#MixTricks is where the very best mixers, engineers, producers, and musicians let us in on some of the best secrets tips and tricks they’ve picked up on their way to the top.
In this episode of #MixTricks Grammy-nominated mastering engineer, and owner of Infrasonic Mastering Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile) speaks about the power of EQ and why it is every mastering engineer’s best friend.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
My name’s Pete Lyman, and my mix trick, which is actually a mastering trick, is how to use EQ to raise the apparent level of a track.
Most mastering engineers don’t pay attention to meters or numbers. It’s all about EQ. In mastering, I think there’s a misconception that we’re just using a ton of compression and limiting.
To get a track to sound louder reality, I would say 90% of it is EQ, getting the mid shaped and, and getting the areas that your ears hear immediately.
You know, really working on that midrange. Oftentimes a midrange boost, maybe a boost around like somewhere in between one or two k.
A nice broad boost will make the track sound louder than just pushing it into a limiter, especially if your mix already has a lot of low end.
You can push it into a limiter and you can get a reading on a meter that says minus 6 LUFS or whatever.
But that song could still sound significantly quieter than a well mastered song that was, metering, lower controlling the sub frequencies, tailoring the mid-range properly. That’s really the trick to loudness.
