How to EQ a Live Mix: 10 Frequencies for a Powerful Live Sound

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the site at no extra cost to you.

Learning how to EQ a live mix is one of the most transformative skills a self-producing band can develop — and one of the most misunderstood. After almost 30 years of running my own band’s sound through venues of every size, the single clearest pattern I’ve seen is this: most bands apply EQ to individual channels without thinking about how those channels interact, and the result is a mix that sounds muddy, harsh, or thin no matter how many individual elements seem correct in isolation.

This guide covers the complete framework from the foundation up — what EQ actually does, the frequency map that makes every decision clearer, a channel-by-channel guide for every instrument in a full band, the live-specific EQ approach that’s completely different from studio thinking, common mistakes and how to avoid them, and how to apply everything specifically on the Behringer XR18 and Behringer Wing Rack. Whether you’re just starting to develop your live sound or looking to understand why your mix isn’t translating the way you want it to, this is the complete framework.

What EQ Actually Does in a Live Mix

Equalization is the process of adjusting the relative level of specific frequency ranges within an audio signal. In practical terms: it lets you make parts of a sound louder or quieter based on where they live in the frequency spectrum. Boost at 5kHz on a vocal and it gets more presence and intelligibility. Cut at 300Hz on a guitar and it gets less mud and boom. High-pass filter a kick drum monitor channel and you remove the low-frequency energy that causes feedback before you can hear it rumble into a problem.

What EQ does not do — and this is the mistake most beginners make — is fix problems with the source. If a mic is positioned poorly, if a vocalist has inconsistent technique, if a guitar amp is in a bad corner of the stage reflecting off a wall, EQ can manage the symptoms but it cannot cure the cause. The best EQ decisions in a live mix start with the best possible source: well-placed microphones, appropriate gain staging, and instruments that sound right acoustically before any processing happens. Our guides on how to mic a drum kit live and how to mic vocals live cover the source side of the equation that makes EQ work most effectively.

Live EQ vs Studio EQ: A Completely Different Mindset

If you’ve spent time in a recording studio or mixing recorded music, some of what you know about EQ applies directly to live sound — and some of it actively works against you. Understanding the differences makes the live approach click faster.

In the studio, you EQ for the recording. The mix will be heard through headphones, speakers, or earbuds in controlled environments. You can take time, try options, and make precise decisions because nothing changes between the time you mix and the time it’s heard.

In live sound, you EQ for the room. Every venue has a different acoustic fingerprint — different room dimensions, different ceiling heights, different surface materials, different amounts of acoustic treatment or complete lack of it. The same EQ settings that produce a balanced mix in one venue may produce a boomy, harsh, or thin mix in the next one. Building good live EQ means developing channel settings right for the source, then adjusting for the room as a second layer of decisions.

In the studio, you have unlimited time. In live sound, soundcheck time is finite and often shorter than you want. EQ decisions need to be made decisively, based on a clear framework, rather than through extended experimentation.

In the studio, you may boost frequently. In live sound, the subtractive approach — cutting problem frequencies rather than boosting desired ones — is the professional standard. Boosting adds gain, which increases the risk of feedback and reduces headroom. Cutting removes problem frequencies while maintaining headroom. The difference in approach is significant enough that many experienced live engineers consider boosting a tool of last resort rather than a first response.

The Four EQ Tools — and When to Use Each

Modern digital mixers like the XR18 and Wing Rack provide multiple EQ tools. Understanding what each one does prevents the most common mistake of reaching for the wrong tool for a given problem.

High-Pass Filter (HPF): Also called a low-cut filter. Removes everything below a set frequency by rolling it off at a specified slope. The most important EQ tool in a live mix — it should be applied to every channel that doesn’t need low-frequency content. Vocal channels typically start with an HPF at 80-100Hz. Guitar channels might get an HPF at 100-120Hz. Overhead mic channels often see HPFs at 150-200Hz. The HPF cleans up low-frequency mud, reduces proximity effect buildup, and removes the sub-bass energy from channels that have no business carrying it.

Parametric EQ: A bell-shaped filter that boosts or cuts a specific frequency range, with adjustable center frequency, gain (how much boost or cut), and Q (how wide or narrow the bell shape is). The surgical tool of live EQ — a narrow Q with a significant cut removes a specific resonance or problem frequency without affecting neighboring frequencies. A wide Q with a moderate boost or cut shapes the overall character of a sound without dramatic tonal changes. Most digital channel EQ sections provide four to eight bands of parametric EQ.

