Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Should You EQ Virtual Instruments?

In home studios, it's pretty common to use sampled or virtual instruments when mixing or recording. It's pretty amazing these days how good they can sound. However, one question seems to arise when using virtual instruments. Should you use EQ on virtual instruments? There's a couple things we need to consider.

First, it's a misunderstanding of EQ.


I hear this question a lot, and I think it's really just a misunderstanding of what EQ is. EQ is not something to has to be done on every track. EQ is a tool and you should use it to help you achieve the goals you have for your mix. When you are EQ'ing for instance, a snare drum, you should know why you are using EQ on that snare drum. It shouldn't just be out of habit of "just cause." You need to be intentional. Are you trying to make it sound fatter? Are you trying to isolate a ringing frequency? What's the purpose? You need to know why you are using EQ before you start throwing it on a track out of habit. 


Second, virtual instruments aren't perfect. 


Another thing we need to consider is the fact that just because you have a sampled instrument, that doesn't mean that it's perfect. It still might not have a particular sound you are going for. Now sure, virtual instruments are generally very clean and polished sounding, but this in no way removes the need for EQ. I would hope that when you are recording any instrument that you are spending the time to get the best sound you possibly can. You still however will probably end up using EQ on some of those tracks. The same goes for virtual instruments. 


When mixing with sampled instruments, don't think of them as such. Think of them as just regularly recorded tracks and treat them as such. They are real instruments anyways. Just because they are sampled doesn't mean they weren't recorded just like you would with an instrument. The point is to use EQ as a tool to achieve your vision in the mix, and treat virtual instruments like you would any other instrument. 




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