Vocal EQ

[JD01]

Can someone give me a hand with the controls on this thing:

I'm using it to try and take some of the harsh whinenyness out of my voice, but I don't really know what I'm doing and its kind of descended into random knob twiddling to see if I can make something sound better.

First thing is - I don't know what the buttons do on the top. What is "EQ In" "PH" "HQ" and "PK" do these affect the way that the knobs work? Are they just on off buttons - I can sometimes here a difference with them but sometimes not, but that just might mean that there's nothing at that freq to be cut or boosted

I get what knobs are supposed to do, Hi Pass and Low Pass, then selecting various frequencies to cut or boost. I'm getting to know what's where in guitars, but I have no idea in vocals. Is there usual frequencies where a male vocal tends to lie which I can concentrate on?

So far it sounds like whiney is located at 7.2k and nice is located at 840. So I'm cutting and boosting in these areas respectively.

[Bubba]

"EQ in" is simply a defeat switch so you can easily compare what your EQing has done to the original signal.

"PH" is a phase invert switch.

"HQ" I believe alters the breadth of the frequency range that you're boosting, centred around the frequency you've chosen. A high Q makes the frequency range narrower, so your adjustments are more precise.

"PK" (I think) switches the way the whole thing behaves. A peaking EQ works like ReaEQ on the band setting, where your adjustments look like little mountains. or "peaks". Switching it out will make the EQ behave more like the shelving setting.


It's hard to give an answer to your other question. "Whiny" will be in the upper mids somewhere. In the 1k area rather than the 7k area, which is firmly in the treble section. So cut or boost in that section with a high Q and sweep the frequency around till you find where "whiny" is either accentuated or is minimised depending on whether you've boosted or cut.


After all that, ReaQ might be a better tool.

[JD01]

Awesome, cheers. This seems to be a pretty powerful tool already but I just don't know enough about how it works.

[Bubba]

Awesome, cheers. This seems to be a pretty powerful tool already but I just don't know enough about how it works.

No worries. I would always say use ReaEQ for this, but these analogue modelling EQs sometimes have a great sound of their own. My favourite EQ to give a great "sound" to stuff at the moment is the Soundtoys Sie-Q which was free on a deal from Focusrite.It sounds awesome on Drums, guitars, vocals.... everything. And very, very simple to use.

[JD01]

Awesome, cheers. This seems to be a pretty powerful tool already but I just don't know enough about how it works.

No worries. I would always say use ReaEQ for this, but these analogue modelling EQs sometimes have a great sound of their own. My favourite EQ to give a great "sound" to stuff at the moment is the Soundtoys Sie-Q which was free on a deal from Focusrite.It sounds awesome on Drums, guitars, vocals.... everything. And very, very simple to use.

Cool, I'll keep that in mind as its probably available for free for me if I log in to the website.

I'm being relatively carful not to drown myself in toys though and to keep working and practicing with what I have. Suppose its the balance between learning and having shiney new stuff for a quick fix. On balance, I think I need to practice more first as I'm still a total beginner with EQ, when I start to get a feel for what changes will have an effect and how I'll start looking into more EQs.

[Farview]

Depending on what your problem is, that might not be the right eq for the job. If you need to hone in on a specific frequency, and it doesn't happen to be one of the ones that you can switch to, there is nothing you can do about it.

This is a good eq for shaping a tone, but a bad eq for doing surgical fixes.

[rammer24]

Bubba nailed it. You'll probably never touch the "ph" button. "EQ" just bypasses it, and "PK" changes it from a shelf to a bell EQ. The rest is like any other EQ, selct the frequency and then boost or cut it.

[Greg_L]

Just use ReaEQ.

[rammer24]

Yeah, ReaEQ does everytihng. You can add as many bands as you need. Make them high-pass, low-pass, bell, shelf, etc....I don't see much reason to use anything else.

[Greg_L]

Yeah, ReaEQ does everytihng. You can add as many bands as you need. Make them high-pass, low-pass, bell, shelf, etc....I don't see much reason to use anything else.

Right. Unless you want the specific analog emulation of some famous old school analog EQ, there's no reason whatsoever to use any EQ except ReaEQ.

[rammer24]

Unless you want the specific analog emulation of some famous old school analog EQ,

Exactly. And even then, will you really hear that "analogness" just from an EQ on vocals? I don't know, my ears are probably not that good.

[Greg_L]

Exactly. And even then, will you really hear that "analogness" just from an EQ on vocals? I don't know, my ears are probably not that good.

Some of those old channel strip EQs had a "sound" to them, but does anyone actually care? Probably not.

[JD01]

Good point - I know how ReaEQ works too.

[miroslav]

Depending on what your problem is, that might not be the right eq for the job. If you need to hone in on a specific frequency, and it doesn't happen to be one of the ones that you can switch to, there is nothing you can do about it.

This is a good eq for shaping a tone, but a bad eq for doing surgical fixes.

Right.

I use my DAW's main EQ plug for most of the surgical shit...it's a 4-band parametric, and tthe low and high bands have 3 curves to pick from.
That's what I use on most of my tracks when I'm initially shaping/editing shit.
Then when I get to the actual mix time...I may add one of the more "broader". less surgical EQ's for overall tone shaping...like a Pultec sim, or I have the Maag EQs (soft and hard) which are more like you stereo EQ...wider, set slopes and bands that overlap....or I may use my console EQ when I run the DAW tracks through it.

The nice thing about some old-school, analog modeled ones is that they kinda have their predetermined "flavor"...shit you could probably dial in with one of many EQ plugs....but the fact that the flavor is already there, it just makes it easier/quicker...and you just add it to the chain, and either it works well on the track, or you try something else.