Chapter Thirteen: Equalization - Posted on 2017-02-27 by Sonya Glaessner

During my last observation I was with Cheilean and a few other students in Dubway Studio's Sand Room. Cheilean had been working on a song and told us it was our assignment to attempt to mix it for him. The song was in the electronic genre and nothing I had dealt with before. I watched as some of my fellow students messed around with EQs. I tried out the EQ II  7- Band that comes with Pro Tools. It was the EQ I had already started messing around with when creating my mix. We began to alter the high pass and low pass filters, attempting to get some of the unwanted lower tones removed. It was interesting for me to gain a better understanding of how this truly is a creative process, one which doesn't have any right answers. If the mix sounds good you are doing something right. How you yield a positive result is truly through trial and error. Of course this is a technical process and an understanding of the equipment is required. However, there is no formula to creating the perfect mix. It is truly a creative process, through which the mixer has to find and develop his or her own sound. I will also say, it is extremely important to get outside feedback when mixing. Asking someone you trust for their opinion on a piece you're working on can be a crucial step in creating something worth listening to.Personally, I can often get caught up in something I'm doing, or can be so consumed by a project that an outside perspective is needed for me to see clearly, or to fix possible mistakes.