Graphic EQ: A fixed-frequency equalizer with a slider or fader for each frequency band, typically at 1/3 octave intervals (31 bands) or full octave intervals (ten bands). Most commonly used on the main output or monitor buses for room correction and feedback management rather than on individual channels. The XR18’s built-in 31-band graphic EQ on the main outputs is the tool you use to ring out the room and address room-specific frequency problems. Individual channel shaping is better handled by parametric EQ.

Shelving EQ: Boosts or cuts everything above (high shelf) or below (low shelf) a set frequency. Less surgical than parametric — a high shelf boost at 8kHz affects everything from 8kHz upward, adding air and brightness across the whole top end of the signal. Used for broad tonal shaping rather than addressing specific frequency problems.

The Subtractive Principle: Why Cutting Beats Boosting

The subtractive EQ approach is the most important conceptual shift in knowing how to EQ a live mix effectively. Instead of reaching for a boost when something sounds thin, dull, or missing, a subtractive engineer asks: what frequency is making this sound wrong, and how can I cut it?

The reason this works: most “thin-sounding” mixes are actually caused by too much content in the low-mid frequencies cluttering the space where midrange detail and punch live. A vocal that sounds thin isn’t usually lacking 8kHz air — it’s usually being masked by 300-500Hz mud from the guitars, bass, and other midrange-heavy sources. Cutting that mud from the problem channels lets the vocal’s natural presence come through without adding gain anywhere.

The same pattern applies across the frequency spectrum. A kick drum that sounds weak often has too much 300-400Hz boxiness obscuring its 60Hz thud and its 4-5kHz attack click — cut the box and the kick sounds fatter and punchier without any boosts. A guitar that sounds harsh and cutting may have too much 2-3kHz presence rather than too little high end — cut the harshness and it sits in the mix instead of slicing through it.

The practical rule: before you boost, try a cut at the frequency you’d boost on an adjacent channel. If boosting 5kHz on the vocal would help, first try cutting 5kHz on the guitars. The result is often the same improvement with less gain and more headroom.

The Live Frequency Map

Every frequency range in the audio spectrum has a character and a set of instruments that commonly occupy it. This map is the foundation of every EQ decision in a live mix — knowing what lives where tells you where to look when something sounds wrong.

Sub-Bass (20-80Hz): The physical weight and rumble of the mix. Kick drum fundamentals, bass guitar sub-harmonics, and room resonance. Below 60Hz, most instruments have little useful content and a lot of problematic rumble. High-pass most channels through this region aggressively — only the kick drum and bass guitar have business here.

Bass (80-250Hz): The body and warmth of the mix. Kick drum body, bass guitar fundamental, the low-end warmth of guitars and keys. This is where a mix gets weight — too much and it’s muddy and indistinct; too little and it sounds thin and cold. The relationship between the kick drum and the bass guitar in this region is one of the most important EQ relationships in a live band mix.

Low-Mid (250-500Hz): The mud zone. The region where most problematic buildup accumulates in a dense live mix — the cardboard boxiness of toms, the wooliness of poorly-placed guitar mics, the nasal quality of mid-heavy vocals. Cuts in this region almost always improve the clarity of a complex mix. Almost nothing needs to be boosted here.

Mid (500Hz-2kHz): The presence and definition zone. Where vocals sit, where guitar character lives, where the attack of drums is defined. This is the most important region for intelligibility in a live mix — the frequencies that let you understand what a vocalist is saying and distinguish one instrument from another in a dense band context.

Upper-Mid (2-5kHz): Cut and intelligibility. The presence peak that makes a vocal cut through the mix, the click of a kick drum beater, the snap of a snare. The region that determines whether an instrument sits in the mix or cuts through it. Also the region most susceptible to harshness and listener fatigue when overdone.

Presence (5-8kHz): Clarity and detail. The shimmer of acoustic guitars, the clarity of high vocal harmonics, the detail of cymbal attacks. Boosts here add air and opening; excessive content here causes sibilance on vocals and cymbal harshness.

Air (8-20kHz): Sparkle and openness. The top octaves that give a mix its sense of space and breath. Most dynamic microphones roll off significantly in this region, which is one reason condenser mics are often preferred for acoustic sources — they capture the air that dynamics miss.

