What eq do you use for vocals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Big Kenny
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Sometimes I use the hi pass on my Portico preamp to roll out between 150-300 depending on whether its a main vocal or background or male/female, not always however. I try to get it right going in and tend to build everything around the main vocal. Not a great fan of EQing things after the fact on the primary vocal. The best EQ is the right mic in my experience and so I spend some time with the singer to obtain the best sound from the mic locker.

That said, on occassion, I will either drop the UAD Cambridge or Pultec on the track to get things under control or for special effects. Sometimes I EQ with a compressor just to get the color of the box or plug in. 1176 is good for a little edgy fattening or sometimes a DBX 160. You have to be careful to match the speed of the source with the speed characteristics of the compressor or things can go mushy. Overall I'm going for a little midrange push to pop the vocal out of the fray when using a compressor this way.

Most of my EQing goes on around carving other things around the primary image I track on the vocal.
 
What eq do you use for vocals?
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Whichever one it's asking for. Sometimes it's hardware, sometimes it's a plug...

Grab a UAD rig if you don't have one already... Between the Pultec, the Cambridge and the Precision EQ, there isn't too much you can't do.
 
I find myself using a de-esser more so than using an EQ. In fact, I hardly ever find the need the EQ vocals. If I do, it's very lightly.

Brandon
 
Well, i usually track with a light ratio of compression from the get go.

What else.......i high pass to 100-200hz depending on the singer.

Then i usually use the PTeqIII and trim out any offending fequencies.

I always do a steep lowpass to about14k.

At that point ill insert either Analog Channel 1, or waves Rvox...or both for compression.

Then ill set up 3 or 4 sends, and bus one to a verb, then another to a delay, and another to a crushing compresion setting, perhaps another to an eq that has the low pass swept to say 300hz for fattening things up, or ill go the other way and do a high pass send channel for added presence.

Also for reverb sometimes its nice to have one verb for reflections, and another all together for tails, you can get cool textures that way.

For death or screamy vox, i use dynamic mics. I usually track with a very heavy handed compressor, like a dbx. I actually WANT to hear the compression when i track heavy heavy vox.

This dosent mean its set at 10:1 though, its still only at 1:5 or 2:1 but with the threshold still dipping pretty deep into the signal.

Also when tracking these type of vocals its helpful when mixdown comes if you have double or triple tracked them.

Guess thats all i can think of right now.

EDIT> Ugh, im tired i just noticed the thread topic is What kind of "EQ" do you use. :o

I use ptIIIeq or UAD Cambridge.
Sorry about the ramble!
 
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i find a bit of low cut if it really needs it. Then dial in some air and 220hz for presence.
notch out around 2k if things get too squawky.
 
I try not to use any. When an acoustic guitar is present, I've boosted the vocal 1db at 2K and reduced the guitar there 1db, adding 1db at 800hz for the guitar and reducing 1db at 800hz in the vocal.

Sometimes I've also boosted the vocal slightly @ 10k for "air".

What do you do?
 
Big Kenny said:
That's pretty much it, what do you use?
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Kenny, has someone done the "Folgers challenge" and replaced you with Walters? Because i CAN tell a difference. :D :p


cheers,
wade
 
I was most interested in what gear was being used. Outboard gear. Not technique or compression , but what parametrics are getting the most use
 
Big Kenny said:
Whose Walters? (Not to be confused with Where's Waldo?)
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i cross-referenced a Gearslutz reference, as many of us do time in both places. do a search over there and prepare to be amazed. :D

Big Kenny said:
I was most interested in what gear was being used. Outboard gear. Not technique or compression , but what parametrics are getting the most use
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i know :D, and i can't help you aside from "i use the eq on my symetrix 528 quite often when tracking a vocal. it sounds very musical, and it's flexible enough to go from subtle to mangle and even on mangle, it still manages to sound good".

yes, i do eq on the way in (i compress on the way in too), and as i tend to track vocals last (and have already built the tracking/song around how i want it to sound), i can always manage tailor the eq to what'll work in the mix.

software-wise, i like the URS plugs a whole lot.


cheers,
wade
 
Kind of Newb slam eh? I can take it, I was just really curious as to what was being used. Hence forth , I will keep my questions to myself.
Eat Me!
 
When tracking, I never use any eq on the vocals. Why? Because there's always a chance that sometime later, the artist is gonna wanna fix one damn line in the song, and it's bad enough trying to just match the mic positioning and emotions and levels, let alone trying to get the chosen eq back again.
 
Big Kenny said:
Kind of Newb slam eh? I can take it, I was just really curious as to what was being used. Hence forth , I will keep my questions to myself.
Eat Me!
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good grief, kenny.....no need to get all mad and whatnot. i was just pokin a little fun. *sniffle*


cheers,
wade
 
Harvey Gerst said:
When tracking, I never use any eq on the vocals. Why? Because there's always a chance that sometime later, the artist is gonna wanna fix one damn line in the song, and it's bad enough trying to just match the mic positioning and emotions and levels, let alone trying to get the chosen eq back again.
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great point harvey. i don't track a lot of vocals for "clients" that come back for fixes--they tend to be pretty happy with the first round......and if they do come back, they tend to want to recut the whole vocal track anyway. i really don't do a lot comping for clients--none of them want to spend the $$ that it'd take to have me sitting there comping a track. most of the client work i do is "demo" style, for lack of a better phrase--guitar/vocals "live" type stuff, aimed at getting themselves gigs and making a couple dollars on the side having something to sell at said gigs.

on my own stuff, however, i take meticulous notes, so recalling a setting is pretty close most of the time. hell, really, though, i have a far harder time getting a decent performance out of myself in the first place......so eq is a lot lower on my list of things to worry about going in than getting a compelling vocal take. :D


cheers,
wade
 
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