How to EQ a female voic

[musicman7722]

Help Please

I have a very good female singer in my band and I am having the hardest time getting the eq to justify her voice.  We do mostly pop style music and I feel she has very good mike technique.  On a scale of 1-10 I would give her at least a 7.  He frequency range seems to  competing with two guitar players that are lound and proud.  Their quotes not mine.  I have tried both presets on the DL but both leave me satisfied.  Her voice seems to be thin with no real substance to it.

Can any of you pros out there help me with some generic advice when approaching a womans voice?

Many thanks.

Chris

[stevegarris]

My initial thoughts are that she has the wrong mic. I start my vocal channels flat, with a hpf rolled off at about 120 and below. Vocal mic's with proper room EQ should not be too far off, so fixing something like that with EQ might not happen.

Do you have some other mic's she could try?

[musicman7722]

All I have access to is a standard 58 and my senn E835.

[WK154]

How are you determining that her voice sounds thin? With room acoustics or just by solo thru headphones and no "loud and proud"guitars? Until you have a full sound or one she likes with that headphone method possible boosting at the mid to low end there is no point in throwing in the guitars. That's what other mics might provide for you but you don't need them. The Senn would be my pick. Then proceed with the guitars and blend them (see the Ah ha moment). Keep going until everyone is individually eq'd then combine with lead first and don't let the hot guitars take over. It's the old divide and conquer method and you need a dictator (FOH engineer) to make a good blend Ah ha let me guess these guys have their own amps and drowning her and the main system out. Teddy Roosevelt had a FOH policy for that, "speak softly and carry a big stick".

[WK154]

A note on presets. There not of much value unless you know what mic was used and what kind of voice your dealing with (lead, soprano, bass, tenor dynamic range etc.) female doesn't cut it. Channel eq's are for adjusting singer or instruments to the mic's nothing else. Main eq's are for dealing with room sound. Don't get the purpose of the two mixed (pun intended). David Rat (Levine) FOH engineer of Red Hot Chilly Peppers has a good series on mixing see youtube.

[CyberHippy]

My initial thought is that the "loud and proud" guitars are probably full of midrange tones. This is a very common issue with the search for a "fat" guitar tone.

You said: "Her voice seems to be thin with no real substance to it." - probably because the strong part of her voice is in a range that one or both of the guitarists has in their tone.

So, here's a process for you using channel-strip EQ's:

1. If you haven't already done so, sweep the hi-pass up until her voice gets really thin, then back it off until it sounds OK.

2. Work with the vocalist alone, boost a midrange tone and sweep it around while she sings, listening for the part of her voice that is really awesome. Also listen for any parts that suck. Boost the awesome and pull back on the suck. Narrow both down to the smallest Q that works.

3. After doing that, have her sing with one of the guitarists, then the other, to see if the problem is there with each one alone (or at all - the first two steps might help the situation).

4. If it's just one guitarist, work with them on their tone - the goal would be to have them dip out the part of their tone that matches up with the part of her voice that is "awesome"

5. If it's both guitarists, do the same with both of them. It doesn't hurt to do the same process with them that we did in step 2 with her - find their "awesome" and "suck" and boost & cut. Also, they should both be hi-passed more than they think. In fact, all instruments that are not kick or bass should be hi-passed until they suck, then backed off just enough to not suck.

Don't be surprised if one or both of the guitarists takes offense at this approach, it is really common for guitarists to think that "fat" tone requires a lot of bottom-end. If they refuse to work on tone with you, then they'll get what they get for a mix and nothing better.

[WK154]

Great step by step CyberHippy. I wasn't going to go into step six, the new guitar duo. Something to be said for team players in a band to get great sound. Recording from the audience location can usually convince the holdouts.

[musicman7722]

Had to give cyberhippy a kudos for those ides.
Chris

[CyberHippy]

Thanks guys, it's a process I go through any time I have enough time for a real sound-check. It's not just for voice, it works with all instruments - if you have time to go through pairings of instruments and sculpt their EQ's so you can hear each one distinctly you'll get the much-sought-after "wow, I can hear everything" compliment…

[WK154]

We always get the Rodney Dangerfield "We don't get No Respect" treatment when it comes to sound-check. What it doesn't work by itself. You need our valuable time, we have to practice. We just got here are you ready!

[Harpman]

CyberHippy, your right on the money there! I do the sound for my GF's band and she in a controlto. Her EQ sweet spot also extends to the low mids as well.  Also, two very competing instruments are the bass and kick drum. When you get those two in EQ'd, man what a difference.

[robbocurry]

Good advice CyberHippy!