“Mud” is preconceived as a bad thing. Mud is offensive frequencies. Otherwise the “mud” that people talk about is actually the body of the vocal. People cut to 200hz w a high pass filter/ low cut and think they are taking the mud out when in reality the body and resonance and power of the vocal lies in the 150-350 hz range. You just have to etch out what part you want and don’t want in the mixing process. It’s trial and error. Good luck to everybody who is learning! You can do it. Keep up the good work and stay curious.
It’s more about the context of the mix. The lower freqs may sound good on a set of vocals on the track itself, but could conflict with the prominent freqs of instruments such as bass guitar and kick drums which lead to the bad type of muddiness. The high pass is to leave room in the spectrum to let instruments in the low end stand out and give each part enough space for the entire mix to achieve clarity and cohesiveness.
I really appreciate how varied the music styles are in your tutorials. You're not just doing a ton of rap, electronic, or edm using almost exclusively midi instruments. A lot of people do and when I am at home recording real instruments and doing blues music, It doesn't feel like their tricks apply to what I'm doing. But it's nice seeing you use your tips and tricks on music of all sorts.
I was following this pretty well but was wishing you had done it with a graphical EQ so I could visualize it - and then you read my mind! Hugely helpful and clear. Thank you.
Recently applied these methods to some songs i've been doing. INSTANT improvement. I do rap vocals and these methods have brought so much clarity to my vocals.
Hey Graham...thanks for this tutorial and the nice song you chose for this tutorial. Nowadays one don't really find free valuable info like this everywhere unless you pay for it. I'm new to your video's but so far I just love every bit of it. Fairly simple to understand but very powerful end results. A million thumbs up for your tutorials. God bless your heart.
I agree! Very clear and easy to understand! I have just released a short little practical video on EQing vocals that I know you will find useful Jesse. You can check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/YN3Z99vKj9w/v-deo.html
I have tried learning from others. Patience and more research will help you find awesome teachers that really wants you to learn. They break it down to where your brain is not hurting to understand something so important but yet basic. I am loving everything I'm learning.
Good tips! another good tip too is to level the signal out with the makeup gain after you've made EQ adjustments. EQ of course is a volume tool and when turning up and down different frequencies, your overall signal is affected, so it's good to get a static mix of your whole track, and then when you make changes with EQ and compression, attenuate the levels with the makeup gain. 😄
10-4 Graham - you da man. I have been writing these guides etc. down on a sheet of paper so that I can print them out in one "guide" to look at when mixing. Later I may make this a sort of cheat sheet - color coded, who knows, to follow all the info you have provided. Thanks again.
This is helpful, because your very clear, but I can see how this may be difficult for many people to find useful. I don’t think you know how complex even the simplest things your saying are, a few weeks ago this would have gone right over my head. Don’t get me wrong I’m so thankful for your videos, they are educated and concise. I think there should be music elementary music school where there is ONE equalizer ONE compressor, only one of all main processors in the vocal chain etc. and they are big and colorful and easy haha where we learn the most basic fundamentals first before vids like this. I feel bad for all the overwhelmed souls out there who have to start out with nothing. Luckily there are awesome folks like you to pass on this rare knowledge.
Love all your very informative videos my friend. Their is so much subjectivity to creativity that I sometimes think we can get caught up with certain 'rules of thumb' kind of stuff. Things that "everyone'' seems to agree on as certain do's and don'ts. So many can't wait to get to an EQ and annihilate those nasty sub 100 hz frequencies. The dreaded 'low end rumble'. Sometimes i can't help thinking those frequencies which we 'feel' even more than hear actually are part of what makes the particular music 'feel' so good... I know when i go to a concert and hear that ultra low bass, way down in those sub 100 frequencies, that literally makes the entire room resonate, it is an awesome feeling! Obviously in most vocal arrangements we don't need those frequencies but in general, i do feel many engineers get carried away with the obsession to eliminate sub-100 hz... Just an opinion.....thanks again my friend!
