Understanding and using EQ is essential for any audio engineer. Going beyond treble and bass and learning what frequencies sound like when they are too loud or missing from an input will allow you to shape the sounds into full, smooth, natural pieces of your mix. This post is going to focus on how to get some practice listening to different frequencies, shaping the sounds into the best they can be, and some common traps some fall into that you should try to avoid.

There can be a fine line when listening to, say, a lead vocal, between needing to boost certain frequencies or taking others out. Generally, I try to remove frequencies before adding others in. If your vocals are on SM58′s, you may find they sound slightly dark or boomy, and if you take out some 250Hz, it may help them sound more natural. As you train your ear, it will probably be easier to hear frequencies that are too loud as opposed to deciding which ones are not loud enough. Therefore, try to tame those that are too loud first!

When it comes to low end, I rarely ever find myself turning the lows up. Chances are your lows are a shelf-band, so when you turn them up, you’re turning up everything down to 20Hz! Most church sound systems do not produce audio as low as 40Hz, and you’re upping the frequencies an entire octave below that even. What results is your amp working harder to amplify those very low frequencies that your speakers won’t even be able to reproduce. That can also damage your speakers if you send them too much energy at such low levels.

Here’s an experiment, if you have iTunes. Find your favorite rock song and turn your speakers up sorta loud. Find the EQ from your menu (depends on Windows or Mac where it is, and it seems to change menu locations after some updates). If you turn that left slider (32 (Hz)), you probably won’t hear much difference. Most computer speakers won’t go that low. Now, turn up 125 and the bass should get louder. There is no perfect setting for the EQ, and it can change with the song, so play around with it. Apple gives you some starting points in the drop down menu. Notice that each slider is double the previous one’s number. This means that each slider is 1 octave away from the 1 on either side of it.

Rather than using this EQ on songs, wouldn’t be great to hear how it affects just 1 input at a time? Well, I can help you out there. If you weren’t aware, I’ve posted some free audio tracks that you can download and listen to. Import these into iTunes, pop them onto your iPod, and take them to your church. Put the left into 1 channel and the right into the next (so they’re separate). Play different tracks and try to EQ the drums the same way they sound on some of your favorite songs. For the vocals, I’ve given you music on the left and the raw vocal on the right. Can you EQ the vocal so it sounds best?

Have fun with it. Record your results onto a computer or CD-R if you have one at your sound system, zero the EQ and try again. Remember what sounds good and what sounds bad. Transfer the knowledge you’ve learned to your own worship team at your next sound check!