Logic Pro X - #61 - Mixing (part3): EQ'ing Guitars and Bass Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 61 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series this is actually
part 3 of my mixing series mixing our
song living on the run in the previous
two videos we played with the volume and
pan and also EQ the drums so in this
video we're going to work on adding EQ
to our guitars the guitar solo the lead
guitars and the bass guitar I was
originally going to put this as part of
the previous video but keeping with the
tradition of for keeping with the spirit
of making these videos lower than 20
minutes I had to separate it to a
separate video one thing that I forgot
to explain the previous video was the
difference between channel EQ and linear
phase EQ the real difference is not in
its functionality because as you can see
the the linear phase EQ basically looks
identical to the the channel EQ the
difference is in how the EQ treats the
audio a linear phase EQ is going to sort
of optimize any sort of of artifacts
digital artifacts produced by e queuing
a signal sometimes that the channel EQ
you'll get a bit more tone coloration
just because of phase issues between the
different bands in a linear phase EQ
those sort that sort of coloration isn't
there it's not necessarily a good or a
bad thing it just means that the linear
phase EQ is going to be better for for
situations where you want to sort of
keep the overall tone color the same but
just to just the adjust a particular
band a bit I usually don't use the
linear phase EQ until we start sort of
sub grouping instruments or until we get
to like the mastering phase and the
reason for that is it actually causes a
lot of extra latency and as make takes
up more processing power than the
channel EQ does and sometimes the
coloration produced from the channel EQ
is actually a good thing it can actually
sort of add to the tone of an individual
instrument so I usually use channel EQ
on individual instruments linear
Faye's EQ on like subgroups or like on
the master so we're going to EQ our
guitar today um and one of the things
we're going to do later on is that we're
a lot of the sort of the tonal changes
in the guitar we're going to make later
when the the rhythm guitars are sort of
grouped together but right now let me
just solo out just my left rhythm guitar
turn on my analyzer like I did in the
previous video
the tones not bad by itself one thing I
am going to do is I'm going to cut out
the low end a bit a lot of that low end
sub e stuff down there doesn't really
need to be there if anything it's just
going to collide at the bass guitar
some people some people will band pass
their guitars as well especially it's
like heavy rock they'll like scoop out
the high end I don't really need to do
that because as you can see
even without the the the low-pass filter
in there
the signals pretty much already banned
past so I'm not really going to worry
about doing that what I will do though
is I like to put a little boost just a
small boost usually somewhere between
like 500 and 1k some of the metal guys
will do it a little bit higher up or
maybe scoop the mids down out a little
bit I'm not a big fan it because it to
me it just kind of just sure it like
makes the guitars fit better in the mix
and you can hear other things over the
guitars better but to me it just sort of
scoops out the tone and makes it real
thin sounding
I'm not a big fan of that but that's
that's one thing that some people are
doing , he also had to be careful about
how much you EQ in this upper range of
the guitar like the 2 to 5 range they
can get real raspy and real sort of
fizzy sounding and it may not sound too
bad like right now but when we get to
the mastering phase if there's way too
much high frequency energy up in this
this area like I was talking about
before the whole 1 to 5 K thing there's
too much high frequency energy up here
it's just gonna sound like absolute
garbage on headphones and earbuds I mean
not that we should be mixing for
headphones and earbuds but it should
still sound good on those those mediums
as well so I like to boost about like 1
K the lower
so by the way I never mentioned this is
the bypass button so this would be
before and after so it's just a very
subtle sort of tone boost at around 1k
I'm going to do the same thing over here
on the the right guitar let's hear it
both of them sound like together
now I know I'm using I'm using a guitar
amp plug-in that you guys may or may not
have this is AmpliTube just be aware
when you're working with guitar players
they're very particular about the tone
they want so if at all possible if
you're recording a real amp try to try
your best to get the tone that they want
when you record it so that you have to
do less work later to shape the tone
they're going to be a lot easier to deal
with because the the guitar player I'm a
guitar player guitar players are very
very finicky about their tone so just
makes try to get the tone that they want
when you record it you know don't try to
you know waste all this time later
trying to shape the tone to you know to
what they want later the other thing to
keep in mind is that you know their tone
sitting in front of their amp is going
to be a little bit different when you
record it then it's going to sound like
out in the open so depending on whether
you're using you know a dynamic mic a
ribbon mic or condenser mic or a
combination of both of both or multiples
is going to affect the tone of the cab
and then in the amp as well so just keep
that in mind I'm gonna go ahead and copy
the same setting over to my lead guitars
but with the leads I think I'm gonna
scoop out a bit more of the low-end I'm
gonna do a bit more of like a low-end
mid-range boost here there we go and
let's copy that same setting over to my
other one here and you know it just be
just to kind of pull these out in the
mix a bit more I know I said not to do
this but I'm going to pull up just sort
of like a high frequency sort of peak
here not much just just a slight little
peak just sort of pull it out in the mix
a bit and when it comes to EQ I mean for
me it's all about subtlety you know I
