EQ cheat sheets you can print

How to use a cheat sheet without mixing by numbers

A cheat sheet gives you a map, not a recipe. It tells you which part of the frequency range to look at when a part sounds muddy, harsh, boxy, dull or thin, and what kind of move usually helps. It can't tell you what your track needs, because it has never heard your track.

The way to use one is to start from a problem you can hear. Say the vocal sounds boxy. The sheet says boxiness on a vocal lives in the low mids, and the move is a wide cut of a few dB. So you set up a band in that area, sweep it until you find the exact spot on this vocal, and cut until the boxiness goes. The sheet got you to the right neighborhood in seconds. Your ears found the house.

The way not to use one is to copy every number onto every track before you have listened. That is mixing by numbers, and it goes wrong for a simple reason. If a vocal isn't boxy, cutting its low mids only makes it thinner. If a bass already reads on small speakers, boosting its growl only makes it louder in a range that was fine. Every move on a sheet is a fix for a problem, and a fix for a problem you don't have is a new problem.

Treat each row as a question. Is this part too much here, too little here, or fine? Most of the time, for most rows, the answer is fine, and you leave that band alone. A typical part needs two or three of the moves on its sheet, not all of them.

Keep the numbers loose. A range like 200 to 500 Hz means the problem is usually somewhere in there, not that it is always at the middle. Sweep across the whole range before you settle. The amounts are loose too. A 2 to 4 dB cut means start in that area, then go with what sounds right.

Finally, listen in the full mix. A cheat sheet treats each part on its own, and mixing is about how the parts sit together. Use the sheet to find a spot, then make the call with everything playing.

Why the same band means different things on different parts

Look across the sheets and you'll see the same frequencies come up with different names and different moves. That isn't a mistake. The same area of the range does a different job on each part.

Take the low mids, roughly 200 to 500 Hz. On a vocal, too much there is mud, and it makes the voice sound boxy and crowded. On a bass, the 200 to 300 Hz area is also mud, the woolly sound where notes blur together. On a snare, the 150 to 250 Hz area is body, and you usually want a little more of it. On a whole drum kit, the 300 to 600 Hz area is box, and a small cut there cleans the bus. Four parts, overlapping ranges, and the move changes from a cut to a boost depending on what the part needs to do.

The upper mids work the same way. On a vocal, 2 to 5 kHz is presence, where the words become clear. On a kick, 2 to 5 kHz is the beater click that lets it cut through on small speakers. On a guitar, 2 to 4 kHz is bite. Each part wants a little of that range, and if they all boost it at once, the mix turns harsh. That is why the sheets keep those boosts small.

A general chart for every instrument is a good place to start, since it shows where mud and harshness usually live. The sheets here go one step further, per instrument, because a snare may want more around 300 Hz while the guitar under it wants less. They are split by part for that reason, and each one names the problem the way you'd hear it on that part.

When two parts both want the same range, one of them gets it. Decide which part should lead in that area, cut a little from the other, and check the result in the mix.

Printing and keeping them handy

Each sheet is laid out to stay together on one printed page. Use your browser's print option on any sheet page, and the print version drops the site's menus and switches to black on white. The table carries all the information, so a black and white printer is fine.

Keep the sheet next to your screen, not in a folder. The point is to glance at it mid-mix without switching windows. Some people tape theirs to the desk or the side of a monitor.

Write on it. If you find that your own voice always needs the high pass a little higher, or that the bass in your genre always wants the growl boost at one spot, note it on the sheet. After a few mixes the printed sheet becomes your own reference, and that is worth more than any generic chart.

The free mix kit also includes a one-page EQ cheat sheet as a PDF, if you'd like a general chart on your computer as well as these sheets on paper.

The three sheets here, and what's coming

There are three sheets so far.

The vocal EQ cheat sheet covers six bands, from rumble at the bottom to air at the top. It is the one to start with if you record or mix vocals, since most mixes are built around the voice.

The bass EQ cheat sheet covers five bands, and it works for bass guitar and synth bass. It pays most attention to the low end the bass shares with the kick, and to keeping the notes audible on phone speakers.

The drum EQ cheat sheet covers the whole kit in five bands, and says which moves belong on single drums and which belong on the drum bus.

The vocal and bass sheets each pair with a full guide that explains every move in more detail. More sheets will follow as we write the guides behind them, and this page will list each one when it is ready.