Before going into the technical aspects and procedures of equalization, we must first define the two main possible methods that an equalizer can perform. The first of the two is Corrective Equalization. We will use this method when we need to repair a sound, correct annoying or dissonant frequencies, adapt a sound to a certain ambience, compensate for a bad recording, or retouch frequencies to make a sound sound sound more natural.
Repairing a sound
This happens when we find defects in the sound that may affect the desired result. For example, a recording may have annoying background noise, interference, unwanted external sounds, or even malfunctioning instruments or recording equipment. We will then look for the frequency that is the “culprit” of the unwanted effect, and try to reduce or attenuate it, without affecting the natural sound of the recording. In later chapters we will see how to do this using equalization techniques.
Adapting a sound to a desired ambience
If, for example, the recording was made in a room that has bad or defective acoustics, causing annoying, exaggerated or strange frequencies, then we will try to find those frequencies affected by the bad recording, and try to balance them to obtain a more natural sound.
Compensating for a bad recording
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First of all, it is always recommended to correct errors during the recording stage, not afterwards. In any case, in case the recording has resulted in errors or unwanted frequencies, we will then proceed to correct them during equalization. Typical errors or defects in a recording can be: sibilance in the voice, unwanted reflections or reverberations in the recording room, poor quality instruments, poor quality or poorly positioned microphones, malfunctions in the recording equipment, or mistakes made by the performers during the performance of the piece or recording.
When performing these correction tasks we must be meticulous and focus exclusively on those small details to be corrected, without affecting the rest of the elements or frequencies.
Restore a sound to resemble the original source.
For example: we use a microphone to record a drum kit. But this microphone was placed in a position where it does not pick up all the frequencies correctly: we will then use the EQ to restore those frequencies, making the drums sound more natural.