just so people know, i went to school for sound engineering and these videos are on par with what i paid A LOT of money to learn. thanks rick for this resource
I've been a player for 30 years plus, but this video was the pivot point that got me off a lifelong wander through guessing and hoping while mixing and onto a real path of sensible and accurate mixing. Now, four years later, I would never claim there wasn't tons more to learn, but my mixes are slamming and people are saying so.
Rick, as a longtime musician and newtime (self-taught) demo-er, I can’t put into words how much I appreciate you and your time spent making these great videos. It seems like each road bump I hit on the journey of learning to record ends in the same result: I search on TH-cam “how to...” and see that you’ve made a video explaining how to do the thing I need to learn. You are playing such a quantifiable role in removing the arterial blockages of our collective creativity, and facilitating so much more music to flow during our time. Thank you, Master Yoda!
13:30 Drums 19:50 Bass Guitar 23:45 Electric Guitar Should be nice to have some real time video equalizing a band to figure out better. Also a good video to understand the equalization of a band.
@@tsukkikei571 Yes sir, that was just one year of school. Don’t get me wrong, I leaned many other things and the degree really opens doors for you but it’s super expensive. That was actually back in the mid 2000’s. I’d imagine it’s more now. Thankfully, the military paid most of it for me.
I've been watching this video constantly even though I took notes. After the Bible, this video is my go to. Rick has transformed the quality of my recordings in a short time. I send everyone I know doing home recording here. A friend was impressed after I sent him this link and he want's Rick's book.
This is probably one of the most informative 36:43 of my life. Can't say thank you enough for not only the information, but your presentation of that information makes it all the better. Really appreciate your videos Rick!
I'm not new to eq and I've studied frequency charts and I've watch many videos about equalization. This is by far the best video I've watch to this point. Thank you for sharing.
I fortunately ran into Rick Beato's channel while doing research. I have been a musician since I was 9 years old and am a pretty good saxophonist and song writer. Now that I have Pro Tools, I am not only the performing musician, but now I am the engineer. I did not realize how complex recording and mixing could be. Thanks to Rick, I am slowly starting to learn EQ, Compression, FXs and mixing. My mixes are starting to sound great. Great teacher. I really appreciate it.
Just wanna send giant love from the UK bro. Been producing about ten years and I’m at the stand still as I have never really got a hang of the mixing stage etc. It holds me back from really releasing material or even getting that far. This video has been a gigantic help so I’ll watch all your other work. Thank you again dude
Best presentation of EQ in general I have ever seen. Well done! A saying between my music friends long ago: "Real men don't use EQ". This was not to imply that EQ should not be used, however the goal in recording was to pick and place mic's in a way that the use of EQ would be minimized. Mixing is like Golf, in that, the goal is to hit the ball as few times as possible. In general the goal of EQ mixing is to clean up all the stuff that is not needed. Less is more. If I have 3 band EQ's, typically 2 are cuts and 1 is boost. What makes the Neve EQ sound cool is the inductor design. Inductor EQ's are never cheap and saturate well. The GML 8200 EQ was the first that coined the term Parametric and is the definition of a parametric. GML is colorless, after using it, you can't tell it's in use until bypassed, the ultimate EQ if you don't want any color. Another point is that the tempo of the song controls many of the EQ choices there is only so much musical space. A mix is like a bowl of soup. You can't overfill the bowl, but you can decide what it taste's like. SSL is the most common for mixing because it is capable of narrow cuts and sometimes called a surgical EQ. To complicate issues I have found that plugs often do not sound good with boosts vs analog EQ's. When recording players with under 10 years of experience, often lot's of EQ is needed. When recording a band that has been together for years, they have already adjusted everything so that you just need to capture what's in the room. IE if you have two guitar players, they have to fight it out as to what frequencies each get to use. One easy way this is often solved is the lead player uses a Strat and the Rhythm player uses a Gibson.
Everything is possible to learn from your videos: from basics of the music (notation, harmony and melody), to making professional audio and living from it (recording, mixing and mastering). That is how the teacher (or professor) should look and sound like. Big respect.
I believe that this is one of your most useful and practical videos so far for finessing mixes. It's more specific information than I have seen for most discussion of EQ. Good job, Rick.
I love the style of these instructional videos. You always cut away to graphs and examples and show us exactly what we need to see, and I can tell you add things in while you're editing to make sure everything is really clear. It's succinct, and moves quick so it doesn't waste anybody's time. And my favorite part is that you don't worry about making it super smooth. What comes across is that you care about communicating effectively and actually informing rather that making yourself look like a super polished "educator". I am grateful for your efforts sir!
rick is so generous with his time & his talent. this video alone is a reference i always return to when I'm out mining information on recording, elsewhere. so comprehensive, so inspiring, with this short video alone. rick is saving people years of head scratching and uncertainty, in record time. rick for prez.
