EQ on final mix - some thoughts

I have been working on a process that some of you may find interesting and hopefully helpful. 
 
On more recent projects I have worked on, I am paying close attention to the hi-end on lead vocal.  I have found that in my older mixes, the entire mix was not as bright or clear in the high end frequency as what I hear over the intranet, some of the more experienced Sonar users here on the forum, or CD's. 
 
I have been learning to EQ lead vocals now with more highs than I have normally done.  This is helping to bring out clarity in the words, more "air" in some songs, and definately makes the lead vocal easier to listen to when played back in the car, in earphones, as MP3's, etc.  I then compared what I was doing to popular artists and Beatle songs.  I found that many of the Beatle's recordings have quit alot of high end to the vocals and so I have been comparing my voice EQ to thiers.  My goal is not to have to turn up the highs when listening to my mixes in my car.  That is my current proving ground outside of my phones. 
 
Now that I am paying more attention to the vocal EQ compared to popular releases, I then found that the other instruments that produce high end were below par from the vocal EQ.  For example, cymbals were not as crisp as the vocals even though they may share some of the frequency range (3K to 10K for basic example).  So, I now have been bringing up the highs on those instruments to try to get in the same ballpark as the vocals.  Guess what?  It works. 
 
I listen to many of the song posts on this forum and have found that many of the mixes lack in good high-end.  I have also found that the vocal may sound OK but the backing tracks don't come up to the same overal frequency of the vocals. 
 
When thinking of these relationships in frequency response between instruments, I now can better appreciate the commercial releases I like because these issues have been addressed by experienced producers and engineers.  After all, when releasing commercial product, your song has to hold up being place right after another band or artist.  If your mix is lacking in overall frequency spectrum, then it will be all too apparant.  This is one of the primary goals of mastering which is to bring overall frequency and loudness up to a popular standard. 
 
So the bottom line in my thread is that for those of you trying to get more out of your mixing, try listening to some music you love and note the high end.  Then play your track and compare.  Don't be afraid to crank it up!  Then compare your backing tracks to the vocal and make sure they are in the same "world".  Then, check out the mids and lows to see if they need adjustment.  They most likely will since you are boosting highs.  Finally, compare again what you think is your final mix to the other music. 
 
What I suspect will happen to those of you that try this is that your mixes will evolve into being closer to what you listen to commercially and they should also hold up better in different environments.  You may not have to crank up high end in your car either!
 
Just a thought.  When I listen to your songs on the forum, I will be checking out the relationship of your vocal high-end to cymbals, percussion and other instruments to see if they blend well.  If I hear your vocal is bright, but the cymbals are dull - you have some potential work to do IMO. 
 
Let me know if this is helpful or not.
 
Good mixing! 
 
Rimshot
 
 

Thanks Guitarhacker for your comments.  You are right that it is not easy but possible.  

I find that most digital has enough high-end.  And it is best to capture the highs when recording.  If you are pumping up the highs in too many tracks or by too much, it is probably time to reconsider.

That being said, judicious use of high end boost can help, esp. w/ vocals and leads.  It helps them pop out.  But rolling off your other tracks' high end some can help the leads stand out, too.

Of course, this ain't science, rocket or otherwise.  It is art, and if you find a sound you like and replicate it, you are good.

@

Hi Kalle, 
Good point.  It's the comparison to commercial product that I am suggesting as the baseline.  Then, making sure that within our own mix, we recognize that there are frequency "relationships".  Again, if I have a bright and pleasant sounding vocal but the cymbals are much duller sounding, then I am suggesting there may be a need to address that.  All this coming from working on my own mixes and listening to many from the forum here.  

Rimshot

Well, I don't disagree with your comments rimshot but it is highly dependent on the type of music one is creating. Between Chinese capsule mics, transformerless mic preamps and low end converters, most home recordings in my experience produce tracks with too much high end and low quality low-mids and low end. For the type of music I make, more in the James Taylor, Civil War i.e. folk to R&B genre, I pretty consistently am using low pass filters in the 10k and down to 7k range to get things to sound like tape. Any lack of clarity can be addressed with a general EQ on the 2 buss. Also, you can create a mix matrix i.e. group busses for major parts of the instruments and then run all of the music into another master music buss. You can then balance the voice against the music and EQ both to taste for balance.

Of course it really all depends on the microphone and vocalist so general EQ tips may not be transferable. Probably the most general EQ advice I would throw out, besides using your ears and comparing to commercial products, is that EQ is that 3rd dimension from back to front. The brighter something is, the closer to the listener it sounds in a mix, the darker it is the farther back it sounds. So I find there are two passes of EQ when I mix. The EQ required to make it just sound right in a general sense with the rest of the track and the second pass to push things forward or push them back in a mix depending on what is most important at that moment. Additionally I may automate EQ for certain sections which might eliminate volume automation all together later. This two pass approach sets up a better sound stage for the vocal to reside. Then I run all of the music to a separate buss to level balance the instrument performance against the vocal. 

Lot's of ways to skin the cat on this.