VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Chris Ratliff · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:02 pm Post subject: How much EQ do YOU use?

Here's a discussion I haven't seen yet...
So I fracked my Symetrix processor today tweaking a different microphone. Yeah, I shoulda' wrote down my settings. But don't worry, I'll get my sweet spot back!
But it really got me wondering about EQ settings.
Who actually uses EQ on your microphone, or do you just shut that part of your chain off? Who uses EQ on your DAW? Or both? Or neither? I know producers add their own little sparkle, but how much do YOU use?

todd ellis · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:31 pm Post subject:

i don't use anything - 12 o'clock straight across the board.
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bobsouer · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:43 pm Post subject:

Chris,

Same here. Straight wire with gain is the goal in my simple chain.
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Lizden · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:16 pm Post subject:

What Todd & Bob said.
Yep, 12 o'clock for me too.
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Frank F · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:06 pm Post subject:

Zero EQ in this chain.

Adding EQ (or compression) to a VO track is counter-productive - unless YOU are the one doing post. A producer needs to mix the VO talent with other artists and music - they need to match closely with each other. When they do not match in volume, quality, EQ, etc. the post-production work becomes a nightmare.

Try this for yourself sometime. Take an un EQ'd track and a highly compressed track and an EQ'd track you have recorded. Add some soft background music or FX and listen to the results. I believe you will hear very loud parts where you need to turn the volume to your speakers down, very soft parts which result is the monitors being turned up, and nominal parts in which the results are less than stellar. I may be wrong, but it is an experiment worth duplicating.

Think of how your voiceover will mesh with all of the sounds and styles which will be presented in the final project. Then decide whether or not you want to add EQ or compression with your files.

Frank F
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Philip Banks · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:21 pm Post subject:

Gary Cooper setting here.

Ed Gambill · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:30 pm Post subject:

This subject brings me to this thought. When a VO is submitting a Demo, It seems logical to do some tweaking to the voice to stand out form the crowd. The reason is that many of the folks to select the VO talent don’t know how to produce audio for various usages. A very dry read next to a mildly produced Demo might not get the consideration the produced demo gets.

When providing a read to a production house a dry read should be the preferred way to go. And keeping the level at a point that gives the editor room to finesse the read is also important. NPR suggest levels a -6db level on audio delivered by out side vendor

Would it be prudent to let the Engineer/Editor know how EQ and Compression was utilized in the Demo so they can replicate the audio quality in the Demo?

I produce two radio programs that I deliver to a local station so I have the cart blanch to be creative with the sound to some degree. I am still looking for the magic sound.
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Bill Campbell · DC Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 621

As a producer, what I don't want to recieve is a lot of sibilance and
popped Ps. Both can be related to EQ.

As a VO talent, I use the right amount of EQ to make my voice sound it's best. Usually subtractive EQ. I use a 416 90% of the time and it requires no EQ, just an 80hz high pass filter for rumbles.
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Chris Ratliff · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:53 am Post subject:

Thanks for the advice guys (and gals)! I'm transitioning from 20 years of radio. I'm so used to being the producer on most recordings. Most of the local and regional stuff I do, I am the producer. So I'm not real familiar with how the "big boys and girls" do it. I have nailed a couple of nationals using my "sweet spot" EQ. Guess I'll have to get used to not using it, but I cringe when I hear it. Old habits are hard to break I guess.
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tackerman · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:57 am Post subject:

None here!

Philip Banks · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:49 am Post subject:

todd ellis · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:47 am Post subject:

captain54 · Lucky 700 Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 744 Location: chicago

Submission to a production house....voice totally dry

However, for auditions I found a preset in Logic that works pretty well for me...high pass filter around 40hz, and a 5db bump in the upper mids, mostly around 3500hz, -3db @ 500hz....seems to make the vo a bit more "present" without affect sibilance and pops too much..

Jason Bishop · Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:14 am Post subject:

It all comes down to knowing who the end user is.

I'm another proponent of the "wire with gain", no tweaks approach here...to a point.

When submitting audio to a production house/agency/producer, nothing is added/subtracted. (although interestingly, almost all say they pull out some bottom end). I do have one video production client who admits he has no clue about audio, so requests me to process the audio and so far no problems.

But when submitting audio to my elearning clients I always ask if any processing or mixing with music is happening downstream to which most of them reply "No, we're just marrying it to our slides/animation/video/etc",
So I offer example of clean vs. processed (mild compression, touch of corrective EQ) and everyone likes the processed versions.

When providing commercial reads for local cable provider, they want me to do some processing but not too much because all they do is drop it into the timeline, run it through one more ProTools preset that uses mild compression/limiting, then it's off to the playback server.

As for auditions, no EQ, but I do alternate between 2:1 compression at -15db with 2-3db of makeup gain....or I record clean, but limit my peaks above -6db while adding no more than 2-3db of additional gain to get to -3db.
Still figuring out which I like best.

I'm sure I muddied the waters even more!

Later,

Jason
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Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

Naked Voice to the producer on a project.
EQ for auditions.