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While I was EQing my 808 sub today I was wondering; is there a point where boosting a certain frequency is too much?

Say I want to boost my 808 sub at 50hz, at what point do I know that I have pushed it up far enough? Just by listening to hear if it is beginning to sound muddy?

Same goes for a synthesized sub bass in Massive. How can I tell how far up to push the "low" knob in the EQ section of Massive?

I guess I'm just wondering, at what point do I know that my bass is going to be as fat / punchy as any other artists.

At the end of the day I would love my 808's to sound like this:
https://soundcloud.com/brosafari/makj-h ... safari-ufo



Edit:

Also, if I created a sine wave in Operator at 41.20Hz (E1), then threw it in Sampler and EQ'd and compressed - where would be the best place to boost it / cut it, EQ wise? (This is for the bassline on a trap track.)

a sine is a sine, punchiness in the mix is dependent on how loud the bass/kick is in relation to everything else. Say most of your mix is sitting at -10. If you make your sub or kick or whatever hit at -7, it will sound a lot louder and I guess "punchier" than having it hit at -10 like everything else.

ChadDub wrote:a sine is a sine, punchiness in the mix is dependent on how loud the bass/kick is in relation to everything else. Say most of your mix is sitting at -10. If you make your sub or kick or whatever hit at -7, it will sound a lot louder and I guess "punchier" than having it hit at -10 like everything else.

Right that was helpful. Thank you!

itsHAZED wrote:

ChadDub wrote:a sine is a sine, punchiness in the mix is dependent on how loud the bass/kick is in relation to everything else. Say most of your mix is sitting at -10. If you make your sub or kick or whatever hit at -7, it will sound a lot louder and I guess "punchier" than having it hit at -10 like everything else.

Right that was helpful. Thank you!

Yeah, there really isn't a way to make your bass more punchy other than just make it louder. Unless you're talking about just making to very first bump of the 808 kick punchy, then you'd want to make the first little kick part like 3 db or so louder than the actual sub bass.

Be careful it sounds like you may be in the zone of "turning this up more sounds better" and why not? it makes it louder so to your ears they are telling you that is the case. But it's hard to be subjective in this area.

Try cutting instead of boosting (not getting into the age old debate about which is sonically better) just from a psychological point of view. When you do this you are effectively making the sound "Quieter" and so you will only commit to an EQ change if it works with the sound instead of just because you are turning it up

No there's no limit to boosting on an EQ. However there's good/bad mixes and clipping etc..

When it sounds shit you've overdone it

What if it sounded shit to start with?

Don't start with something that sounded like shit in the first place.

Think of EQ like acid
A little bit is good
A little bit more is better
A little bit too much
is not so good

I've got it EQed currently at 50 hz about 10 dB then I turned the gain down on the EQ itself so it wasn't clipping in the meter, and cut at 100 hz. Then my kick is layered over which is boosted at 110 hz. Should this be okay? It sounds pretty good.

Those numbers mean shit to me, I don't know were you are starting???

But if it "sounds pretty good" then roll with it.

I go with the 'Boost wide at (+6db max) and Cut narrow'. Depends on the circumstances i suppose.

rockonin wrote:I go with the 'Boost wide at (+6db max) and Cut narrow'. Depends on the circumstances i suppose.

Yeah that works for the most part, but there are times when you want to boost more than 6db with a narrow band, and cut with wide bands. for example doing a massive boost with a narrow band at the the fundamental frequency of a raw acoustic snare.

Lol you guys actually have rules for EQing? I just go with whatever I need to boost or cut... I use FL's Parametric EQ 2 which is a graphic equalizer and it's very easy to use. Love it.

ChadDub wrote:Lol you guys actually have rules for EQing? I just go with whatever I need to boost or cut... I use FL's Parametric EQ 2 which is a graphic equalizer and it's very easy to use. Love it.

It's not a graphic equalizer, the clue is in the name

ChadDub wrote:Lol you guys actually have rules for EQing? I just go with whatever I need to boost or cut... I use FL's Parametric EQ 2 which is a graphic equalizer and it's very easy to use. Love it.

Only rule I have Is not boosting over 6dB and not reduce over -6dB.
Not including the cutoffs ofc.

Icetickle wrote:

ChadDub wrote:Lol you guys actually have rules for EQing? I just go with whatever I need to boost or cut... I use FL's Parametric EQ 2 which is a graphic equalizer and it's very easy to use. Love it.

Only rule I have Is not boosting over 6dB and not reduce over -6dB.
Not including the cutoffs ofc.

They can go higher, and lower than 6db for a reason.

Fuck numbers, and eyes when EQing. Use your ears, close your eyes when changing parameters if you have to.

Sometimes I really do look away when I'm eqing.

Why don't you go over or below 6db?

And yeah idk what parametric means I just say graphic because it shows all the frequencies

3za wrote:

ChadDub wrote:Lol you guys actually have rules for EQing? I just go with whatever I need to boost or cut... I use FL's Parametric EQ 2 which is a graphic equalizer and it's very easy to use. Love it.

It's not a graphic equalizer, the clue is in the name

One of the many times I've suspected ChadDub has come back as a troll account.