Channel-by-Channel: How to EQ a Live Mix

Kick Drum EQ

The kick drum has two essential characteristics in a live mix: the thud of the low-frequency fundamental (around 60-100Hz) that gives it physical weight, and the attack click of the beater (around 4-5kHz) that provides definition and cut. Everything between those two regions — the 200-500Hz range — is typically problematic boxiness that obscures both.

Start every kick drum channel with a high-pass filter at 40-50Hz to remove sub-rumble that adds no musical content. Apply a moderate cut at 200-400Hz to reduce the boxiness that makes kicks sound cardboard-like in a dense mix. If the kick needs more attack, try a boost at 4-5kHz before assuming the source itself is the problem. For the mic placement that gives the kick drum EQ the best starting point, our drum kit mic’ing guide covers the position and technique that captures weight and attack simultaneously.

Snare Drum EQ

The snare drum’s character in a live mix comes from its crack (the transient attack at 200-300Hz), its body (the resonance at 150-250Hz), and its presence (the sizzle of the snare wires at 5-8kHz). The challenge in a live mix is separating the snare’s useful content from the hi-hat and overhead bleed that accompanies it at close range.

Apply a high-pass filter at 100-120Hz — the snare has no useful content below this point and filtering it reduces low-frequency feedback risk from the monitor system. A moderate cut at 400-600Hz reduces the cardboard boxiness that makes snares sound flat and unexciting. If the snare needs more crack, a moderate boost at 200-250Hz can add impact without affecting the bleed rejection of the channel.

Tom EQ

Toms occupy a mid-low frequency range that can quickly clutter a mix when multiple toms are close-miked simultaneously. The goal is to capture the body and attack of each tom without letting the cumulative low-mid content of three or four tom channels add up to a muddy mess in the 200-500Hz range.

High-pass each tom channel at 80-100Hz. Apply a cut at 300-500Hz to reduce the boxiness that makes toms sound more like cardboard boxes than drums. A moderate boost at the fundamental of each specific tom (roughly 80-200Hz depending on the tom size) can add weight when needed. Gate each tom channel to prevent bleed from remaining open between hits — this is as important as the EQ itself for keeping the tom channels from cluttering the mix.

Overheads and Cymbals EQ

Overhead microphones capture the full kit from above — cymbals, room sound, and the overall balance of the drum set. High-pass the overhead channels aggressively, at 200-300Hz, to remove the low-frequency content from the kick and toms that the close mics are already capturing. The overheads’ contribution to the mix should be primarily cymbal detail and kit air, not additional low-end that competes with the close mics.

A gentle cut at 2-3kHz can reduce the harshness that overhead condensers sometimes capture from crashing cymbals at close range. A very gentle high-shelf boost above 10kHz can add cymbal shimmer and air when the room is absorbing the top end of the mix.

Bass Guitar EQ

The bass guitar’s relationship with the kick drum is the most important EQ relationship in a live band mix. The two instruments occupy similar frequency ranges and compete for the same sonic space — when they’re not properly EQ’d relative to each other, the result is a low-end that’s either indistinct and boomy or thin and punchy without weight.

High-pass the bass at 40-50Hz to remove sub-rumble. The fundamental of most bass guitar notes lives between 60-150Hz — this is where the warmth and weight of the instrument lives, and where the relationship with the kick drum is most critical. A common approach: identify the frequency where the kick drum has its primary body, and apply a small cut to the bass at that same frequency (and vice versa). This creates space for both instruments rather than having them fight for the same range. Our bass amp mic’ing guide covers the source-side considerations that affect how much EQ work is needed on the bass channel.

A moderate cut at 200-400Hz on the bass reduces the mud that makes the low-mid range of the mix congested. The attack and definition of the bass guitar typically lives at 800Hz-2kHz — a gentle boost here can add clarity without affecting the fundamental relationship with the kick.

Electric Guitar EQ

Electric guitar sits primarily in the midrange — 200Hz-5kHz — and its relationship with the mix is defined by how well it occupies its own space without bleeding into the frequencies that belong to the bass, kick, and vocals. The most common electric guitar EQ problem in a live mix is too much low-mid content from 200-400Hz creating mud that blurs the guitar into the bass and makes the entire low-mid range of the mix congested.

