasn't needed for the clearest sound possible - and that was in real life.
I was completely lost until 11:22 and then it felt like my entire mixing process changed lmao
I really loved seeing the nitty gritty about how the EQ worked! - if you do any more of these, i'd like to hear them! - (maybe reverb or formant shifting?)
OMG! Brilliant. That made more sense than anything I've ever heard about the EQ. I somehow, intuitively, already did that takeaway a frequency/ boost a frequency. You just made all that make sense. Thank you, bro!
This was awesome! As someone just getting into live sound I appreciate the tutorial nature of the video. I know EQ can be mysterious thanks for bringing some things to light... btw i gotta try doing those sweeps with my eyes closed. The geeking out on wave form dynamics bit was entertaining as heck and the difference between analog and digital was great too! Bravo great video!
Thanks for putting this together, I got a lot out of the technical part of the video. Question regarding Linear Phase EQ. Does that delay still occur when you print/commit/render a clip with Linear Phase EQ? Is that delay an inherent quality of linear phase or is the delay only part of real time processing?
this delay is part of both: realtime process and rendering/printing, but it's compensated by your DAW internally, so your project is always in sync. For instance, if you work in Cubase the number of miliseconds the delay provides is shown in the mixer right above the fader panel.
Anyone else notice at 15 35 when he opens his "Best Songs" folder and pulls up Rebecca Black Friday? Hahahaha
Yes, that was genius!
@@Karlush yea brother, I thought the same
This video showed up and I had to click it because Im 51 years old and never understood how to EQ. Thank you so much for such a detailed yet simplified, high speed explanation!
Clearing my ears with EQ-Tips