EQ Cheat Sheet: What Each Frequency Range Does

An EQ cheat sheet maps the audible spectrum, roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz, into named ranges (sub, bass, low mids, mids, upper mids, presence and air) and tells you what each range adds or causes in a mix. Use it as a starting point for where to listen, then let your ears make the final call. The interactive EQ frequency chart shows these bands for each instrument on a real logarithmic scale.

The EQ cheat sheet at a glance

These ranges are approximate and overlap. Different sources draw the lines in slightly different places, so treat them as zones to search rather than exact settings.

Range	Approx. frequencies	Adds	Too much causes
Sub	20–60 Hz	Weight you feel more than hear	Rumble, wasted headroom
Bass	60–250 Hz	Warmth, kick and bass body	Boom, masking
Low mids	250–500 Hz	Fullness	Mud, boxiness
Mids	500 Hz–2 kHz	Tone and character	Honk, nasal sound
Upper mids	2–5 kHz	Presence, attack, clarity	Harshness, listening fatigue
Presence / sibilance	5–10 kHz	Definition, edge	Sibilance, brittle cymbals
Air	10–20 kHz	Openness, sheen	Hiss, thinness

Instrument by instrument

The same ranges mean different things on different sources. These are common starting zones; the EQ frequency chart lets you pick an instrument and hover each band to read what it does and a sensible first move.

Vocals

• High-pass below the lowest sung note to remove rumble and handling noise.
• Mud and boxiness around 200–500 Hz.
• Presence and lyric clarity around 2–5 kHz; a gentle lift near 3 kHz helps words cut through.
• Sibilance around 5–8 kHz, often better handled with a de-esser than a static cut.
• Air above 10 kHz with a gentle high shelf.

Kick drum

• Body and punch around 60–100 Hz.
• Boxy, cardboard tone in the low mids, often somewhere between 200 and 500 Hz.
• Beater click around 2–5 kHz, which helps the kick read on small speakers.

Bass and 808

• Fundamental and weight below about 100 Hz.
• Growl and note definition in the low mids and mids, which is what makes bass audible on phones.
• Decide whether kick or bass owns the lowest octave, and give the other a little space there.

Guitars, piano and pads

• High-pass to clear space for bass and kick when the part is not the low-end anchor.
• Small cuts in the 200–500 Hz zone clean up crowded arrangements.
• Upper mids carry pick attack and hammer detail; boost sparingly.

How to use a cheat sheet without over-EQing

1. Listen first. Name the problem in words (muddy, harsh, thin, boomy) before touching a band.
2. Find the range on the chart. The word tells you which zone to search.
3. Sweep to locate it. Boost a narrow band, sweep through the zone until the problem jumps out, then turn the boost into a cut. Keep sweeps short and quiet to protect your ears.
4. Cut before you boost. Removing problems first usually leaves less to add, and cuts tend to sound more natural.
5. Check in context. Solo is useful for finding a frequency, but judge the result with the full mix playing.
6. Level-match before and after. A louder version almost always sounds better, so bypass and compare at equal level.

Worked example: a muddy mix

A mix that sounds thick and unclear usually has too much energy in the low mids from several parts at once. Instead of one big cut on the master, try a 2–3 dB cut somewhere between 250 and 400 Hz on the guitars, the pads and the piano, leaving the vocal and bass alone. Then check the vocal: if it still sounds boxy, sweep it for a narrow resonance. Small cuts on many tracks usually clean up a mix more naturally than one large cut on the bus.

Why ranges are only a starting point

Every recording is different. Microphone choice, room, playing style and tuning all move the important frequencies around. A kick tuned low and a kick tuned high put their punch in different places, and a deep male voice and a high female voice have different mud and presence zones. A cheat sheet tells you where to look; your ears tell you what to do. For a deeper explanation of each range, read our EQ frequency guide, and for the masking problems that make EQ necessary, see frequency masking in mixing.

Which EQ shape to use in each range

• High-pass filter for the sub and bass zones on parts that do not need them.
• Low shelf to add or reduce overall warmth without targeting one frequency.
• Bell (peak) band for mud, boxiness, honk and harsh spots in the mids; use a narrow width for resonances and a wide one for tone shaping.
• High shelf for air and overall brightness.

Common mistakes

• Applying chart settings blindly. A number on a chart is not a setting for your track.
• Boosting everything that sounds good soloed. Several tracks boosted in the same zone fight each other.
• High-passing too aggressively. Cutting too high thins out vocals and guitars. Raise the filter until you hear the tone change, then back it off.
• Ignoring the sub range. Energy you cannot hear on small monitors still uses headroom and affects loudness.
• Making narrow, deep cuts everywhere. Reserve narrow cuts for clear resonances.

FAQ

Build your EQ skills further with our complete EQ guide, and see the overview of audio equalization. Keep the interactive EQ frequency chart open in a tab next to your DAW while you mix.