Start every electric guitar channel with a high-pass filter at 100-120Hz. The guitar amplifier produces content below this frequency, but it’s almost never musically useful in a live mix context and significantly contributes to low-mid buildup. Apply a moderate cut at 200-400Hz to reduce mud. The character of the guitar — its grit, its presence, its harmonic richness — lives at 500Hz-3kHz. This region typically needs no boosting if the source is well-recorded.

If the guitar needs more presence and cut in the mix, a moderate boost at 2-3kHz can add definition without the harshness that boosting higher (4-5kHz) often produces. A gentle high-pass on the room ambience above 5kHz can add air without adding harshness. For the mic placement that gives the guitar channel the best starting point for EQ, our guitar amp mic’ing guide covers the position and technique that captures the amp’s most usable frequency content.

Acoustic Guitar EQ

Acoustic guitar through a DI or condenser mic presents a different set of EQ challenges than electric guitar. The acoustic’s frequency range extends lower (the body resonance and warmth of the instrument) and higher (the string attack and air of the soundboard) than most electric guitars, and proximity effect from directional microphones often produces problematic low-frequency buildup at close range.

High-pass at 80-100Hz to remove proximity effect buildup and rumble. A cut at 150-250Hz often reduces the boominess that makes acoustic guitars sound like they’re resonating too much in the chest frequencies. The presence and attack of the acoustic guitar lives at 2-5kHz — the frequencies that make individual note attacks clear and the strumming pattern intelligible. A gentle boost here, if needed, adds clarity without harshness. A high shelf above 8kHz can add the airiness that makes an acoustic guitar sound open and natural rather than compressed and small.

Keys and Synth EQ

Keyboard instruments present a unique EQ challenge: they’re full-range instruments that can produce content from 30Hz to 20kHz simultaneously, occupying almost every frequency range that every other instrument in the band also occupies. The result, without EQ intervention, is a keyboard track that blurs into and competes with virtually every other channel in the mix.

The approach depends entirely on what the keys are doing in the mix. If the keys are playing bass-register content that’s competing with the bass guitar, high-pass them aggressively — the bass guitar already owns that frequency range. If the keys are playing sustained chords in the mid range, cut the low-mids (200-500Hz) aggressively to prevent them from cluttering the space the guitars need. If the keys are playing lead lines or melodic content in the upper range, reduce the low-end content to keep them from adding unnecessary weight to the mix’s bottom end.

The key principle with keys: give them only the frequency space they actually need for their specific role in the arrangement. The rest should be filtered out to leave room for the instruments that own those ranges.

Lead Vocals EQ

Lead vocal EQ is simultaneously the most important and most context-dependent EQ decision in a live mix. The vocal needs to be intelligible above everything else — when the band plays at full volume, the listener should always be able to clearly hear and understand the lead vocal. That intelligibility depends on how well the vocal occupies the presence frequencies (2-5kHz) that carry consonants and harmonic detail without being masked by other instruments in the same range.

Apply a high-pass filter at 80-100Hz on every vocal channel without exception. This is not optional — low-frequency content from proximity effect, stage rumble, and floor vibration is the primary source of low-frequency feedback in monitor systems and adds nothing to the vocal in the main mix. A cut at 300-500Hz reduces the nasal, midrange heaviness that makes vocals sound boxy and congested, particularly in smaller rooms where the low-mids build up quickly.

The vocal’s presence and intelligibility lives at 2-5kHz. This range should be preserved carefully — cutting here reduces intelligibility, and boosting here increases the risk of harshness. If the vocal is getting lost in the mix, first try cutting the competing instruments at 2-3kHz before boosting the vocal. A gentle high-shelf boost above 8kHz can add air and openness to a vocal that sounds compressed and small, particularly in rooms with heavy acoustic treatment that absorbs the top end. For complete vocal mic placement and technique guidance that reduces the EQ work required, our guide on how to mic vocals live covers the source-side decisions that set up the vocal channel for success.

Backing Vocals EQ

Backing vocal channels should be EQ’d similarly to lead vocals, with one additional principle: the backing vocals should occupy slightly less space in the presence range than the lead vocal. A high-pass at 100-120Hz (slightly higher than the lead) and a moderate cut at 2-3kHz — the lead vocal’s key presence range — helps the backing vocals blend into the mix rather than competing with the lead for the same space. Backing vocals should support the lead, not challenge it. When the backing vocal EQ carves out the frequencies the lead vocal needs, the blend becomes natural without requiring significant level adjustments.

