Need help with muddy vocals

[walterw]

walterw - I hope not.....

If I make it much louder - it will drive people out of the room.

that's not the idea!

the bigger, badder power amp isn't about getting louder, it's about sounding cleaner, bigger and deeper at the same volume.

a power amp that's cruising will sound better than one that's straining, even when the overall volume is the same.

 

[Frankjohnson]

Exactly - I think I am there for this venue -
At least I think so because i am out of money......AND it sounds REALLY good!

I see you are in VA Beach - I think Chris Duarte was supposed to play a place down your way Mar 21.......but the venue closed/is closing? Sorry to hear that - venues closing sucks.....on a positive note though - I am working with him that night at this venue. I will follow up on how some of the info I got here helps.

 

[walterw]

that would have to be the jewish mother, and yeah it's a sad thing, we have few venues of that "big club" size with real stage and top-notch PA like they had.

 

[73jbass]

I've been playing Steely Dans "Hey Nineteen" as a start point for tweaking the eq to the room. Generally,nothing on the eq is boosted,only cut. Right now there is some cut around 250hz,and 2.5 k. Rarely bumping up a low end slider just a bit. Since we only run vocals,kick and snare drum through the pa,it works really well. No feedback at all,and thats with her wandering around the room with her wireless mic.

 

[Joe Louvar]

My currently favorite method for tuning the room is to go the main middle mic and have the assistant raise my level up to very loud. This achieves 2 thins:
1. I can hear and reduce feedback from mains in a more than real life situation, giving me some peace of mind. It's a better approach then just ringing out speakers because I actually excite what might feed back, and I know better when to stop.
2. I can further hear artifacts and resonances around the stage and back from the hall, and all the muddy stuff. Since the mains are turned away from me it's actually listening with a LPF, which makes easier judgement.

After that I go to the sound post and listen to the system, not surprisingly I often have some high frequencies to take care of, while the low (but not lowest) end is taked care of.

Hmm, I see you're adding to an old zombie thread - cool.

Need help with muddy vocals

Okay - here's a few quick simple starter tips, after eq'ing the PA to the room: 1) start with the EQ flat. 2) cut freq.'s before adding. 3) usually you shouldn't need to boost or cut a freq. tons, otherwise try a different mic for that singer. 4) roll off the bottom below 100Hz, also if its boomy try cutting between around 250-350Hz, or cutting around 400-500Hz if boxy - of course this depends on many factors - IE, vocalist, mic used, the room, and etc, etc - but this should help get you started.

 

[Adam Harzuf]

I didn't notice at all - no idea why this thread appeared when I entered talkbass..

 

[Joe Louvar]

Oh Okay, thanks.

Maybe the TB software occasionally randomly bumps old threads.

Cheers

 

[Frankjohnson]

Good topic regardless. Glad it happened

 

[mellowinman]

I just got a dbx 231 eq. We practiced with it once and I did the recorded sound turning each fader till it sounded good for the room. Last night we had a gig and I was goimg through the process again to try to tune the room. An "old pro" came up and told me to do the smile thing and go from there. Next thing it was time to play and I didnt feel comfortable with the way things sounded. The bass was boomy, the mics were pickin up the drums adding more boominess and we wer told the vocals were muddy. I tried adjusting while we played but it was hard since I also play bass. Any tips to tune the room quickly? Start flat and then go from there? How do I keep the vocals from being muddy?

This was a bad idea in 2012, and it's a bad idea today.

Boost mids; listen with your ears, and adjust for what you are hearing. Keep the volume down to get your sound, and don't over amplify the room!

Then you don't have to fight feedback as much.