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The BEST video on EQing Heavy Guitars I've ever seen! Thanks for posting

I use chorus on my metal guitar tracks. The 80s called me and they wanted their tone back, but I said "no I am keeping it, thank you." and hung up. True story!

Just took “Guitar EQ” course at Kohle Audio Kult, Kristian is talking about in this video! Really wonderful course! Just in 1 hour Kristian opened my eyes how I should EQ metal guitars in the right way because I’m still learning all about mixing metal and stuff! Thank you so much Kristian for creating this course! Kohle Audio Kult is the best place to be for all metal sound engineers! Super happy to be a part of such a wonderful community! Learning much from Kristian and other great mentors at the academy!

The only reason I use compression (actually a dynamic EQ) on heavy guitars is to attenuate rumble during the palm mutes, mostly around 100-150 hz. Adds no color and is completely transparent.

I've been using EQ for years and this was pretty eye opening, It's always been such a norm to choke out the top frequencies rather than just bringing them down gently. Amazing stuff! Definitely subbed

I spent 15k about 15 years ago to learn the art of recording. Using HP and LP filters like this was never taught to me. I feel cheated haha. Anyway, this was very eye opening for me. Went back and tweaked some of my recent mixes and the difference was night and day. I am seriously thinking about your upcoming course. Thanks Kohl.

This video dropped as I was talking to a friend about how my new guitar sounds too 'hissy' and 'airy' on the top end in a mix. I never thought to EQ it that severely, but as I'm finding out more and more its about trusting your ears over "This is how its done and how it should always be done!"

One of the tricks I use on heavy guitars is hipassing and then shelving the high end, which achieves a better roll-off and just seems to work on every rythm guitar track.

Genius idea of “removing frequencies” that cover up the core of the sound, rather than trying to boost stuff which ends up sounding unnatural at that point. Love this channel.

This video has been a gamechanger for my tones, used to really struggle with getting that brightness without having it hisss like crazy. Awesome tips!

Yes, i use the eq‘s on this way. Also on bass and other. The only right way is to experiment with all possibilitys, to find the best tone that i want in this situation. 🤘

This has completely changed my equalizing thinking. I can’t wait to try this! Thank you!

Well, damn. This was a lot more effective than I thought. I already rolled off the low end, but rolling off the highs like that opened space for vocals and solos in a way I hadn't anticipated. I thought I'd miss that crisp attack in the guitars, but they sat great in the mix. Cheers!

brilliant, clear, practical info man thank you so much. This unlocked a recording door for me especially with vst you legend \m/

Just tried this on some guitar tracks I had in an open project. It's far more effective than what I had been doing and easier to dial in. Thanks for the tip!

Where have you been all my life?! I've been playing for 36 years and although I've managed to track some really great guitar sounds with budget equipment I've always been mesmerized by songs with blistering heavy guitars... high gain, overdrive, distortion etc but without the noisy part of the distortion. I couldn't figure it out. And this video answered a decades long mystery for me in 8 mins 34 sec. Thank you so much! 🤘🤪🤘

Ive been using pro-q 3 and Low and High Freq cutting for years, but i usually cut at like 15k with a 36db curve, and then spend the next 2 hours trying to remove the high end buzz using a bell curve,.....after watching this my mind is blown as to how simple it could have been and how ive been making it more complicated! thank you!

Going to try this out today! Thanks for reaffirming my suspicions of using a more gentle EQ on the highs. Great expose on the topic!

Yes sir! I've found this to be a great way to fix tones up. I tend to boost some 700-ish Hz, possibly something around 1.6k, high cut filter and often a DeEsser around 4k as well to smooth out the tone and make it far more focused and detailed. Then thanks to your info, bass goes above and below the guitar in specific frequency ranges. Provided you can find a frequency for the instrument, it will always be heard :) Love your videos!

Great trick I discovered by tweaking harsh IRs I've got in my Axe FX. It really tamed those annoying highs, and used with a multiband compressor focused on low/low mids, I'm really happy with the tones I get!

i always use the filters on the SSL channel plugin. stops me from overthinking the slope. guitar tones were still good before anyone could see the EQ on a graph.

I mix mostly in ableton and I find the very simple Channel EQ to be a great starting point on every track. You can do so much with just that one effect. It's worth CONSIDERING highpassing and lowpassing almost every track, I'm not saying to do it, but to consider how it could benefit each track. Use your ears!

This is a common "problem" with modelers. Many people think they are all harsh. But they are generally modeling the fizz of a real close miced rig. This technique is almost a must in that world. Great job!

Negative EQing in a live environment really helps in the same way. Make the mike pick up the frequency of the drum/cabinet/source and not other unwanted frequencies.

Going to use this in the mix I'm working on right now. 🤘 My mixes just keep getting better thanks to you, Bobby Huff, and Jordan Valeriote.

