EQ Tutorial: The Basics of How to EQ Properly

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This tutorial will teach you the fundamentals of EQ or Equalization using the Parametric EQ 2 in FL Studio 12, and how to EQ, carve or shape any instrument or sound to your liking. This knowledge can be transferred to just about any equalizer in any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).

00:28 - Introduction to Frequencies
00:42 - What is the Frequency Spectrum?
01:21 - Where Sounds or Instruments Live in the Frequency Spectrum
02:11 - Example #1: Kick Drum
02:56 - Example #2: Clap
03:18 - Example #3: Hi-hat
03:42 - Example #4: Bassline
03:56 - Example #5: Pluck
04:16 - What is EQ or Equalization?
04:31 - Uses of EQ
04:54 - Compression Tutorial
05:01 - Fruity Parametric EQ 2 - 7 Band Equalizer
05:09 - What are Bands?
05:16 - Band Properties
05:21 - Frequency
05:29 - Amount
05:49 - Shape/Type
06:42 - (Breasts)
08:17 - Bandwidth, Resonance or "Q"
09:05 - Order (Steep vs. Gentle)
10:08 - Recap of Band Properties
10:46 - EQ is an ART!
11:14 - EQ Example
11:50 - Targeting and Cutting a Resonating Frequency
12:20 - A/B Compare
12:42 - Low Cutting Frequencies
13:19 - Make-up Gain
14:12 - Practice, practice, practice!

Questions or comments? Leave them below and I will be happy to help. Tutorial requests for future videos? Let me know!

[electronicproducer]

EQing depends on 3 major things: 1) The input sound 2) The context of the sound in the mix 3) What you're trying to achieve - so with that said it's virtually impossible for me to tell you "do this" and "do that" to make your sound better, or fit better given your situation.

So with that, I'd like to stress practice, practice, practice. The more you experiment with analyzing sounds, the more your ear develops, and the better you get at determining where and how EQ should be applied.

Having said that, and like I mentioned in the video, I could do some followup videos with more examples of EQing certain sounds in certain situations if it would be helpful to some people.

[mcblauwal]

finally i can use EQ without just randomly pressing buttons and see whats happening. thanks!

[hexahive]

What I find very important in EQing is the fact that you should NEVER mess with EQs after an hour or two of working with music or listening to it. Our auditory system adapts to the levels of perceived sound, and after some time we actually hear the music differently than when we started. The same way we perceive noisy environment less noisy after some time spent in it, we also adapt to music. That's why something that sounded awesome after 5 hour of working in the studio can sound crap the next day when you first hear it. Many people I know tend to produce at the lowest volume they find useful in order to avoid this problem, only occasionally turning the volume up when needed.

[RickyAmesDrumming]

This is the most clear explanation of EQ i've seen on YouTube. Thank you!

[henryapplegate]

Made a song in 8 hours, I was Eqing for 5 of those hours

[Scyber_Official]

I'm an electronic producer and deaf in my left ear. I've been playing piano since 8, guitar since 12, drums since 14, and producing music since 21.
I'm not rich. Nor do I come from a well-off background. I took after school lessons starting in 3rd grade at my school back in 1992. I was lucky enough to have those resources at my grade/elementary school and I took up snare drumming in my high school's marching band.
I made connections with other students and listened to as many different genres as I could - picking up certain things from each genre. As I got to community college to study music theory and production techniques, I was introduced to DAW and synthesizer music production and released I could produce just about genre I wanted. I couldn't believe that digital synthesizers could mimic obsure instruments like a jaw harp or didgeridoo.
Over the course of 15 years producing music, I've trained my right ear (the good ear) to be very attentive while being cautious not to blow it out with loud music. I taught myself to mix and master at low volumes using headphones. I'm able to smooth out the sounds and frequencies with EQ when I can, yet like your posting on the top comment, it all starts with the input signal of the source. If it the input sounds bad, there's no amount of EQing anyone can do to fix it.

[chefernandez]

"Dogs would have A lot more frequencies to worry about"
snoop dogg is really doing the most

[eafofny]

I need to let you know that this is the most helpful I’ve ever seen. What clicked for me was that EQ is not about boosting frequencies… It’s about filtering out the bad ones. I figured it out,

[Antonio_Ortiz]

I've literally re-watched this video a few times now; still the most concise video explaining EQ on YouTube, no joke.

[RaffzVieira]

I'm way past these concepts but I always like to check new people doing tutorials and boy you made a great one! Really organized, to the point, lots of info, very linear class, well done, you got a subscriber, keep doing these kind of tutorials on basics, I'm sure this will be helpful to so many people cause of how well organized it is :D

[AllBass]

"If dogs would make music"

me: imagine a picture to it

[HeadRecieverAtHeadOffice]

such a clear video, to the point, subbed

[DrSelfridgeMusic]

This is a fantastic tutorial and you are an excellent teacher. Thank you! I'll be sharing this with my Audio Engineering students.

[Nova]

Holy crap, this is the best tutorial there is on EQ!

[iemgote]

I’ve been using fl for 4 years and I now just learned how to make sharp cuts. Thanks.

[Jholms]

You have a nice set of tutorials going so far. Keep it up!

[runichristiansen]

great video! You explained it very well, and i learned a thing or two, thanks! One thing that came to mind in regards to your talk of "curves", "lo" and "high" cuts etc: When mixing, and especially when working with highly "visually stimulating" sources like parametric eq's, it's important to remember to mix with your ears and not with your eyes. All these beautiful shapes and curves can be deceiving. Best advice is to find frequency you want to work on, grab freq. by mouse click and then look away from screen and use your ears. It's frighteningly easy to fall in to "the mode of the screen"... so to speak? idk.. just my experience with working with sound in the past – i'm no expert:) But once again, great vid:)

[melodicprogressivehousemph]

As a software trainer, I must admit that your presentation clear, concise, well informed, and inspiring. You got yourself a sub mate.

[jmchez]

"And by no coincidence at all did I create a pair of breasts" LOL!

[MusicCompletes]

Dude, i personally love this series of tutorials. Come back and do more of them! You know how to stucture and explain the stuff clearly, you can blow up the FL Studios Tutorial Game if you want to.

Cheers n love