Logic Pro X - #60 - Mixing (part2): Understanding EQ; Channel EQ Plug-in; EQ'ing Drums Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

you
hello this is music tech health guide
- episode 60 of my logic pro ten video
tutorial series this video is the second
video of my mixing miniseries so we're
still working on this that same song
from episode 59 living on the run and in
the previous episode we just went
through and did a basic balanced mix we
went through and played at the volume
faders play at the pan grouped the drums
and just sort of got a and overall
decent uh you know balance among all of
our instruments today we're going to
talk about Equalization using an EQ the
parts of an EQ and we're going to EQ our
drums here when I'm mixing I always like
to start with the drums for me in
rock-and-roll and even in dance music
and and even in other genres as well I
mean the drums are really sort of the
foundation of the beat the foundation of
the groove of the song so some people
would say well why not start with the
the vocals and mix everything under the
vocals I don't know my my the way I've
always done it is start with the drums
and mix everything to the drums so
that's just the way I've always done it
so this is what our drums sound like
right now
and they sound pretty decent um there's
some noticeable things about the kick
and snare that I want to fix as well as
as a lot of the cymbals so let me go
ahead and hit shift G to take these out
of the group or to suspend our group I
should I need to unsolo them then take
them out of the group let's start with
the kick tracks on the previous video I
I completely just muted the I FET track
because I didn't really like the way
that that mic was sounding but I still
have this d6 kick track which is d6 is
inside the drum and then a Yamaha sub
kick on the outside so let's listen to
just the d6 sounds like and it's not bad
I want it to have a little bit more slap
to it as far as the punch is concerned
we're going to have to sort of rent to
get that from a compressor or some other
dynamic plugin
this brings up a good topic is I
typically EQ before I compress it's just
my general rule EQ before compression
and my idea for that is that basically
if you can press a track and then you EQ
it after the compression you can kind of
undo some of the dynamic processing that
you're doing to it so I always like to
put EQ first and then compression second
and by the way EQ and compression or
sort of like your bread and butter of
mixing before you even start thinking
about using you know modulation and
time-based plugins like reverb and delay
and chorus before you start using any of
those sort of special effects plugins
you want to sort of make sure the mix
sounds go to just EQ and compression
alone or EQ and dynamics plugins so in
this video we're going to use two
different plugins we're going to use one
that's called the channel EQ and the
linear phase EQ they're both almost
identical in the way they look but just
though how they affect the sound is
slightly different and one other thing I
want to mention real quick is in this
video series I'm going to try to for the
most part stay away from using
third-party plugins which I do use a lot
of
arty stuff it's just that I since this
is a logic series I'm going to try to
stick with logics plugins and believe it
or not logic stock set of plugins are
pretty decent so I'm going to use the
channel EQ for now so I throw the
channel key right there on the audio
effects insert oops and again if you
missed that it's right there on the
audio effects insert to open up your
effect you just click on it it'll open
up the the window for it now if you're
using logic 10 point 0.5 and earlier I
believe the channel EQ is going to look
a little bit different it's going to
look basically the same way it looked in
Logic 9 and Logic 10 they get gave the
interface sort of like a revamping so it
looks prettier
it doesn't necessarily function any
better it doesn't sound any better it
just looks a little bit different so
before we EQ our our kick drum let's
talk about some of the different let's
talk about what EQ does in EQ basically
can boost or attenuate boost or cut the
signal in the frequency spectrum and the
normal audio range that we use the on
normal frequency range we use and audio
applications is 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz
and the reason why we use 20 to 20 is
because the human ear really doesn't
hear anything below 20 or above 20 and
most people can't even hear above 18 or
19 thousand so the the normal hearing
range for most people is actually
somewhere between about 30 Hertz and 16
or 17 thousand Hertz actually we're used
to actually hear tones above 17 thousand
Hertz you start to more or less just
sort of sense that there's something
there and below say like 40 Hertz
instead of hearing you know audible
tones you start to just feel it you know
more than you actually hear it so this
is more or less just the usable range of
audio most eq's are going to have a sort
of different bands of frequencies that
you can pull up or pull down and I want
to explain the difference between these
and here you can see just three
different shapes there's one here
here in here all of these ones here
these are all called bands so it's a
band of frequencies that you can bump up
or bump down it has like sort of a
center frequency to it it's almost like
a little hill or a little trough or a
little crest this sort of band is
actually called a shelf we turn that one
off the shelf is a little bit different
in that you can cut the signal and then
have it stay cut for you know basically
all the way down or up here all the way
up the frequency spectrum and then the
last type is a filter the filter is the
one on the bottom the bottom and top end
here a filter is a little bit different
than a shelf in that it does cut
everything below a certain frequency but
it continues to cut it and then you end
up with nothing or for the perception of
nothing down your low end or your high
end so let's just talk about um let's
actually start with the instead of
starting and by the way you can click on