Man.. I've spent the last few years subscribing to SO MANY people teaching techniques like these. And I find most of them annoying at this point. Always trying to sell something or holding back crucial tips until you spend your dough. And it gets extremely annoying as it seems so automated. Your approach is perfect! HANDS DOWN you make this scary mountain seem like an anthill! You are really appreciated Rick♥ Thanks for your tips & time.
Thank you so much for the knowledge you share. All people can't go to the university to learn things. And there are people like you helping them. What a beautiful world to live.
Brilliant video. Just a word to any beginners having trouble with knowing when you’ve done something right - don’t listen to the instrument that you’re eqing to hear the change. Listen out for the other instruments which should start to come through clearer. E.g. when eqing the kick drum, have the whole mix playing and find the spots where the bass guitar starts to sound clearer. If you expect to eq a kick drum in isolation and hear some magical perfect blend you won’t get what you want.
My pro tips are: Don't overuse EQ! Low pass and high pass is usually enough to get you most of the way there. Overuse make your mixes sound stupidly hyped and nobody's impressed by it. Don't worry about expensive brand name EQ's (Api, Neve, Ssl etc)! The expensive stuff is usually high quality and expensive for a reason but most standard plugins today do a very good job. Don't blindly apply rules like "cut this frequency, boost that one"! What needs to be done depends on what your material sounds like before eq. If your bass drum has too little low mid, attenuating it further is going to make things worse. If you find yourself needing to apply the same eq to every project you should improve your recording techniques. Don't try to fix bad arrangements with eq! It can't be done. If the track doesn't work: rearrange. Don't EQ solo'ed channels! What something sounds like out of context is irrelevant.
Yes! Any filter will introduce group delay, it's part of why they work. Exceptions are of course FIR, linear phase EQ's, but they aren't really suitable for real-time applications. Note that this is also true about the bass roll-off switch on the mike, and even physical filters, like putting a sock over the mike. Tip #1, don't overuse EQ, helps avoid potential issues. Under normal operation, your typical EQ introduces tolerable group delay and sounds absolutely fine.
How do you determine what your mix needs? This is what I'm stuck on. When you first start how do you train your ears enough to know exactly what it needs?
That's called experience and referencing other songs in a similar genre to your mix. What every mix will usually need is cleaning up, which is where pass filters come in. If you add those filters to individual tracks, that alone will add more clarity and your tracks won't fight as much with each other.
You know, Rick, I really appreciate all of the people like you who share their knowledge here on TH-cam. I've spent years absorbing in all of this information about the art of recording. Now that I've been working on recording some of my own demos, it has worked out so much in my favor with understanding it all!
This is great. Highly informative. I've spent too much time lately on audiophile vids and comment sections. Audiophiles would argue against EQ all day. I'm tired of their idiocracy.
Hey Rick, I've been living in LA for about 9 years now and through that time I've been working at being able to professionally track, edit, mix, and master all of my music myself. I've found this to be a huge feat, but I've been patiently chipping away at all of the different aspects every year and I'm feeling much more confident as each year passes. TH-cam has been massively helpful to me the past few years, and I stumbled across your videos this year. So anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. Your videos have been very helpful to me recently as I'm finishing producing a project right now, and working towards finding a publisher this year. Hope to cross paths one day! Cheers, Mark
22:22 I am so grateful for how to mix the bass, it has saved my mix👍 Bass guitar can be too muddy or oversaturated(too much buzz) the bass can vibrate and groove beautifully, but also can lose its harmonic and melodic quality. To find the good balance, is difficult....but after applying the tips of Rick Beato, my bass was well balanced. Thank You
When trying to fit pianos and other dense instruments into a mix, remember that shelving is your best friend(both low and high shelves). Filtering works but can take too much out where as advanced shelving techniques can do just about all you would ask of filters while leaving as much "shelved" frequency behind to balance out the ends result so that it sounds more natural. Its like taking the life out of an instrument w/o it sounding completely lifeless. This especially works if you are familiar with "wall of sound" theories and like for things to be felt more and heard less.
I feel like I'm cheating when I watch your videos. Feels like I've learned years of info in the span of minutes. It's amazing. You're a blessing, Rick!
Thank you SO MUCH Rick Beato, the greatest thing possible is to search for something you need to learn and find out that one of your greatest "youtube teachers" made a whole class about it!!
Awesome lecture. This is the kind of video that kills music classes... I simply followed this on my last mix and what a difference. I could not believe it. Thank you.
Good idea concerning the strings having a mutual reverb send. Ive been learning how string samples sound so much better with good reverb and automation techniques. Even a cheap string sample can sound good in the right hands where as even a realistic expensive sounding sample can sound synthetic and fake in the wrong hands. Listening out for what the attack is doing and automating it to sound like how professionals play was a groundbreaking insight for me. Good reverb has a good way of masking cheap samples and polishing quality samples. Everybody has access to a decent reverb and can quickly learn to automate good by imitating.
I have been a self taught recording engineer and your video fills gaps in my knowledge I never would have gotten any other way. Thank you so much! Please keep up the awesome Videos I love them all!
