In the recording process there is probably one thing that tends to be very monotonous. That is the mastering of a song. You will have to listen to the same song over and over again until you are finally satisfied with the mix. Then you listen to a copy on your car stereo while driving down the highway and hear a blemish or undesirable quality that you couldn’t pick up when you listened to it the other 150 times you listened to it.
It always seems like just when you think you’re finally done mixing a certain song; you discover some other flaw in the mix and feel the need to go back to the drawing board or, more accurately in this case, the mixing desk. It then becomes somewhat apparent that mixing a song can be a longer process than the actual recording of the song. However, there is something you can do to not only speed up the mixing process, but also help you end up with a better product. That would be the use of the frequency assignment.
Frequency mapping is when you assign a specific frequency range to each instrument. It does this to make it easier to distinguish one instrument from another. If all the instruments are in the same frequency range or slot, the mix will sound somewhat muddy or messy. Some tracks may even be completely indistinguishable from others.
So let’s say you have 5 instrument tracks. You have a bass, drums, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and a keyboard track. This is how you can assign a frequency range to each instrument:
The bass can either have the bass boosted or use a low pass filter. It makes a lot of sense to assign the bass the low frequencies, doesn’t it? That was pretty simple. So let’s move on to rhythm guitar. Let’s assign the rhythm guitar the midrange frequencies. We can then assign the keyboard track to the high frequencies. We now have 3 of the 5 instruments covered with minimal potential for them to cut the frequency range of the others. We only have two instruments left; lead guitar and drums.
Obviously, the more instruments you have, the harder it is to keep them from cutting each other’s frequencies. But it is still possible to minimize that. We can do that with the lead guitar track by giving it a range between rhythm guitar and keyboard. So basically it will occupy some of the midrange frequencies and some of the high range frequencies.
Now we have the drums. Drums can be a bit tricky because you have multiple pieces that span the spectrum. For starters, your kick drum (or kick drum if it’s a double bass) will have more bass tone than the other pieces. You can also have multiple toms that span the entire spectrum. Your floor tom will obviously have more bass than smaller toms. You also have the snare and cymbals, with cymbals on the higher end of the spectrum.
I like to give the cymbals the obvious high frequencies and add a touch of reverb to add to their sustain. The trap is usually done to taste. It can be mid-range or somewhere in between mid to high. The timpani are individually treated to distribute them along the spectrum. The hype is self explanatory.
Now you may not have enough tracks available to give each drum piece its own track for mixing. If that’s the case, you should at least split it into two tracks, whenever possible. I myself do it many times. I’ll take the drums and give them the midrange slot and the cymbals will be on the high end. It’s pretty simplistic, but it works fine most of the time.
If possible, or if you have enough tracks available, you can assign each part of the drum kit to a different area from left to right. That would simulate having a real drum set playing right in front of you. The kick could be in the center as well as the snare, the floor tom slightly to the left and the crash cymbal slightly to the right while the ride is slightly to the left. You can even try a number of variations of it.
These are some ideas that you can think about. You don’t have to use the exact same format as I just suggested. I don’t even do that myself. The format may be determined by the song itself. It is better to treat each song individually. That will make it easier to distinguish one song from another. Also, not all songs use the same instruments or the same number of instruments.
So, in closing: take all of these things into consideration and test the frequency assignment. You might even be impressed with the final product. Of course, after giving each track its own special place on the spectrum, you have your overall EQ to play with. But that’s usually reserved for fine tuning. Give it a try and good luck.
