EQ- Are you a Cutter, or a Booster?

[inflatable]

I like to boost and cut.

At the same time.

Pultec's rule.

[bplr]

personally, i'm a cutter most of the time during tracking (if at all). if i'm boosting, it's usually because i ran out of juice to drive a ribbon. sometimes i'll add a little presence to help it poke through.

during a mix, i tend to cut, but i really don't think too hard about it, unless it ain't sounding right.

[ceilingcat84]

cut first, boost later (if i happened to cut out anything good)

[getreel]

I like the parametric boost the shit outta a freqency range about > . < big, sweep it back and forth til you hit the partial you wanna nuke, and then cut as neccesary strategy.

Ah. The old "crank and pull" method of EQ'ing. Good stuff. I still do it even though I mostly know what frequencies different instrument produce.

lightandmind-yeah, I agree that the terminology is not that important. Although sometimes our friends here at TOMB just wanna have a reason to join the conversation. It didn't sound like anyone was the "proper terms" police there. They were just sharing I think. Proper terms and the right way to do things are meaningless here though. It is art after all.

Now, I usually cut more than I boost. I will boost some low mid on a vocal to warm it up or make it intelligible within a dense mix sometimes. I have been known to boost upper mids on bass to make it cut through a little more. EQ is fun!

[chris harris]

Boost and attenuate are the opposites actually...could have more accurately appeared in your header...fyi

another totally useless post. thanks!!
sounds like you need to add a little marble to your david.

[shedshrine]

born again cutter here..

spent a weekend remixing 4 track cassette recordings through a bigger mixer with all three bands parametric on all channels. Thought I was being "rock n roll" by running up the bass and upper mids. Wrong. Playing it back on other systems, almost all the tracks sounded predictably fizzy, shrieky and boomy and ......I'm starting over. I'll save the attitude for the performance.

[thethingwiththestuff]

b Thought I was being "rock n roll" by running up the bass and upper mids. Wrong. Playing it back on other systems, almost all the tracks sounded predictably fizzy, shrieky and boomy and ......I'm starting over. I'll save the attitude for the performance.

haha.......... i know exactly what you mean! "oh, i guess i'm supposed to boost the kick at 60...." nope, i need to cut an assload out of 80-100. whoops.

[trodden]

b Thought I was being "rock n roll" by running up the bass and upper mids. Wrong. Playing it back on other systems, almost all the tracks sounded predictably fizzy, shrieky and boomy and ......I'm starting over. I'll save the attitude for the performance.

haha.......... i know exactly what you mean! "oh, i guess i'm supposed to boost the kick at 60...." nope, i need to cut an assload out of 80-100. whoops.

I still have that problem!

[KyleHale]

cut to make things fit in an entire mix
boost to make things stand out, be different or have unique character