Awesome Graham thanks my vocals sound better after twicking it better (followed the same steps in your older video but this one is more accurate). I wish you'd do a tutorial on how to make the chorus vocals differ from the verse vocal in the sense of them being fuller using backing vocals, the perfect reference is any Alter Bridge song that's the sound I'm going for.
Seems to me like you could also now add volume since you had a net loss of about 1.5 db or more after the 1.5 boost, -3 cut, and 100 hp filter. Or guess the compressor is going to take care of that?
Thanks for the video man, very useful reference. Can I ask, do you worry about putting the shelf on when this can boost the sibilance of the vocal too? I self produce my material and i find my sibilance occurs around 7kHz, I'm just wondering if you'd put the top shelf at 6kHz or do you combat that with a deesser later on or even first in the chain?
Hey Graham would you do a tutorial on how u make.. your videos.. ??. like how to Record your voice , screen and the music please..please... that would help so many of us.... because I've search and not many ppl have videos on this.. thanks God Bless
Thanks alot.. small moves yet great results. Just one question i see that you had a reverb in the vocal before the eq.. is this a good pracice? usually i do the eq and compression and then i add any other effects i want like delay or reverb.
This song has so much potential to have an incredible mix. With less treble on the snare and more low end on the kick this could be amazing. And then compression and final EQ on the master this would be sooooo nice. I love this man.
I learned a lot...i would like you to mentor me on the ssl 4000 E channel strip. Not sure whats gravitating me towards it, but i only want to learn that machine first
I would have loved to get those channel strip eqs from Waves, and maybe the DBX 160 compressor as well. Too bad, I won't be using Waves anymore after what they did.
important spots for the lead vocals: cut all about to 100 hz, cut a few db maybe at 140, and 200 hz ( use analyser to see where) for the verse could he different than the chorus, between 2 to 5 db, listen and use your ears to decide. During the mixing, engineers come back to lead vocal and fine tune one or db, it's a continuous process. vocals will take half the time of the entire mixing, probably. then you cut cut 1 or 2 db around 600-800 hz ( honkiness) to let the 1 k area shine more. ( they compete a little) you could boost at 1.6 k, but no more than 2 db, depends...on the voice, at 6 k, 12 k or 16 k ( I don't use more than 2 or 3, rarely 5 db) these are the important spots that many engineers focus on.
on the baking vocals you could cut gently starting at 5 or 6 k. you don't want those frequencies to compete with the lead, they will make too much build up of high frequencies and you also want the lead to remain in the front. and backings also need to be more compressed and have more reverb. this makes them sit right.
Please if someone knows answer this quickly need help now! Waves central does not detect my external harddrive by some cause (Waves support said it was because it had a different language as name) but i changed it to english letters so it would work. But stil no detection of my drive. Now my question is, do if i download it on another USB drive, do you need to have it in while using the plugins? Im on a laptop with a small amount of usb ports so that would not be good for me.. Ty for any kind of serious answer
Really didn't learn much but how important the Eq is when used correctly. But still, i appreciate the tutorial. Quick tip, i suggest you go deeper for the beginners. So we can further understand this topic. If you do have a video, please, reply with a link. Thanks buddy, once again, thanks for the lesson.
To my ears, the 8K shelf sounds a tad harsh. For a gentler, more natural sounding air boost, try using H-EQ with a band (Digital 2 type) set to 9KHz, Q set to 2.4 and Gain set to approximately .75dB
Good chain, but I preferred the bypassed version. It gave your vox more Girth. Thx for sharing you knowledge I wish I had you years ago. I read the Audio Bible many many times as well as Recording Mag maybe two articles worth the price of the Mag. Also Sound on Sound these younger guys have NO idea How Blessed They are to have you & others giving out Sound Advice no pun intended. Oh & the Interfaces & The computers are so much faster & cheaper…Great Mic's can be has for $200 & under. There are Free Plug in's That are even Old by todays standards but sport 64 bit floating point. The Thing is Should I make a Recording just because I can. Thats the Rub so much Garbage is out now. The Record days are over when ppl waited for an Album to drop… now you can get on line before it's Officially release. But I really like what you are doing. The thing about recording Hot is from when people were using 16 bit and the lower you trx are lowers the bit Rate, Thats why so many stuck to that workflow, but w/ 24 Bit there's Much more head room, Thus no Need to Peak the The Gain to Get ALL the Bit rate out of the trx.
