Nobody Listens to Your EQ Curve

Most of the mixing tutorials we learn from now are videos, so a lot of what they teach is visual. Look at this meter. Look at this signal. Here's what a good vocal EQ curve looks like. Here's the shape your mix's frequency spectrum should have.

I'm not saying visual tools are bad. I still use them sometimes. But I used to rely on them far too much. I'd check whether my mix looked like it had the right shape, or whether the low end had the right bump, or whether the curve on my vocal looked like what a vocal EQ curve is supposed to look like.

None of that is the question. The question is whether the frequencies are balanced in the right relationship to each other in this song, and you answer that by listening.

Formulas are easy to sell

A curve fits nicely in a thumbnail, and a signal chain is easy to sell. But every vocal is different, and using the same chain on all of them takes the case-by-case judgment out of the job. It's an easy trap to fall into. I fell into it.

The right mix isn't always the correct mix.

What I'd try instead

Learn one pair of monitors or headphones really well. Listen to a lot of music you love on them, until you know what good sounds like there. Then, next time you reach for a meter, make your decision first with your ears, and check the meter afterward to see what it says.

It won't always agree with you. That's fine. People are going to hear your song, and nobody's going to look at it.

If you'd like to go through one of your mixes this way, that's what my audio engineering lessons are for.