Any Tips For EQing Background Vocals?

[BrookeBMitchell]

It needs a little de-essing, imo. I think I'm hearing a touch of Chinese Mic Syndrome, as well

I agree about the de-essing. What is Chinese-Mic Syndrome though?

[eliotpister1]

Many cheap (often Chinese-made) condensor mics have that brittle, thin-sounding high-end. I think that's what mojo's saying. I have 3 different low-end mics from MXL, and they all suffer this affliction. They're still useful, but don't stand up well as a vocal mic against my AKG 414 or even the ATM 4033 - which itself is well-known for a "sharp" hi-mid range.

Cheers, Eliot.

[mojobone]

Yeah, what Eliot said; I also have an MXL mic that exhibits this behavior. (still cool on certain things) Not all Chinese mics do it, though; the Gauge ECM-87s are Chinese, but hand-selected, (thank you Rob Chiarelli!) and often beat out way more expensive mics. (depending on the singer, more than anything) Certain kinds of tube processors/compressors can reduce the harshness considerably, and a really good hardware compressor can make a world of difference, cuz they tend to be less fussy to set up. Art's Pro VLA II is a really good and inexpensive one.

[BrookeBMitchell]

Many cheap (often Chinese-made) condensor mics have that brittle, thin-sounding high-end

Oh! I've been recording with a Rode NT1A condenser mic. I've been playing around with the vocals and it turned out to be my EQ setting combined with the reverb that was making it so brittle-sounding.