How to EQ a Vocal - Behringer X32

EQing a vocal is one thing that can be tricky, in this video I teach you how I approach my EQ when it comes to a live vocalist on stage.
Join my X32 Fundamentals Course:
course.drewbrashler.com/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:27 Initial Listen
01:51 Thoughts when mixing Vocals
02:37 Using Low Cut with Vocals
05:43 Low EQ Band to Reduce Muddiness
08:48 Reduction of Midrange on Vocal
10:33 Adding in "Air" into a Vocal
13:31 Boosting of Mid-High Freq on a Vocal
16:04 Where the Air Boost does not work
19:28 Example Pre & Post EQ

[@johnwibbens4962]

Drew - Thanks so much for helping out those of us who are not "professionals" but still have the responsibility to do this job! It would be helpful for us if you produced an updated version of your "Case Study" with the newest X32 updates. We are trying to set up some scenes for a complete live band much like you original effort. 🙂

[@DrewBrashler]

My pleasure, John! I'll make sure to add that to the list!

[@ArmedSldier]

I have never read any instructions for behringer x32. All my knowledge comes from the experience I got while using the mixer. However, if it weren't for your films, all this knowledge of mine would just be an unorganized mess. Your films are outstanding - starting with a nice ambience, ending with relevant information. I will certainly recommend this playlist to any newcomer who comes to our venue. These tutorials are hands down the best on youtube!

[@rjcvdlinden]

one other EQ-trick for cut through vocals: subtract/scoop out mid-high 'gaps' in instrument channels (keys, lead guitar) that compete in that range. gives room to the vocals vs. the band. EQ is not just the channel itself, but the whole context of the mix.

[@joshuasilva9022]

Thanks for helping me understand on how to get vocals to sound so clean in a P&W mix. Please keep bringing more content like this on the Behringer X32 console, I really want to use/get one of these consoles, they just look really great to use haha

[@tomputc]

Very nice video on the x32 and mixing in general, thank you!

[@banogadjo2601]

Thanks a lot Drew for your tutorials. I'm using a X32 Rack for my gigs. All your courses are very precious for me.👍🏿👍🏿

[@DrewBrashler]

So glad they're helpful for you!

[@TL-wu4id]

Using EQ in live performance depends on the type of mic, speaker, room ambiance, speaker placement, and number of people around... many factors. Not an easy job! This video may only be good in studio. In live, feedback happens for sure if not careful 😅

[@original_pokey8896]

Another great video building on your previous ones. It’s good hearing the adjustments so I know how they can affect the sound. Give me more confidence to boost and not just cut

[@DrewBrashler]

That is awesome! I'm happy to help!

[@elestiloespecialoficial4938]

Great video Drew! I’m excited to learn the dynamics part

[@tumeloruiters3233]

You are extremely helpful brother, God Bless you and your family!!!

[@GSnypz]

God bless you Drew!👏

[@paulmorrey733]

Thanks Drew

[@gajdet]

Hi Drew! This video was quite informative. You threw me a curveball though. Up front, you mentioned the vocals should punch through to the front of the presentation. To me, it sounded like the instruments were on top. Then the reveal. The vocals needed compression! Excellent video!

[@solvesmith]

Thanks for the great work on this!!! Just helping out at our church soundboard and new to everything

[@majagesina]

Great explanations Drew - thanks!

[@DrewBrashler]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Schlotzinger]

Like always a good job! Thanks.

[@DrewBrashler]

Thank you!

[@ipyanadavid2633]

Thanks so much for this information about sound you make me feel like I am professional in sound. God blessing you

[@karlschihl6655]

Thank you very much

[@vlotos]

Nice song, perfect explanation. thanks so much. and let God bless you

[@tsarodavid9730]

Thank you

[@edtsch]

Thank you so much for this excellent advice! I will try these out next time I run sound at our church. I find some women's voices to be especially challenging and I'm glad you included one, although the singer in your example does not seem to have the nasal tone that I don't know how to improve. I believe these ideas will give me a good starting point, though!

[@timpadgett9512]

thanks for the detailed explanation. the repetition and speed you are explaining at are very helpful. 2 follow-up questions that are potentially touched on in other content. 1) what do the colors represent in the bars? does it match the channel labels, or are frequencies also represented by colors on the display? or something else? 2) is it possible to translate bad frequencies you are hearing in a room to the visual graph on the display? or is that something you more have to know what frequency you are hearing to supress it on the meter?

