There are suggestions for every instrument. But they vary greatly on the sounds you select and most importantly on the combination of of instruments you are attempting to mix together. You need to begin to think about the sounds you hear in terms of the frequency ranges that are important to your music.

For example, what do you want from the kick drum?
Think about what occurs in slow motion... The mallet strikes the bass drum head with a loud Click, this is followed by a low Boom. Click-Boom. That Click is higher in frequency (pitch) than the low Boom of the drum. The click or 'snap' is accentuated by boosting 1.2kHz-1.5kHz, the Boom of the drum varies but is certainly below 200Hz. How much of each ? Total subjective and will vary by the type/style of the music. A disco/dance kick drum would be wrong in jazz, and vice versa.

How much of each? How can you know? ...try it. Try out your Equalizer. You have fully parametric EQs... This means you can dial in the Frequency (pitch), you can adjust the width or 'Q' (number of frequencies above and below the selected Frequency, and you can adjust the Gain (boost to cut).

If you were to analyze the loudness within the kick drum you would see natural high points in frequency in the low area and another in the 1.2kHz area... A natural valley forms in between. By pulling out (cutting) at 800Hz you increase this valley, meaning the Click and the Boom stand out more easily... Without boosting what occurs naturally.

So next what do you want from the ______ sound?
Analyze what you hear. Say you have a 'rhythm guitar' .... What's important in the rhythm guitar sound? What frequencies are important?

Knowing that lower frequencies are closer together is also important... It explains why we hear and like low chords less well than chords played higher in pitch.
Play an A Major chord starting with A55, play that same A Major chord starting with A440. There are only 55 cycles per second difference in the octave A55 - A110, while the distance between A440 and the next higher A880 is bigger thus we hear a chord in this range much clearer. More room, the higher the octave the more room... The higher you go the more intelligible the chords will sound.

High frequencies add clarity - this is where the harmonics are, as a musician you must start to apply your musical knowledge of pitches to your listening and particularly to the use of EQ. You intuitively know that chords sound clearer in the mid and upper ranges, and can be muddy in the lower range. "Muddy" is a word you hear all the time to describe an EQ solvable problem.

Harmonics occur in all musical tones. It is the relationship between the volumes of each harmonic that give each instrument its sound. Sounds based on sawtooth waves contain all harmonics. Sounds based on pulse waves have just the odd numbered harmonic. But the key thing to understand is when you boost or cut frequencies with your EQ you are changing the character of that instrument. Change it too much, it will become unrecognizable.

The pitch you strike is called the Fundamental.
The next harmonic is an Octave above the Fundamental
The next harmonic is a Fifth above that Octave
The next harmonic is a Fourth above that Fifth above (another Octave)
The next harmonic is a major Third above that previous note
The next harmonic is a minor third higher
The next harmonic is a second above
And so on.
Each higher harmonic, in most cases, are softer and softer and softer. But they add clarity. If you don't record those high (subtle) harmonics the sound is less and less intelligible.

Imagine talking to someone. They hear you and an all the frequencies in your voice. Now put a hand in front of your mouth. They still hear you but they hear the high frequencies (the upper harmonics) less well. You call this muffled, or dark. High frequencies are easily blocked and travel in a straight path. Lows spread out more quickly.

When you work the drawbar on an organ you are playing with the harmonic series. You are balancing the loudness of the various harmonics.

When a player picks up a Bugle it only plays the harmonic series. Think of any Bugle song, (Taps, Reveille, etc) the notes that a Bulge can hit follow strictly the harmonic series. It has no valves to create the tube lengths required to make the other pitches. In fact - the whole trumpet family of brass instruments follow this pitch map starting on the second harmonic...

That's a great musical trivia question, the Trumpet does not play the Fundamental, it's starts on the second harmonic (one octave higher than the Fundamental). I mention all of this to stress: just because high frequencies are not played directly, without their upper harmonics, the overall sound gets muffled and dark. High frequencies allow things to breathe. Gives them room, space to spread out. High frequencies add sparkle and intelligibility.

Look for an upcoming series of articles on Synth Basics - we will dig into the fundamental wave shapes and how they can be used to build different instrument sounds. It will help your basic understanding of frequencies and harmonics.

But please recognize that there are scores of books that outline instruments, their frequency ranges etc. they can give you a few EQ'ing gems to try, but at the end of the day, you cannot just plug in a bunch of tips. It's music! Your mileage always will vary.

Because you have chosen a different combination of instruments from the person giving you the tip, you have to adjust. Great story: back in the day 70s -80s, popular music and music recording had certain formulas for pop tunes. It's what defines an era. I've mentioned a few (like low content panned center because vinyl records would not track bass panned to one side, etc). Well, bass and drum sounds were heavily processed to achieve a low end punch. It was thought you could not have a hit record without a bass line.

Bass lines became protected property. When Anthony Jackson played the (unwritten) Bass line to "(For the Love of) Money, Money, Money". The producer asked him to just come up with something... Well it made the song a hit. From that point on, studio musicians became more aware that a Bass line could be the "hook" that makes the song. It was widely believed that a song could not be a hit without a definitive Bass line.

Enter Prince, and he still does it now and again, ... Puts out a hit song with no bass at all. And the thing is it's not really missed (well bass players miss it). He might just use a guitar riff to substitute for the bass. Point being: instruments play general roles within your composition. Any "rules" should not be in stone. You can carry the low end with a guitar riff and kick drum.

You have support instruments, lead instruments, bass or low end instruments, sweetening instruments, percussion instruments... Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to combine this unique ensemble (which can vary per song) into some that is interesting to listen to... Try anything, try everything. Good luck.

As always very informative!

BTW - I sat down the other night and listened to several of my favorite recordings in the way you described - one instrument at a time - all the way through.
A very revealing exercise. Amazing how many sounds do not even go all the way through a song.

I always used to listen carefully just learn the parts that I had to play - not for the mix.

Ah! If only I were 16...well better late than never! Ha!

Looking forward to the series on synth basics!

Blessings!

Gumby