Hey man, can you do a video of how to mix vocals in pro tools first? I’m having trouble making my vocals sound professional. I got a lot of great advice from your playlist that walks you through the whole mixing of a song but I would like more in depth on the vocals please. Some of these plug ins you have on pro tools aren’t on pro tools first. Thanks bro 🙌🏼
Just a question. Do you know of any EQ plugins that give you the precision of modern digital EQs without an EQ graph (just knobs)? All the EQs I know with just knobs are emulations of vintage gear and tend to be more about personality than precision.
8 років тому
+Damien Dubose TDR VOS SlickEQ has an optional display you can never open, and is super precise. It doesn't do narrow curves though (I never need narrow curves anyways)...
+Michael Maréchal From what I gathered he want to alter the frequencies of the voice as little as possible so he's going for smart moves: cutting off the unnecessary frequencies below 100Hz, adding come clarity by dimming the 400Hz-500Hz range, and adding some clarity by enhancing frequencies above 6kHz. Small moves (appart from the 100Hz, but there is no "real" frequency there), but huge wins.
Hey Rocc! Yes the video was excellent! If you are looking for a very practical way to EQ vocals, I just released a short little video that you can check out as I know it will be helpful to you! ua-cam.com/video/YN3Z99vKj9w/v-deo.html
►► Overwhelmed by all of the EQ techniques? Just download my FREE EQ Checklist → www.EQChecklist.com
“Mud” is preconceived as a bad thing. Mud is offensive frequencies. Otherwise the “mud” that people talk about is actually the body of the vocal. People cut to 200hz w a high pass filter/ low cut and think they are taking the mud out when in reality the body and resonance and power of the vocal lies in the 150-350 hz range. You just have to etch out what part you want and don’t want in the mixing process. It’s trial and error. Good luck to everybody who is learning! You can do it. Keep up the good work and stay curious.
Yep. You need more than basic terminology to produce a quality product.
Nailed it
It’s more about the context of the mix. The lower freqs may sound good on a set of vocals on the track itself, but could conflict with the prominent freqs of instruments such as bass guitar and kick drums which lead to the bad type of muddiness. The high pass is to leave room in the spectrum to let instruments in the low end stand out and give each part enough space for the entire mix to achieve clarity and cohesiveness.
It sure is a steep learning curve. Listening to some of my mixes from a few months ago makes me cringe 😂😂
Globin, are you not still learning?
I'm apart of the recording connection and I payed a $8,800 tuition. Your free videos are way more helpful than any of theirs.
CNettlesMusic wow... That's insane to know
CNettlesMusic *Paid
wow yeah really useful comment man great job. just keep watching videos dude your name is Vizore....Vizore.... you cant say anything
ouch! Sorry to hear that Buddy, don't give up on Graham, but I would ponder a refund request from the scam outfit
CNettlesMusic -but you get a certificate.....
I really appreciate how varied the music styles are in your tutorials. You're not just doing a ton of rap, electronic, or edm using almost exclusively midi instruments. A lot of people do and when I am at home recording real instruments and doing blues music, It doesn't feel like their tricks apply to what I'm doing.
But it's nice seeing you use your tips and tricks on music of all sorts.
I was following this pretty well but was wishing you had done it with a graphical EQ so I could visualize it - and then you read my mind! Hugely helpful and clear. Thank you.
Great tutorial Graham. Makes equalization of vocals easy to understand. Your other tutorials on mixing and mastering are excellent as well.
2:34 "i just love being able to grab a knob"
i'm so sorry
😂 I also looked at the comments
😂😂😂😂😂
Virtually 😬
That's what she said...
love how subtle it is. guess this is why one need a good mixing headset.
Recently applied these methods to some songs i've been doing. INSTANT improvement. I do rap vocals and these methods have brought so much clarity to my vocals.
That Guy on his pages
Thank you vocals always seem the hardest for me even the well recorded ones
Fantastic video. You do a great job explaining your methods of gently boosting the vocals.
