Any Tips For EQing Background Vocals?

[BrookeBMitchell]

I'm constantly having trouble getting my background vocals to sit just right in the mix. Does anyone have any tips for Eq-ing them in relation to the lead vocal? Thanks, --Brooke

[eeoo]

Usually for me panning is the key and that will change from song to song but I recommend experimenting with the stereo placement of your bg voxbefore you get to radical with eq.

eo

[jdhogg]

Try singing into the mic a lot further away than you usually do to create real depth.
This will contain the correct EQ or at least a good starting point.
This will cut a fair bit of the bass and a little top.

[mojobone]

Try singing into the mic a lot further away than you usually do to create real depth.
This will contain the correct EQ or at least a good starting point.
This will cut a fair bit of the bass and a little top.

That's great advice, particularly for 'natural' singers and harmony groups who work together often. Breathy, vintage close-miked vocal sounds don't "stack" very well; they have too much bass and low midrange, so that's where you make your EQ cuts. A great vocal group in a good room will mostly mix itself; I like a spaced pair of matched small-diaphragm omni condensers in a righteous room with a little ring to it, and I like to push the highs for some of that Beatlesque 'ear candy', but you have to be very careful how you go about doing that when recording digitally; you want the right mic preamp(s) and a very analogish EQ.

I like the Baxandall EQ on this. I find that a little analog preamp distortion can help the blend, yet make the whole thing stand out when used very sparingly and in layers. (sung layers, not digital copies) People try to use chorus and reverb to get this sound but they mostly fail, so I recommend getting your sound at the source and maybe saving that stuff, if necessary, for the mixdown. (it pays to do your channel distorting there, too, so you have a clean sound for a fallback; you jes want a little burn, not deep-fried extra crispy)

Monitoring for vocal groups is where things can get kinda sticky; it's a whole 'nother kettle of worms.

If you have harmony singers who don't work well together naturally, you might want to evaluate and treat each voice individually with different mics, EQ and compression, as described in this thread.

[eliotpister1]

Interesting question. I personally have always loved and sought to emulate the Mutt Lange bg vox sound. You know, the GIGANTIC wall of sound you hear on def leppard, shania twain, Bryan Adams, nickleback tracks. Here's the tequnique i've kinda developed over the years, and it seems to get me pretty close to that sound... Be warned though, this tends to sound loike your BG's just stepped out of the early 90's!

1. First off, every harmony is quadrupled. That means, if you have four part harmony, you're gobbling up 16 tracks! assuming the same person is performing all four, two of those tracks should be captured on a different mic/pre-amp combo, just to give a slightly different sonic flavor.

2. Auto-tune two of each set of four tracks. By leaving two alone, you get those subtle variations in pitch that give the overall sound some fatness.

3. Performance-wise, go easy on the consonants. T's, P's and s's start to pile up and become overly sibilant. The key here is not to have wonderful pronunciation, but to establish a 'pad'. Also, if it suits the subject matter and style of the song, sing a bit more 'breathy' than usual. It'll help add 'sheen' to the combined sound.

4. Panning: each set of four should be panned evenly across the stereo spectrum, but avoid going hard left or hard right. Let's say: 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%.

5. eq: pull about 4db out of 1k. This is where all these vocals really start to pile up and become grating to the ear. Pulling that range out opens up the overall sound. Adjust the rest of the spectrum to taste depending on what fits with the rest of your instrumentation.

6. Here's the special sauce: send all the BG's to a stereo bus and use BBE's Sonic Maximizer (or similar enhancer) on the overall submix of BG's this is where all the 'shine' really pops out!

7. Put your best, warmest-sounding tube-saturating compressor on the overall vocal mix.

8. Turn out the lights in your studio, hold a lit Zippo lighter in the air in one hand, while you pump your other fist in time. In other words, rock out because you're a big-timerock producer now!

Haha.

Cheers, Eliot.

[eliotpister1]

BTW, I know I took your question in a little bit different direction. I hope that's ok. If you're doing a little more of a subdued arrangement, mojo's tips are excellent.

[elser]

For that certain Mutt Lange or say 10CC sound I compress the crap out of em. Compressed while tracking and be careful of the plosives, and then submix and compress them again so that the sound file looks like a square caterpillar. Then eq them like a keyboard, look for those frequencies nobodies using, say 8-10K and some ambient room effect. I think that's the sound you're going for. Sort of detached so that no single voice takes over and fights with the lead vocal.

[elser]

On the other hand, if it's a single harmony make sure it's sung really well and stands up on it's own. Listen to Mick and Keith, or Big and Rich or Heart, when it almost sounds like 2 lead vocals. Try to get the sound you want in your imagination before you start singing and mixing.

HTH

[Kolstad]

Man some awesome advice in this thread! I would just dip 2-3 db in the best range of the lead vocal (where the lead shines), as well as using a high pass at around 250khz to pull off some low end (unless it's a bass part ). At rare occations boost the highs just a tad, depending on the mix. Really nothing out of the ordinary.

With examples folks could help you more, I'd say.. there are some reeeally cool studio cats hanging in here!

[BrookeBMitchell]

Wow! Thanks for all the great new things to try everyone. I can't wait to start experimenting....