152 seCtion 3 Recording Techniques ent instruments cover, or mask, each other. The best way to solve this issue is to use equalization to take away conflicting or masking frequencies. It is always better to take away more than add when using equalization. This is because of phase shifting that naturally occurs with EQ. Adding causes more phase shifting than taking away, so taking away is always better. You'll also find that subtractive EQ is more effective at fixing these masking problems. Basically, if you have a kick drum and a bass guitar that each sound great individually but when heard simultaneously sound kind of muddy, weak, and undefined, you probably have some frequencies masking each other. This is a very common problem because these two instruments have a similar frequency range. By subtracting some frequencies from one you will notice how those same frequencies pop out on the other. With these instruments in particular you might want to find one frequency to subtract on one and boost on the other, and vice versa, so that you basically have your kick drum living at one frequency and your bass living at another.