Vocal EQ Settings and Tips Inquiry from a Reader
I received an inquiry from a reader of this blog about vocal eq settings and tips:
“I just wanted to thank you for the tips on mixing vocals, guitar, drums and bass.I was having real troubles with the bass and vocals getting lost in the mix, and I was amazed how your EQ and compression settings cured that.
I noticed that the vocal really improves with the boosts you mentioned at 3khz and 15khz. I understand the 3k boost, because that is at the top of the vocal range, but how does the 15k boost work? It seems to help a lot.
thanks again,
Larry”
So I made a blog post to address this topic because this can be helpful for other readers also. First, it’s a great news, Larry made some significant progress in getting clarity for the bass and vocals mixing using EQ and compression settings discussed in this blog.
For those needing details, click here to read the detailed tips in mixing vocals with EQ and compression settings.
About his inquiry: “but how does the 15k boost work? It seems to help a lot.”; is also my question that comes to my mind 3 to 5 years ago. So how does the 15 Khz boost really work?
I will answer this question based on the observation and experience:
-Professional vocal recordings, recorded using high quality microphones such as Neuman U87 can capture “throat” aspect of the voice. This “throat” voice frequency plays a strong role in the highfrequency aspect of vocals (12Khz to around 15Khz). Although, I also observed that even cheaper modern microphones can also capture these frequency ranges very well.
If you listen to tracks done by modern recording artists, you will notice the “throaty” section plays a great role in the vocal quality especially in the high frequencies. It is one the reason why I will boost 15Khz to increase the “throatness” sound of the vocals. By boosting, the vocal will not sound dull but it helps the high frequency vocal range to shine, beneficial for vocalist with throaty voice such as Bono/U2. The result is a professionally sounding vocals.
It is amazing to know that you cannot hear this “throaty” section with a vocalist singing in front of you in acapella (without the aid of microphone). You will most likely hear only the 1KHz to 5Khz which are sensitive frequency ranges to human ears.
But with the use of high quality microphones; those that can faithfully capture the entire frequency range (20Hz to 20,000Hz), a mixing/recording engineer can take this advantage to explore the nice aspect of the vocals which you cannot notice in an acapella performance (those singing without a microphone).
It is why it is common in commercial pop recordings to have these “throat” aspect clearly exposed. It adds hi-fidelity, ambience and clarity of the vocals.To maximize the benefits, the vocal is boosted at 15Khz while the cymbals and other hi hats are boosted lower than this (for example like in the 10Khz to 12.5Khz range), this is done to avoid “mud” in the high frequency range and lets the vocal hi-freq to shine through as well as the drum hi-hats.
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October 22nd, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Hello i use reason 5.0 record duo and a behringer with tube ultra gain model t1953 and run it through a m audio mobile pre audio interface , i was wondering what what trim and frequency i should be using for my mic pre amp for hip hop and r&b production and as well as compression, attack , hold, release, ratio , threshold. do i run eq before dynamics or vise versa ? also on eqing what khz to i use on the lpf and what hz on the hpf ? khz and db on the hf , and the same for these hmf, lmf, and the lf this would be most helpful to a upncomming producer …… i know its alot but this it a up to date question for a reason record 5.0 user …..Thanks.
November 23rd, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Hi Pitbossmusic,
I do not apply any EQ in the mic-preamp during recording. This is to make the recording as flat as possible (without any effects to it).
The only time I need to apply EQ and compression is during mixing. For EQ tips, you can search it in this website depending on what musical instrument you are mixing.
For audio compression tips, you can start with http://www.audiorecording.me/audio-compression-tips-for-mixing.html.
About your other questions such as applying dynamics, or dealing with HPF/LPF filters,you can find it in the EQ guidelines discussed in this website (use the search button to search for info). Remember to only apply effects which you think can improve the song. Other technicalities, may not be necessary if you are happy with the mix.
In fact, the lesser the effects to the mix, the better.