[@jasonalexander5253]

Great helpful Video Drew. Huge difference with your EQ changes. Could you please do a video on the de-sser as it doesn't seem to be as easy to use as a stock DAW de-sser. Thanx

[@DrewBrashler]

Thanks, Jason! I do have a (very old) video on that topic here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4Obi6qembaVgrM

[@pvalenti]

I'm not comfortable with a maxed out channel fader. In this circumstance I would add compression and make up gain to get the vocal to sit right in the mix at 0dbvu

[@gwillsmultimediatechsolutions]

Hi drew, thanks so much for this informations, it’s quite helpful 👍 I would love to have a video on how effective to apply gate on vocal😊

[@DrewBrashler]

Noted!

[@melhayes204]

​@@DrewBrashlerwhen is this coming?

[@kelvinhernandez4355]

Thank you for your tutoring!! I also want to know if there is a way desable auto save scenes.

[@olukunleemmanuel4790]

Hi Drew, Thank you for the great work you are doing, thank you for building our confidence. just one question, is there a default EQ for vocal, in a situation where you have different vocalist, do you have to keep tuning their mics every service. As this is difficult for beginner like us.

[@christopherborei1265]

Save the EQ setting for each vocalist as a preset in your X32 library...then you can pull each up at a moment's notice without all the extra work

[@kale-mp8dd]

Thanks a million!! How do you make that every channel should be a different instrument on a recording so after that you can mute the channels you want?

[@knighthospitaller5493]

Drew, I am interested in understanding why there is not a dedicated/separate Main Out, so that you don't lose two reg outs (#15 & #16). I can't find any videos showing multiple options for Main Out setups. Thx

[@waft101]

We have a kit of 12 handheld mics and lavaliers. The lavaliers match the handhelds so either can be used on a channel (not at the same time of course). Would I use scenes or channel presets to toggle between the eq for each?

[@randyhobbs1514]

When mixing for bass vocals, the really deep guys, is there additional equipment used to further enhance the low notes?

[@237311]

Useful video. I have an analog mixer with only 3 knobs (H, M, L) plus Stereo EQ, paired with a PreSunos compressor studio channel. How can I apply your settings with my current setup?

[@daveelliott1000]

Very helpful , although ……….. “I struggled through the garden , following a serpent” arghhhhhhhh

[@just.decide_platforms.]

Hello my using m32 in live show programs and I'm blog my lav mic in the inputs of the console my question is how remove the background noise like the voice of the people speaking and the hess sound and all unwanted sound from the presenter dialog sound when he speak in the show.... I need your help please answer me.. Thanks

[@KpTheFth]

hello, what`s song it is tell me please?

[@13thbunkerstudios]

Can you go 32 tracks out of the DAW into the x32 live and record your DAW for backup or summing purposes?

[@BRIGHTCHUKWUEMEKA-or8fy]

hey Drew have been following ur videos and i find them helpful am watching from Nigeria I wish u can make a video on how to setup ur sub bux thanks

[@christopherborei1265]

2 quick questions for this and all your X32 how to videos. 1) Are you using a multitrack recording of your praise team for these videos 2) How are you using the knobs and buttons on the right of the X32 to start/stop and fastforward/rewind that multitrack recording?

[@christopherborei1265]

I figured out how to setup the user knobs and buttons!

[@aza749]

@@christopherborei1265 very interested to learn how. Any video or something you can forward for doing this on Windows

[@JLDubs765]

How are you controlling the play of the music with the x32? It looks like you are hitting one of the assigned buttons?

[@immanueltetteh6232]

Thanks a lot #Drew ....I've been wanting to ask .what does the key filter in the compressor section do actually?

[@DrewBrashler]

The key filter in the compressor allows you to have the compressor focus in on only the sound you want it to listen to. For instance if you wanted to turn a compressor into a de-esser, you can roll the filters up to only listen to the high frequency information. Or if you were wanting to have the snare drum microphone only compress to the snare drum and not the hi-hat, you can lower the filter to not listen to the high frequency information which would help the compressor only hear the snare and not the hi-hat. Hope this helps!

[@donkeninitz4590]

In the "adding air" section, it sounds like the snare and hi-hat are bleeding into the mic. How much bleed do you usually accept?

[@f00kwhiteblackracismwarsh07]

It may sound like a stupid question but should i use compressor and EQ on the Master channel? I mean i already use a compressor and EQ on almost all Mic and Music Instruments input channels. Need i do more on the Master channel?

