Tom Hess

About the author: Tom Hess is a professional touring guitarist and recording artist. He teaches, trains and mentors musicians from all around the world. Visit https://www.tomhess.net/MusicCareer.aspx to discover highly effective musician learning resources – free advice, lessons and online assessments.

Blog Posts

Author Insights

From the Studio

Same knob, different job

It’s a useful reset to remember that a synth filter and an EQ filter are the same maths wearing different clothes. On an EQ, resonance screaming at self-oscillation is a mistake. On a synth, it’s half the reason people still chase old Moog and 303 emulations. The parameter’s identical – cutoff, slope, Q – only the intent changes. → Glossary: Resonance

From the Studio

Hunting hum by ear

Before you reach for an auto-notch tool, it’s worth learning to find 50 Hz hum by ear – sweep a narrow bell filter with a big cut slowly through the low end and listen for where the hum drops out. It’s a five-minute skill that saves you from notching the wrong frequency and taking a bite out of something that mattered. → Community: discuss ground loop and hum fixes on our Music Community boards

From the Studio

Cut narrow, boost wide – until it isn’t

The “cut narrow, boost wide” rule of thumb holds up most of the time, but it’s a starting point, not a law. For example, an exception might be when a piano and lead vocal are fighting in the low mids. The piano sounds warm on its own, but sitting together in the full mix, the vocal lacks clarity. Apply a wide EQ cut of about 2 dB centred at 300 Hz on the piano with a broad Q of around 0.7. Treat the rule as: where you start turning the Q knob, not where you stop. → Glossary: Q (Quality Factor)

From the Studio

The HPF you don’t notice is doing its job

The best use of a high-pass filter is usually the one nobody can hear happening. If a listener can point to “the bit where you filtered it,” the slope was probably too steep for the source. On most acoustic sources, I reach for a gentle -6 dB/oct first and only go steeper if there’s a specific problem to solve – mud, rumble, a room mic picking up traffic noise. → Forum: share what you’re rolling off and why in the Recording & Production board

From the Studio

The cut-off isn’t where cutting starts

This one trips up a lot of people the first time they hear it properly explained: set your HPF to 80 Hz and the filter is already three decibels down at 80 Hz, not just starting to think about it. Once you know you know. It is so easy to spend a stupid amount of time chasing “missing” low end on a bass track before realising the roll-off began a full octave above the point where you thought it kicked in. Worth remembering next time a cut sounds more aggressive than the number on the dial suggests. → Glossary: Cutoff Frequency / Half-Power Point

From the Studio

Too Much Reverb

Less experienced recording engineers and music producers tend to use too much reverb and to use it inappropriately. Using reverb in the wrong way can create very muddy mixes with vocals that lack punch. You have several options to help you avoid these issues.