Colin Richardson posted a quick summary of his EQ tips for rhythm guitars on the Andy Sneap forum.
Gear mentioned in his comments:
See the EQ tips page for a summary of frequencies.
"I usually find when mixing that i nearly always put a stereo Massenberg GML 8200 EQ across the rhythm guitars, if the sound has been recorded cleanly ie no strange fizz or bottom end boom, then the same type of frequencies tend to be boosted on most of my mixes. Frequency wise it's usually around 8-10 khz for the air 4-6 khz for the bite area, usually 1.5 khz for the in-your-face effect, 400hz for the note of the guitar and around 70-100 hz to pick out the weight of the cab.
The boost amount just depends on what has been recorded, just turn it till it sounds good. This method has worked on many albums i have worked on including Heartwork Carcass, Burn my eyes Machine Head, Chimaira self titled, Bullet for my valentine; The Poison.
There are no set rules for where you boost or choose frequencies on any instrument, but nearly all the time i will add a bit of 70-100hz in there on rhythm guitars , you find that you need it if you EQ the piss out of the other areas of the guitar sound!
I was talking about a guitar sound that had maybe been tracked a bit bland and needed digging out, to make it come alive,so yes these frequencies get boosted, if the guitar has been recorded quite piercing or with a boom on it, then sure cut offending areas, the Tom Lord Alge method works best just turn it till it sounds good, i suppose the art is having a complete vision where you want to go, its just learning by your mistakes
Q/Would you say that when you EQ, do you do it in order to make the guitars sound better, or is it more to make them cut through the other instruments?
A/bit of both, firstly to make the guitars sound exciting to you, and also if you'v got some rocking kick and snare samples EQ'd with the real drums and compression going you have got to bring the guitars and bass up to the same excitement level, if the guitars have been tracked well then it's just a touch up, but if someone has screwed them up (not myself) ! then it's just a case of playing around with EQ to make them sound exciting, first with themselves, and then to sit with the kick , snare overheads and bass."
#1Oct 5, 2006
