its_JOE! said:
iono what to do you guys make it seem impossible to figure it out and it seems like it would be easy. But i'm just gonna try my best if you like my music and wanna help me please do add me on msn messenger
mvops@hotmail.com or aim bjyesitsjoe I'm not gonna be in the studio till this summer cus of school and i'm on the other side of the country right now and need to figure out somethin portable shouldnt be hard @ all i just need to record vocals in a normal size bedroom. If i gotta set up mattresses to do it i'll do it but i need to know even how to do that the proper way...
Naw, it's not impossible to figure out, but it isn't easy either. People write whole books on this stuff, an internet forum will get you going in the right direction, but it's not going to answer all your questions. You have to understand that the guys with thousands of posts here have answered these questions 100 times, so it makes sense that they can be short with you or not want to get into it too deep.
Basically, equalization refers to tweaking various frequencies to enhance the sound of your music. To understand this, you'd need to see a chart of the frequency spectrum. When people refer to lows, mids, and highs, they are talking about this spectrum. The human ear can hear up to about 18 khz (khz = kilohertz) or 18000 hz, I think (that may be high, I'm going by memory and its been a long, long time) so anything beyond that isn't bothered with, and numbers towards that end of the spectrum are considered "highs". Bass frequencies fall into the lower end of the spectrum, something like 80-200 hz, they are considered "lows". Everything else falls somewhere in between, and is referred to as "mids". Vocals and snare drums, for example, fall into this range. There are also "high-mids" and "low-mids", when your mids are higher or lower in the frequency spectrum. These are just general, non-technical terms people use to make things easy. Play around with some EQ, any EQ, even something on a boombox or a cheap mixer, turn the knobs or flip the switches and you'll easily be able to tell what highs mids and lows are.
You'll still need to find an EQ plugin and figure out how to use it to get the bass out of your vocals, but at least now you have no excuse for not knowing what highs mids and lows are.
Also, don't discount the possibility of proximity effect, that has been mentioned here. It's extremely likely that that's part of what's causing the unwanted bass. A good way to combat this is to get a pop filter. Even if you're using a dynamic mic, it helps just to keep you a measured distance away from your mic. Don't want to shell out 20, even 100 bucks for a pop filter? Don't worry. Get some pantyhose (ask a ladyfriend, hope she doesn't ask too many questions) and a coat hanger. Bend the coat hanger so that you have one somewhat straight piece, and a circle at the end of it. Picture a bubble-wand, or just look at pictures of a real pop filter on the net. Wrap the pantyhose around the round part to your specifications, tie it off with twist-ties or elastic bands, and voila. A ghetto-ass pop filter. You're welcome.
