Can't hear yourself in the PA system? Well this can be sometime because everything is crowding the frequencies.
Just as a guitarist is expected to understand how their amplifier and pedal settings work, singers should have a basic understanding of how a PA system works. The more you understand where a voice sits in the sonic spectrum, the more clarity you'll find for your voice, which can help improve your recordings and live sound.
Consult the PA Systems and Audio Lingo page for vocabulary assistance.
Some general tips for EQing a voice:
- ☆ In general, a voice sits between 1- 5 K.
- ☆ The warmth/muddiness of one's voice tends to sit the 200 K.
- ☆ The sibilance/breathiness/airiness for men tends to be in the 8-10K range, 5K for women.
- ☆ Gain Staging: Is a fundamental idea from mixing instruments. Use GAIN to bring up the volume first, then adjust the faders. Not the other way around. See Will for examples.
- ☆ Use headphones into a mixer if possible, this will show you what you actually sound like. The channel may actually be distorted from too much volume. So in general, if you see RED on a board, you're going the wrong way.
- ☆ Try to imagine removing frequencies rather than adding to them. What can you remove that will create clarity?