Rick, you could have a whole series on this kind of thing. One video specifically showing yourself EQ'ing a snare, overheads ...a guitar ...Keys ....a vocal track, you taking a bare track and using EQ and subtractive EQ . Same video on you using compression on the above bbare tracks. Yes there are a hundred videos out there, but you are a very good teacher. You could help alot of people while getting thousands of views. Thanks much !
Hey Rick, thanks so much for all the info you've been sharing. I've been studying music and sound for 30+ years and the past year watching you has filled so many gaps. Thank you, thank you.
24dB is the biggest cut and boost of any digital EQ you can think of. apQualizr will do 40dB. I love apQualizr (apQualizr2 is the current version). It's damn near invincible. Put on as many EQ points as you want, put 'em wherever you want, make them as wide or as thin as you want, make the slopes as steep as you want, special kinds of pass filters, harmonic filters, got a built-in analyzer, and that's not to mention all the modulation features it has. Love that thing!
Wow! Beato managed to squeeze a career's worth of EQ wisdom into half an hour! This is gold. You really can't lump the new UAD preamps, EQ and channel strip emulations in with the rest of the digital stuff anymore. Their emulations of the Pultec, Neve, SSL, and API hardware sound at least as good as most of the hardware units I've heard. They're even better in some cases, because they emulate hardware that is pristine. I can't speak to the others because I haven't had the privilege of working with them. The only downside to the UAD Unison plugins is they don't have different color if you're using more than one, but you can find other ways to get color variance. They are truly stellar.
Great work. Vital information for getting things done. Get rid of anything that is not the song and the sound that is left is the song and only the song. We tend to leave too many things in a song that are best removed. Nice to see it applied to teaching production. Very cool.
Rick, I am a long-time industry professional, both audio and music. Love your videos! In this video, a primer of the frequency ranges of the different instruments might be a good idea, as an added bonus. However, still a great video, like ALL of your stuff. :)
Great video, I've noticed that I was beginning to gravitate towards some of these sweets spots after a decade of trial and error. You've really cleared a lot of things up for me. Thanks Rick!
Great video! Two things: 1> You didn't mention the best part of using a Pultec by boosting and cutting the same freq. 2> Knowing the basics of string articulations will go a long way towards getting string samples to sound authentic. I totally agree about needing lots of rides on orchestral samples.
This is a really great EQ breakdown. I love the way you covered all the various EQ plugins as well as all the critical frequency ranges for instruments.
Ricky this is easily the best TH-cam channel. I just got done watching the compression video and it taught me so much. I have never been able to understand what compression does and that video totally helped me out. I love production and hope to do it one day like you do man.
Damn it!!! Why did I not find your channel til recently. Thank you, there is so much gold in your videos it’s overwhelming. Covering such a width of material too. Wonderful.
Good info, simply stated, to the point, no nonsense. Same goes for the companion vid on compression theory. Having to adapt to untried methods of DIY music production (due to the disruptive global reality that's in process), this is much appreciated. Cheers
Rick you legend! I've just begun mixing live drums for my bands debut album, and after years of trial and error with no formal training this has helped me so much. Another handy vid would be how to fine tune a gate. I'm having to pencil in my automation for the gate as the automatic gating doesn't seem to give me the right amount of cut in the right places, and it doesn't seem to cut to nothing to remove excess mic bleed from the other drums. I'm sure it's just a case of adjusting a setting but the artifacts it creates sounds crap and synthetic, where as pencilling puts it exactly where I want it. If this is how your supposed to do it I'll shut my mouth, but it is quite time consuming.
Hi Rick, great video. A lot of useful info! Maybe, if it's possibile, a video where you work on EQs and Reverbs, on a short piece, with different instruments will be awesome. Thank you for all this great stuff!
I was shown a technique where you boost either side of an inflated frequency on your buss tracks. I saw this in a mastering room with a GML 8300 EQ. As long as you have headroom, it works. Other times I just EQ as I normally would but I always try both now.
Cheers from Argentina, Rick! I`m a musician and producer, and I appreciate so much all this stuff.The information you`re giving along your channel, video after video is literally priceless. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience with all of us.
My bass amp has a parametric eq. I love it. I can carve out certain sounds. Itts a working mans swr 15. I blew it at some point and a local tech upgraded the transistors and changed out the 15" speaker. I run a 6x10 cab off it and i get some great tones. Very versatile amp.
One brief thing I would argue with Rick on; the high end info on the bass is not useless. Use it as a separate track that will constantly be playing at a lower volume than the main bass: make a copy of your main bass track, put an extreme high pass filter (maybe up to 1,500 k) with a moderate slope, put a low pass filter at about 10k or 11k, work on subtractive eq, boost some frequencies if desired, set a compression to kick in after the first 70ms to allow the picking or plucking sounds to shine, add a distortion to taste. You could add some chorus to taste as well. Now, will this track sound anything like good when soloed? Heck no. But in the full mix it will make the bass pop and also make it shine through small speakers.
