As audio engineers, we all know how frustrating it can be to listen to a recorded instrument and know something isn't quite right with the EQ. This gets progressively more annoying if we cannot quickly identify exactly what's going wrong and fix it! To make matters more complicated, we have it ingrained in our souls that we should only apply EQ in the "context of the mix," with everything else playing at full volume. While this is generally true, sonic information from the rest of the mix can make it tricky for us to hone in on what's happening with a particular instrument's EQ. Therefore, there truly is a time and a place to apply EQ in a "vacuum," so to speak, with an instrument or single track solo'd. Still, we must be careful not to overcompensate (which is likely when applying EQ in a vacuum) or adjust EQ parameters that would best be left untouched. Notice the Catch 22 here? Hey, at least you can take some comfort in the fact that ...
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