These are often found in the 200-400hz range of a vocal, although the exact frequency will greatly depend on the nature of the performer’s voice. Use your judgment, and more importantly, your ears.Īside from filtering, there are typically specific problem frequencies that may need additional adjustment. It’s not uncommon to filter out beyond that 90-100hz range, as I have several songs where I’ve filtered as high as 150hz, or as low as 30hz. By overcompensating with EQ and filtering, you may end up with a vocal that sounds thin and brittle. For that reason, you don’t want to overdo this part. Low frequencies may be responsible for muddiness, but they are also responsible for warmth and presence ( think: Barry White).

In solo mode, this may seem like a lot but when you put the vocal in context with the music, it should sound natural when paired back up with the bass-line of the instrumental. This will help reduce proximity effect and any boominess in the performer’s voice. The easiest way to use an EQ to fix muddy vocals is to use a low-cut filter and high-pass everything below a certain frequency, typically around 90-100Hz. Now that we understand what causes muddy vocals, we can take the next step of correcting this issue with one or more of the strategies outlined below.īecause muddy vocals are a frequency problem, it makes sense to reach for an EQ early in the process. This results in more muddiness and lack of clarity in the vocals overall. These vocals may be fine individually, but may emphasize the problematic lower frequencies as several of them are combined. Simply moving further away ( 5-7 inches) from the microphone can help prevent this problem in the first place.ĭepending on how a song is “designed” – it may feature dense pieces of the arrangement such as stacks of vocals and harmonies. If an artist is standing too close to the microphone, it may result in proximity effect – a change in the frequency response of the microphone resulting in an emphasis on lower frequencies.

Vocalist proximity to the microphone when recording.Many things can influence this build up of frequencies, including:

This will help you determine if you need to take corrective action on the individual vocal, or the entire group, or a combination of both. To correct the problem, you must first identify whether it’s happening on an individual track level or a group level – such as on a lead vocal or a group of vocals. Sometimes this is present in a single sound, such as a lead vocal, and other times it is only present when several sounds combine, such as a stack of harmonies or backgrounds. The main frequency problem area for muddy vocals. This is typically within the 100Hz to 400Hz frequency range, but could be higher and/or lower. Muddiness is often the result of a build-up of low and low-mid frequencies within a sound. The first question to answer is what causes muddiness in vocals in the first place?īy understanding what makes vocals sound muddy, we can figure out how we can make them sound cleaner and more professional.

Fl studio male vocal eq preset