Your go to EQ settings for your patches to fit in a mix and peak levels?

[Starwaves]

Hey POD users, I'm posting this to kinda get a general idea of how everyone approaches EQing for recording as opposed to live patch EQing. I'm familiar with Meambobo's guide and it is a great resource, but I was looking to start a topic on this to hear what other users do to make their patches have more separation in a mix, and what others recommend. I know that the mid focus and the parametric EQs are a big help in getting there.. so maybe you guys could post your "ball park" settings to achieve certain cuts, boosts, or HP and LP applications to help achieve a better mix. 
 From my experience it seems like the POD has a very fizzy and sizzle characteristic in the high gain amp models (dual rec, uber, f-ball) in the 2 - 3khz range. as well as above the 5khz range. Perhaps others can point out other problematic things that can be solved with EQ dialed in specifically for a mix correction; like fizz, sizzle, boom and flubby tonal characteristics. What are your go to EQ's and settings for boosting good frequencies for the guitars to sit better in the mix? 

Lastly, I was also curious at what level do you set your peaks in your DAW to leave enough head room for mixing? currently right now my patches are peaking in the -10db to -6db range. Are these peaks ideal?


thanks for your time and hope this is of interest and help to others. 

[Palico]

I genereally setup the POD so it sounds pretty good when I'm tracking back with whatever was already recorded. We general start with scratch track so I'll setup the guitar to sound pretty good against that. Then after I have the guitar record and all the other instruments to their final track, I try best as I can to take off the guitarist hat and put on the sound enginners hat. As for what I set and cut that depends totally on the song itself and what I want I think enhances it the most. I can say with the guitar I usually use a high pass filter to roll off the extreme bottom end and leave more room for the bass drum and bass guitar. I will use low pass filters on the Bass guitar and Bass Drum as well to make sure they are not getting into the gutiar's range too badly.

 

But main tool here is a parameteric EQ in the DAW iteself. The reason I used the DAW version is because usually they have a bit of graph that I can work with to see a bit visually what I'm doing and I can totaly undo them if I change my mind later. I will set a low Q and max out the level. Then roll the frequency around a listen for the ones that I like and the ones I don't. Any areas of the frequency I don't like I will widen the Q and make a small (like 6db) cut.  For ones I really like I will might make a small (again less than 6db) boost to. 

 

Yes generally I like to mix a -10db to -12db level for the mixdown, I use a plug-in to turn down the gain on each individual channel before the effects plugins (if they too hot). I found the other plugins work better when you do that. I will use a multi-band compressor and limiter later in the mastering process to bring the overall level up to more normal commerical level, althought I try to stay out of the loud as possibile terreritory. Just bring them up around -3 to 0. A lot of mine is truely by ear but using a lot of things I've read about mixing and master techniques. And always comparing the final result to professional (purchased CD) track that I like the mix of. The one I compare to changes as what I want. For example I really like the sound or Neil Pert (Rush) drum tracks, not just his amazing ability but the way his drums really punch in most of the their songs. So I will compare my drum sound to his to try to get something in that arena. Same thing for guitars, vocals, etc.... 

[Palico]

Almost forgot, I use a compressor plugin to tame the peaks as needed. Just set the compression to something low like 2:1 ratio and compress just enought to tame any wild spikes. With the guitar tracks I rarely need it. The guitar is faily compressed instrument already but with drums or a vocalist they are usually needs just to control the track. I *might* add compression again later if I'm planning on using it for an effect, like pumping on vocal, althought I rarely use it for much else. My guitar signal might have a compressor for sustain on the POD before it's tracked but that one is total for the specific sustain or squashed effect. 

[Starwaves]

Thanks for your input. I do use multi band eq's in Pro Tools to try and find the bad spots and cut them if needed, and I always use a HPF, usually cutting around 100hz for the purpose of allowing the bass and kick to breath like you said in the mix. I'm a fan of trying to save on CPU power so utilizing the POD EQ is always more favorable. I do like to use the parametric eq and cut out around the 70 - 80% range because it seems to be around that sizzle area. I've also delved in to external impulses like redwirez and though they are great IR's, the seem really thin and harsh in the mix with the POD and MIX IR 2 (impulse loader). Plus IR loaders are CPU hogs, so I'm actually back to using stock Cabs.. Usually the XXL cab for high gain amps, like most metal/hard rock users choose. It is justt more simpler and convenient and I've heard plenty of guys getting good results with stock cabs despite all the complaints of how most users regard them lacking and problematic. I tend to use my DAW for Reverb and Delays so I can free up more fx blocks on the POD for eq and noise gates etc.