Male Vocal Track too boomy/resonant around 200-250Hz

[Heckxx]

Hey All, I'm working on trying to mix vocals with one of my songs...for the longest time I've been focusing (rightfully so) on getting the vocal performance just right. However now I am noticing my vocal takes are really boomy and resonant around 200-250Hz. I tried to EQ it out but it's getting to be very extreme and affecting the overall tone. I'm wondering, do I need a different mic, does the performance need to be recorded differently?

 

I'm using an AT4050/CM5 condenser (in the cardioid setting), shure windscreen, singing about 6-10 inches away. I did some testing singing farther away, but still hearing that resonant a little bit. I tend to sing slightly to the side of the windscreen so it doesn't pick up any large pops.

 

Perhaps it's really not that bad and I'm just getting distracted with a little details.

 

Here is a demo/sample of the song below (this is before any real EQ was applied)

 

Thanks

-Jeff

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

Jeff, your link is just taking me to the main Soundcloud page, not to your song.

 

Have you tried setting up and doing some test tracking in a different spot in the room, or (better yet) a different room? What you're hearing could possibly be due to the acoustics of the room.

[Heckxx]

I'll try moving the mic around. I recently built a nice midi studio-mixing room with alot of fiberglass panels on the walls. Not sure what happened to that link, here is it again i hope:

 

https://soundcloud.com/jefftadashi/running-through-the-snow-demorough-2014-12-13

[WRGKMC]

I took a quick listen. I'm not hearing it as boomy, I'm hearing just the opposite, a lack of bottom end.

This points directly to a monitoring issue. What I'm also hearing is level issues between your parts. I hear a lack of 3d depth in the music. Everything sounds two dimensional like it was mixed on headphones. If you are mixing on headphones, its likely the cause of all your frequency issues, including the Boominess.

 

In Painting the artist learns to use light and shadows to create a sense of depth. In audio you use ambience, reverb and echo (all the same thing just different delay rates. A painter also uses size perception. Objects that are farther away are smaller then the things up front. This is done with EQ in audio. As a sound source is moved farther away it looses bass and treble and gains ambience, room reverb.

 

Frequency response, Musical performance, are excellent and there's no signs of major frequency masking. What you're having an issue with is everything is painted on a flat plane. It may sound great through headphones but vocals just don't take front stage because everything is front stage.

 

Even with a very dry mix, which is what I suspect you are wanting to achieve, you must include a certain amount of room sound to give front and rear stage presence. You'd likely use very short ambiences barely perceptible. These add those important shadows to the parts. The mix is nearly mono too. I'd take advantage of the stereo field and move some of those accent tracks away from the center a bit more so the vocals can dominate the center.

 

Right now, when I hear those claps they distract my attention from the vocal line completely and it takes a few seconds to lock back onto them. This should never occur (unless you're hiding a poor vocal performance and have to use smoke and mirrors) Its should be fairly hard to block vocals from your focus and hear the background stuff, and you have those two backwards.

 

Sometimes this is just your own bias when mixing and you over compensate to try and make everything heard up front. It doesn't work however. You have to face mixing with a non biased attitude and do what's best for the mix. You can add the occasional illusions but they must be done with slight of hand like a magician does. In this particular song I would keep the vocals up front.

 

If I only had vocals to mess with and bring them up front, I'd likely try the exciting compressor trick thay used on Motown Recordings. (except with allot less reverb) I'd likely copy the track, compress the hell out of one and add some mild reverb to the other. This would add some trail to the vocals to carry over the sharp stops and smooth over the other parts while the compression makes the words more intelligible. Don't know if it would work but I'd try it.

 

Overall, the recording is quite excellent, and you have some really good vocals happening. It just needs a proper mixing and mastering, and like I said, if you're using headphones to mix this you've gone about as far as you can using those. The rest needs to be done on good monitors in a good mixing environment.

 

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

[Heckxx]

Thanks for the feedback WRGKMC! actually I do my main mixing with a pair of Yamaha HS80M's. Upon listening to the mix posted above on other mediums (the headphones here that I sometimes use), I do notice that low-mid boom around 200-250Hz seems to disappear, so it may be something just with the position or tone from my monitors. I was seeing that peaking a bit on my frequency meters, which is why I was concerned.

 

I'm not sure yet if I want the overall feel to be dry or reverby, I've experimented with putting more reverb on the vocals (since this posted mix) and I seem to like it. -Jeff