I don’t think it was mentioned but this is a VERY good quality idea brought forward for general recording purposes. When you mix this condensed/compressed signal in a full band setting with other tracks, you’re going to have SO MUCH MORE CLARITY in your recording. The less busy your full spectrum EQ frequency is during a playback the better your mix will sound. You don’t want a ton of things stacked in the same frequency range if possible because it becomes cluttered and your ears simply cannot pick out the details. He talks very much around this point but in case you didn’t pick up on it thats the fact. Take it toward all of your recording efforts. You can use this methodology for vocals, bass, etc and apply it to help eliminate wasted music information and eliminate a lot of post-processing work on your mixing efforts to get this all to blend properly. Great tutorial!

Similar can be achieved by reducing presence on the amp. Or increasing presence but reducing highs, while adjusting the gain appropriately. The same applies to the low end.

I do use compressors on heavy guitars, but more to shape the attack envelope, sometimes before the amp and sometimes after. You can also some sidechaining tricks that I like to use sometimes.

I love how the amp heads are lone and stacked in the control room like that and just routed to a cab(s) in a live room/iso booth. Pretty ingenious and super practical/effiicient for choosing an amp(s), dialing in the tone, and - most importantly - looks cool af. 🤘

Man you helped me a lot, I've been looking a tutorial like this in youtube and very hard for me to find this. please continue more tutorial please.

Sounds amazing with a slower slope

I have definitely endlessly EQ notched poorly dialled in guitar tones many times. Looking forward to the full academy! 😎

The man with no hair got rid of the unwanted hair with the hi pass filter. Nice. Thx. Great video!

This is one of the first EQ videos that the difference is really obvious and mindblowing. Thanks for this, will certainly look out for your courses!

Source Guitar: EMG 81 > Tube Screamer > Three Channel Dual Rectifier CRANKED treble and presence > Chinese V30 2x12 > SM57 dead center.

This for me was an "before after". Now I can get more natural tone and sit my gitars better in the mix. Thank you!

Great tip. I always go to the filters first.

Yessir!! This ole dog learned a new trick for sure!! Can't get over how effective such a simple move was!!

WOW what a great demonstration. I hadn’t considered using a low pass filter in this way but it makes perfect sense and makes an ENORMOUS difference. THIS will be my guitar EQ strategy from now on!

This is the best explanation of EQs I've ever seen! Clear and understandable for anyone even for someone like me! Christian good job and thank you!

This is why... If you get the Vfe Standout, get the 2020 version because you have independent switches for the low and high pass filters. The earlier version only has one switch which affects both filters the same.

So once again, removing unwanted frequencies makes room for the wanted ones. Old story, but never thought it would actually refine the tone so much. I tried it immediately on a guitar bus, and boy oh boy, genius! Thank you for this video.

Very good idea. Immediately made sense and knew where this was going, but hadn’t thought of it myself. Ppl use all kinds of tools for that, C4 & multiband comp, even the plugin soothe 2 to remove unwanted high end…

I suspect that the high cut filter in the cab block of my Helix works exactly like you are showing - not too steep and gentle.

I really enjoy learning new techniques from people who use actual audio terminology to describe whats going on i.e. "Definition" "Sizzle" as opposed to "This sounds hairy" or " this tone has so much spank.

The thing for me is, listening to guitar tone out of mix contest is always going to sound too fizzy - until I start cutting it. I did a lot of similar mistakes often, these days I'm way more conservative about cutting high end too much, because I'm cutting a lot of harmonics that are people used to and can perceive guitar as cutting through mix better (get's more audible without being louder). I used to cut everything above 5khz, but these days I moved it a bit higher to 8-9khz and conservative slope. Again, as always, key is to listen in the context of the mix. When playing alone - I def cut a lot of highs more, they get fatiguing a lot faster, but in the mix context, a lot more masking happens and harmonics mix, so you don't get that same feeling.

That amp/cab/mic setup just sounded downright fantastic tho. Damn dude.

super agree about getting it as good as you can with no eq to start with! if you have to do extreme eq curves it always winds up sounding more like noise and less musical, you know, boxy, airy in a bad way, I mean its good to sprinkle in a bit of "processed" or "low fi" here and there to keep things interesting, BUT "processed/low fi" is not good for an always-on effect. I find it is generally better if you can keep it flat(ish) between 100HZ to 6-7Khz

What you say at about 1:35 just earned a subscription from me. First time I'm seeing a video from you, too.

When i did my guitars i did the slope of the high cut mild on accident more like the 12 db/oct. I didn't know how to use the controls of my eq until a few days ago to make it steeper. This is a great video

I think I’m one of those who does the opposite, I like to bring out some sizzle and a brutal mid section instead, I do cut a little high and some low to let the symbols and bass/kick breath, but I still want sizzle and fuzz to define the sound for clarity “not same clarity you’re used to” but I do after all use my Mesa boogie road king and love the way it sounds, I don’t want to take it away. But that’s a flavour I arrived at 10 years into recording and mixing, I just want to say that the lower you tune your guitars the more you EQ you’ll cut to make it clean, so also try the opposite in other than B tuning LOL

i do this all the time with my fractal fm3, high cut and low cut on the cab block, to remove the bass rumble and harshness high

Very true that. When we found that out for our sound it changed a lot. Thanks for the content 🤘😎

Thanks for this. I'm usually more aggressive with the filters and never question why I do it in a certain way. Deffinetely trying it with a more gentle curve in the future.