Many, many thanks.
Hey Graham...thanks for this tutorial and the nice song you chose for this tutorial. Nowadays one don't really find free valuable info like this everywhere unless you pay for it. I'm new to your video's but so far I just love every bit of it. Fairly simple to understand but very powerful end results. A million thumbs up for your tutorials. God bless your heart.
Right on Graham! Thanks for making this so clear and easy to understand. Very appreciated!
I agree! Very clear and easy to understand! I have just released a short little practical video on EQing vocals that I know you will find useful Jesse. You can check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/YN3Z99vKj9w/v-deo.html
Great... Simple... EFFECTIVE!!!! Thank you!!!
Thank you so much! Much clarity for understanding this EQ stuff.
thank for the free 7 step EQ checklist man.
I have tried learning from others. Patience and more research will help you find awesome teachers that really wants you to learn. They break it down to where your brain is not hurting to understand something so important but yet basic. I am loving everything I'm learning.
this was great... as always you are appreciated Graham thank you
simple, practical, subtle, great!
Good tips! another good tip too is to level the signal out with the makeup gain after you've made EQ adjustments. EQ of course is a volume tool and when turning up and down different frequencies, your overall signal is affected, so it's good to get a static mix of your whole track, and then when you make changes with EQ and compression, attenuate the levels with the makeup gain. 😄
You have a fantastic voice!
Oh my gosh! The way you explained this was amazing and consise.
Alejandro Ortega he's a natural teacher.
Basically simple, but important!
Thank you!
Love your Tutorials...
Really great stuff here. Thank you so much for the information and inspiration. Namaste everyone.
Great demo
10-4 Graham - you da man. I have been writing these guides etc. down on a sheet of paper so that I can print them out in one "guide" to look at when mixing. Later I may make this a sort of cheat sheet - color coded, who knows, to follow all the info you have provided. Thanks again.
notice how he started with a great source, thats the most important thing !!
Great video, you helpped me so much! You're awesome!
This is helpful, because your very clear, but I can see how this may be difficult for many people to find useful. I don’t think you know how complex even the simplest things your saying are, a few weeks ago this would have gone right over my head. Don’t get me wrong I’m so thankful for your videos, they are educated and concise. I think there should be music elementary music school where there is ONE equalizer ONE compressor, only one of all main processors in the vocal chain etc. and they are big and colorful and easy haha where we learn the most basic fundamentals first before vids like this. I feel bad for all the overwhelmed souls out there who have to start out with nothing. Luckily there are awesome folks like you to pass on this rare knowledge.
This was very helpul. Do you have a video to EQ muddy voice like for podcast, interview etc - non sing vocals? Thank you!
Thank You Sir ...i understood more when u pull up that EQ7 that was very helpful...
Just jought everyone of Meldas plugins after demoing them.They changed my misic life.
Love all your very informative videos my friend. Their is so much subjectivity to creativity that I sometimes think we can get caught up with certain 'rules of thumb' kind of stuff. Things that "everyone'' seems to agree on as certain do's and don'ts. So many can't wait to get to an EQ and annihilate those nasty sub 100 hz frequencies. The dreaded 'low end rumble'. Sometimes i can't help thinking those frequencies which we 'feel' even more than hear actually are part of what makes the particular music 'feel' so good... I know when i go to a concert and hear that ultra low bass, way down in those sub 100 frequencies, that literally makes the entire room resonate, it is an awesome feeling! Obviously in most vocal arrangements we don't need those frequencies but in general, i do feel many engineers get carried away with the obsession to eliminate sub-100 hz... Just an opinion.....thanks again my friend!
This was a game changer. Big thanks!
Nice moves! Not much was needed, but boy did it make a difference! ;) Thanks for the video.
Awesome Graham thanks my vocals sound better after twicking it better (followed the same steps in your older video but this one is more accurate). I wish you'd do a tutorial on how to make the chorus vocals differ from the verse vocal in the sense of them being fuller using backing vocals, the perfect reference is any Alter Bridge song that's the sound I'm going for.
Great stuff, Graham Thanks!