the bands up here to turn them on or off
let's start with the filters this type
of filter is called a high-pass filter
it's called a high-pass because you
allow all of your highs through but you
cut the low so the word pass basically
just means allow this one is a low-pass
filter so it allows lows through but
cuts hyves this is a low shelf and this
would be a high shelf the thing about a
shelf is that you can actually boost or
cut frequencies with a filter you can
really only except for if like a
resonance when if you're using resonance
you can really only cut signal you can't
really boost signal and then with bands
bands you basically can boost signal or
cut signal between sort of like a range
at a center frequency so let's go over
what the the sort of the parameters of
each one of these are let's actually
start with the band with a band if I
click on this one you can see it's in
yellow and it highlights in yellow here
and also highlights in yellow here so
these are the corresponding parameters
for this band you have your center
frequency which is basically the
frequency where
the center of the band is you have your
booster gain which is going to be
negative or positive so you can add gain
or subtract gain and excuse me and then
the next the bottom one is called Q Q
stands for quality but Q controls the
bandwidth of the band so as you pull
this up you line up with the more narrow
band as you pull this down you'll get
more of a wide band so I do I want to
effect more frequencies or just one sort
of small frequency range now with the
shelves instead of a instead of a center
frequency you get sort of like it's not
really a cutoff frequency but it's just
sort of like a the mid slope frequency
or whatever basically here I'm cutting
it for 125 Hertz but it's actually not
you know for 125 Hertz isn't up here
it's actually down here with the the Q
you get almost sort of like a resonance
effect sort of like a boost up here and
more of a cut down here more more or
less just affects the shape of the slope
and then with filters you have what's
called the cutoff frequency the cutoff
frequency is where the signal has been
attenuated by three decibels already so
again you know our cutoff is at 650 that
doesn't mean the slope starts at 650 it
means that at 650 we've already
attenuated the signal cut the signal by
600 by three decibels
instead of gain here we get actually a
slope so slope control and this
basically just will give you a more sort
of gradual slope or a more sort of rigid
vertical slope and what these values
mean is they're telling you the amount
of attenuation pro-active the amount of
cut Proactive so if I have 6 DB per
octave that means we're losing 6
decibels for every octave if we have 36
DB we're losing 36 decibels per octave
and then for Q we actually have
something that's called resonance
resonance is when you boost the
frequency at the cutoff frequency it's
actually a feedback effect you're
feeding you're creating a feedback loop
at the cutoff frequency
causing the cutoff frequency to be
boosted just before it's cut all right
so what I'm going to do is I'm just
gonna recall the default setting to undo
all that stuff that I just did there
let's start with the preset let's go to
drums will use punchy kick let's see
what that sounds like it's okay it's a
little hollowed out because of this sort
of mid-range sort of trough here one
thing I like to do one thing I love
about logics channel EQ and it's Leonard
linear EQ as well is it has the ability
to analyze the signal so if you just
click on the analyzer button down here
it'll actually give you a display of the
frequency the frequencies in that track
so you're not just playing a guessing
game or having to do this completely by
your you can sort of have a more I would
say a more educated decision as to how
your EQ a with kick drum I always like
to sort of boost a boost a band up here
in like the 1 to 5k range just to give
it a little bit of that that click I
also will sometimes boost the high end
here with the shelf just again to
accentuate the click sound down in the
somewhere between the 200 and 500 range
I usually like to cut a bit there's
usually sort of like a bit of like a
wooden frequency down there that just is
annoying so I like to pull it out and
then I like to boost the low end a
little bit and you'll see the the vast
majority of like the fundamental the
kick drum at least here is right around
50 Hertz
we don't need 20 Hertz in there and if
anything if we have them there every
time the kick hits it might make a
speaker sort of woo for overload a bit
so I'm going to
try to just cut everything out you know
say around 30 or 40 Hertz because it
just doesn't need to be there we
actually have our sub kick down here too
which is going to take care of most the
low-end this the d6 is more or less just
going to give us the click sort of the
the definition of the kick alright let's
go to the the sub kick here
let's EQ that one by itself there you go
the sub kick again if you're not
familiar with the sub kick it's
basically just a very large diaphragm
dynamic mic it basically looks like a
little 8-inch speaker that's essentially
what it is and it's just able to pick up
sort of like the sub low frequencies in
the kick drum so let's try both of these
together alright by the way the reason
why I'm starting with kick and snare I
move over the snare now reason why I'm
starting with kick and snares that's
sort of like the fundamental of our
groove for rock music so it's pretty
much the the main the main thing driving
the groove so we need to make sure
they're very defined sounding so I'm
going to go to the the snare bottom
normally I'd actually start with a snare
top but again like I said in the
previous video the snare tops got a real
nasty ring in it we're gonna have to
maybe take care of later or completely
get rid of so I'm gonna start with the
the snare here
so the bottom snare and by the way one
of the tendencies of snare drum is to to
do this and even if you look at some of
the presets in here you know like let's
try Rock snare yeah some of the
tennessee's are are to just completely
