The Ultimate Guide to ReaEQ – Reaper’s Stock EQ Plugin

ReaEQ is a great plugin and is my main tool for EQing in Reaper. I have written this guide to cover all the important features of it and hopefully, even regular users of it can learn something new.

If you don’t run Reaper, then don’t worry, this plugin is available FREE with the ReaPlugs download off the Reaper website.

• SEE ALSO: Quick Guide – How to EQ with ReaEQ
• SEE ALSO: Guide to REAPER’s Stock Plugins: ReaEQ and ReaComp

What is EQ?

For the very beginners, EQ is a tool to adjust frequencies so that you can bring out the best bits, and cut down some of the messy sounds in a recording.

It can be used to remove noise and boost the voice of a presenter, or it can be used musically to bring attention to certain instruments and make sounds fit together better in a song.

How does ReaEQ compare to other EQ plugins?

ReaEQ is a fairly advanced plugin. It offers flexibility that many other EQ plugins do not.

The biggest downside to all of Reaper’s stock plugins is that they are quite ugly.  

This is because the production time for Reaper focuses on functionality over high-quality graphics.  

If we look below, it does have a very similar interface to many pro-EQs as well as stock EQs in more expensive software.

Fruity Loops offer a similar design which shows the EQ curves with a much more colourful interface. It does have a few extra options that ReaEQ doesn’t.  

There are also a few features which are available in ReaEQ but not as convenient to implement.

Ableton’s EQ Eight is another similar EQ plugin, the main differences here are the limitations to eight bands (ReaEQ can have as many or as few as required).  

EQ eight also offers much simpler monitoring and band soloing, as well as a dedicated Mid/Side mode.

Fabfilter Pro-Q2 is widely regarded as the best EQ plugin on the market, so perhaps I’m being unfair bringing this in for the comparison.  

It has a fantastic interface and is really intuitive to use. As you will see though, the interface is really just a more polished version of ReaEQ.

So should I use ReaEQ

Honestly, yes. Until you are at a professional enough level that you require something costing you an arm and leg (which does almost the exact thing) then ReaEQ will suit your needs.  

What Reaper has managed so well in its plugins, is raw power.  

Just look across forums and you will see people testifying for their use over paid and professional plugins.  

Everything not possible in ReaEQ can be done in Reaper. Mid/side processing, for example, can be achieved with a little extra work with a few other tools.  

On top of this, ReaEQ has seen a lot of focus from the developers and with the Reaper community expecting more to come, the plugin will only improve over upcoming updates.

How to open ReaEQ

Each track has a green (or grey if no other effects are activated) FX button that allows you to add any FX to the track (this is also the button to hit to select VST instruments). Select the FX button on the track you want to equalise.

This will open the selection of plugins and effects you can use. If you can’t find ReaEQ, type it into the search and ensure All Plugins is selected.

The view will be different for each person depending on what plugins they have downloaded.    

You will now have ReaEQ up. Let’s take a look at the features and how to EQ.

Bands

— Boosts

EQs work by modifying bands. In simple terms, your stereo system or guitar amp is likely to have three bands: bass, middle, and treble.  

These bands can be boosted to control the sound and add character. A bass boost normally adds weight to the sound; a mid boost will emphasise the vocals and melodies; a high boost will add brightness to the sound.  

ReaEQ doesn’t limit you to these fixed bands. You can have more bands or fewer if you so desire.  

In ReaEQ, you can adjust the frequencies that these bands cover and so have precise control over them.  

To adjust the frequency, you can either drag the band side to side, or you can use the frequency slider on the bottom panel.  

You can control the bandwidth of these bands too.

Commonly referred to as “Q” on other EQ plugins, this determines how narrow or broad the area is. By using Ctrl (CMD) + Mousewheel, you can fine-tune the bandwidth.

This is important because sometimes you only want to adjust a very small frequency range like boosting a single note ringing quieter than the rest.  

Other times you may want to edit a whole frequency span, such as boosting the bass frequencies to thicken up the sound.

— Cuts

Bands are not just able to boost frequencies, they can also reduce them. Mud is a common term for too much sound in the 200-250Hz region which can be cut to clean the sound up a little.  

