EQ presets for Sonitus EQ

I'm trying to improve the overall quality of my mixes and was wondering if anybody has EQ presets for the Sonitus that they want to share. I know the best tool for improving a mix is is the human ear but it would be great if I had a jumping off point for say bass guitar, bass drum, snare, male vox, female vox etc. Thanks in advance.

Joe D

+1 to that. Plus sheesh, there's presets already in there. EQ more than anything else you just HAVE to use to personal taste. There are no presets alone that you can apply to your mixes to magically improve them.

On the upside, EQ is the easiest thing to learn and play with, and totally non-destructive. Start with a general guideline: cut narrow, boost wide. Also, try cutting instead of boosting if at all possible. Especially because you mention your mixes, which is all about getting everything sounding good together. That means carving out a little slice of home in the frequency spectrum for all your sounds.

So, just crank it up and have at it!

The main thing is to get a good basic grasp on the concept of compression. The Mixing Engineers Handbook has some great info on when/how/why to use it (lots of free articles on the web too - google). There are also some interesting and creative ways they detail too in M.E.H.. But once you begin to get comfortable with the different parameters and what they accomplish I think presets become unnecessary. Like John said - every instance is different.

I find that most individual instruments, and combinations of similar instruments can benefit from some degree of compression (even if very slight) and then the overall mix to be sure. But I think it is just a matter of trial and error until you get comfortable with the concept (and of course looking at some basic presets will help too) and then you'll have a solid idea of when and where to use it and will use presets only as a starting point - if at all.


NOTE TO SELF: In the future, when people ask questions about various topics and you choose to answer, try and read the post carefully so as to answer the actual question that they ask.

(EQ, Compressor - what's the difference? )

ORIGINAL: degaetanoj

I'm trying to improve the overall quality of my mixes and was wondering if anybody has EQ presets for the Sonitus that they want to share. I know the best tool for improving a mix is is the human ear but it would be great if I had a jumping off point for say bass guitar, bass drum, snare, male vox, female vox etc. Thanks in advance.

Joe D

There is a mixing template for Sonar RIGHT HERE

The only presets I have ever used that weren't mine were low cuts & hi cuts and maybe the telephone voice bandpass thingy which I tweaked anyway. For simple stuff like that, it takes almost as long to call up the preset as it does to just shape the EQ in the first place. And for more complex EQ curves, they are going to be specific to the source material & not applicable to any other track.

Try a few different EQs, even demos. There's Redline EQ, Fabfilter, even freeware EQs with TONS of presets. Even if you have a good grasp for EQ-ing, you will find every plugin is a whole new ballgame. Sonitus is really good though. You can do the bass trick where you take a bass track and clone it and do a highpass and boost at 400Hz on the second track, add saturation. All of a sudden, your bass is EQ'd. EQ-ing that same track will never get that sound. 
 
Practice by using a few instances of Sonitus. Do a highpass on one, a mid boost on another, a mid cut on another. Scoop the mids on one. Make an EQ for drums and things the way you like just to get the hang of it, then look up what people are saying works good for them for kick drums. It's usually pretty much the same. 150Hz is a hot spot for kick & snare if you aren't looking for a big fat bassy sound (then use 50Hz). Guitars need a highpass most cases (which means decrease everything below 100Hz, sometimes higher). After your highpass, you might find that boosting 80Hz actually does something now. On a lot of amps, there's an EQ that goes 80Hz, 240Hz, 750Hz, 2200Hz, 6600Hz. Move them around slightly. Try to avoid just a V but make like a /V\ (not so drastic but peaks at 240 and 2200 rather than 80 and 6600). 

If you've got a spare twenty bucks, you might be interested in this:  http://www.ear-machine.com/iQ.html