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How to Boost Vocals on a Mixer

The goal of boosting vocals on a mixer is to highlight them, make them sound clear and allow the vocal tone to ring through without the mud often presented in poorly mixed music. Give the vocals the starring role in their optimum frequency range by eliminating all other sound. The frequencies with which various instruments resonate often overlap, which muddies the sound of all the sounds taking up space in the same frequency range. In other words, when instruments have to share frequency ranges, they end up fighting to be noticed. Use a parametric equalizer to assign vocals to their optimum frequency range and amplify, or boost, that frequency for greater sound clarity.

Things You'll Need

  • Mixer
  • Parametric equalizer
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Instructions

    • 1

      Connect a parametric equalizer to your mixer according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Assign a center frequency and frequency range to the vocal track. The center frequency is the frequency of the human voice that sounds clearest and most melodic to the human ear. Typically the frequency range for the human voice is 300Hz to 3000Hz, or the standard bandwidth of a telephone line. Choose a range within the 300Hz to 3000Hz range and dedicate it exclusively to vocals.

    • 2

      Set a high-pass filter on the parametric equalizer to cut off all sound below the chosen vocal frequency range.

    • 3

      Set a low-pass filter to cut off all sound above the chosen vocal frequency range.

    • 4

      Decide on the exact frequency mid-point for the vocals and amplify, or boost, that frequency to make it louder and give it prominence, taking care not to overdo it. Less is more where boosting frequency is concerned.

    • 5

      Mix in the rest of the instruments in the same way as the vocals, taking care to give each its own frequency range so that no instruments overlap each other or the vocals. Fine-tune as needed during the final, master mix.

Recording Music

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