Tutorial
Negative Multiband Method: Bring Something out in a Mix
🕚 03/02/2022
Did you know that you can use a multiband compressor in this way to find which frequencies to cut?
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Plugins
We used Fabfilter's FAB-ulous pro-MB plugin as the multiband compressor plugin for this tutorial. It's easy to use, clean and resource-light. Check it out here.
Turn THIS:
Into THIS:
The conventional and well-used method to find which frequencies to cut to allow other instruments to speak through in the track is to take a narrow band, boost it, search for "harsh" frequencies or nasty areas/spikes, and then cut them.
This is a tried and tested, bulletproof technique. It is not, however, the only one.
This is a tried and tested, bulletproof technique. It is not, however, the only one.
This method is a sort of subtractive method. It involves identifying exactly which frequencies are NOT a problem, isolating them, and cutting what is left, which is usually the offending frequency range.
Plugins
We used Fabfilter's FAB-ulous pro-MB plugin as the multiband compressor plugin for this tutorial. It's easy to use, clean and resource-light. Check it out here.
Final Notes and Tips
• This is quite a broad cut, but it works very nicely - I would suggest using it subtly and in multiple places among multiple different groups of instruments to help give everything its own space in the mix. I would also suggest to use it in combination with clever narrow EQ cuts. The less drastic a cut is, the less it will be noticeable, so the best situation is usually to have many techniques used, but none of each technique used too much. The result will be much more transparent.