Some rooms can make people’s voices sound nasal, so often a cut between 600-1200Hz (depending on the room, voice, and microphone) can help a lot.

One thing to note is that the best way to find the frequency which needs cutting is to set a band with a narrow bandwidth and boost it.  

Sweep this across all the frequencies and because it is boosted, the unpleasant frequencies will be very obvious. These are the frequencies which you need to cut.

— Combining Boosts & Cuts

Now you know the basics of the bands, you can do more advanced EQing. Sometimes you want to do a broad boost on a frequency range, but there are some frequencies within it which are problematic.  

Assuming you do a broad enough boost, you can make very narrow cuts where needed.

Right Clicking on Any Band Type

If you right click on a band (of any type) it will bring up a menu. This menu not only allows you to add and delete bands but also to flip the EQ curve and select a different band type.  

Flipping the EQ shape is useful if you want a complimentary EQ curve on another instrument.

Let’s say you have a guitar and vocal on separate tracks, you may want to boost the vocal at the richest frequencies.

You can copy that EQ to the guitar track and select “flip bands” and it will cut those same bands by the same amount to carve extra room for those vocal frequencies.

Filters

Filters are commonly used to select out the sounds you don’t want in a broader way than bands. The main types of filter are the LPF (low-pass filters) and the HPF (high-pass filters).

— Low Pass Filters

Low pass filters are names because they only let the low frequencies pass through. They are controlled by a frequency knob or slider and everything above that frequency is turned down.

The bandwidth of an LPF determines how steep the cutoff is.  

Gentle slopes allow the high end to still come through, but at decreasing volumes the higher the frequency.

Steep slopes mean that very little of the frequencies come through above the cutoff.

LPFs are useful for isolating the bass frequencies which can be good for sampling basslines or taking the harsh edge of low-frequency instruments.

They also mimic the muffling effect of walls and soft surfaces. If you apply an LPF to music it will sound like the pounding tunes you hear through your wall when your neighbours play loud music.

— High Pass Filters

Very similar to LPFs but working the opposite way. HPFs only allow the high frequencies above the selected frequency pass through.  

This is useful for mixing as often you don’t want low-frequency noise to muddy up your mix.

A guitar, for example, has its lowest note around the 70Hz mark if tuned normally. Any frequencies recorded below this are just noise and can be filtered out.

If you are a podcaster or recording your voice, you normally will use a HPF on your voice because there can be a lot of background noise at the lower frequencies which you don’t need.  

HPFs are used a lot in music production for cutting out the bass and thinning the sound, especially before a bass heavy drop, where the contrast before and after makes the bass sound even louder. Sweeping a HPF up in frequency can also give the song a rising effect, used in build-ups.  

HPFs are a great way of reducing the “pops” when you speak certain sounds into the mic. Sounds such as “p” can have a bad effect because of the blast of air rumbling the microphone cartridge. Put your hand in front of your mouth and say “pepper” and you will feel the “p”s blowing into your palm.  

These pops are mostly low frequencies and so they can be cancelled out by setting the HPF to a frequency lower than your speaking pitch but high enough to take most of the lows out.  

Many microphones, especially radio microphones, actually have a HPF built-in. It normally looks like a flat line on one side and a bent line on the other, representing the HPF curve cutting off the low frequencies.

— Combining HPFs, LPFs, and Bands

If you want to isolate certain instruments/voices, it can be useful to combine the three types we’ve covered so far.

Look at the frequencies you want and remove the rest. If you are trying to clean up a voice in a noisy environment, removing the lows and highs, and boosting the main voice frequency can give a cleaner result.  

One thing to look out for though is that there are normally background noises at the same frequency, so you do risk boosting them, even though you are cutting the rest.  

Think about recording an interview in a cafe, the main noise source will be other peoples’ voices, which are most likely in the same frequency range.

In this case, there is only so much you can do and perhaps finding a better place to record or closer microphone would be a better fix.

The EQ curve above could be used for an outdoor voice recording to cut background noise, or it could be a good curve for an instrument in the song which is a bit further back in the mix.