Great video, thank you for sharing your knowledge. Your channel should have one of those ticks next to it to affirm its quality.
THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH MAN SERIOUSLY MAY THE LORD BLESS YOUR HOUSE DURING THIS TIME!
Thank you, quite helpful
Seems to me like you could also now add volume since you had a net loss of about 1.5 db or more after the 1.5 boost, -3 cut, and 100 hp filter. Or guess the compressor is going to take care of that?
Great vid, i am learning so much from you.
Thank you!
Thanks for the video man, very useful reference. Can I ask, do you worry about putting the shelf on when this can boost the sibilance of the vocal too? I self produce my material and i find my sibilance occurs around 7kHz, I'm just wondering if you'd put the top shelf at 6kHz or do you combat that with a deesser later on or even first in the chain?
thanks great presentation
That’s a wonderful song.
most excellent ------ thanks
Hey Graham would you do a tutorial on how u make.. your videos.. ??. like how to Record your voice , screen and the music please..please... that would help so many of us.... because I've search and not many ppl have videos on this.. thanks God Bless
Thanks alot.. small moves yet great results.
Just one question i see that you had a reverb in the vocal before the eq.. is this a good pracice? usually i do the eq and compression and then i add any other effects i want like delay or reverb.
um. channel out first on the bottom right. then hit split on the frequency band. otherwise, the chain will start with compression? am i wrong?
Awesome stuff
This song has so much potential to have an incredible mix. With less treble on the snare and more low end on the kick this could be amazing. And then compression and final EQ on the master this would be sooooo nice. I love this man.
great video. thankyou
very nice thanks
Keep up the good work Graham
very helpful please do more and more
helpful thank you!
Well done
API 560 is my favourite EQ plugin
I prefer that EQ also.
NE H Eqp1-A PLUGIN IS MINE
Softube's Trident A-Range is great!!!
really awesome
Awesome
Thanks man!
I learned a lot...i would like you to mentor me on the ssl 4000 E channel strip. Not sure whats gravitating me towards it, but i only want to learn that machine first
I would have loved to get those channel strip eqs from Waves, and maybe the DBX 160 compressor as well. Too bad, I won't be using Waves anymore after what they did.
thank you
Thank you Sir.
Nice! What reverb you use for the vocal track?
really great result
important spots for the lead vocals: cut all about to 100 hz, cut a few db maybe at 140, and 200 hz ( use analyser to see where) for the verse could he different than the chorus, between 2 to 5 db, listen and use your ears to decide. During the mixing, engineers come back to lead vocal and fine tune one or db, it's a continuous process. vocals will take half the time of the entire mixing, probably. then you cut cut 1 or 2 db around 600-800 hz ( honkiness) to let the 1 k area shine more. ( they compete a little) you could boost at 1.6 k, but no more than 2 db, depends...on the voice, at 6 k, 12 k or 16 k ( I don't use more than 2 or 3, rarely 5 db) these are the important spots that many engineers focus on.
on the baking vocals you could cut gently starting at 5 or 6 k. you don't want those frequencies to compete with the lead, they will make too much build up of high frequencies and you also want the lead to remain in the front. and backings also need to be more compressed and have more reverb. this makes them sit right.
Great sharing. Tq
Yo Question! How would i create that crisp distortion on the vocals like John Feldmann uses in alot of his newer mixes?
Thats great❤
Thanks Graham ....that good !!
Hello! What pre amp and mic do you use for voiceover in this video? Sound good!
You have a serious knack for teaching bro, congrats.
Please if someone knows answer this quickly need help now!
Waves central does not detect my external harddrive by some cause (Waves support said it was because it had a different language as name) but i changed it to english letters so it would work. But stil no detection of my drive. Now my question is, do if i download it on another USB drive, do you need to have it in while using the plugins? Im on a laptop with a small amount of usb ports so that would not be good for me.. Ty for any kind of serious answer
Really didn't learn much but how important the Eq is when used correctly. But still, i appreciate the tutorial. Quick tip, i suggest you go deeper for the beginners. So we can further understand this topic. If you do have a video, please, reply with a link. Thanks buddy, once again, thanks for the lesson.
