A Quick Review of Spectral Management

Spectral Management is the term I use to describe this process. I prioritize my tracks in terms of their importance in the mix, EQing the most important ones first and awarding them the choicest bits of the spectrum for enhancing EQ (boosting, that is). For instance, I tend to reserve the band between 3300 and 4500 Hz. for vocals.

The thinking here is that you shouldn’t boost any other track in the same frequency realm, because then the tracks will tend to compete with each other and the mix turns into a levels war between tracks. Take a look at my book Total Recording for more detail on this.

If you have tracks that are really dissimilar in their time behavior, you can relax this rule somewhat. For instance, boosting a snare track at 4 kHz. is not going to get in the way of the vocal at all.

Broad Q

In any case, for this part of it, the trick is to use a fairly broad EQ (an octave or more bandwidth – a Q of less than 2). You are trying to tease out the portion of the spectrum that most convincingly reveals the character of the instrument, within the context of the mix, of course.

Gentle Boosts

At the same time, go easy with the amount of boost. This is a gentle flavoring kind of process – 6 dB is usually way too much. Try boosting a couple of dB (even I dB can work wonders on occasion). I find +3 dB or less is usually all I need.

Keeping an Ear on Levels

As you do this, keep in mind that you are also increasing the level of the track. If you have a 2-octave band boost of 3 dB, you are probably increasing the track level by at least 2 dB. As you EQ a lot of tracks, you may find your levels climbing significantly. Watch out for this. The principle here is: use faders, not EQ, to adjust levels. That’s why it’s always so important to keep in mind that when you boost, using broad Q with an equalizer, you are actually increasing the level of the signal, which when cutting with a narrows Q, you tend not to reduce the overall level very much, if at all.