Part 1: eQs and As As the competent and conscientious recording engineer that you surely are, you've taken great care to record your (or your client's) latest opus. You've gotten your greasy little fingers on some mics and placed them more or less in the general vicinity of the instruments being played. You've taken care to insure that these instruments were tuned to a scale somewhat resembling those normally heard in modern Western music. You even carefully placed some cool crash cymbals on that dodgy part where the overly-enthusiastic vocalist overloaded your A/D converters. You've soloed every track and listened. The bass sounds fat. The guitar is punchy and open. The kick is round and snappy. The snare is... well, it's very "snarey" sounding. So, how come your mix sounds like oatmeal? I was once asked, "If you could only use a single effect to mix a record, what would it be?" In real life, my first reaction would probably be, "Oh man, that sucks. Does this job pay scale, and where's the...

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