Great stuff, simply great. You have passion for what you do, and you teach with that passion. I would always go to any masterclass you do. Keep it up! You can always be sure that someone who [post a 30 min. video on a subject for free does it just out of passion...And thats where the real learning is
Hey man what you’re doing is so great for the internet and music learning everywhere. You’re such a fantastic resource and good to see someone else keeping old school rigorous faith towards musicality alive 💯
Q for a filter is a measure of how narrowly resonant it is. If only a few frequencies excite it (narrow band relative to the resonant frequency) it’s a high Q filter. Very selective, with high dB/ octave cut-off and with high distortion to the waveform. A low Q filter is gentle, broadband, low dB/octave cut.
True, the wide q and narrow q are accepted as what you've stated. I have found that it is not the rule though. Depending on the instrument, voice or situation in general, I apply the necessary Q according to what is needed. For increased attacks on drums or particular instruments, I find that starting with narrow Q is generally a good place to start and or be and then as needed I widen the Q.For subtraction, I often start with narrow Q and widen it as is necessary.JUst so you know, I'm no genius but I am a 25 year sound for worship veteran Live Sound Audio Engineer, despite that I am always learning, This is just my experience and what I find works really well for me. Everyone has to do what wotks for them......
Great Stuff!! We switched over to the UAD/UNISON technology, so it was nice to see Rick give a shout out on his "How the Pros Use Compression" lesson, to many of the great Processor emulations from Universal Audio. All these years later, and the LA-2A's/DBX 160's (including the VCA on the SSL E Channels) as well as the 1176's, continue to provide amazing dynamic control to our mixes. The Elysia and Summit Compressors are also great!
Outstanding lecture. Although some of this I "knew", I somehow need constant reminders. I like discussion on the reasons behind these guidelines. Thanks for sharing.
Very direct and detailed. I'll be adding you to the recommended list for my interns and myself! Great entertainment while wrapping cables and putting away mics tonight. Thanks!
I’m recently doing a hybrid kit: real hihat and snare, the rest are pads. A Tom and a kick will always sound the same so why bother micing them; right! In a small studio situation like mine this is a great approach.
Lots of good info here :) It's good to just sit through half an hour of just lecture without loads of audio examples (I feel like that can constrain the reach of the info often.) Cheers and keep it up!
Thank you so very much for this... I've been working on a mix and it was dull. I'm still learning EQ.Doing some of these adjustments brought the song to life....
just so people know, i went to school for sound engineering and these videos are on par with what i paid A LOT of money to learn. thanks rick for this resource
I've been a player for 30 years plus, but this video was the pivot point that got me off a lifelong wander through guessing and hoping while mixing and onto a real path of sensible and accurate mixing. Now, four years later, I would never claim there wasn't tons more to learn, but my mixes are slamming and people are saying so.
@@foto21 😄
Second this, I went to the art institute, and videos like this were much of the courses lol.
This man is practically saving music single-handedly. So many resources and so much appreciation and education that has come from him. A treasure!
Rick, as a longtime musician and newtime (self-taught) demo-er, I can’t put into words how much I appreciate you and your time spent making these great videos. It seems like each road bump I hit on the journey of learning to record ends in the same result: I search on TH-cam “how to...” and see that you’ve made a video explaining how to do the thing I need to learn. You are playing such a quantifiable role in removing the arterial blockages of our collective creativity, and facilitating so much more music to flow during our time. Thank you, Master Yoda!
Totally agree
13:30 Drums
19:50 Bass Guitar
23:45 Electric Guitar
Should be nice to have some real time video equalizing a band to figure out better. Also a good video to understand the equalization of a band.
Doing God's work.
bubuasqw123 llllp
You are the man.
I wanted to like your comment, but it has 440 likes and I'm a fan of irony.
Thank you!
how to 0:00
filters 3:02
analog EQs 5:45
digital EQs 10:42
drum EQ 13:30
bass EQ 19:48
guitars 23:44
piano/organ 26:39
strings 30:20
Master EQ 34:20
legend ❤️
I've known and used this info for over 30 years, but have NEVER seen it presented better. You are an American Treasure, Rick. God bless!
Damn you Rick! I payed Full Sail over $70k to get this kind of education! Where the hell were you 15 years ago?! Great video man... thank you!
Lol makes me glad I could never afford such education, youtube was my education :P
@@RandomBros88 there are things you don't learn with youtube. but its good enough for most people.
WHAT?! 70K dollar? No way
@@tsukkikei571 Yes sir, that was just one year of school. Don’t get me wrong, I leaned many other things and the degree really opens doors for you but it’s super expensive. That was actually back in the mid 2000’s. I’d imagine it’s more now. Thankfully, the military paid most of it for me.
@@jorgiewtf wow. That looks like something that i could never afford when I graduated high school. I'm glad you had a chance
I've been watching this video constantly even though I took notes. After the Bible, this video is my go to. Rick has transformed the quality of my recordings in a short time.