EQ for the Room: The Layer That Changes Every Show

How Room Acoustics Affect Your Mix

Every room has a frequency response — a set of frequencies it amplifies through resonance and a set of frequencies it absorbs. Small rooms with parallel walls create standing wave nodes that dramatically boost specific low frequencies at specific positions in the room. Large rooms with reflective surfaces create late reflections that smear the midrange and reduce intelligibility. Rooms with heavy acoustic treatment absorb high frequencies and make the mix sound dull and dark. Rooms with no treatment reflect every high-frequency transient and make the mix sound bright and harsh.

Knowing how to EQ a live mix in any room means identifying which frequency anomalies the room is introducing and compensating for them with system-level EQ on the main output — the graphic EQ on the main bus rather than individual channel EQ. Individual channel EQ is for the source. System EQ is for the room.

Walking the Room During Soundcheck

The most important EQ habit in live sound is one that most self-producing bands skip entirely: walking to the audience position during soundcheck and evaluating the mix from where the audience actually sits. The mix position on a self-produced band setup is almost always on or near the stage — which is the worst possible position to evaluate a room’s acoustic character.

During the full band pass in soundcheck, walk to at least three audience positions: front center, back center, and a side position. Listen specifically for: the balance between bass and mids (too boomy at the back, too thin at the front?), the clarity of the lead vocal (intelligible at the back of the room?), the harshness or dullness of the overall mix (is the room absorbing or reflecting the high end?). The system-level EQ adjustments you make based on this walk are the most impactful EQ decisions of the entire soundcheck. Our complete soundcheck guide covers the full walk-the-room process and how to integrate EQ adjustments into your soundcheck workflow.

Common Live EQ Mistakes

EQ’ing in solo. Soloing a channel and applying EQ based on how it sounds in isolation is one of the most counterproductive habits in live mixing. A vocal that sounds dull in solo may be perfectly balanced in the full mix. A guitar that sounds bright in solo may be perfectly appropriate when competing with bass, drums, and keys. Always evaluate EQ in the context of the full mix.

Skipping the high-pass filter. Not applying a high-pass filter to every channel that doesn’t need low-frequency content is the most common cause of a muddy, indistinct live mix. The cumulative low-frequency content of a dozen or more unfiltered channels creates a low-mid buildup that no amount of individual channel EQ can fully compensate for. Apply HPFs before doing anything else.

Boosting before cutting. Reaching for a boost as the first response to a problem adds gain, increases feedback risk, and often masks the real issue rather than solving it. Before every boost, try a cut at an adjacent frequency on a competing channel. More often than not, the cut solves the problem without the boost.

Applying the same EQ every show. Recalling last show’s EQ settings and leaving them unchanged at a different venue is one of the most reliable ways to produce a suboptimal mix. Channel EQ can be recalled — the fundamental character of each instrument doesn’t change show to show. System EQ should be adjusted at every venue to account for the room’s specific acoustic characteristics.

Over-EQ’ing. The goal of EQ is to make the mix sound natural and balanced, not to demonstrate how many frequencies you’ve adjusted. A mix that requires dramatic EQ on every channel to sound acceptable is usually pointing to a source problem — poor mic placement, incorrect gain staging, or an instrument that sounds wrong acoustically — that EQ is treating symptomatically. Fix the source, and the EQ requirements diminish. Our gain staging guide covers the foundational setup that reduces over-EQ dependency across every channel.

How to EQ a Live Mix on the Behringer XR18

The XR18’s EQ tools are accessed through the X Air app on a tablet or computer. Each channel provides a four-band parametric EQ plus a built-in high-pass filter — the same EQ architecture as the X32 platform, which means every concept in this guide applies directly to the XR18’s channel EQ section.

Tap the EQ section in the channel strip to open the full parametric display. The four bands are shown as overlapping bell curves on the frequency spectrum — you can see the combined EQ curve as you work, which makes it immediately clear when you’re applying too many overlapping adjustments. Each band allows you to set frequency (where the adjustment is centered), gain (how much boost or cut), and Q (how wide or narrow the adjustment). The HPF is a separate control at the bottom of the EQ section — enable it first on every channel before making any parametric adjustments.

