4 Magic Frequencies for Mixing Vocals

all right mixing vocals now I know every singer is unique and every voice is different but when it comes to EQ vocals in the mix there are certain spots in the frequency range that pretty much work every time in every song with every singer so in this video I'll show you exactly where to start when it comes to boosting with EQ on your vocals and generally I don't cut with EQ when I'm mixing vocals but there is one problem area that you might want to watch out for I'm going to show you these EQ Moves In Action in a session so let's Dive In everybody here is the way now I'm just gonna get rid of the plugin I'm using for EQ so we can start over now the first frequency you want to look at boosting is 8k with a shelf let's check that out so it's starting to sound better already in just a few seconds now this 8K range with boosting with the Shelf this is that radio ready polish and brightness that we're used to hearing now if you find yourself boosting 8K if it sounds a little harsh or a little hard on certain vocals you could try boosting at 10 or 12K with the Shelf instead but it's going to be a little more Airy and less present but 95 of the time I'm just boosting 8K and I'm not afraid to use a lot of it all right the second place you want to look at boosting is about 4.5 k believe that life is this frequency range is more for the intelligibility of the vocal that definition trying to make the words and the consonants really pop so you'll hear just with those two quick moves starting to come out and be more up front now but we still need more mid-range to help this cut through the mix and stay right up front now the process for this is to start around 1K do a nice boost and then start moving around between one and two and a half K and find the spot where the vocal just starts to jump out of the mix everybody here is away from them okay so I'm finding right there around 1.7 K it's starting to pop out of the mix a little bit it's sounding a little more upfront without being too harsh so let's dial that in everybody here is foreign [Music] now after boosting that frequency I feel like we need a little more brightness still everybody here now with this one to 2.5 k boost every voice is different this is really the area that that changes more from mix to mix and voice to voice but generally the more aggressive the mixes the more heavy the band is the more of this one to 2.5 k area you're going to need in the mix and that's a tip you can apply across the board in your mixes if you want something to be up front and poke out of the mix well the frequency range you want to look at boosting is around 1.5 to 2 2.5 k with any instrument that's The Upfront frequency please make sure that you're doing these EQ moves in the context of the mix not in Solo because if you're doing it in Solo then you're not going to find the right frequencies that help it contrast and stick out of the mix and also you're probably not gonna push them far enough and if you want to make sure you remember all these frequencies I'm talking about in this video I do have a free mixing cheat sheet that I made for you it's at mixcheatsheet.com it's got all the go-to starting points listed out there for mixing vocals and also for all the other instruments in the mix as well so just go to mixcheatsheet.com if you want to grab that all right at this point notice that I haven't made any Cuts with EQ on the vocal yet and contrary to what a lot of other people will tell you I almost never cut with EQ on a vocal track it's something that I used to do a lot I try to find the nasty resonant frequencies in the mid-range and stuff and then I dip them out but what I would find is I wouldn't have anything left I would take away all of the magic of the vocal and so if you grab any cue and start sweeping a narrow boost around the mid-range and cutting out any frequencies that jump out well what will actually happen is you'll remove everything that is actually unique about that vocal so I'd rather just leave those mid-range frequencies alone maintain the character of the vocal and instead just add more of these high mid frequencies and high end frequencies to get it to cut through the mix and make it bright enough now with that said there are rare occasions where I will make a small cut in the low end which is almost always a low shelf dip around 200 Hertz so let me show the vocal so you can hear this everybody here is running away from themselves believing [Applause] so that's an example of where in solo that little dip actually sounded nice I kind of cleaned up and clarified the top end got rid of some of that low-end woofiness but in the context of the mix I think it's actually too thin now so I would leave that in everybody here is believe I wanted to show you that though because sometimes there is too much low end and woofiness and low end buildup in the vocal and I find that just putting a low shelf at around 200 Hertz and knocking it down like one to three DB will clean that right up but I only do that after I try boosting these other frequencies because you don't want to go thinning out your vocal if you don't need to maybe you just needed some more brightness and top end all right here's our vocal after these EQ moves now everybody here is away just believe now this song also has some screen vocals and I'll show you really quick that I'm using the exact same frequencies on those so we've got 8K around 4K this time we ended up at 2K for that mid-range boost and then we are actually dipping out some low end here at 200 on this screen [Applause] sounds like the guy was right up on the mic so we have that proximity effect that we dip out [Applause] just to prove to you that these magic frequencies will work on almost any vocal let me show you this on a completely different style of song here it is with the EQ totally zeroed out [Music] there's the AK don't be shy [Music] [Music] voila check out this before and after [Music] all right so there's your magic starting points for EQ vocals remember starting with an 8K boost with the Shelf then going down to 4.5 k for that definition in the vocal than to help it cut through the mix and stay up front you want to boost between 1 and 2.5 k and if after all that the vocal is still a bit Woofy and boomy then you can use a low shelf around 200 Hertz and clear it up with a dip around 1 to 3 DB all of these frequencies are written down for you on my mixing cheat sheet which you can grab at mixcheat cheat sheet.com and one last thing I want to reiterate is that you want to make these EQ moves into a compressor and also after you've added all this top end you're gonna need to do some de-essing and a few other moves to get this vocal sitting properly in the mix so if you want to learn how to properly follow up this vocal EQ with Dynamic control in the mix click here and check out this next video

Channel: Hardcore Music Studio

Views: 97,580

Keywords: jordan valeriote, hardcore music studio, home studio mixing, how to mix vocals, how to mix vocals in pro tools, metal production, mixing hard rock vocals, mixing metal vocals, mixing music, mixing pop rock vocals, mixing punk rock vocals, mixing vocals, mixing vocals in pro tools, mixing vocals in pro tools 2022, mixing vocals rock, vocal mixing, vocal mixing tips, vocal mixing tips and tricks, vocal mixing eq, mixing vocals eq tips, best eq for mixing vocals

Id: 2XSYC4lNgIM

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 01 2022