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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
@@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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 !
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!!
Excellent video Rick! I just wanted to point out that the bandwidth of the "Q" is not usually thought of (nor limited) in a range of Hertz, but instead in Octaves.
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.
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.
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 💯
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
Flaviu Crisan YESSS!!!!! That would be so awesome!! This is one of my references.. I just setup a project template with these guidelines and after a few tweaks I've got something that's really dialed in. It's a joy just walking in our rehearsal studio and just hit record and get a great sound from the get go!! It literally takes me minutes to get a good sound, chop up the songs and send the whole rehearsal session to the rest of the band so we can listen, critique and make adjustments on the arrangements.
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
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.
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.
I would suggest a live demonstrating of EQing each instrument and style. You can use a high Q bandpass filter to identify what you have at each frequency or use a spectrometer plugin to see the frequency ranges on your clean signal. It think this approach will be much more instructive than going over lists of suggested frequencies by instrument.
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....
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. :)
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
You're such a good teacher! I can always rely on your videos to be a. super in depth, though more importantly b. super easy to understand and very well presented. Top job, and thanks!
He's putting himself out there, because he believes what he's saying and his conviction comes from experience. Your either right or you open yourself to unending criticism. It's got that laid out, been there, done that, got it all locked down, feel to it.
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
Thank you. A great guide line. I am learning and practicing so much musical theory for and on the piano every days that I simple haven't got the time to do the same with mixing engineer stuff. So your videos really help to get a better understanding of that matters the quick way. Best wishes.
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!
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!
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
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
despite me making music for my entire life, i am just now learning how to actually do it with your videos.
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
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!
dont want to sound repetitive, it seems like I always write the same comments in this channel, but this is awesome!
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
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!
The value of this video grows over time
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.
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.
"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!
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
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.
This is not another tutorial. This is a treasure! Thanks a lot mister Beato!
This man is the GOAT.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
You are a great teacher, and have off the charts knowledge of all things music. Your videos are priceless.
It would be fantastic to have a video like this for classical music, especially symphonic
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.
By far the BEST TH-cam producing teacher
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 !
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 lesson is absolute gold, has more insight than most content out here. That's Rick Beato for you.
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!!
Teachers like you are worth there weight in "gold" !
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!
Excellent video Rick! I just wanted to point out that the bandwidth of the "Q" is not usually thought of (nor limited) in a range of Hertz, but instead in Octaves.
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.
your level of knowledge is truly astounding, and is equaled only by your generosity! thanks for sharing all of this. its pure gold!
Sorry best videos ive seen on music engineering . Love your work . I can understand you . Obviously bloody real experienced. Thanks.
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!
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 💯
Man, if I was 20 years old again, I'd LOVE to apprentice under you!
What an incredible teacher. I'm so grateful for all this free knowledge. God bless you, Rick.
Hi Rick , I feel you are if not one of the best teachers out there, respect to you sir !
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.
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!
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.
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!
One of my favorite videos of all time
Watching this for the 3rd time. Taking notes this time! Thanks Rick! Be safe!
I still come back to this video EVERY time Get Ready to Render! 😁
Finally gearing up this year with a starter studio package. Really appreciate the deep dive on how to make it sing. Thank you.
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!
This is a freaking great video. Decades of knowledge and experience in a few minutes. Awesome.
Finally someone who explains what the jargon denotes. Thanks for the info.
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!
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.
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.
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!
Can you do a video like this but for compression? Thanks man
Flaviu Crisan YESSS!!!!! That would be so awesome!! This is one of my references.. I just setup a project template with these guidelines and after a few tweaks I've got something that's really dialed in. It's a joy just walking in our rehearsal studio and just hit record and get a great sound from the get go!! It literally takes me minutes to get a good sound, chop up the songs and send the whole rehearsal session to the rest of the band so we can listen, critique and make adjustments on the arrangements.
Please!
look up "Compressors Explained - Sound Basics with Stella Episode 3"
He has a great video on compresssion, with a similar title, but for compressors
hahah
Looks like 103 mix engineers thumbs downed this video for Rick giving their secrets away. Rick is full of musical knowledge.
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
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!!
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.
I would suggest a live demonstrating of EQing each instrument and style. You can use a high Q bandpass filter to identify what you have at each frequency or use a spectrometer plugin to see the frequency ranges on your clean signal. It think this approach will be much more instructive than going over lists of suggested frequencies by instrument.
This is the most informative EQ-related video on TH-cam that I've ever come across. Brilliant!
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....
Thanks for all you tutorials. They are absolutely invaluable. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us all!
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. :)
Thank you Rick for your classes, they are really serving me a lot. Greetings from Argentina.
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.
Man, I've heard this video so many times while driving or doing something else, so much information! Thanks Rick!
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
Glad you mentioned fabfilter. My favorite plugins. They are amazing.
all of them
One of the videos worth to be on TH-cam ! Great explanation Sir.
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.
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.
Rick, this is the best summarization video of all my EQing questions that I had! Thank you!
One of the best videos on the subject. Although slightly disappointed *vocals* weren't touched.
I could have learned how to EQ through anybody else, but Rick Beato is the best of the best
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.
I am now your humble student. Many Thanks!
Having watched your tut on Compressors, I had to look for this one. You have made an eternal impact on my music. God bless you.
Thank you for doing this for us, you are giving us thousands of dollars and hours worth of information.
You're such a good teacher! I can always rely on your videos to be a. super in depth, though more importantly b. super easy to understand and very well presented. Top job, and thanks!
applied to my mixes. Sounds 100x better. Thanks Rick!
He's putting himself out there, because he believes what he's saying and his conviction comes from experience. Your either right or you open yourself to unending criticism. It's got that laid out, been there, done that, got it all locked down, feel to it.
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
Thank you. A great guide line.
I am learning and practicing so much musical theory for and on the piano every days that I simple haven't got the time to do the same with mixing engineer stuff. So your videos really help to get a better understanding of that matters the quick way. Best wishes.