boost the high end like that I'm not a
really big fan of that I like like a
deep full snare and if it needs to be
brighter yeah we can boost the high end
but not like that
I like to boost sort of the like the 500
200 like 2k range even like somewhere in
here so I like I like that sort of sound
more than anything else if you want to
boost the high end you can to get some
more of the crisp eNOS out of it just
keep in mind that the high hats going to
bleed into that pretty badly
I also scooped out the low end a bit not
too much because I don't want to you
know cut out the lows or the low tones
of the snare but enough to sort of get
the the bass the kick drum out of there
a bit and some people will do is they'll
find like a little peak in here that
sounds nice and then sort of like right
here I'll show you
to find a little peek in there that they
like and then pull the gain down to a
more reasonable level because you pull
it up too much and it starts to the
resonance of it starts to whistle so all
right let's go with that let's go to the
snare top here suit this one sounds like
by itself and yes I'm aware some of my
tracks are going to start to clip now
because as you add gain with an EQ
you're adding gain overall so you're
going to end up with something that's
something that does clip so we'll worry
about that later I think it's pretty
much all we can do for that that uh
person err I don't even know if I'm
going to keep it in there but I'll keep
it in there for now so let's listen to
our kicks and our snare tracks all right
cool let's take a look at the the cymbal
tracks let's start with the hi-hat
hi-hat we really don't need a whole lot
of low-end in the signal if anything we
can cut out most the lows just to get
rid of the bleed
yeah I think that's about all I'm going
to do with it and actually that's pretty
much all I'm going to do with the
overheads too so what I'm going to do is
going to I'm going to duplicate this
plug-in so you can hold option to
duplicate just drag it over to the next
track the other thing I'm going to do
differently is with my overheads my
overhead tracks the way I approach
overheads is I like them to kind of pick
up the whole drum kit I don't want to
think of them as just a symbol like a
cymbal track a cymbal track I like to
think of them as like just picking up
the whole kit so I'm going to boost the
high end a little bit cut out some of
the lows but not too much of the lows
I did cut out a bit more on the the
overhead to because the overhead to is a
pair of small diaphragm AKG C 451 B's so
I'm gonna I'm just cut the the low end
out of those but the the main overhead
the space to overhead actually wouldn't
pull the volume up on that that's a
couple large diaphragm Mojave so they
they're picking up sort of the full
frequency range with the room mics I'm
gonna sort of do the same thing as I did
for the the overheads so I'm just going
to duplicate that over there and you'd
be surprised a lot of people don't
realize how much tone room mics can add
to can add to your drum mix yeah I mean
especially with the snare drum you know
this that's really kind of bringing up
some of the tone in the snare drum there
and then lastly we need to get the Tom's
eq'd the issue here is going to be
trying to find a spot in the song where
the Tom's are actually used which
they're not not very often use there's
only like three see out here you go
three spots and the whole song where
they're actually used let me just zoom
in here right around measure 49 this is
a bit of a little fill in here or there
used yeah let's let's just listen to the
Tom's there Tom one and four tom
yeah there we go
I'm actually going to use a just a
preset for the Tom's the Tom Preece
that's pretty decent actually it's uh
let's see drums and I think it's under
sunder tom medium there you go yeah I'm
going to cut a bit more the low end out
one of the problems I always find at
Tom's is the low intends to ring a bit
too much and I'm actually going to pull
up this little dip a little bit more
pull up this I'm actually going to add a
little boost to sort of the mid just
sort of the 1 to 5k range one thing I
should mention those between 1 & 5 K
this is where your ears are the most
sensitive so really subtle changes can
really make a lot of difference between
1 and 5 K the other thing you want to be
careful about 1 in 5 K is not to boost
too many instruments in that range
because it can start to sound mega phony
and actually can start to sound too
cause ear fatigue so just be careful how
much you boost between 1 and 5 K I take
the same setting I'm just going to copy
it over to the floor tom this time it up
since it's a lower time I'm going to
pull the boost down a bit more actually
going to pull this cut over and pull it
down quite a bit more there you go
you know I should mention there is one
little I'm not sure if it's a glitch or
what but sometimes when I click on the
value here I can drag up and down to
make it up and down
other times I have to drag left and
right and I'm not really sure what
controls that it just sometimes does it
and sometimes doesn't do it and I'm not
really sure yeah it's like if I click on
sort of the center part of the of the
number I drag up or down to change it
but if I drag over I like on the left
side of it I have to drag left and right
it's like two different clicking zones
so just be aware of that
so left is drag left and right right is
drag up and down which I don't know I
don't know why it's that way it's just
it's that way
alright let's uh let's boost this a bit
more for the low Tom there we go
let's ooh this sounds like now
all right so let's listen to the drums
all together here and listen to the
drums for take a listen from the verse
basically you'll say mid verse on whoops
try that again yeah you may you may hear
this but when the kick hits there's a
bit of like a ring in one of the other
tracks we may have to take care of that
I have a feeling it's in the Tom tracks
but we can take care of that that
another day okay so that's just EQ
adrims in the next video we'll move on
to EQ the guitar and the bass so I hope
you enjoyed the video and thanks for
watching