> I am not opposed to EQ, but it should be applied judiciously, and at least partially by ear. I don't believe trying to exactly match a target curve will necessarily provide good results compared to a more judicious approach.
Agreed. While matching generalized target curves are really helpful when applying EQ to sound waves in a music production setting, from a listeners perspective EQ is going to rely much more upon personal preference.
I've always struggled balancing the subsonic portion of my mixes with the higher ranges, and often times I've ended up with way too much bass, or not enough making my mix sound very thin and unbalanced. Using Izotope's Ozone 8 Tonal Balance Control, it gives me a visual representation of where my track meets or misses a target curve based on genre. So for instance, I can see that the subsonic region of my mix far exceeds the subs in a target curve for rock music, and then adjust the eq on the instruments that fall within that spectrum accordingly. That's super helpful for getting me into the ballpark of a "recognized tonal range for a specific genre", but I fully expect people to adjust the EQ to their own tastes once I get into that ballpark.
That being said, while I expect people to adjust EQ to taste, I'd also like to point out that EQ choices made in the production phase are often intentional creative decisions. That is to say, sometimes artists may want to intentionally go against accepted norms and try something new with their frequencies. Imagine if 70 years ago someone made an Auto-EQ for the music that was popular at the time and then applied it to dubstep music being produced today - it just wouldn't work. When an artist masters a mix, that's how they want it to sound. Similarly to how a chef might be insulted if you poured a bunch of a salt on the dish they just served you without even tasting it, a producer could be similarly insulted if listeners blindly apply EQ to their work before taking time to appreciate what the artist's original intent was.
Agreed. While matching generalized target curves are really helpful when applying EQ to sound waves in a music production setting, from a listeners perspective EQ is going to rely much more upon personal preference.
I've always struggled balancing the subsonic portion of my mixes with the higher ranges, and often times I've ended up with way too much bass, or not enough making my mix sound very thin and unbalanced. Using Izotope's Ozone 8 Tonal Balance Control, it gives me a visual representation of where my track meets or misses a target curve based on genre. So for instance, I can see that the subsonic region of my mix far exceeds the subs in a target curve for rock music, and then adjust the eq on the instruments that fall within that spectrum accordingly. That's super helpful for getting me into the ballpark of a "recognized tonal range for a specific genre", but I fully expect people to adjust the EQ to their own tastes once I get into that ballpark.
That being said, while I expect people to adjust EQ to taste, I'd also like to point out that EQ choices made in the production phase are often intentional creative decisions. That is to say, sometimes artists may want to intentionally go against accepted norms and try something new with their frequencies. Imagine if 70 years ago someone made an Auto-EQ for the music that was popular at the time and then applied it to dubstep music being produced today - it just wouldn't work. When an artist masters a mix, that's how they want it to sound. Similarly to how a chef might be insulted if you poured a bunch of a salt on the dish they just served you without even tasting it, a producer could be similarly insulted if listeners blindly apply EQ to their work before taking time to appreciate what the artist's original intent was.