FabFilter Pro-Q 4 Mastering Preset for Dance Music (Free Download)

If you make dance music and you want your masters to sound tight, clean and properly professional, this is the FabFilter Pro-Q 4 preset I've put together to get you there. After 30 years mastering records for major artists, a huge chunk of my work has been dance-based, and this preset reflects the EQ moves I actually reach for on the kind of dance tracks producers send me every week.

The preset covers the full frequency range with 8 targeted bands, from controlling sub bass and adding kick punch all the way up to opening the stereo top end. Each one solves a specific problem you'll run into on dance masters.

How to use this preset

A few important notes before you load it up:

• Don't use every band at once. They're surgical tools for specific problems.
• Listen from the bottom up. Get the low end right and the top end barely needs touching.
• Tight cuts, broad boosts. That's the rule for mastering EQ.
• Use your ears to set the final frequencies. The numbers below are starting points.

Now let's walk through each move.

1. Mono the low end (low cut on sides at 80Hz)

The first move tightens the low end by removing side information below 80Hz. On most dance tracks, the bass and kick sit dead centre, so anything wide down there is usually noise, phase issues, or material that will cause problems when the track is cut to vinyl or played on a club system.

Settings:

• Frequency: around 80Hz
• Filter type: low cut
• Stereo placement: sides only
• Slope: adjust to taste

The result is a cleaner, punchier low end. A lot of producers reach for a mono maker plugin for this, but doing it with an EQ gives you far more control over the exact crossover point and the slope.

2. Tame the sub (low shelf at 20Hz on the mids)

Sub bass build-up below 20Hz is invisible on most monitors but it eats up headroom and chokes your limiter later in the chain. A gentle low shelf at 20Hz on the mid signal removes that energy and lets everything downstream work harder.

Settings:

• Frequency: 20Hz
• Filter type: low shelf
• Stereo placement: mid
• Q: tighten slightly for a small lift around 40Hz

By tightening the Q on the shelf, you get a small bump just above the cut, which adds a touch of weight around 40Hz while still cleaning out the unusable sub. Compressors and limiters further down the chain will sound tighter and punchier because of this one move alone.

3. Punch up the kick (dynamic boost at 60Hz)

If the kick needs more thump, this dynamic EQ band lifts around 60Hz only when the kick hits. Because it's dynamic, you're not adding constant low-end energy, which would muddy the track and rob your limiter of headroom.

Settings:

• Frequency: around 60Hz
• Mode: dynamic
• Dynamic range: up to +2dB
• Direction: upward (only kicks in when the kick triggers it)

This gives you kick punch without paying the headroom cost of a static boost. Watch the spectrum analyser as the kick plays and you'll see the band lift on each hit.

4. Clear out the mud (dynamic cut at 160Hz)

Most dance tracks have a build-up of muddiness sitting just above the kick, around 160Hz. It's not quite low end, not quite low mid, and it clouds everything. A tight dynamic cut here clears that space without removing too much of the body.

Settings:

• Frequency: 160Hz
• Mode: dynamic
• Cut amount: around -0.5dB to -1dB
• Q: tight

The dynamic mode is important here. It means the cut sits at a fixed level most of the time but ducks down further when the track gets busy in that area. Static cuts in this region can hollow out the track. Dynamic ones don't.

5. Add weight in the low mids (dynamic boost at 240Hz)

This is a band I picked up from another engineer years ago and it works beautifully on dance music. A wide, gentle boost around 240Hz adds weight and feeling to the low mids, where so much of the emotional impact lives.

Settings:

• Frequency: around 240Hz
• Mode: dynamic
• Boost amount: subtle, around +0.5dB to +1dB
• Q: broad

The dynamic mode means it pushes in a little harder when the track needs it. Combined with the 160Hz dynamic cut, you carve out a clean space and then refill it with the right kind of weight.

6. Focus the middle (mid-only shelf at 1.7kHz)

This one is a bit of a magic trick. A subtle high shelf starting around 500Hz and lifting from 1.7kHz upward, applied to the mid channel only, pulls focus into the centre of the mix. Vocals, leads and anything sitting in the middle become more present without affecting the wide stereo elements.

Settings:

• Frequency: shelf from 500Hz lifting through 1.7kHz
• Stereo placement: mid only
• Gain: around +1dB
• Q: smooth, not steep

1dB is plenty here. This frequency area is powerful and any more will tip the track into harshness. The reason it works so well on dance music is that most productions have a lot of wide stereo information, which can pull the ear away from the focal point. This brings the centre back forward.

7. Smooth out the harshness (spectral cut at 5kHz to 8kHz)

Dance music often has edgy, sibilant content in the upper mids and lower top end. Cymbals, hi-hats, vocal sibilance, distorted synths. Rather than cutting a static notch and dulling the whole track, spectral mode on the Pro-Q 4 acts like an intelligent de-esser across a range, removing only the spiky bits that cause issues and leaving the rest alone.

Settings:

• Frequency: 5kHz to 8kHz (or higher for cymbal harshness)
• Mode: spectral
• Q: wide
• Cut amount: to taste

If you've used Soothe before, this works on the same principle. As harsh transients pass through, the EQ pulls them down dynamically. The result is smoother, more expensive-sounding top end without the dullness you'd get from a fixed cut.

8. Open the stereo top (dynamic boost on sides at 8kHz to 10kHz)

While the low end has been collapsed to mono, the top end gets opened up. A bell-shaped dynamic boost on the side channel only, around 8kHz to 10kHz, lifts wide elements in the top and adds air, movement and width to the master.

Settings:

• Frequency: 8kHz to 10kHz
• Stereo placement: sides only
• Mode: dynamic
• Boost: subtle, adjust to taste

The dynamic mode keeps things clean. It only lifts when there's actually content in the sides, so you don't pull up hiss or background noise during quieter sections. If you want the track even wider, push the static gain on this band up a touch as well. Combined with the mid-focus shelf at 1.7kHz, you get a beautiful contrast: a tight, focused middle and an open, lively top.

Putting it all together

The overall picture is a master with:

• A tight, mono low end
• Controlled sub
• A punchy kick
• Clean low mids without mud
• Weight where the feeling lives
• A focused, present centre
• Smooth, non-harsh upper mids
• A wide, airy top end

These 8 moves cover almost every problem I run into on dance masters. Load the preset, bypass everything, and only switch on the bands you actually need for the track in front of you. That's the difference between EQ as a problem-solver and EQ as a habit.