VOCAL EQ SECRETS of the PRO’s

hey everyone cole capper in here thank you for stopping by for another video in my earlier years of producing and mixing music i saw some charts of some frequency charts that really helped me out and and helped me know what to look for helped me know what frequencies to adjust to accomplish a particular goal but today in this video i think we can actually beat these frequency charts and we're going to do a little bit more of an interactive style frequency chart in which you are going to hear uh all the different frequency ranges and exactly what they do as we boost and as we cut so by the end of this video you should have a much deeper understanding of how to eq vocals to accomplish the goal that you're actually after now today i will be actually recording these voice over vocals on my neumann tlm 67 this has become one of my favorite microphones that i have and so the entire voiceover that you'll be hearing will be done on this neumann tlm 67 and as always if you like anything you see or hear in this video there will be links in the description below to go check it out those links go to sweetwater i get all of my gear from sweetwater and have for many many years now sweetwater sponsors all of these videos and i very very much appreciate it so if you enjoy this style of content you want to support the channel i'd very much appreciate it if you use those links in the description and once you're on the site after clicking one of those links you can purchase anything you want not just the things that are listed there and it will really go a long ways to help support the channel and and help me keep making content just like this thank you so much to sweetwater for sponsoring this video it means a lot okay let's jump in and let's start taking a listen to these frequencies okay the first thing that i want to point out is that these are just suggestions for what different frequency points and how they affect a vocal i'm not suggesting that you should always cut or always boost any of these frequency ranges so the most important thing is to use your ears don't just boost or cut something because you like a result that you heard in this video because it's going to be different for every vocal that you worked on for the voice for the microphone for the signal chain for everything okay 100 hertz 100 hertz to me is the lowest end of warmth now i would usually high pass everything below 100 hertz but 100 hertz is what gives you that radio announcer voice that thick deep rumbly kind of thing when i go real deep in my voice here this is a hundred hertz that's really getting boosted right now now this also plays into the warmth of a vocal this is like the lowest frequency point of warmth so when you cut 100 hertz not only are you taking away that low end but you're also seemingly enhancing the upper mid range and the top end so every time you boost something you can boost just that frequency range but if you cut that something not only are you just taking it away but oftentimes you're giving the illusion that something else is being boosted because of the relationship between those frequencies now 200 hertz again is just warmth to me the more you boost 200 hertz the warmer the vocal is on almost everyone and the more you cut 200 hertz the less warm or sometimes the more harsh a vocal is now this is a little different based on the voice that you're working on uh high higher end male voices and most female voices don't have a lot of 100 hertz frequency range in them a lot not a lot of 100 hertz information in them and so 200 on a female or a high male voice is uh usually the point in which uh that's where the warmth and where the body lies now the next frequency range is 300 to 500 hertz in this frequency range is often where a vocal can sound kind of boxy and a little honky and like the room sound can really live in this in this frequency range and so this is not a frequency range that i do a lot with often but if a vocal does sound particularly boxy this frequency range can do a lot to tame that i will almost never boost this frequency range but i do cut this halfway off 600 hertz to 1k this is just kind of low mid-range to me there's not really any characteristic in this frequency range however uh this is just kind of low mid-range and sometimes this plays a little bit into warmth as well but if you boost uh this frequency range it can get a little boxy and it can get a little honky sounding but you don't want to cut too much of this out because this is where a lot of the body of the vocal lives now 1.5 to 2.5 k is to me where like the presence of a vocal is if you take you know let's say right in the middle let's say a 2k boost and you're listening to a vocal in a mix and you push 2k up that vocal will pop out through that mix but if there's not enough of this information then the vocal kind of can disappear in a mix but if there's too much of it then the vocal can sound really kind of nasally and honky sounding and so this is a frequency range that's extremely important in every vocal but there's not any right or wrong answers to boost or to cut sometimes you do nothing but this is a very important frequency range to pay attention to now 2.5 to 3.5 k is often where the nasaliness of a vocal is the sinus cavity of a vocal so if i boost that frequency range here you can hear how much more nasally my voice becomes and if you cut this you do lose presence but you also lose some of that nasal character and so this is a good example of what i was talking about between the last two frequency ranges here how they both kind of play into each other this is also the presence frequency range but more specifically like the nasally part of the presence of a vocal 4k maybe my least favorite frequency and when what i say least favorite what i mean is if there's too much 4k it never sounds good in my opinion now this is again a frequency range that is extremely important because our ears most people's ears are most sensitive to 4k reason why it's one of the most important because too little 4k takes away the intelligibility of the voice it is harder to hear what someone's saying and understand what they're saying if there's not enough 4k but if there's too much 4k it's harsh that's usually where the harshness of a vocal the piercing quality of a vocal is usually in that 4k range very important that you get this right however i'm not suggesting that you cut or boost but pay close attention to 4k in your vocal now for 6k this is kind of what i would consider like the clarity of a vocal uh does it sound clean and more intelligible this is less the the harsh piercing frequency like 4k was however uh if you want a more clear vocal boosting some 6k can sometimes do that and if a vocal is too harsh or too tinny or lacks warmth sometimes cutting some 6k along with 4k can really go a long ways to thicken a vocal up 7k to 10k to me is usually where the sibilance of a vocal lies this frequency range is almost always between 7 and 10k on almost every voice out there and so when you're taming sibilance this is usually the frequency range you want to pay the most amount of attention to but this also starts crossing over into the top end of a vocal now to me personally in addition to the 7 to 10k 10 to like 16k is really the the top end of a vocal this is where all of the like sizzle lives and where all of the top end lives we're not quite into air yet but we are the at the top end of the vocal and then finally like around 17k to around 20k is the air of a vocal now boosting like a high shelf at like 20k can really bring out the airy qualities the breathy qualities in a vocal and you want to play around with this because again all of these frequency points kind of overlap and so depending on the voice itself sometimes the vocal sometimes the airy quality of a vocal can be all the way down in like 14 or 15k but sometimes if you boost too much 14 or 15k a voice can sound kind of harsh and too sizzly so you always want to use your ears you always want to play around with this but this is a general guide of what i have found works really well for almost every voice and these are the frequency ranges that i pay attention to on every voice that i work on i really hope that this helped you train your ear and know what to look for and more importantly than that know how to accomplish the things that you're trying to accomplish i think one of the most important things in mixing is to have an end result in mind and not just be turning knobs searching for some magical end result you should know exactly what you're trying to accomplish before you start turning knobs and i hope that this video helped you make progress along your musical path and learning how to do that if you guys haven't yet don't forget to subscribe hit the like drop me a comment if you like the sound of this microphone if you want the fabfilter eq or any other piece of gear get the links in the description below we'll see you guys in the next one peace you

Channel: Colt Capperrune

Views: 592,943

Keywords: vocal, vocals, how to, mix, mixing, tutorial, rap, scream, pop, rock, country, music

Id: Wq1di2luMcs

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2022