I send everyone I know doing home recording here. A friend was impressed after I sent him this link and he want's Rick's book.
This is probably one of the most informative 36:43 of my life. Can't say thank you enough for not only the information, but your presentation of that information makes it all the better. Really appreciate your videos Rick!
I'm not new to eq and I've studied frequency charts and I've watch many videos about equalization. This is by far the best video I've watch to this point. Thank you for sharing.
I fortunately ran into Rick Beato's channel while doing research. I have been a musician since I was 9 years old and am a pretty good saxophonist and song writer. Now that I have Pro Tools, I am not only the performing musician, but now I am the engineer. I did not realize how complex recording and mixing could be. Thanks to Rick, I am slowly starting to learn EQ, Compression, FXs and mixing. My mixes are starting to sound great. Great teacher. I really appreciate it.
Just wanna send giant love from the UK bro. Been producing about ten years and I’m at the stand still as I have never really got a hang of the mixing stage etc. It holds me back from really releasing material or even getting that far.
This video has been a gigantic help so I’ll watch all your other work. Thank you again dude
Best presentation of EQ in general I have ever seen. Well done! A saying between my music friends long ago: "Real men don't use EQ". This was not to imply that EQ should not be used, however the goal in recording was to pick and place mic's in a way that the use of EQ would be minimized. Mixing is like Golf, in that, the goal is to hit the ball as few times as possible. In general the goal of EQ mixing is to clean up all the stuff that is not needed. Less is more. If I have 3 band EQ's, typically 2 are cuts and 1 is boost. What makes the Neve EQ sound cool is the inductor design. Inductor EQ's are never cheap and saturate well. The GML 8200 EQ was the first that coined the term Parametric and is the definition of a parametric. GML is colorless, after using it, you can't tell it's in use until bypassed, the ultimate EQ if you don't want any color. Another point is that the tempo of the song controls many of the EQ choices there is only so much musical space. A mix is like a bowl of soup. You can't overfill the bowl, but you can decide what it taste's like. SSL is the most common for mixing because it is capable of narrow cuts and sometimes called a surgical EQ. To complicate issues I have found that plugs often do not sound good with boosts vs analog EQ's. When recording players with under 10 years of experience, often lot's of EQ is needed. When recording a band that has been together for years, they have already adjusted everything so that you just need to capture what's in the room. IE if you have two guitar players, they have to fight it out as to what frequencies each get to use. One easy way this is often solved is the lead player uses a Strat and the Rhythm player uses a Gibson.
Everything is possible to learn from your videos: from basics of the music (notation, harmony and melody), to making professional audio and living from it (recording, mixing and mastering). That is how the teacher (or professor) should look and sound like. Big respect.
despite me making music for my entire life, i am just now learning how to actually do it with your videos.
I believe that this is one of your most useful and practical videos so far for finessing mixes. It's more specific information than I have seen for most discussion of EQ. Good job, Rick.
Thanks Steve!
I love the style of these instructional videos. You always cut away to graphs and examples and show us exactly what we need to see, and I can tell you add things in while you're editing to make sure everything is really clear. It's succinct, and moves quick so it doesn't waste anybody's time. And my favorite part is that you don't worry about making it super smooth. What comes across is that you care about communicating effectively and actually informing rather that making yourself look like a super polished "educator". I am grateful for your efforts sir!
rick is so generous with his time & his talent. this video alone is a reference i always return to when I'm out mining information on recording, elsewhere. so comprehensive, so inspiring, with
this short video alone. rick is saving people years of head scratching and uncertainty, in record time. rick for prez.
Man.. I've spent the last few years subscribing to SO MANY people teaching techniques like these. And I find most of them annoying at this point. Always trying to sell something or holding back crucial tips until you spend your dough. And it gets extremely annoying as it seems so automated. Your approach is perfect! HANDS DOWN you make this scary mountain seem like an anthill! You are really appreciated Rick♥ Thanks for your tips & time.
Thanks Zack!
Thank you so much for the knowledge you share. All people can't go to the university to learn things. And there are people like you helping them. What a beautiful world to live.
Brilliant video. Just a word to any beginners having trouble with knowing when you’ve done something right - don’t listen to the instrument that you’re eqing to hear the change. Listen out for the other instruments which should start to come through clearer. E.g. when eqing the kick drum, have the whole mix playing and find the spots where the bass guitar starts to sound clearer. If you expect to eq a kick drum in isolation and hear some magical perfect blend you won’t get what you want.
dont want to sound repetitive, it seems like I always write the same comments in this channel, but this is awesome!
My pro tips are:
Don't overuse EQ! Low pass and high pass is usually enough to get you most of the way there. Overuse make your mixes sound stupidly hyped and nobody's impressed by it.
Don't worry about expensive brand name EQ's (Api, Neve, Ssl etc)! The expensive stuff is usually high quality and expensive for a reason but most standard plugins today do a very good job.
