How do producers make sounds stand out?

[titchbit]

just gain staging and EQ. And obviously you should use software EQs. Don't make the perfect the enemy of the necessary.

[SunkLo]

Picking the right filter for the scenario and dialing it in properly will sound much better than avoiding any EQ altogether for fear of phase issues.

That is exactly what I was saying, I just see a point in calling that filtering and not eq'ing- because eq'ing is originally a musical measure and filtering is systematic. In software EQs there's not just one shift of phase but a constant 'wrong' interpretation of where to shift to, so to speak.

EQs are composed of filters, it's the exact same process. I have no clue what you're talking about with the phase.

[hubb]

np