Dynamic EQ Tips from the Pros: How it Works and How 4 Top Mixers Use It
Dynamic EQ: How does this new class of tool really work, and how can you incorporate it into your workflow?
If you ask a mix engineer about the first tool they reach for in a mix aside from a fader, they will most likely mention equalization.
The ability to manipulate the the tonal characteristics of a source is one of the building blocks of a great mix, and engineers have been working with EQs to this end since at least the mid 1950s.
We’ve seen many advancements in the world of EQ since then, from George Massenberg’s introduction of Parametric EQ in the 70s to the introduction of plugin-based EQs with the Waves Q10 in the early 90s and beyond.
Despite these advancements, there has been one piece of the EQ workflow that has remained essentially from the old days, until just recently: Whenever you applied an EQ a sound source the change would affect the frequency response of the entire track.
For example, if you were to come across a cymbal that has a nasty resonance when hit hard and you wanted to EQ the resonance out, this EQ change would apply to the entire track at all times—whether the cymbal was being hit hard enough to accentuate that resonance or not. The only way around this was to manually manipulate the EQ controls during playback by hand, or write automation into your DAW to bypass or adjust the EQ from moment to moment.
Thankfully, engineers can now solve this problem with a relatively new class of tools that has made our mixing workflow easier and faster than ever. When confronted with this type of issue, we can now reach for one of the least sexy, but most useful tools in the world of modern mixing: Dynamic EQ.
Dynamic EQ is a little bit like an EQ crossed with a multiband compressor. It’s a tool that allows you to apply equalization changes only when a certain threshold is reached. In our cymbal example, dynamic EQ would allow you to tame harsh cymbal resonances only when the cymbal is hit hard enough to present the resonance issue in the first place. This way, you can selectively apply EQ changes only when they are needed, rather than affecting the tonal quality of the track for the entire song.
The only drawback is that dynamic EQs are so new, that there aren’t yet many well-known “best practices” around their use. So, to help dispel some of the voodoo associated with Dynamic EQ and take out a lot of the guesswork, I’ve asked a handful of my favorite mixers for their thoughts on how and why they use this tool. As my own work skews more toward rock and metal, so that’s where I started my search, but these basic concepts are applicable to any genre.
The Panel: Zakk Cervini, Kurt Ballou, Billy Bush, Joey Sturgis
1) When would you prefer to use dynamic EQ over multiband compression?
Zakk Cervini [Blink 182, 311, Good Charlotte]:
Dynamic EQ is always my go-to for taming the low mid-range, around 150-350Hz, in vocals.
Most of the time, singers sound great when they are singing high and loud, but when they are singing softer and in a lower register, muddy frequencies—often combined with proximity to the microphone—build up quickly.
Being able to understand every single word of a vocal is massively important to me, so I need my vocal to be clear and crisp at all times. If a vocal is unintelligible, you are going to lose a massive portion of listeners.
I prefer to dynamically EQ these frequencies out rather than compress them because it sounds much cleaner to me. If you are trying to empty out a bucket with a bunch of dirt in it, you would want to shovel the dirt out completely rather than try to compact it down. That’s the mentality I use when trying to solve this problem: I want the low-mids carved out, not compressed.
Kurt Ballou [Converge, High on Fire, Code Orange]:
Since getting Fab Filter Pro-MB (it compresses and expands), JST Transfiy, and Wilkinson DeBleeder, I’ve been reaching for Dynamic EQ’s less and less. However, I recently picked up Oek Sound Soothe and absolutely love it.
As I understand it, Soothe is a multi-band, dynamic EQ which uses many small band band-pass filters to control harshness. I most often use it to mellow brash cymbals without removing air, smooth out overly bright guitars, and to remove the ringing sometimes caused at crossover points with multi-band compressors.
Additionally, I will, at times use the Dynamic EQ setting on HOFA IQ on drum close mics to boost brightness when a drum is struck, and reduce brightness when not. This can reduce, or eliminate the need for gates.
Billy Bush [Garbage, Goo Goo Dolls, Against Me]:
I tend to use multiband compression for broad strokes like a subgroup or a mix and dynamic EQ for more surgical things on an individual track. Typically I’ll use dynamic EQ to tame harsh cymbals, to de-ess, to de-box or to tweak a sound that doesn’t have a consistent issue tonally.
For example, some singers tend to get thin and hard when they sing loud but will get really thick when singing low or intimately. If the vocal is really dynamic, I’ll start by using a dynamic EQ to turn down the harsh frequencies at a certain threshold so the vocal tends to stay in a more consistent tonal range. Conversely, I’ll also use it to turn up certain frequencies if I need it to either cut more when they are singing quietly or fill in the low end if they are singing hard.
Joey Sturgis [Asking Alexandria, Attila, The Devil Wears Prada]:
The main use for dynamic EQ in my workflow right now is on instruments that are fighting to occupy the same space, especially when I’m feeling good about the overall mix.
This can be done at an individual track level, but a lot of the time I find myself using it on groups or busses. Trying to cut and boost the same frequency bands out of two groups of instruments that I’m already really happy with on their own is a complete lose-lose situation.
For example, if my guitars and lead vocal are taking up a lot of the same space, I’m not going to cut a few dB out of the guitar bus and boost the same frequency on the vocal track. If I did, I’d be left with guitars that under-deliver when the vocal isn’t present. Taking this approach is one of the quickest ways to mess up a mix when you’re 95% of the way finished.