[@tonylancer7367]

Hey Drew, thanks for the video. Got a couple of Q's for you as an amateur mixer: - Is it necessary to purchase the same mics for a band to make them sound consistent? I don't have the budget to test different mics on people to see if their vocals shine through. - I'd love for you to do a newer video on gain stating, I know everything is supposed to be at it's loudest at -12 db (I don't know the scale), so I want to know is it okay if the fader is above unity to make the source louder (instead of interfering with gain)?

[@DrewBrashler]

Great question! NO you do not need all of your vocalists to be on the same microphone. You actually should be choosing the best microphone for the vocalist. There is a great website: microphone-data.com/ that you can find the frequency patterns of your microphones to help select the right mic for the vocalist. For instance, if you have a more bass heavy vocalist, you might select a microphone with a little less low end, so that you don't have to EQ as much bass out. Or if you had a vocalist that you wanted more consonants out of, you might select a condenser microphone with a high freq sensitivity. As for the gain staging, that is a great idea for a video, I'll start working on that. -18dBFS is the point that the X32 considers to be unity gain. dBFS means dB full scale. 0dBFS is the point where the X32 clips the channel and moves into distortion. So as long as you are setting your channels around the -18 to -15 point on the meters, that should be a consistent amount of gain for the musicians for IEM's/monitors and enough gain for you at FOH. Hope this helps!

[@junioraboagye7411]

Thank you sir much grateful

[@randyhobbs1514]

I'm still searching through the video library trying to find a specific video on setting up and tweaking a send. Our church records audio on a USB thumb drive. I'm new to the Behringer X32 and would like to know how to adjust the audio going to this thumb drive. I'm sure it's simple, just could use some help. Thanks.

[@DrewBrashler]

Hey Randy, I made this quick video for you answering your question: kzbin.infoPDT1t5bs90g?feature=share. Have a great weekend!

[@riyadhpilarte611]

Hello poh sir can you give me a true frequency EQ for the vocals

[@VagPoop_]

one eye on the band, one eye on the mixer.

[@sgriffin760]

So after you adj low cut shelf and set peq they all work together or do you have to be selected on the one you want

[@DrewBrashler]

You would be adjusting them one at a time, great question! You would want to select the band that you want to adjust.

[@davidraper5286]

I have some hearing loss , so I eq a lot with the RTA , so what does a perfect RTA look like and noticed yours is different colors could you explain

[@DrewBrashler]

Hey David! I just made a quick video for you explaining how to get the multi-colored RTA: kzbin.infoUgUSmd92OLU?feature=share. The 'perfect' RTA is one that is going to change from genre to genre and from instrument to instrument. But if you think about the frequencies that you should have, vs not have, you can still use the RTA as a baseline. For instance, I know that I don't want any vocal coming through my subwoofers, so I'm going to find the lowest frequency of the vocal and bring the low cut up to it as long as it is above 100Hz, I know I have dialed that in fairly close. But as a general rule of thumb for myself, if I am mixing in a loud environment, I am typically trying to reduce muddiness in the 200-300Hz range, and keep the high frequency from getting too brittle typically in the 4kHz and up. I hope this helps!

[@alfredpeprah]

Great video Drew! Could you also show how to EQ a vocal in a really large room with lots of echo Thanks

[@original_pokey8896]

Eq won’t fix this. You need to treat the room acoustically

[@DrewBrashler]

original_pokey is correct. I would suggest trying to treat the room or changing how the PA is configured to minimize the amount of energy on the reflective surfaces. A few quick fixes would be, looking at changing your microphones to have different pickup patterns to help reduce the amount of room noise. Having your vocalists keep their microphone 1-2 inches rather than 4-6 inches away also will help a lot! Hope this helps!

[@alfredpeprah]

@@DrewBrashler with treating the room, do you have any suggestion I could start with?

[@thomascordery7951]

An improvement, but what compression and EQ were on these vocals even before you started trying to fix them? I just hear the voices pumping and muffled. Didn't you want to go back in time to the tracking session to give someone a slap?

[@99Barnyard]

What tool are you using to feed the audio back into the X32? We have the ability to record the 32 channels with Reaper.

[@DrewBrashler]

I'm using the X-Live card, which allows me to record to an SD card and/or USB

[@original_pokey8896]

I use reaper. It’s great. Easy to do virtual sound checks with.

[@baron1c]

Hey drew, off topic but I am having an issue getting sound from my widows 11 PC to my x32 via USB. The PC seems to recognize the the board as X-USB. How ever no matter how I set up the routing, I cant get any sound out of it. Any thoughts?

