Frequency Masking

Frequency masking is a property of human hearing: when two sounds share the same part of the spectrum, the louder one raises your hearing threshold in that region and buries the quieter one. In a busy mix this is why a bass and a kick can fight in the low end, or a vocal seems to disappear behind a dense pad in the mids. The fix is to give each important element its own space — carving a small dip with EQ where a competing part lives, panning sounds apart in the stereo field, or arranging so key parts do not all peak at the same moment. Recognizing masking is the core skill behind a clear, balanced mix in which every element stays audible.