Is there any auto-tuning on those vocals? They sound great but it seems like there's a bit of Autotune shiftiness on it.
Thanks 👍 lot
Hi, is there a difference between the mono and stereo modes of the E-Channel? If so, when do know which one to use? Thanks
I have dbx 376 mic pre amp & ssl2 sound card. How can i use both in chain to record vocals?
I love this ved
To my ears, the 8K shelf sounds a tad harsh. For a gentler, more natural sounding air boost, try using H-EQ with a band (Digital 2 type) set to 9KHz, Q set to 2.4 and Gain set to approximately .75dB
Is it ok to use This plug in as mic pre amp. ( means during Recording )?
Good chain, but I preferred the bypassed version. It gave your vox more Girth. Thx for sharing you knowledge I wish I had you years ago. I read the Audio Bible many many times as well as Recording Mag maybe two articles worth the price of the Mag. Also Sound on Sound these younger guys have NO idea How Blessed They are to have you & others giving out Sound Advice no pun intended. Oh & the Interfaces & The computers are so much faster & cheaper…Great Mic's can be has for $200 & under. There are Free Plug in's That are even Old by todays standards but sport 64 bit floating point. The Thing is Should I make a Recording just because I can. Thats the Rub so much Garbage is out now. The Record days are over when ppl waited for an Album to drop… now you can get on line before it's Officially release. But I really like what you are doing. The thing about recording Hot is from when people were using 16 bit and the lower you trx are lowers the bit Rate, Thats why so many stuck to that workflow, but w/ 24 Bit there's Much more head room, Thus no Need to Peak the The Gain to Get ALL the Bit rate out of the trx.
stop using dumb words
Hey man, can you do a video of how to mix vocals in pro tools first? I’m having trouble making my vocals sound professional. I got a lot of great advice from your playlist that walks you through the whole mixing of a song but I would like more in depth on the vocals please. Some of these plug ins you have on pro tools aren’t on pro tools first. Thanks bro 🙌🏼
SSL AND CLA together are awesome
yes they really are :)
Just a question. Do you know of any EQ plugins that give you the precision of modern digital EQs without an EQ graph (just knobs)? All the EQs I know with just knobs are emulations of vintage gear and tend to be more about personality than precision.
+Damien Dubose TDR VOS SlickEQ has an optional display you can never open, and is super precise. It doesn't do narrow curves though (I never need narrow curves anyways)...
Question so if your using auto tune which goes first ssl on first or the autotune ??
thx bro
Does the SSL E Channel sound better than a stock EQ like this? Debating on whether to pull the trigger on buying one.
Do you have to use a Linear Phase EQ when using a Hi Pass cut? Isn't there potential phase shifting when not using a Linear EQ?
Thanks
I only have a Yahama piano that I can sing with the piano and write a music notebook from Ez Voice because I love singing.
Thanks Graham for this video.
I don't see you touching the LM and HM freq, is there a reason?
thanks again.
+Michael Maréchal From what I gathered he want to alter the frequencies of the voice as little as possible so he's going for smart moves: cutting off the unnecessary frequencies below 100Hz, adding come clarity by dimming the 400Hz-500Hz range, and adding some clarity by enhancing frequencies above 6kHz. Small moves (appart from the 100Hz, but there is no "real" frequency there), but huge wins.
suggestion give more emphasis on the plug in names , for the rest great and appreciated.
I'm having issues with my computer's CPU setting for protools. Low CPU issues on playback and recording. How can I adjust my protools settings?
Use Reaper. It's better in every way, in fact it's the best in every way, and not just the fastest but also free.
Was there a reverb plugin on the vocals? Or was that just the room it was recorded in?
+EvilleMonkey definitely reverb plugin
+EvilleMonkey The send says Delay, delay/reverb will make a vocal sound pushed back in the mix too
excellent
Hey Rocc! Yes the video was excellent! If you are looking for a very practical way to EQ vocals, I just released a short little video that you can check out as I know it will be helpful to you! ua-cam.com/video/YN3Z99vKj9w/v-deo.html