Yamaha 01X - Manual (Page 50)

50
Mixing Tutorial
01X Owner’s Manual
Before Using
Basics Section
Appendix
Getting Started
Reference
EQ Library
The four-band EQ gives you comprehensive control over
the tonal quality of the sound, yet unless you have a lot of
mixing experience, you may be unsure just how and when
to use EQ.
This is where the EQ Library comes in handy. It gives you
forty different preset EQ settings for a variety of common
recording applications. These include specific instru-
ments—even specific drums, such as bass drum and
snare—as well as vocal applications and various guitar
sounds.
Pick a preset that comes closest to your particular applica-
tion and see if it works. If it needs tweaking, change the
settings until you get the sound you want — you can then
save your custom settings to one of the available memory
space (see pages 36, 54).
The 01X features a variety of Libraries — Dynamics,
Scene, Patch, Channel and Effect — containing custom
settings for the mixer. The operations (selecting presets,
editing, saving, etc.) are the same for all the Libraries. For
details, see page 54.
● Hints on using EQ
• In general, cut rather than boost. For example, if you
want to make a sound brighter, try cutting the bass
first. This will not only emphasize the higher frequen-
cies, overall it will give you a cleaner mix.
• We recommend that you use the HPF on every
sound source in your mix, except for kick drum, bass
guitar and synth bass. This will take out those bass
frequencies you don’t need to hear, and give the
ones you want to hear more sonic room—and make
them sound more crisp and punchy.
• You might also want to do the opposite — put LPF on
bass sounds to cut out unnecessary highs. Be care-
ful to use your ears, though. You may rob a great
sounding bass of its character by doing this (for
example, slap bass or standup acoustic bass).
• Here’s an engineering trick you may want to try. If
there is some sound in a recorded track that bothers
you, such as a buzz or a high-pitched whistle-like
noise, you may be able eliminate it with the careful
use of EQ. Set Q to a relatively narrow value (0.80 or
less) and boost the Gain at or near the maximum.
Then, with the track playing, slowly adjust the Fre-
quency value until the offending sound is heard loud
and clear. Now, reduce the Gain until the noise dis-
appears and the track sounds the way you want it.
You can also use this trick— especially with the mid
frequencies—to improve any instrument or vocal
track that doesn’t sound quite right (but you’re not
sure why).
• Remember that the frequency parameter for all of the
EQ bands is FULLY adjustable. This means you can
use the ‘LOW’ EQ band as a second HIGH EQ, or
vice versa—or even use all four bands on the high
frequencies.