Don't blindly apply rules like "cut this frequency, boost that one"! What needs to be done depends on what your material sounds like before eq. If your bass drum has too little low mid, attenuating it further is going to make things worse. If you find yourself needing to apply the same eq to every project you should improve your recording techniques.
Don't try to fix bad arrangements with eq! It can't be done. If the track doesn't work: rearrange.
Don't EQ solo'ed channels! What something sounds like out of context is irrelevant.
Don't filters mess with the phase of the signal?
Yes! Any filter will introduce group delay, it's part of why they work. Exceptions are of course FIR, linear phase EQ's, but they aren't really suitable for real-time applications. Note that this is also true about the bass roll-off switch on the mike, and even physical filters, like putting a sock over the mike. Tip #1, don't overuse EQ, helps avoid potential issues. Under normal operation, your typical EQ introduces tolerable group delay and sounds absolutely fine.
How do you determine what your mix needs? This is what I'm stuck on. When you first start how do you train your ears enough to know exactly what it needs?
Thank you!
That's called experience and referencing other songs in a similar genre to your mix. What every mix will usually need is cleaning up, which is where pass filters come in. If you add those filters to individual tracks, that alone will add more clarity and your tracks won't fight as much with each other.
You know, Rick, I really appreciate all of the people like you who share their knowledge here on TH-cam. I've spent years absorbing in all of this information about the art of recording. Now that I've been working on recording some of my own demos, it has worked out so much in my favor with understanding it all!
This is great. Highly informative. I've spent too much time lately on audiophile vids and comment sections. Audiophiles would argue against EQ all day. I'm tired of their idiocracy.
This is not another tutorial. This is a treasure! Thanks a lot mister Beato!
Hey Rick,
I've been living in LA for about 9 years now and through that time I've been working at being able to professionally track, edit, mix, and master all of my music myself. I've found this to be a huge feat, but I've been patiently chipping away at all of the different aspects every year and I'm feeling much more confident as each year passes. TH-cam has been massively helpful to me the past few years, and I stumbled across your videos this year. So anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. Your videos have been very helpful to me recently as I'm finishing producing a project right now, and working towards finding a publisher this year. Hope to cross paths one day!
Cheers,
Mark
22:22 I am so grateful for how to mix the bass, it has saved my mix👍 Bass guitar can be too muddy or oversaturated(too much buzz) the bass can vibrate and groove beautifully, but also can lose its harmonic and melodic quality. To find the good balance, is difficult....but after applying the tips of Rick Beato, my bass was well balanced. Thank You
When trying to fit pianos and other dense instruments into a mix, remember that shelving is your best friend(both low and high shelves). Filtering works but can take too much out where as advanced shelving techniques can do just about all you would ask of filters while leaving as much "shelved" frequency behind to balance out the ends result so that it sounds more natural.
Its like taking the life out of an instrument w/o it sounding completely lifeless. This especially works if you are familiar with "wall of sound" theories and like for things to be felt more and heard less.
Yea, im having trouble with the keys and bass guitar in a live mix and was wondering how to situate them
Good advice
Would love to see a vid of "carving out freq for instruments to "sit" in their own space for clarity. Great video here Rick.
Great point, would be very interested in that too
I feel like I'm cheating when I watch your videos. Feels like I've learned years of info in the span of minutes. It's amazing. You're a blessing, Rick!
Sorry best videos ive seen on music engineering . Love your work . I can understand you . Obviously bloody real experienced. Thanks.
By far the BEST TH-cam producing teacher
Thank you SO MUCH Rick Beato, the greatest thing possible is to search for something you need to learn and find out that one of your greatest "youtube teachers" made a whole class about it!!
The value of this video grows over time
This lesson is absolute gold, has more insight than most content out here. That's Rick Beato for you.
Awesome lecture. This is the kind of video that kills music classes... I simply followed this on my last mix and what a difference. I could not believe it. Thank you.
You are a great teacher, and have off the charts knowledge of all things music. Your videos are priceless.
This man is the GOAT.
Good idea concerning the strings having a mutual reverb send. Ive been learning how string samples sound so much better with good reverb and automation techniques. Even a cheap string sample can sound good in the right hands where as even a realistic expensive sounding sample can sound synthetic and fake in the wrong hands.
Listening out for what the attack is doing and automating it to sound like how professionals play was a groundbreaking insight for me. Good reverb has a good way of masking cheap samples and polishing quality samples. Everybody has access to a decent reverb and can quickly learn to automate good by imitating.
"Scoop out the mud." A rule to track by, to mix by, and to live by.
that mud in the middle will muddle your mids..
Sounds like a dirty job. I guess somebody has to do it.
@@user-oz6vy5ch8o Someone hold me I just got dizzy reading that!
I have been a self taught recording engineer and your video fills gaps in my knowledge I never would have gotten any other way. Thank you so much! Please keep up the awesome Videos I love them all!