The more highs you take out, the further away it sounds so this wouldn’t be ideal for a lead guitar, but perhaps would work for a soft piano in the backing track.

— Shelves

Shelves are flat either above or below the frequency. A low shelf applies the same volume to everything below it. A high shelf will do the same but for the frequencies above.

These are great if you want to do a generic boost of the lows or highs, but they offer less control.  

The bandwidth affects the curve. A steep curve would be like a straight line up/down and then the rest of that frequency range is flat. A shallow curve would cover more frequencies before it flattens out.

Normally steep curves are more noticeable.

Shelves can be used to great effect if you want to boost the presence (high frequencies) of an instrument or voice.

Normally you only want to do a small boost because it can bring some nasty frequencies out alongside the desirable ones.  

Low shelves work well if you want a crude bass boost or want to turn the low frequencies down, but keep them intact all the way to the lowest notes.  

The main difference between shelves and filters is that the shelves don’t have a limit.

The higher or lower you go won’t matter because it doesn’t finally cut out.   A cool tip with the shelves is that they also sort of function like resonant HPF/LPFs when the gain is dragged to the bottom.

Adjust the bandwidth to adjust the resonant peak and it will somewhat mimic the popular synth filters with resonance controls.

More Filters

— Notch

Also known as a band-stop filter, this will cut out a frequency completely as well as the surrounding frequencies.

I’m not a big user of this type of filter as it is quite extreme – normally you only need to turn a frequency down by a little bit.  

It is useful if you have a constant, fixed frequency noise that is very loud in your mix.

Normally for this, you would want a narrow band so it doesn’t destroy the important frequencies around it.  

It can be very useful if used on synthetic sounds as it carves a huge hole in the selected frequency range and if automated, can create a cool effect.

— Band Pass

The bandpass filter is the opposite of the notch filter. It only lets through frequencies in the selected band.

It is similar to a HPF and an LPF next to each other. This is useful if you only want a narrow frequency selection and can create cool effects.  

If you are heavily mixing a lot of sounds in a track, this can be useful for very minor sounds which are in the background.

It prevents the other frequencies from clashing with the main elements.  

A useful application of the bandpass is to hear just what is in that frequency range.

While ReaEQ doesn’t have a solo option for each band, you can essentially solo a band by changing it to bandpass, finding the right frequency and then changing it back to the band type it was originally.  

It could also be used to isolate notes or drums.

Show Phase

This button (at the bottom) is not the most useful in 99% of cases.

Phase is, however, something important to consider. If you have two identical sounds out of phase, they can cancel each other out – potentially causing problems.  

Phase issues are normally apparent in drum recordings where the microphones above and below a drum are picking up the sound in different directions.

This is where you may want to consider the phase switch in Reaper (not part of ReaEQ itself).  

The way analogue filters work is by delaying certain frequencies so they cancel out or combine to cut or boost that range.

ReaEQ mimics this and so whenever you apply a band, it causes a phase shift.

You can see here that the phase shift is all over the place because there is some pretty extreme EQing going on.

Normally this wouldn’t have an effect but the “show phase” checkbox will point out where there could be a potential issue.

If you are advanced enough to hear a phase issue in your EQ that you want to be fixed, the band type called “All Pass” will help solve it.

It doesn’t do anything to the EQ curve but it switches up the phase and you can potentially solve any phasing issues with that.

Saving and Downloading Presets

If you work on the same material regularly, you don’t want to have to keep doing the same fixes each time.

ReaEQ allows you to save presets and name them. Of course, make sure you save them to an obvious folder.  

To save a preset, just click on the + button at the top of ReaEQ and select “Save preset”. Name it something obvious.  

You can also save a preset as default, which means it will load each time.

I have a default preset with a HPF at 20Hz, cutting out any frequency below it.

Everything below 20Hz is impossible to hear and most speakers can’t play it so it is unwanted sound that could take up headroom (you only have a limited amount of volume and if there is a loud sound at 15Hz then it could still overdrive the system even though we can’t hear it).

Once you have a selection of good presets, you can upload them to the Reaper Resources page for the community to use. You can also download other people’s presets for your own use.