Learn EQ by ear
Short explainers, each with a demo you can play. Hear the idea on real music, flip it off and on at matched levels, then train it in the exercise that goes with it.
The explainers
- Trains: Identify
What is EQ?
What an equaliser does to a sound, on a real mix: a range of frequencies turned up or down.
Hear it - Trains: Sweep, Restore
Parametric EQ
Frequency, gain and Q, the three controls on every bell band. Hear what each one does.
Hear it - Trains: Cuts Only
High-pass and low-pass filters
Take out everything below or above a point. Where a high-pass goes on a vocal, and when it goes too far.
Hear it - Trains: Cuts Only
Shelving EQ
Lift or lower everything above or below a frequency, and how a shelf differs from a bell and a filter.
Hear it - Trains: Fix the Mix, Hunt
Mix problems you can hear
Muddy, boxy, honky, harsh, sibilant and dull: what each sounds like and where to look for it.
Hear it - Trains: Daily Session
Mixing on headphones
It works if you know what your headphones hide. Check the low end, then train on what you mix on.
Hear it
How the demos work
Every demo plays in your browser, on music split into separate instruments, so a move can be made on the whole mix or on one part of it. Press play, then flip between the two sides. Where the point is the tone, the processed side plays at the same loudness as the clean side, so it can’t sound better just by being louder. Each demo says whether its levels are matched.
Use headphones or decent speakers. Laptop and phone speakers can’t play the lowest bands, so the low end turns into guesswork.
Looking for which frequencies each instrument lives in? That’s the EQ frequency chart on danmurtagh.com. Ready to train? See all the exercises.