EQ on Vocals ?????????

[beatzbybuddy]

I have a home production studio and use a Mackie 24/8 Board with sweepable EQ. My two artist are a female and a male and record vocals every day.

My question is, what should I set the EQ at for their vocals on the mackie? I record into cool edit pro, but want to know the best frequencies for their vocals. Can you guys help me out???

Thx....... DW

 

[dacalion]

If I were you, I would try both just to see which way it sounds better...I've seen the same situation go both ways so do a sample take using your mixer and then try it using your software. I have found that using external vocal equalization works best for me though.

good luck and let us know which way you go.

--dac

 

[nobodyfamous]

yeah...you really just have to play with it and see what sounds good, vocals are more versitile then instruments, no one voice is the same, so just play around, you will figure it out! good luck

 

[light]

you definately have to play around. thats the nature of the beast in music. but there is some theory.
i am pretty amature so you should maybe get some more responses from other pros.

i give a boost at round 4.8-5.0khz to add presence. i try to give a boost of about 2db at 5khz then swing my frequency range while listening to the vocals both solo'd and with the backing tracks to get the frequency right. then, after i figure out the frequencey, ill go back and adjust the amount of boost using both solo and with the backing trax again. and lots of time ill go back and tweak the frequency again.
I use a single band eq for that.

That would be mostlikly for the lead vocals.
then with backups you will probably want to take out some of the low end round 200hz that way if you layer it thick you wont get muddyness.

Try taking out some from a bunch of different freq, for each backup or dub track. for example take some from 180hz on the first one then 200hz on another then 210hz for another. and so on.

with that technique you can usually turn get a little more sound into the mix without cluttering the frequency range.

I look at eq'ing in the sense of removing clutter from the mix. most people are into boosting this and boosting that. but dont forget about attenuation. its very important.

Another thing to keep in mind is only make adjustment when your mix NEEDS it. not just cause. you want to make a boost round 4.8khz if your vocals are sounding a bit flat and NeeD more presence. you want to get rid of some from the 200khz range if your track has a really bassy feel and you want to have your vocals to ride at a higher frequency. you might want to even take out way more lows with a low pass filter or somthing. but only if your mix sounds like it needs it.

you can do other things for example if you have a female vocalist, record the leads with flat eq then a complete dub with lows eq'd out, then another complete dub with all the hi's eq'd out. then mix from there. doing things like that is a little more experimental but hella fun. from that sense its all adlib...

sorry im rambling but mixing for me is one of my favorite parts
peace out

 

[bigdmakintrax]

DRY, Good levels no clipping, no FX consistent distance for the singers......save.....then......Try all of the things you might think, always save your original and then experiment with the mix that's the only way to learn and get a technique down......micing vocals is just like beat production you have to find what works, get feedback and work with some people that might know a lil more and read...thats all I can tell you

 

[beatzbybuddy]

Ok, have a female who sings and raps... My question is what should I se the bandwidth at? The Highs and lows?? If I can get that, Ill work with it!

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Do you use a pop filter or a foam cover? I have had singers both male and female....the key to a good take is a good mic check off the top....then once you do that use it as a reference. ....after you record the vocals then you can mess around with the vocals after you record them, you might wan to compress the vocals, if you eq the vocals do it before compression, if you have a mic that picks up low end db then roll off the low end without (take some of the bass out) making it sound unnatural, if the singer has a low end range you might want to keep it....compression usually takes care of any of the vocals....you can use eq a lil bit...if you got a shiddy mic that is muffled or doesn't have good range you got a lot of work to do to fix that with fx.......doo doo microphone= doo doo vocals......

 

[Architect]

Try to get a good sounding vocal take so you don't have to do too much EQing, once you start playing with the EQ on vocals you can end up making the vocals sound totally different than what the singer actually sounds like. Flat good presence and maybe adding some compression or reverb if needed is good. Shoot for the natural sound of the singer as opposed to overprocessing them. I treat the EQ as a tool to either fix something in the mix, make an instrument louder or softer and or totally changing how it sounds possibly so it doesn't clash with a similar instrument. So my advice is find out what sounds good for your singer and or rappers and do it right the first time, so you don't have to tweak too much later on the vocals. My 2 cent.