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10 lesson that took me forever to learn

I like to talk about producing so i thought why not share some insights i wish i would have had 5 years ago. These are not rules because there are no rules in music but merely directions at where to look for.

Lesson 1: Eq'ing or equalizing sounds. 24-10-15

If you're just starting and don't have a clue this is a very helpful tip. Especially Important for instruments that have a lot of low frequencies. They are building blocks of dance music. 

If sounds occupy the same frequencies you need to decide which sound needs that space the most. For instance if the bass is hitting a note during the kick you make room in the bass by high passing or shelfing some of the lowest frequencies form the bass. You can also do this with you're kick if you're music is more bass oriented or you want to emphasis the bass more.  

A good beginners question would be how do you know when sounds occupy the same frequency? Wel for instance you could load up a spectrum analyzer on both channels to actually see the present frequencies. Sometimes you can even hear it by just listening. If for instance a snare comes in during a part where you're kick is playing and as soon as the snare starts playing the kick seems quieter or you just don't hear it as good as before the snare. Well you'de better check the low end of that snare because that might be causing some problems. 

What i usually do with every sound except my kick sample, i put the sound on solo and put a a high pass or low cut filter/eq on the sound that cuts off all the low frequents until the point where the sounds starts to drastically lose its character. Then i unsolo and play all sound together again to hear if its enough and adjust accordingly. Most of the time you can cut even more frequency because in the context of the mix you won't hear them anyway.  

The higher frequencies (+500 hz) seem to give less trouble. it is however recommended to check how they fit together. And maybe add some small dips 5is DB (depends) at sounds that overlap. And again if you want a sound to stick out make room for that sound in another sounds.