[@DrewBrashler]

Hey, check out this post on Expansion Cards. Down at the bottom is routing info and that may get you on the right track: drewbrashler.com/2017/x32-expansion-cards/

[@baron1c]

@@DrewBrashler thank you. I will try the drivers on the PC first. I didnt think of that because it recognizes the card by name. Then I’ll re look at the routing. We have the latest firmware, this post appears to be from the older firmware. Os it still the same?

[@baron1c]

@@DrewBrashler we got it fixed. It was driver issues with the PC. Thanks for your post!

[@Anonymous99997]

I think the first thing I would have done is bump the gain in the vocals. They are lost in the mix before even starting because the gain structure is so out of whack.

[@bejoyful7]

Hi Drew, really appreciate your great video n detail explanation. My church worship team is experiencing similar vocal issue that you tried to fix in this video. our vocalists ( background or lead singer) sound kind of muddy. Since your demonstrations is based on a recording, will it work if we applies to our live worship? Any tips if there is variation in terms of adjustment compared with a live worship? Thanks so much n God bless.

[@jesterraj]

what bout if u have the old school mixers?

[@ayoung8901]

This is fantastic! Thanks Drew! We seem to have an issue with our pastors mic, we have to have his EQ turned down on all levels on his channel to keep from having a high pitch tingy noise. Would love to know how to fix that instance. Thanks again!

[@DrewBrashler]

Sounds frustrating! Have you given a different microphone a try to make sure that's not the issue?

[@arielyupit9736]

Who is they efect of they music? Hi from MX

[@arnoldjrprincipe609]

do you use bass on vocals

[@lowcivicman99]

What would you cost for you to come to my church and help with changes, updates and training our team?

[@dougtaylor5283]

how are you prerecording

[@JoshuaStormmusic]

Xcuse me but I think Gain is set at preamp, not fader.

[@joshuastromer9572]

Next song pls.

[@gabopenav]

I have a new channel to obsess over!!!

[@timgarrison5918]

I am hearing a bunch of compression on that vocal. Maybe its KZbin?

[@DrewBrashler]

Yeah, I have to do some limiting on the video before I upload it to KZbin to get it up to the required LUFS. But I'm sure YT also is doing a bit on their end. Thanks for watching!

[@MrSlavkadon]

Thank you very helpful video, but for beginners like me It would be nice if you had pictures or close up shots zoomed in of final eq to see numbers for each section explained to create preset and than go from vocal basic adjustments, or create tabs on each section of eq cause I need write them up and rewatching your training video many times takes forever, little pause with close up shot of eq numbers and knobs Thank you!

[@watsonsmicrocomputers9297]

The vocal was already compressed and processed with a gate by hardware.

[@fincaman2]

I'm 74 and I find that young soundmen have the vocals much lower in the mix than I do but then I learned sound in an era when vocalists could sing !!!

[@kurtcameron7562]

Yeah like Guns and Roses and AC/DC lol really great singers

[@mikecoughlin4128]

@@kurtcameron7562interesting choices. I would have picked different ones to illustrate that point. Steve Perry, Ronny James Dio, David Coverdale….

[@thomascordery7951]

Yes, pretty far back in the mix.

[@brandonmoss7976]

Exactly that's because this generation can't sing 😹

[@cityboichef]

Singers, especially Gospel vocalist are much better in todays generation then back in the days. Sound engineers have learned how to much music much better then the old school.

[@galaktika177]

Привет. Плохо что не на русском языке, приходится включать субтитры. У меня x32 полный.

[@jesse_cole]

If there's a god, there's no way he likes this music.

[@annabeeamputee]

Prove it

[@jesse_cole]

@@annabeeamputee Sure. I'll give you exactly as much proof of that as you can that God exists in the first place.

[@FatsFalafel]

This vocal clip on repeat is basically Chinese water torture

[@Twansen]

To me it sound like the singer needs some mic coaching, and/or a different mic.

[@chuksblessing655]

P

[@citybuks]

I’m here to learn what controls serve what function. Which you’ve done splendidly but permit me to say your eq for both vocals it’s just bad. Very nosy in my opinion and I could still here that muddynes creeping in 😮

[@kurtcameron7562]

The song is so bad I can't watch the tutorial

[@mikeking7351]

The vocalist has no business being in front of a microphone.

[@annabeeamputee]

I agree

[@nope24601]

Music was awful and the voice wasn't singing, but the information was great. As an aside, Church is not smoke and mirrors. Please, reconsider how you adore God and the tools that you use to do so.

[@soundcraftGB4]

Very bad