how to get rid of boxxiness

joeban1986

john walsh
Jun 17, 2011
47
0
6
k so im pretty new to this whole mixxing world and the tips and everything on this site are awesome, but boxxiness always kills me i cut on the guitars around 675 to get rid of it and they sound good and i do same for the vocals but overall in my mix there is always some remaining. my question is this does anyone cut on there master eq when mixxing for boxxiness? in my master bus i usually cut everything before 30hz and trim the highs a little bit and boost on 16k for brightness, but everytime i do a small cut on the boxxy area i lose dynamics in my mix, any suggestions?also if u have any tips for the master bus it would be awesome too
joey
 
Boxxy-smiles.jpg
 
Multiple mid range cuts where ever you're hearing it build up. Read Ermin's tutorial "Poking holes in high-gain guitars."
 
You have to keep in mind that the midrange in general is the hardest part to get right on any mix of any genre. Sometimes you notch as much as you think is needed and then realize after a while that there is still a build up, which has to be dealt with.
Search around the 350hz-700/800hz area, sometimes multiple cuts are needed, depending on the source, the instruments, etc. Keep an eye on that region as you progress.

Attacking that area with EQ on the 2BUSS isn't necessarily wrong, I guess it's something that anyone should say as an advice to try not to do it and deal with it within the mix but I use EQ and/or multiband compression on the 2BUSS all the time while mixing, as long as it gets you to where you want, go for it. But there's nothing you can do to get rid of boxiness apart from EQ'ing, multiband compressing, the ideal situation would be to get the source right from the start with those elements more subdued by nature.
 
With my guitar setup, I find i usually have to do some narrow & shallow (up to 3dB) cuts around 400-650hz, and sometimes two different narrow cuts in that space. <- guitar tracks, not master bus.