Awesome and informative as always !! 🤘🏼 we need more IRs Kristian !!

This is actually a real Help, I am in the final stages of finishing the mixing on my Album, and I am in the "revision" stage, and Guitar Low pass filters is on the "to do list" for double checking. I have actually used a lesser slope before on other things , but I dont tend to use it on Guitars (purely because I can be a plank sometimes and have not tried more than maybe once when I knew far less). I think this video will prompt me to check each heavy guitar track/bus and try some less extreme filter curves ( I use TDR Nova in reaper, as it has different filter slopes and dynamic eq like Fab Filter, so its also great with Palm Mutes) A few of my track shave issues with the hi end on the guitars being a bit too bitey and/or fizzy but its not something that sounds good notched out, so this is a great way to solve that issue. Thanks for a cool tip, this one is brilliantly timed, as tomorrow, I am going through my album and hopefully doing the final tweaks Many thanks :D

its amazing how much tighter the tone is when you cut that fizz out

Great video. I typically use 12dB or 18dB filters. When you switch to 12dB per octave and slide it down (about 6:36) is beautiful. Then you bypass and all the fizz comes through - great illustration. Great vid and great channel!

How can your channel have only 37k subscribers? This was a real gem of a help and I'm gonna try it later today with my own guitar and plug-ins. Gonna check your other videos as well. Thank you so much!

I generally don't use low pass filtering, but I am intrigued by it and am looking to see what it will bring to the party.

You've just solved so many questions for me In a short space of time. Thank you

That's really cool! I'm always using a very steep filter... so now it will be great to try those other ways.

Watched one video and subbed. The way you put everything is great 👍🏽🤘🏽

Great stuff man. Thanks.

I also like to compare hp/lp filters with shelving filters doing the same job. And pretty often I choose shelves, depending on the source material and context of course.

Trying this now, you and another channel I just watched for mastering. Thanks bro

that fizz up there is also masking the cymbals in a mix...so cleaning up like that lets the cymbals pop out clearer without having to crank them :)

In the real world a speaker cabinet only puts out frequencies up to around 5500hz. The microphone and placement and recording technique is adding the rest. I normally high cut to about 6600hz might give a large bell poke to around 2.8khz to add bite.

Yes I have used the high cut, I found it by accident. My EQ has a plateau setting that automatically put it in.

I would also use notch bells to reduce resonances between 2.5k to 6k

EQ it before it is recorded. You would be amazed at what a multi band EQ in the loop can do for your tone.

I love fright box studio !

You will always be my favorite engineer on KZfaq

I used something similar on overheads for drums. Removing some real harsh stuff. However, this was like nine years ago, and I now realize that I took out too much with the hi-pass filter. Probably had some clipping issues as well, at least on one track.

Thank you so much, Kohle. Super helpful video! I really like your content, will definitely check out your academy

Wow!! Great info here I never considered! Thanks for sharing!!

Can't wait to get the course when you get it done.

i thought i knew how to high cut nope i just learned it now nobody told like this way thank you very much

Wow I'm late to the party but here now! Subbed to your mailing list and channel. Great video mate! Look forward to the full lesson

This was really helpful. I never really considered HPF that way. Thanks!

Best EQing metal guitar video I've ever seen. Looking for the full course.

I usually use the 6db cut when I'm I'm doing drums

That's some great use of a LPF!

Yeah good info. I use the same thing. Good idea to alter the slope of the LPF.

I use an Empress ParaEQ in my loop of my Mesa Nomad100 as a global eq. I got the idea from playing thru Mesa JP2C which was too expensive for me. I can use it to adjust for different guitars. Works great.

I have used high cut filters like that for guitars and other instruments as well. Sometimes even cymbals that have too much bight on the high end to smooth them out

That is an amazing guitar sound! Great advice, thank you. 🤟🏻

Great video! Very interesting information! I’ll try this

This is good stuff. It almost sounds like the guitar tone gets a tiny bit “thicker” when removing the high freq 👍🏼

What would help the guitar tone is an invisible eq set on 64000X invisibility 😅 I swear it will work! Jokes aside, quality content as always 👊👊

The power of the cut !

Awesome! I always though I cut too much, but as the cymbals have space then I didn't mind.

That's like a smooth Chevelle guitar tone. I like it a lot

Works so good just tried it THANKS MAN!

Great as always! Those EVE's look awesome!

"Starts with the source" - 100%

Another neat trick I’ve always enjoyed, is taking a neve style EQ, setting the high cut fairly low around 8k or so, and using a high shelf above the hi cut, say at around 10 or 12, or even 16k for something softer and less Aggresive. This really smooths out the high end but makes the tone bright and clear, without the fizz and noise. Give it a try sometime, works fantastic. It’s nothing new of course, they did this trick back in the day on neve style consoles, but it really works to get the guitar present and upfront, without the buzz and fizz. On that note, guitars and mixes in general these days are far too safe and dark, there needs to be more angst and aggression and edge in modern productions.

Cut before boost - simple and nice :-) Love it!

Kohle, Du machst mich fertig! Wie geil ist das bitte!? Gekauft! Thx for your efforts and knowledge you sharing with us! Stay Metal!