Instead, I’ll use dynamic EQ on my guitar bus to notch out the problem area where the two are overlapping. I can then set my lead vocal track as the side-chain to the EQ, and I’ve instantly got a useable guitar tone that gets “ducked” according to my exact specifications, and you’d never know anything was ever wrong once you’re listening to the final mix.
2) Where in your signal chain do you put Dynamic EQ?
Zakk Cervini: I always put my dynamic EQ before my compression and after my initial static EQ. Dynamic EQ is a problem solver to me, and I am extremely heavy handed with compression, so I like to have my EQ issues settled before I smash anything. I’ll clean out unneeded frequencies with a normal EQ, then add a dynamic EQ if the track needs it, then compress.
Kurt Ballou: I would typically use dynamic EQ before any other dynamics processing because dynamic EQ depends on sensitive threshold settings and any reduction in dynamic range may render it useless.
However, I hadn’t considered this before, but since sometimes compression squashes the highs and lows of a signal, it might be interesting to put a Dynamic EQ after a compressor to dynamically restore the loss of bandwidth during heavy compression, but to side chain the dynamic EQ from an uncompressed version of that signal.
Billy Bush: Depends on what the issue is really. If the problem is at the source, like with a boxy-sounding acoustic guitar, I’ll do it first so I can get the issue out of the way. Other times I’ll do it last to correct the artifacts caused by the rest of processing—for example as a de-esser, or to cut out some frequencies that have become more prominent due to compression, or even somewhere in the middle when I hear a build-up of a frequency that is going to cause an issue down the road.
Joey Sturgis: As I mentioned, I’m a bit of a late-in-the-chain guy when it comes to dynamic EQ. Most of my dynamic adjustments will come early on in my mix sessions as I work to clean up tracks and get everything sitting where I want it. I’m huge on getting the individual tracks to a useable tone first-and-foremost, then work my way down the line from there.
When it comes to dynamic EQ, I’m hesitant to add it early in the signal chain, because I know it’s going to affect the response of everything further down the chain. Anything side-chained is going toward the bottom of the list, because I want to get my sound 100% right before I start having other parts of the mix messing with it.
I know there are some guys that have different uses for dynamic EQ that force it closer to the front of their chain, and they’ve got some compelling cases toward why they use them that way. Whatever works for you, works. But for things like resonance in a drum kit or cymbal bleed, I’m much more likely to reach for a multi-band transient processor or filter-based solution first than I am to reach for a dynamic EQ.
3) Lastly, are there any types of instruments or tracks that you consistently find yourself using dynamic EQ on?
Zakk Cervini: I am definitely always using dynamic EQ on muddy vocals. Another common place I use it is on distorted guitars or cymbals that are harsh in the upper midrange or high end. It can act kind of like a de-esser on these things, but you have more control over it. I love listening to music really loud, so keeping harsh frequencies under control is crucial to me.
Another place I’ll often reach for dynamic EQ is when I have the bass guitar sounding great on its own and the kick drum sounding great on its own, but they do not work together because their low ends are fighting each other. I’ll use the EQ to duck out the low frequencies of my bass guitar whenever my kick drum hits so that the low end remains consistent throughout the entire track.
I’ll often use multi band compression for this as well, but I’ll shoot out dynamic EQ and I’d say I take the dynamic EQ approach on this issue 50% of the time. The McDSP AE400 is amazing for this application.
Kurt Ballou: For me, dynamic EQ is typically used for repairing poorly recorded or performed tracks, so it’s never a go-to.
Billy Bush: Definitely on vocals. I find I often don’t want to do a global EQ to the vocal so I’ll use a dynamic EQ on vocals on pretty much on every mix.
Bass is another one. Depending on the note being played, there may be an excess energy that I only want to tame at that moment and not remove on other notes. Also on strings to tame some of the bow noise and possible harshness, particularly if they haven’t been recorded well.
Aside from those, it’s really a case by case basis. Drums get some pretty often if they haven’t been recorded in a great room, and sometimes soft synths have a harshness that can be dealt with via dynamic EQ. I tend to think of dynamic EQ as something to use in lieu of automating an EQ to make a performance sit in a track better without affecting its transient information like a multiband compression would.
Joey Sturgis: Usually, it’s my vocals and electric guitars or it’s my bass and kick drum. The electric guitars and vocal hurdle is an easy one: Nine times out of ten I end up cutting a few dB in the mid or low-mid section of the guitars and triggering it from the vocal. Problem solved.
For bass and kick, it’s a bit more about trial and error. I’ve gotten great results getting these two instruments to play nice since way before I used my first dynamic EQ, but that’s not to say the dynamic EQ might not have given me a better sound or quicker solution a few of those times.
I’ll usually put a dynamic EQ through its paces when I think it will fit with the song I’m working on though. Occasionally, it’s just a matter of using the dynamic EQ on the bass alone. Other times, it requires the kick to be side-chained. When I’m spending too much time trying to get it set just right, I know I can always fall back on a standard EQ, compressor, and a bit of automation if all else fails. All I can say is that when dynamic EQ finds a place in the right mix, it fits like a glove.
There you have it, some tried and true approaches straight from some tried and true pros. Now go pull up your favorite dynamic EQ and start diving in!
Are you already having great results with dynamic EQ in your mixes? Tell us all about your favorite approaches in the comments below.
Dan Bieranowski is an audio engineer and sound designer who lives in California.
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