Too Much Bass or Low End in Recorded Voice / Vocals

Related Article: Recording Vocals, Proximity Effect

When recording vocals you generally want them to sound full, but in a mix that often results in getting too much bass / low end in the vocal track. The result is the vocal doesn’t sit very well in the mix, the mix is muddy, and the vocal clarity is lost. Too much bass in a vocal is one of the most common problems newer audio engineers run into, and tends to be the result of exclusively EQ’ing the vocal tracks while they’re solo’d during the early phases of the mix process. Solo’d vocals almost ALWAYS end up having more low frequencies in them than what they should for working on the overall mix.

It’s not just about EQing a vocal track, though. It can also be a matter of compression (depending on the type of compressor and settings, it can have a huge impact on the low end), and a matter microphone technique / placement. If you want to be a serious recording engineer or producer, you must be very good with recording, processing, and mixing vocal tracks, so here are some tips to prevent getting too much low end in your vocal recording.

First, you have to get and keep perspective while tracking and mixing vocals. As mentioned above, we all get into “solo” mode when setting levels, EQ, and compression on vocals, especially the lead. The result of that, however, is inevitably that you make your vocals too fat, too much bass and too big for working in the final mix.. The vocal sound might be great when solo’d, but that’s not the point of the track, is it? The point of a mix is to get all the instruments to sound good together, not all on their own, then throw them into a stereo field with your fingers crossed.

All recorded vocals are supposed to sound good within the full track: be part of the song, be part of the mix. Solo’ing is good for setting your recording levels, identifying signal chain problems, etc., but get into the habit of soloing less often when mixing. A little is fine, a lot causes you to lose perspective.

JT Taylor first threw this one at me. I thought everything was sounded “all good” on a mix, and then he walks in and instantly says to roll off some of the low end around 180Hz… as soon as I did the vocal sat perfectly in the mix. My problem at that time was too much solo’ing; plain and simple. My mind would wrap itself around how the vocal track sounded when solo’d, and then stuck with that when it was with the rest of the mix, rather than letting the vocal track be part of the mix. Through over-solo’ing I ended up focusing on the vocal track as an totally independent instrument, rather than trying part of the whole – and too much low end in the vocal is the most common result of not having that mix perspective.

What about when recording vocals? If you don’t know about the proximity effect yet, check it out. Good microphone technique, and audio engineers being able to coach vocalists what to do are both vital to have in the studio. Great engineers know a lot about good mic placement techniques and microphone theory for a reason. The proximity effect is like having someone aggressively whispering in your ear: is sounds like there’s a lot of bass because the intensity is high to the the sound source being very close to your ear drum. To decrease it: basically, back off the mic. If the singer is too close, you’ll get a big low end response from the mic while recording, so having them back off a few inches  will decrease the bass in the vocal. However, be careful, you do lose some presence, as well as get more room sound, so you need to ensure you’re using some gobo’s and/or have good placement and room treatment  so the reflections don’t become too noticeable in the mix.

Is the vocal already recorded? Try some Multi-band compression. Give it a go. There are plenty of free plugins at this point that might not be the best, but they’re free, and basically do the job. Even broadband compression will decrease the low frequencies as the compression amount (attenuation amount) increases. (…basically b/c of that who “how sound works” stuff, look into pink noise and look at some graphs to see the connection there.)

It’s possible (if already recorded) that there just isn’t any high end in the recording. Maybe there was some noise and they put a low-pass filter on it, of the A/D converter was terrible, so you don’t have much high end or presence around 5k without it sounding “whistly”, harsh, and nasty. If you have an analyzer plugin, use it! Don’t go nuts trying to bring out frequencies if they’re not there to begin with in the first place.

If you’re stuck having to mix a badly recorded vocal, then you can try a very subtle doubler or harmonizer to fabricate some higher frequencies. Sometimes a subtle reverb with short pre-delay and decay can help as well. However, any of these will have an impact on the vibe of the track, so if you cross any sort of creative threshold using effects to create some presence int the vocal, then just re-record the thing.