The XR18 also provides a real-time analyzer (RTA) on the main output that shows the frequency distribution of the full mix in real time. Use this during soundcheck to identify frequency buildups — a consistent spike at a specific frequency on the RTA during the full band pass tells you there’s a room resonance or channel EQ issue at that frequency that needs attention. The RTA is one of the most useful tools in the XR18 for knowing how to EQ a live mix in an unfamiliar room. Our XR18 feedback guide covers how to use the RTA specifically for identifying and eliminating feedback frequencies.

For system-level room EQ on the XR18, access the main output’s 31-band graphic EQ. This is where you make room-correction adjustments based on what you hear when you walk the room during soundcheck. Keep these adjustments conservative — you’re compensating for the room, not redesigning the mix. For the complete mixer review including how the XR18’s EQ tools compare to other digital mixers at this price point, our Behringer XR18 review covers everything in detail.

How to EQ a Live Mix on the Behringer Wing Rack

The Behringer Wing Rack takes a significantly different approach to EQ access and workflow compared to the XR18. Rather than relying entirely on an external tablet app, the Wing Rack’s 10-inch capacitive touchscreen gives you direct, hands-on access to channel EQ without switching between devices. The Wing CoPilot app provides the same remote control flexibility the X Air app provides on the XR18, but the onboard screen means you can mix and EQ without having a tablet in hand — a meaningful practical advantage in fast-moving soundcheck environments.

The Wing Rack’s channel EQ section is accessed by selecting the channel on the touchscreen and navigating to the EQ tab. The parametric EQ display shows the full frequency curve with adjustable band handles that can be dragged directly on the touchscreen — a more intuitive workflow than the app-based knob controls on the XR18, particularly for quick frequency adjustments during a live set. The Wing Rack’s EQ section provides more bands than the XR18’s four-band parametric, giving additional precision for complex EQ situations where multiple adjustments in adjacent frequency ranges are needed simultaneously.

The Wing Rack’s effects engine — including Premium FX processors derived from TC Electronic, Lexicon, and EMT algorithms — means that the EQ decisions you make on individual channels interact with higher-quality downstream processing than the XR18 provides. Vocal reverb tails that sit more naturally, guitar delays that don’t smear into the mix — the effects quality means less corrective EQ is needed to make processing sound natural rather than artificial. This is a practical benefit that becomes most noticeable on complex arrangements where multiple channels are using effects simultaneously.

For system-level EQ on the Wing Rack, the main output provides access to a graphic EQ for room correction, accessed through the touchscreen outputs section. The workflow is similar to the XR18 — use conservative cuts to address room resonances identified by walking the room during soundcheck, and leave the channel EQ focused on the source characteristics rather than the room response. For the complete Wing Rack breakdown including how its processing compares to the XR18 and X32 Rack, our Behringer Wing Rack review covers everything in detail.

Saving and Recalling EQ Settings Across Shows

One of the most valuable practices in live EQ — and one that most self-producing bands underuse — is saving channel EQ settings as scenes in the digital mixer and recalling them as a starting point at each new show. This doesn’t mean applying the same EQ blindly at every venue; it means starting each soundcheck from a known-good foundation rather than from zero, then making room-specific adjustments on top of that foundation.

The scene should contain: all channel gain settings, all channel EQ settings, monitor mix levels, and any effects routing. The one thing the scene should not be expected to carry over unchanged is the system-level graphic EQ on the main output — this should be re-evaluated at every venue based on what the room actually sounds like, not what the last room sounded like.

Over time, building a library of venue-specific scenes means that your second show at any given venue starts from significantly closer to the final mix than your first show did. The XR18 and Wing Rack both support named scene saves and recall — use them systematically, naming scenes by venue and date. Our guide on building monitor mixes on the XR18 covers the complete scene save and recall workflow including monitor mix settings that make soundcheck faster every time you return to a familiar venue.

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to EQ a live mix is a skill that compounds with every show. The frequency map becomes instinctive. The problem frequencies become recognizable before they fully develop. The relationship between the kick and bass, the guitar and vocal presence range, the overhead contribution and the close mic character — these things start to make sense as a system rather than as a collection of individual channels.

The framework in this guide — HPF everything that doesn’t need low end, cut before boosting, EQ in context not in solo, address the room separately from the channels, walk the room and trust what you hear at the audience position — applies regardless of the mixer, the venue, the genre, or the band configuration. Start with these principles, apply them consistently, and the mix will improve every show.

Frequently Asked Questions