What is an Equalizer? A Beginner's Guide For Savvy Musicians
Friday, May 10, 2024
Key Takeaways
- An Equalizer, also referred to in short as an “EQ”, acts as a volume knob for the different frequencies that make up a sound.
- EQs are mainly used in music creation to highlight certain frequencies, remove unwanted frequencies and create clarity, space in your mix for different instruments and as a sound design tool.
- EQs are used in the production, mixing and mastering stages of the music creation process as well as in live sound and podcast production.
- Training your ears is the most important skills to develop in learning how to use an EQ effectively.
- An Equalizer, also referred to in short as an “EQ”, acts as a volume knob for the different frequencies that make up a sound.
- EQs are mainly used in music creation to highlight certain frequencies, remove unwanted frequencies and create clarity, space in your mix for different instruments and as a sound design tool.
- EQs are used in the production, mixing and mastering stages of the music creation process as well as in live sound and podcast production.
- Training your ears is the most important skills to develop in learning how to use an EQ effectively.
What is an Equalizer in Music?
Put simply, an Equalizer, also referred to in short as an “EQ”, acts as a volume knob for the different frequencies that make up a sound. You may know that the average human ear has a hearing range from very low frequencies at 20 Hz to very high frequency sounds at roughly 20,000 Hz. All the sounds that we hear, such as a baby’s cry, the rumble of a plane taking off or a melodic synth line in our favourite song lies within this frequency range. Within the realm of music creation, if we were using any of the above mentioned sounds in our song and want to enhance certain frequencies in these sounds or remove unwanted frequencies, we can do this with the help of an Equalizer.
What is the Function of an Equalizer and When Should I Use One?
As mentioned above, the function of an EQ is to turn up or turn down certain frequencies within a piece of audio or an audio input signal. Why would we want to do this? Here are a few reasons:
To highlight certain frequencies
Say you have a guitar that you’ve recorded and the 2,000 Hz region sounds particularly beautiful. You might want to highlight this section of the of the frequencies in the sound to bring out its beauty. You can use an equalizer to do this for you by subtly boosting these frequencies in this sound.
To reduce unwanted frequencies
In a similar example to the above, say you’ve recorded a lovely guitar melody and everything is perfect however there is a certain honkiness in the sound around the 500 Hz range that you don’t like, you could use your EQ to bring down this frequency to clean up the sound.
Create clarity and space in your mix for different instruments
Once we start layering many tracks, our song can start to sound muddy with the frequencies of many of our sounds overlapping one another. This is also called “masking”. We can use Equalizers to start creating space by cutting away all the bass frequencies that may have been recorded in your hi hit sound for example so that your hi hats aren’t taking up previous space in the low end of your song which you may want to allocate to a bass or a kick.
Want to learn more about EQ's and how to use them?
What Do You Need an Equalizer For?
EQs are used in a variety of music and sound disciplines. Here are a few of them:
Music Production and Sound Design
You can use an EQ to essentially shape the tone of the sounds in your song by boosting and cutting various frequencies so that they sound just the way you want.
Mixing
Once the production of the song is finished, EQs are used in the Mixing process to clean and create space as well as fill certain frequency pockets. You can also think of it as using Equalizers as a tool to give each sound it’s “home” within the frequency spectrum and not putting too many sounds in the same “home” to avoid clashes!
Mastering
Once the Mixing is complete, EQs are used in the mastering process in very subtle ways. Whereas in the Sound design stage you may be making significant boosts and cuts to make the instrument sound just right, in mastering the EQ levels are often in the scale of movements of a dB or less. As EQs at this stage impact the track as a whole rather than individual sounds, small setting changes can have significant impact on the overall song. As a result, less can often be more with relation to EQs during this process.
Live Sound
EQs are used in the music creation process but also also an important tool available for live sound engineers. Live sound engineers will use Equalisers for similar purposes as the music creation process however it is instead used in the live playback setting where certain frequencies from different live instruments or of the overall sound may need to be boosted or controlled
Podcast Production
Equalizers are not only uses with relation to music and sound but are also a useful tool when editing and processing vocal speech. Again the use of this will be in a similar manner to it’s use in other disciplines where the EQ will be used to boost and cut frequencies from the original voice signal to improve the tonal balance of the recording.
Equalizer Settings and How to Use Them
EQ terms to know:
- Frequency: The Frequency in Hz or Hertz that you are looking to effect with your Equalizer.
- Gain: The value of the increase or decrease in volume that you you want to assign to the frequency you are looking to effect and is measure in dBs or decibels.
- Q or Bandwidth: The Q value or Bandwidth relates to he width of the frequencies that you want to impact with your EQ. A high value will result in a narrow frequency band which is good for surgical adjustments whereas a small Q value will result in a wide boost or cut which is good for a more widely shaping your sound.
- Filter Types: The filter shapes you have available to you in most EQs as mentioned below:
Want to Start Producing but Not Sure Where to start?
How To Use An EQ
With relation to usage, this really comes with time, practice and experience. A great exercise to do is to listen to your favourite music in your DAW or production software with an EQ on the track. Add a bell filter and sweep through the frequency spectrum to listen to what elements sit within different parts of the spectrum. The more you train your ears (WEBTet is a great free resource to do this), the better you will becoming at listening critically and identifying what EQ adjustments need to be made to your track for it to align with other commercial tracks in your genre and also how using an EQ can shape the sounds you are wanting to create.
Have fun by adding an EQ to different tracks, changing the filter types and hearing what happens! One parting tip is that, unless you’re using it for sound design, less can often be more!
by Xylo Aria - Founder of Music Production for Women
Hey! I'm Xylo Aria
CEO Of Music Production for Women
I'm so glad you're here with us! If you're interested in learning to produce and are finding it overwhleming then I know how you feel and am here for you.
Start Learning To Produce for Free!
We want to help women start learning to produce as quickly as possible in a safe, supportive and encouraging environment.
So stop spending hours on Youtube and let us help you to start creating the music of your dreams through a 2 week free-trial of our Intro to Music Production Course for Beginners on Ableton Live!
We've helped thousands before you from all around the world and look forward to helping you too!
Need Help Setting Up Your Home Studio on a Budget?
Grab a FREE copy of our Getting Started in Music Production Checklist to avoid overspending on things you don't need yet!
CONTACT US
Please email us on
support@musicproductionforwomen.com
Privacy Policy