LESSON 13 | EQUALIZATION |  AUDIO ENGINEERING & MUSIC PRODUCING
Channel: Recording Connection Audio Institute
Date: 2013-10-27

Lesson Thirteen of our audio engineering and music production curriculum deals with equalization aka EQ:   http://www.recordingconnection.com/courses/audio-engineering/audio-lesson-13   EQ, equalization, is a reference to frequency control within an audio signal. So when you consider the human ear, remember it hears from 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. Now, if this is sounding like Greek to you, don't worry. We'll explain it in detail in the upcoming chapters that precede this. 

What you want to remember about frequency is it relates to pitch. So the highness or lowness of a note is in direct relation to its frequency. What an equalizer allows us to do is to manipulate that. We can either accent a frequency or we can minimize a frequency. Now this is really an effective way to get clarity from different instruments. 

What you have to remember is different instruments that are in different frequency ranges will compete with each other. So sometimes - I'll give you a perfect example - a guitar and a vocal sit virtually within the same frequency range.  If I'm trying to mix these two signals together, and I raise the level on the guitar, well guess what happens to my vocal? I lose the vocal in my mix. Well then if I raise the vocal, guess what happens? Now I'm losing that guitar. So what we can do with an equalizer is we can actually pinpoint certain frequencies and separate the two instruments so you create a space within the mix. 

This is Lesson Thirteen of the Recording Connection Recording Programs.