How to Equalize a Rap Song

Video Transcript

"Alright, after you got your sounds to a good level (and your voices to a good level that you like) what you want to do is EQing it a little bit of things. Vocals, a lot of times, you want to add little bit of highs to them. Because sometimes when you record it and it may sound a little bit muddied, what you want to do? Add a little bit of EQ to it. Kicks and bass lines you want them to be more bass driven. So you may want to take out a little bit of the highs and add a little bit more bass to it. Snares...it just all depends. But you want to EQ everything separately if it needs it. If you think it's fine without EQ- don't touch it. Leave it alone. But if you think, 'Man that vocal sounds a little bit bassy', well then start start EQing it. Take a little bit of the bass out and add a little bit of highs to it. A tip with EQing (another good tip you can have), if you think something is too bassy it's better to take the bass out than to add highs. It just gives, it gives it more room to mix when you?re taking stuff out instead of adding highs. So when you're mixing something, if you feel like the bass kick need a little bit more bass in it; what you do, instead of adding bass to the kick, what you do is take out a little bit of highs and then turn the kick up. And then it'll give it a little more bass. It'll have that more bass sound and then the highs that you didn't like, it?ll be a little bit out. So these are some tips with EQing. Take your time EQing. Make sure the sounds are the way you want them to sound. There's no 100% science when it comes to mixing. These are little tips and tidbits that you can do that I'm giving you today to help you mix your song. So when you listen to a lot of the standard rap songs and these are some of the things that you can do. And sometimes people wonder how they get to kick the sound that way, or the stereo can sound that way. And these are just some little tips that they do so you can have a real good full song. Just because you have the song, and everything is recorded, doesn't make the song mixed that good. Mix is very important when you're recording a song. EQ is very important. So just take your time. EQ it and just figure out some tips. Like I said, take some bass out. Add some high hats. But it's always better to take stuff out than to add and EQ."