Rick, you could have a whole series on this kind of thing. One video specifically showing yourself EQ'ing a snare, overheads ...a guitar ...Keys ....a vocal track, you taking a bare track and using EQ and subtractive EQ . Same video on you using compression on the above bbare tracks. Yes there are a hundred videos out there, but you are a very good teacher. You could help alot of people while getting thousands of views. Thanks much !
Hey Rick, thanks so much for all the info you've been sharing. I've been studying music and sound for 30+ years and the past year watching you has filled so many gaps. Thank you, thank you.
24dB is the biggest cut and boost of any digital EQ you can think of. apQualizr will do 40dB. I love apQualizr (apQualizr2 is the current version). It's damn near invincible. Put on as many EQ points as you want, put 'em wherever you want, make them as wide or as thin as you want, make the slopes as steep as you want, special kinds of pass filters, harmonic filters, got a built-in analyzer, and that's not to mention all the modulation features it has. Love that thing!
Wow! Beato managed to squeeze a career's worth of EQ wisdom into half an hour! This is gold. You really can't lump the new UAD preamps, EQ and channel strip emulations in with the rest of the digital stuff anymore. Their emulations of the Pultec, Neve, SSL, and API hardware sound at least as good as most of the hardware units I've heard. They're even better in some cases, because they emulate hardware that is pristine. I can't speak to the others because I haven't had the privilege of working with them. The only downside to the UAD Unison plugins is they don't have different color if you're using more than one, but you can find other ways to get color variance. They are truly stellar.
Man, if I was 20 years old again, I'd LOVE to apprentice under you!
Looks like 103 mix engineers thumbs downed this video for Rick giving their secrets away. Rick is full of musical knowledge.
Great work. Vital information for getting things done. Get rid of anything that is not the song and the sound that is left is the song and only the song. We tend to leave too many things in a song that are best removed. Nice to see it applied to teaching production. Very cool.
Don’t become what you fight. One day it’ll all make sense.
Can’t go wrong with Rick Beato’s passionate lessons on sound. Peace Rick.
It would be fantastic to have a video like this for classical music, especially symphonic
Rick, I am a long-time industry professional, both audio and music. Love your videos! In this video, a primer of the frequency ranges of the different instruments might be a good idea, as an added bonus. However, still a great video, like ALL of your stuff. :)
Finally gearing up this year with a starter studio package. Really appreciate the deep dive on how to make it sing. Thank you.
Great video, I've noticed that I was beginning to gravitate towards some of these sweets spots after a decade of trial and error. You've really cleared a lot of things up for me. Thanks Rick!
Great video! Two things: 1> You didn't mention the best part of using a Pultec by boosting and cutting the same freq. 2> Knowing the basics of string articulations will go a long way towards getting string samples to sound authentic. I totally agree about needing lots of rides on orchestral samples.
I didn't want to get into the Pultec too heavily because so few people can afford them or are familiar with them. Unless you're old like me. Haha!!
Dude...your amount of knowledge is mind-boggling...
This is a really great EQ breakdown. I love the way you covered all the various EQ plugins as well as all the critical frequency ranges for instruments.
Ricky this is easily the best TH-cam channel. I just got done watching the compression video and it taught me so much. I have never been able to understand what compression does and that video totally helped me out. I love production and hope to do it one day like you do man.
Hi Rick , I feel you are if not one of the best teachers out there, respect to you sir !
Thank you so much for so willingly sharing all of the tips, learning a lot from these, and I've been a musician for 16 years. You're a legend!
This is a revelation thank you! The challenge I have in my band is that everyone comes out screaming but unfortunately it doesn’t serve the song.
Damn it!!! Why did I not find your channel til recently. Thank you, there is so much gold in your videos it’s overwhelming. Covering such a width of material too. Wonderful.
your level of knowledge is truly astounding, and is equaled only by your generosity! thanks for sharing all of this. its pure gold!
Good info, simply stated, to the point, no nonsense. Same goes for the companion vid on compression theory. Having to adapt to untried methods of DIY music production (due to the disruptive global reality that's in process), this is much appreciated. Cheers
Rick, your approach to mixing is really inspiring as much as your musicianship! More content on these would be great. Thank you and you are the man!
Rick you legend! I've just begun mixing live drums for my bands debut album, and after years of trial and error with no formal training this has helped me so much. Another handy vid would be how to fine tune a gate. I'm having to pencil in my automation for the gate as the automatic gating doesn't seem to give me the right amount of cut in the right places, and it doesn't seem to cut to nothing to remove excess mic bleed from the other drums. I'm sure it's just a case of adjusting a setting but the artifacts it creates sounds crap and synthetic, where as pencilling puts it exactly where I want it. If this is how your supposed to do it I'll shut my mouth, but it is quite time consuming.
Finally someone who explains what the jargon denotes. Thanks for the info.
Hi Rick, great video. A lot of useful info!
Maybe, if it's possibile, a video where you work on EQs and Reverbs, on a short piece, with different instruments will be awesome.
Thank you for all this great stuff!
