muddy vocals

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ILL_Smurph

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My vocals on my mixes have too much low end bass. I read that it was best to use a low and high pass filter to clean up vocals, but I don't really know what frequencys to use or how to do it in cool edit pro. Also, Would using a sterio amp with bookshelf speakers be good enough to record on a budget?
 
If I remember correctly, Cool Edit calls it a "FFT Filter". Select a chunk of just your voice and experiment with it (make a backup first). There's no set formula - people's voices vary in frequencies.

As far as the bookshelves go, you can use anything you want, but you're not going to be able to hear everything you need to hear correctly. If that's all you've got, go ahead and use it - don't let lack of equipment stop you. If you really get into recording, the time will come when you decide it's time for an upgrade.
 
You can use their graphic or parametric EQ and start cutting around 125 - 250hz.
 
I asked a similar question in the Cool Edit forum recently, and Scott Tansley talked about how useful the FFFT filter was for rolling off low or high end - it actually appears to roll off, whereas the parametric EQ applies a bell curve to a particular frequency, and depending on what Q you use, you don't know whether you're nailing all the frequencies you want to get rid of.
 
ILL_Smurph said:
My vocals on my mixes have too much low end bass.
Click to expand...

To much Low end and muddy vocals are two different things.
If its to much low end then roll off from 80Hz.
 
Right now, I use a fft filter for vocals, then some compression, then a tab bit of reverb. I think the fft filter works pretty well. However, I think I need to tweak the settings more so the vocals don't recieve too much of the lows.
 
The FFT Filter (Fast Fourier Transform) is in essense, an EQ. Instead of having Q levels to widen or narrow, you can just draw points where you want the levels to break off.

You might also want to look into a shareware EQ plugin for a more conventional EQ.
 
before you reach for the EQ

what type of microphone are you using, what pre-amp are you going through, and what are you recording to?

if you have it, do you have the rolloff switch on your microphone?

finally, and maybe most importantly when the vocalist is performing where is the microphone placed and how close is the vocalist.

i have found that i get really good clarity when i place the microphone so that its between eye and nose level and then angle it down to the mouth, then make the singer stand 6" away from the microphone for an 'in your face' sound and 18" or more away for a more natural vocal sound.
 
I do hip hop music. I have a Rode nt3, going to a akai sterio cassete deck mixer, and thats connected to my sb live.
 
what i use that does a GREAT job of 'airing' out my vocals is the PSP Vintage Warmer...it has a 2 band eq low and hi...usually u just need to add some highs from 10k-16k..some times u gotta subtract some low end too
 
I agree with crosstudio. If you can get the right sound from the outset, the better off your mix will be in the long run.

To be helpful, usually I try to cut when EQing insteading of boosting (the human ear is more forgiving to cut frequencies than boosted ones) but vocals is an exception for me. Try boosting a little at 5 kHz for clarity and 10 kHz for presence. It may be enough to do the trick.
 
try a bass roll off filter around 80-100hz. if that doesnt help, maybe find a specific bad area in the low mids and give it a little cut using EQ. that might help you out.
 
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