Lucent's Guide to Online Sequencer - Improving Sequence Clarity with EQ and Panning

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Lucent's Guide to Online Sequencer

Improving Sequence Clarity with EQ and Panning

Preface

As of the 12/5/20 update, Online Sequencer now supports EQ and panning!

These are common functions that are used while mixing audio in professional music software—also known as DAWs.

This article will provide you basic knowledge over EQ and how to effectively use it in your sequences. We will also go over panning in this tutorial, as it shouldn't be too difficult to cover alongside EQ.

Thank you Guest and Lopyt for proofreading this section.

Why is EQ necessary?

Before we cover EQ, it is important to understand the fundamentals of how sounds work.

Soundwaves have two main properties—frequency and amplitude. For now, we will only discuss frequency.

Frequency refers to the number of wave cycles that travel in one second, in which the distance of one cycle is equal to the wavelength (as seen in the left picture). It determines the pitch of a noise—waves with a high frequency sound higher-pitched while waves with a low frequency sound lower-pitched. Frequency is measured in hertz, or Hz.

The sound quality of an instrument can be comprised of multiple frequencies. We can separate them into Low, Mid, and High frequencies.

The graph to the right provides an example of how you can categorize common noises into these groups.

What EQ allows you to do is to control the volume of these noises based on their placement in the audible frequency range. Being able to EQ properly lets you emphasize sound characteristics that you like and quiet those that aren't as important. By doing so reduces ear fatigue and other claustrophobic feelings!

Applying EQ on the sequencer

OS supports a 3-band equalizer where you can adjust three frequency groups—Low, Mid, and High. More professional programs are able to control EQ more flexibly through 5-band controllers or Parametric EQ.

For the time being however, 3-band is still sufficient for audio cleaning and other EQ-related effects. You can turn on EQ by clicking on the vertical button and it will turn yellow. It's best to play around with the knobs for a bit to get a grasp on how basic EQ works.

You will notice how the quality of each instrument changes as you shift knobs in either direction.

Increasing the knob for High EQ will make the instrument sound brighter, while decreasing it will make it sound more mellow and subdued. Changing High EQ primarily affects the texture of a noise. It can be used to replicate common audio cues, such as underwater noises, things behind a wall, and the telephone effect.

Adjusting Mid EQ will shift the “meat” frequencies we can hear from an instrument. Mids are where the main harmonics of an instrument lie, and where the frequencies of multiple instruments tend to overlap. They provide the most color to a noise as their fundamental tone is most prevalent in this category.

Low EQ can change the way sounds are felt, but they are not necessarily for texture. It mainly applies to percussion and bass where soundwaves have higher amplitude. Waves that are classified as low frequency take longer to dissipate and can cause the most headphone clutter if mixed improperly.

General Guidelines for EQ

While EQ is a subjective process, there are general tips that can be followed in order to avoid unbalanced mixing.

Identify which instruments actually need EQ. Some instruments may feel blurry, but others should be completely fine.
Use EQ as little as possible—small changes go a long way! Adjust knobs in small intervals and as close to the center.
Adding to the aforementioned point, do not distort (red area) unless you know what you're doing.
Muting EQ is completely acceptable for instrument effects and for removing impractical frequencies.
In general, EQ is about balancing the volume of each frequency group so that sounds don't clash harshly. Because most instruments overlap at the mid-frequency range, you may want to tone Mid EQ down for each instrument to prevent drastic buildup.
Rumble noise is caused by low frequencies. To fix it, reduce Low EQ on instruments that have a growl sound.
Avoid making your sequences too bright! Sometimes sequences need more Low/Mid frequencies to feel complete.
Many of these points were paraphrased from Guest's EQ Notes. If you need more advice, feel free to look there.

EQ Examples

I did some remixing on a several of my sequences to provide a before/after comparison of using EQ.

Personally, I would apply EQ after the main composition is done—applying EQ beforehand will condition your ears to a new standard and make the process more confusing to accomplish. Because of this, it's easy to get undesirable settings in the finished product.

Make sure to keep your EQ settings at default until you dedicate everything towards the mixing process. Ideally, EQ should also be worked on with all instruments in mind, as opposed to fixing individual ones (Don't solo certain instruments before using EQ).

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How do we use Panning effectively?

Panning will shift an instrument's presence left or right on a stereo system (such as your two computer speakers or headphones). We refer to the location of instruments as the sound room—and that a well mixed track will attempt to replicate sound room to some degree.

A basic way to understand sound room is to envision a real life stage. You'll notice that every instrument isn't put dead center on the stage and are in different locations. If a person were to place a microphone (where the audience sits), the instruments would naturally be recorded with some panning.

Even if your sequence uses an electronic genre, sound room is relevant in all scenarios. Panning is just another step you can take to make instrument groups stand out more.

Panning doesn't have to be extreme—just enough to hear individual instruments more clearly. As you practice mixing, try to aim towards using modest amounts of panning. Too much is bad, but you still want to space the instruments as wide as possible.

The exact direction of the pan matters little. However, there are guidelines to determine which instruments pan and which ones do not.

Percussion should stay in the center for most situations. It is only occasional that you will see percussion towards the right side (such as jazz lounges).
Bass should be kept very close to the center or else the biased low frequencies will disrupt the balance of the track.
It is more safe to pan instruments in the treble range further away from the center. This includes all lead instruments like piano and guitars.
Two instruments that play the same part can be panned in opposite directions to increase sound room (such as having two 8-bit instruments).
Reverbed instruments should be less panned than non-reverbed instruments. Reverb by itself already fills the sound room effectively.
There are no vocals on OS—however, if you are making a sequence with a vocal part—it must be kept dead center.

What about sound effects?

While EQ and panning are primarily used for mixing, they may also be used for purely artistic decisions! I won't go too in-depth with this section.

The "telephone effect" is created by modestly shifting High and Low EQ down. Phone speakers are low-fidelity in comparison to studio speakers—their low and high frequencies are shelved (gradual cut off) and that you will only hear noise in the mid-frequency range.

If you want to replicate the "behind doors" effect (such as live bands in a closed restaurant space) you can reduce the volume of High EQ (and potentially Mid EQ depending on how far away you are from the doors).

You can use two instruments similar to each other (such as Electric Piano and Grand Piano) and EQ them so that they are nearly identical. From there, you can pan them in opposite directions and create a pretty neat stereo effect!

Additional Notes

In practice, it is good to save an unmixed version of the sequence so that you can easily compare changes from EQ and panning.

Mixing is subjective per genre and that there is no one way to approach it. I would recommend looking up mixing tips that pertain to your genre.

The cutoff frequencies used in OS are 100 Hz and 3 kHz. I hope those numbers are of use to those who are more versed in sound engineering.

Because the cutoffs are consistent for every instrument—some instruments will be unaffected by certain EQ knobs (such as Violin and Low EQ).

Here are some short reference videos to review everything I've covered in this article.

EQ Explained

Panning Explained

What is "Stereo"?

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