try not to do any wild
troughs or crests in my in my eq's soul
out the leads the little lead doesn't
come in until the chorus so let me jump
over the chorus here
you
you
by the way I don't if you caught that
but the way you take out a plug-in is
you click right here on this little down
arrow or down up arrow here click on it
and then choose no plug-in you can also
bypass a plug-in right here by clicking
on this so I'm going to go ahead and
copy that over basically what I did that
I did there is I just put a bit more of
a high-frequency boost in there
one thing I find myself doing a lot with
guitar is instead of having to because
if you double up your your rhythm guitar
a lot of people will you know quad track
their rhythm guitar they've quadrupled
rhythm guitar especially in the heavier
genres if you start doubling up the
guitar so the gain doubles up too so if
you want the guitar to be a little less
raspy typically your drive signal
whatever your overdrive signal is on the
preamp plot or the amp plug-in or on the
amp itself doesn't necessarily need to
be as high when it's doubled so if the
guitars doubled so the the gain will
sort of be emphasized so actually I'm
going to go into my guitar amp here and
actually pull down the gain because at
least on the rhythm guitars because
it'll actually I think makes the tone
sound a little bit better
it's a little bit less raspy nasty fuzz
in there alright let's go over to the
guitar solo honestly the guitar soul I
think is going to be fine as is because
it was already sort of processed and
like all the distortion and the
overdrive and everything has already
been rendered into the into the track as
you can see this solo doesn't have an
amplitude plug-in on it
yeah so basically what I do is I
actually took a little bit of the
high-end out actually boosted sort of
the low mid-range a bit just to give it
sort of a beefier tone let's move up to
our bass guitar I'm gonna go ahead and
sort of just solo the bass by itself
bass is a bit tricky because well first
of all this is di bass as it as is so
there's no ant bonnet at all so actually
before I even throw the the channel EQ
in there I'm going to go two amps and
pedals go to bass amp designer which is
one of the new plugins in in Logic 10
and for now I'm just going to sort of
throw a preset on there and work with it
later on when we sort of get into the
final stages of getting all the
instruments to work with each other
properly I'll I'll worry about it then
normally you'd want to get get this the
way you want it or way the bass player
wants it if you're recording an actual
cab what I'm going to do is let's just
use the let's not use the growler the
growler sounds terrible let's use the
modern dynamic let's give that a shot
and the bass will actually have its own
EQ right inside the the bass amp plugin
you
so all I did there is I just basically
turn on the bass turn up the bass and
mid a bit and pulled the compressor or
turn the compressor on that's all so I'm
going to basically well let's try
actually I think I undid the preset
there let's try that again modern
dynamic there we go pull up the bass of
hair pull up the mids a bit pull the
treble down a bit turn on the compressor
pull that up a hair so let's go to their
EQ now
and the tricky thing about bass and
we'll play around some other you know
dynamic effects and squashing effects
later but the tricky thing about bass is
the tendency to hear a lot of the
fundamental of the bass which is real
low you know sometimes depending on the
tuning can be you know sub 50 Hertz the
problem is is being able to hear the
bass on smaller speakers you know if I
want to hear it on headphones or on
laptop speakers or four-inch drivers as
opposed to 8-inch drivers you're going
to have no problem hearing the
fundamental the bass on you know an
8-inch driver but on like a three inch
or four inch driver you're not going to
hear it very well so what I typically do
is I pull up not just the fundamental
but I pull up sort of the the area above
the fundamental which is sort of like
the first or the second third fourth
fifth harmonics above the bottom note of
the bass so that like this area in here
and we'll do more to it later I mean
there's different ways to DEQ it
depending on you know what style of
planning he's easy what sort of style of
playing he has as well and we can sort
of distort it and over overdrive it a
bit as well but let's just see what that
all sounds like now
there we go so get a pretty decent
balance there now and some sort of
enhanced tones everything again is as
subtle you know I'm not doing like real
drastic EQ in here
the other thing someone might ask is why
not get into automation yet why not get
into grouping and things like that yet
but the written the reason my reason for
not getting into that first is that I
like to get the mix sounding decent just
with basic EQ and compression before we
start thinking even thinking about
automation or grouping or you know
adding other sorts of time-based effects
to this so once we get the mix sound and
good just EQ compression we could start
grouping things start mixing those sort
of sub masters or those sub groups and
actually I leave automation almost for
the very very end because if I decide
that I want to change say the volume of
my floor Tom and I already have
automation on that track I'm gonna have
to go in and change the automation
rather than just being able to pull it
up or pull it down so I save automation
for the very end and so that's all we're
not going to get to that for a little
bit all right so that's just a queuing
guitar and bass next up we are going to
talk about compression we're going to
we're gonna I'm going to kind of save
the vocals for a bit later because I
like to sort of get the rhythm section
going first I like to get the drums the
guitars in the bass the where they need
to be first then I like to sort of mix
the guitar or mix the the vocals and the
scents on top of that so I'm not going
to start EQ again I'm going to get the
rhythm section down before I even start
thinking about that alright so I hope
you enjoyed the video and thanks for
watching