I was shown a technique where you boost either side of an inflated frequency on your buss tracks. I saw this in a mastering room with a GML 8300 EQ. As long as you have headroom, it works. Other times I just EQ as I normally would but I always try both now.
Watching this for the 3rd time. Taking notes this time! Thanks Rick! Be safe!
Teachers like you are worth there weight in "gold" !
Cheers from Argentina, Rick! I`m a musician and producer, and I appreciate so much all this stuff.The information you`re giving along your channel, video after video is literally priceless. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience with all of us.
This is the most informative EQ-related video on TH-cam that I've ever come across. Brilliant!
One of my favorite videos of all time
My bass amp has a parametric eq. I love it. I can carve out certain sounds. Itts a working mans swr 15. I blew it at some point and a local tech upgraded the transistors and changed out the 15" speaker. I run a 6x10 cab off it and i get some great tones. Very versatile amp.
One brief thing I would argue with Rick on; the high end info on the bass is not useless. Use it as a separate track that will constantly be playing at a lower volume than the main bass: make a copy of your main bass track, put an extreme high pass filter (maybe up to 1,500 k) with a moderate slope, put a low pass filter at about 10k or 11k, work on subtractive eq, boost some frequencies if desired, set a compression to kick in after the first 70ms to allow the picking or plucking sounds to shine, add a distortion to taste. You could add some chorus to taste as well. Now, will this track sound anything like good when soloed? Heck no. But in the full mix it will make the bass pop and also make it shine through small speakers.
What an incredible teacher. I'm so grateful for all this free knowledge. God bless you, Rick.
This is a freaking great video. Decades of knowledge and experience in a few minutes. Awesome.
Great EQ tutorial. Best on TH-cam by far. Thanks man.
Great stuff, simply great. You have passion for what you do, and you teach with that passion. I would always go to any masterclass you do. Keep it up! You can always be sure that someone who [post a 30 min. video on a subject for free does it just out of passion...And thats where the real learning is
Hey man what you’re doing is so great for the internet and music learning everywhere. You’re such a fantastic resource and good to see someone else keeping old school rigorous faith towards musicality alive 💯
Q for a filter is a measure of how narrowly resonant it is. If only a few frequencies excite it (narrow band relative to the resonant frequency) it’s a high Q filter. Very selective, with high dB/ octave cut-off and with high distortion to the waveform.
A low Q filter is gentle, broadband, low dB/octave cut.
Hey Rick, i am more of a piano player/song writer and this video is what I have been looking for. This is a really well thought out video, thank you!
Passionate and Informative, thanks for the useful guide it will help a lot in future mixes
Super valuable, laying this all out in one place. Thanks a ton Rick! 😀🙏
Thanks for all you tutorials. They are absolutely invaluable. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us all!
One of the videos worth to be on TH-cam ! Great explanation Sir.
True, the wide q and narrow q are accepted as what you've stated. I have found that it is not the rule though. Depending on the instrument, voice or situation in general, I apply the necessary Q according to what is needed. For increased attacks on drums or particular instruments, I find that starting with narrow Q is generally a good place to start and or be and then as needed I widen the Q.For subtraction, I often start with narrow Q and widen it as is necessary.JUst so you know, I'm no genius but I am a 25 year sound for worship veteran Live Sound Audio Engineer, despite that I am always learning, This is just my experience and what I find works really well for me. Everyone has to do what wotks for them......
Great Stuff!! We switched over to the UAD/UNISON technology, so it was nice to see Rick give a shout out on his "How the Pros Use Compression" lesson, to many of the great Processor emulations from Universal Audio. All these years later, and the LA-2A's/DBX 160's (including the VCA on the SSL E Channels) as well as the 1176's, continue to provide amazing dynamic control to our mixes. The Elysia and Summit Compressors are also great!
Outstanding lecture. Although some of this I "knew", I somehow need constant reminders. I like discussion on the reasons behind these guidelines. Thanks for sharing.
Rick, this is the best summarization video of all my EQing questions that I had! Thank you!
Man, I've heard this video so many times while driving or doing something else, so much information! Thanks Rick!
Man, I freakin' love this channel. You the man, Rick!
Wealth of knowledge my friend. Wealth of knowledge.🤙🙌
Very direct and detailed. I'll be adding you to the recommended list for my interns and myself! Great entertainment while wrapping cables and putting away mics tonight. Thanks!
I’m recently doing a hybrid kit: real hihat and snare, the rest are pads. A Tom and a kick will always sound the same so why bother micing them; right! In a small studio situation like mine this is a great approach.
Glad you mentioned fabfilter. My favorite plugins. They are amazing.
all of them
One of the best videos on the subject. Although slightly disappointed *vocals* weren't touched.
Lots of good info here :) It's good to just sit through half an hour of just lecture without loads of audio examples (I feel like that can constrain the reach of the info often.)
Cheers and keep it up!
Thank you so very much for this... I've been working on a mix and it was dull. I'm still learning EQ.Doing some of these adjustments brought the song to life....