How To EQ SUB BASS

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

Hi, I'm Streaky. In today's video, I'm going to show you how to EQ sub bass. Let's get into it. So here we are inside of FabFilter Pro-Q 3. This is what I'm going to use to show you. But you can use any EQ that you have. Now I've got this set up, so that it's a 3dB. You see, it's quite zoomed in. That's because when you're working with a stereo mix, you don't have to do massive high changes as in like 5 dB steps or 10 dB steps. I'm working in say 1dB, 2dB max, and steps. So that's why I have it on that resolution. So let me just show you the first thing to do to tighten up the bass. So I've got a track from my assistant again. So let's have a listen to the bass and I'll try not to talk as much so you can hear exactly what's going on. If you just listen to the subs, that's what we're hearing. Listen to those low-end. And maybe on headphones is a better thing to listen on if you're in a room that doesn't play it back as well.

There's a little bit wobbly in the low end. What we want to do is tighten that up so that we get the kicks and everything sounding a lot clearer and a lot tighter. So first thing that I do is it's put a low cut on. So if I click that. We have a low cut and I have that on about 18. So I always boost up a touch as well so I'm cutting very low here. I'm cutting at 13. That's just to get rid of any kind of really noisy rumble that's going on at the bottom. What this also does later on is if you're putting any kind of limiting across, it just helps the limiter out without having any noise that's not registered. So we have that there. So that's tightened up a little bit. It's going in and out. (Music playing). The next thing to do, I want to grab that low-end. So put this EQ into a dynamic EQ. Let's just turn this off for a second so you can see what I’m doing. This is a low shelf, and I'm bringing this down by about 2dB. So you can see as it kicks in, it's not taken EQ away until the kick comes in. What this does it just gets it really tight and punchy. So let me just bring the track back and I'll play what I’m doing.

I want to bring this crossover point up to about 50Hz. I'm bringing this down. You can see around here, it's -2dB. Although it says here that I’m -1 by the times the curve goes down. It’s a -2 so you just see that visually though. But if you’re using a different EQ then you can try that so let's just put this low cut back on and you can see what's happening. And then it's like this section round here between say 10Hz and 50Hz is just moving dynamically with stuff that's going on in the sub bass. (Music playing).

All the trick you can do is add a little bit of load. So you can move this cube to do a similar effect that I'm doing on that one. But it just changes the way that works. So this just gives a little bass boost before it, so that's lifting out of around a third of a dB even.  But it just by moving that, the tilts on that. It actually is lifting all the frequencies up to around 200. So you're getting a little lift in the bass. That's also moving. So it's making the whole bottom end move in at in the right timing and then you’ll hear the result. Let just stop that and preview again.  (Music playing). And if it’s too much you can always lift up depends on how much really low subs you've got going on. Still adding a bit look and it's also adding a bit here. But it's just making the bass move around. It sounds really nice and tight. (Music playing).

What you could do also is you could bring it in another EQ here. There’s another thing, put this in the sides only. Put that on another shell.  Just monoing the low-end. So then we're getting monoing the sub, with side EQ. Then normally EQ is keeping it punchy. And then we've got this doing a little cut so I could also then make this. (Music playing). So just getting a lot of detail in subs by doing those three EQ moves.

So let me just round up what I did here. So first, one, I've just got a low pass going in the stereo. So that's just doing everything in low pass. The next one is a low shelf. That's in the sides only. So that's monoing the bass around those frequencies in the sub. Then I've got the mid, so it's just doing the center channel, but you can't have that on the stereo as well. All of this depends on listening and working out, whether that's something that needs to be done on the stereo or the mid, but you just got use your ears on that. And so what I'm doing here is I've got this in as a dynamic EQ, and this is hold down a little bit. So it's just pumping the low end down a touch in the subs. And I've just moved that curve of the queue so that it's just lifting it a little bit as well, above that frequency range so that we're getting a little bass bump. And also there's a little bass bump going on here too. So we're lifting and we're getting the bass moving at the same time. So it's looks complicated. Sounds a bit complicated. But it is only three EQ moves all put together and that's tightening up the low end. I'll just play you out so you can hear how that's working. (Music playing). So that's how I EQ sub bass sometimes if it needs it. So make sure you use your ears.