Mixing: EQ, Compression and Effects

Continuing from where we left off, I'm going to start gluing things together by adding some eq, compression and effects in this exact order. I personally like to start with the drums and build from there. I like to get all of the instruments done before I even touch on the vocals. 

1) Drums

For the kick drum, I like to boost it in the 50Hz to 100 Hz range to give it that extra punch. From there, I decided to slightly bring down the frequencies between the 100Hz to 200Hz range to reduce the 'boxy' feel of the kick and let the punchiness come through. Furthermore, I reduced any frequencies between the 2k to 20k range.

Here's an AB of the EQ I've made: 

After doing some EQ, I wanted to do some light compression and let that punchiness come through even more. I chose the Vintage FET and set the ratio to about 2.1:1 and the threshold to 15. I also added some soft distortion to it. In the end I would get about -1 to -2 of gain reduction.

Here's the before and after:

For this song, there are a total of three unique kick drums in different sections. Nevertheless, I applied the same EQ and compression settings to them as well.  As For the hi-hats, I got rid of any frequencies between the 20Hz to 500 Hz range as there's no need for any frequencies to be there. I also applied a low pass filter at the 10k to 20k range.

Here's the before and after:

I also added a sample delay to the hi-hat and applied 100 samples of delay to the left side. The difference is very subtle, almost imperceptible.

Lastly, I applied a DeEsser for the hi-hat and chose the hi-hat smoother preset to get rid of some sibilance. 

Here's what the hi-hat sounds like after applying some EQ, sample delay and a DeEsser.

I also applied some EQ to the clapping sound and the snare drum by getting rid of the lows and boosting some of the highs. 

Clap

Snare Drum

The video below is the after effects of applying some eq and compression to the drum tracks.

2) Strings 

I separated the strings into two categories: low strings and high strings. For the high strings, I will remove anything below 80Hz to get rid of any low-end rumble. A boost around 100Hz to to 150Hz can add some bottom to the instruments. A cut around 205Hz will be able to remove some low-end muddiness. In order to add some fullness to the strings, I made a boost around 255Hz and cut some of the high frequencies.

As for low strings, I removed frequencies below 80Hz and made a cut around 100Hz and 500Hz as I wouldn't want them to clash with the bass. I also made a boost around the 1k to 20k range to give the strings some clarity.

After applying some EQ, I decided to compress the strings a little. I wouldn't want to compress them too much it will make them sound more unrealistic. -1 to -4 of gain reduction is good enough.

Here's the end result of doing some eq and compression on the strings. 

3) Bass 

After giving the bass some space in the 0Hz to 100Hz range by removing those frequencies in the kick drum, I decided to apply a boost in that range as well as cut off some of the frequencies in the 200Hz to 1000Hz range as well as the 2k to 20k range. 

After doing some EQ, I inserted a compressor and use the E Bass preset.

Here's how the bass sound like after applying some EQ and compression.

4) Piano

For this song, it's really easy to eq and compress the piano as it doesn't play as big of a role as the strings. I essentially cut some of the lower frequencies and made a slight boost around the 500Hz to 2000Hz range. 

5) Vocals 

Probably the hardest part in this mixing stage. I decided to make a boost around the 100Hz to 500 Hz range as there are times where the vocals can get a little dull and soft in that range. In addition, I made a boost around the 1k to 2k range to add some clarity. 

After that, I applied the Vintage VCA compressor with a 2.1:1 ratio and -25db threshold. I was getting around -1 to -4 of gain reduction. 

Here's how the lead vocals sound like after some eq and compression. Note that as I'm writing this post I've also applied some automation to the vocals in which I will talk more about in upcoming posts.

Time and Modulation Effects:

For this track, the lead vocals track already has reverb auxiliary stems so I wouldn't add any more effects to it. However, I am going to add some reverb to the drums and strings.

I'm going to first start off with the drums. First and foremost, I selected all of the drum tracks and send them to a bus. I then renamed the newly created auxiliary track to Drums Verb.

In Drums Verb, I opened space designer and used the 'Drum Plate' preset. I made sure that I cut off all of the dry signal because this gives me the flexibility to control the level of reverb from the auxiliary track's fader.

Moving on to the strings, I sent all of the string tracks to two buses, bus 8 and 9. In bus 8, I added the Botta Church preset from Space Designer with some added Pre Delay. In bus 9, I added a chorus and a flanger to thicken the sound of the strings. The video will show the result of the added effects.

That's all from me. I know that this post is really long but I really wanted to cover all of these before I dive into automation in the next post. As usual, thank you so much for your time and your feedback is much appreciated.