where is my high frequencies? Only hollow low end sound!

[solanova]

I'm still relatively naive to home recording even after three years of experimenting and learning. I've upgraded my equipment a bit, but I still have a MAJOR problem. My recordings come out clean, but when I look at a spectrum analysis, I'm lacking all the high frequencies. I've tried tweaking my guitar and mixer's equalizers to all treble and I still get no high frequencies. The result is a hollow sound, very bassy. To give you some background, I play my guitar into my Behringer mixer which runs into my DMAN PCI-audio card. I've tried everything and I can't figure out if it is my recording setup or if I am just mixing wrong. Am I just limited by shoddy equipment? I don't think so because I've heard recordings from $10 tape recorders on my computer and they have plenty of high frequencies (albeit with lots of distortion). I've spent years getting my recordings clean and proper, but I can't seem to solve my frequency problems. If you want a listen, check out my website: www.angelfire.com/jazz/kclemmons/webpage.html
If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong (it's probably something simple), then please let me know. Again, I know my equipment is far from studio quality, but I should at least be able to get high frequencies from my 44khz sound card.
BTW, the "spectrum analysis" I refer to is the running graph shown in my MP3 player, Fantomax. All the proffesional recordings I listen to have an evenly (or almost evenly, depending on the mix) distribution of frequency response. Thanks in advance!

 

[chessrock]

What you're experiencing is a phenomenon called "proximity effect," and it's what happens when you mic something too closely.

When you mic an accoustic guitar, for example, you should try backing the mic off maybe a foot or maybe even three. You should also try pointing the mic at the 12th fret as you play -- not at the sound hole.

There are also mics available that have bass-cut switches on them that help combat this sort of thing.

As for using equalizers, you need to look for a parametric equalizer with shelving. This will allow you to set a "low shelf" frequency that will basically let you bring everything down below a given frequency in a uniform fashion. Similarly, the hi-shelf will allow you to bring everything above a given frequency up.

Good luck.