I think I've gotten myself into a bad habbit on the masterbus...

[ApolloSpeed]

i find myself now using alot of EQ on the master bus on my projects. Sometimes 5 or 6 db gain on in the upper range to get clarity.

Do I need to start focusing on EQing individual tracks?

 

[Zack Uidl]

I would say so. The only EQ I tend to do on the master is to cut a little lowend out

 

[joeymusicguy]

i add lots of eq on master bus

its all about what you want to accomplish
the choice is yours

 

[mephisto_loh]

On my own experience, to get a clearer sound i use the EQ on individual tracks to make windowing and that's it. There are other techniques to get a clearer sound in the final mix without using the EQ.
One disadvantage of the technique you are using is that if you raise for example 5 or 6 dBs of a certain frequency in the masterbus to got that clicky kick drum or to raise the bottom end of the guitars you might be raising noise from the other tracks like the kick drum or the vocals making your mix sound more "bright or clear" but compromising the tightness.
i'm not sure if you were aware of this but it is a good habit to keep it in mind.
Cheers man!

 

[mephisto_loh]

i add lots of eq on master bus

its all about what you want to accomplish
the choice is yours

But as joey says, it depends on what you have in mind!

 

[GarethSE]

i quite often use a fair amount of eq during mastering.
sometimes eq-ing the entire mix can give you a sound you couldn't have gotten by eq-ing individual tracks.
There's no rights or wrongs, as long as the end result is good it doesn't matter how you get there.

 

[slashvanyoung]

There's no right or wrong but I tend to stay away from it, especially if I did the mix. Too often something like adding a bit air to the guitars will fuck with the cymbals etc. So I might just tame the low or high end a bit but even for that I prefer addressing the individual elements

 

[Metaltastic]

There's no right or wrong but I tend to stay away from it, especially if I did the mix. Too often something like adding a bit air to the guitars will fuck with the cymbals etc. So I might just tame the low or high end a bit but even for that I prefer addressing the individual elements

Word

 

[JonWormwood]

holy shit there's logic in this thread.

 

[if6was9]

I usually end up adding a high shelf pretty high up to add some "air". kinda adds a sheen to the whole mix and adds a little clarity.
I was worried about it till I brought a mix I did to a very experience mastering guy where I'd disabled my mastering bus and he did the exact same thing for similar reasons. Haven't worried about it since!

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

It depends on what you're saying. If you're using heavy EQing DURING mixing then you may lead into big problems, since by doing that you may neglect important things in individual tracks. But if you're saying during the Mastering process than there's absolutely no problem about it, if it's achieving your goals and it isnt screwing anything then you're doing nothing wrong

 

[greyskull]

depends, i worked on an album where we mixed the whole thing through outboard API 550B's for air and weight...
depends i guess. best to get there without it; but sometimes it can be just what you need

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Huh, I never add eq, except with Zack, just a little off the bottom. A little surprised that so many have at it with the master bus .

 

[narcossintese]

By the way, which EQ are you guys using on masterbus?

 

[Fox Mulder]

I always use EQ in the masterbus, but if I find myself having to do more than 3-4db cuts anywhere I'd rather take off the EQ and go back to the individual tracks. That's a sign of a bad mix, you know. No point IMHO.

holy shit there's logic in this thread.

Fuck yes

By the way, which EQ are you guys using on masterbus?

It's a good idea to use linear-phase EQs on the masterbus.

 

[Ermz]

I avoid it. I try to get everything I can from the mix and leave the master EQ to the mastering engineer. Having said that, if there are things you find yourself frequently doing to all tracks it may be worth putting a slight curve on the end. Some guys mix with a low or high end bump, but quite honestly I wouldn't be doing anything surgical nor even remotely as drastic as 5-6dB gains/cuts. My GSSL appears to bump the highs a bit with its light saturation, but beyond that I haven't used any master bus EQ at all on my latest work. It's all left to the ME.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

yeah, I'm gonna try to get away from it......I guess I just have gotten myself into a bad habit of taking the easy way, out on getting clarity.


thanks for you input everyone!

 

[BrettT]

I always use eq on my master bus, but it's only for fine-tuning the overall mix. Most often it's reducing some low end.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

curiously, do you find yourselves EQing nearly every single track in a project? even with 7-10 db gains on the highend, on some tracks?

 

[CraigTNelson]

I mix with a Pultec on the master, with a slight boost at 60 and 16