EQ Suggestions

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  • #45055
    Profile photo of Anonymous
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    EQ suggestions for vocal/drum mics? ((Audix f15’s for example)….Already tried the presets for mics on the mixer

    #45059
    Profile photo of dpdandpdan
    Participant

    I don’t have, and have not used the mics you mentioned but will share my 40 plus years of engineering tips.
    When you set up your system in a room that it has not been in before, I always suggest playing some music that you can listen to to make sure that it sounds good through the system. Once you have proved to yourself that your system sounds really nice,
    then you can listen to YOUR mics, I recommend always listening to each mic without any EQ or any other processing before messing it up with bad EQ and/or too much compression.

    It is usually a good idea to use a High Pass filter (passes highs/cuts lows) on vocal mics set to about 80 Hz. This will virtually eliminate the unwanted “popping” P’s B’s T’s etc. and will still yeild nice low end for male vocals.

    Drums all have varying “root” pitches, that is, the pitch that each one is tuned to.
    Obviously, if it is a mounted rack tom, you are probably not going to benefit from it being routed to the subwoofers,
    the floor tom on the other hand, (if it is tuned well and is a well made drum) will have a nice fat thump that would benefit from being routed to the subs. Remember though, The floor tom and kick drum are not the most important things in a good mix. Of course that last “opinion” is based on the music genre being mixed. The kick/bass drum definately should be routed to the subs but again the low end should not be overbearing, in my opinion, the level and fatness of the bass guitar should be equal to the kick drum. Another important thing to understand, is that while the floor tom, kick drum, bass guitar all produce mostly low frequencies, they are still deserving of full range frequency response. In other words, these sounds
    will almost always benefit from a boost of upper midrange to keep them from sounding muddy. The center frequency of this mid/high boost will usually be around 4,000 Hz – 6,000 Hz.

    I usually cut frequencies on hi-hat and overhead mics from about 800 Hz on down. A high pass filter works great for this. The genre of music being mixed is what will dictate whether or not we process these mics and instruments the same from gig to gig. If it is jazz or pop oriented music, I would probably want some frequencies lower than 800 Hz from the overhead cymbal mics to make the toms sound better.

    The fact that the Audix F15 is a condensor mic should provide you with nice crystal clear fidelity for any of the drums (except Kick). If it is used for a vocal mic, absolutely make sure it has a thick wind screen, condensor microphones are far more sensitive and susceptible to popping P’s compared to the dynamic variety. 🙂

    I have used virtually every conceivable mic on the market for bass drum and to me, the bset I have ever heard for live use is the Shure Beta 52A, it’s cheap and sounds good without the need of massive EQ.

    .02 🙂

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