Mixing guide / Tone / Graphic EQ
FreeKnob names: typical

Graphic EQ

A row of fancy bass-and-treble sliders.

Each slider controls one fixed frequency band, from deep (left) to bright (right). Push a slider up to boost that band, pull it down to cut.

Use it when a voice sounds muddy, boxy, dull or harsh.

Every knob, in plain words

Far left

≈ 30–100 Hz

Rumble. Pull down on all vocals.

Left-middle

≈ 200–500 Hz

Mud and boxiness. Pull down a little if the voice sounds boxy.

Middle

≈ 1 kHz

Nasal honk. Small cut if it sounds like a telephone.

Right-middle

≈ 2–5 kHz

Presence. Small boost if words are hard to hear.

Right

≈ 8–16 kHz

Air and sparkle. Small boost for brightness; watch the S's.

Start here for vocals

  1. Pull the far-left sliders down.
  2. Cut more than you boost.
  3. Keep boosts small (+1 to +3 dB).

Too much? Listen for…

  • A “smiley face” curve (lows and highs way up) sounds impressive for 10 seconds, then becomes tiring.

Try it in 2 minutes

  1. Loop one line of your mains.
  2. Turn one knob all the way, then back. Hear what changed.
  3. Settle somewhere gentle.
  4. Click the power button to compare before and after, at the same volume.

See the recipes table for per-layer settings.