OK so recently I've been looking at my vocals through a frequency analyzer to try and figure out why they sound so boxy and why they never seem to sit well in the mix. The analyzer shows that between 0-1000 I've got a lot of action going on. This would make the vocal sound boxy correct? Something else I found strange is that at 32000Hz and 48000Hz I have large spikes. What in the world!!! Humans can't even hear those frequencies can they, but I wonder are they in some strange way interfering with my mix?
this is an avg analysis of a 30sec vocal I did
I have a small vocal booth (closet) with foam all around the room, and an AT 4050 I use on everything, so after weeks of thinking that either:
a. I'm an idiot
b. the AT 4050 is no good
or
c. I'm an idiot and the AT 4050 is no good
I came across an article in Sound on Sound magazine when I did a google search for vocal eqing that states:
"You don't need to do anything too fancy to record vocals, but the mic should be well away from any walls, and the area directly behind the singer should be non-reflective. This could be an area of foam tiles or it could be a duvet, but one point to watch out for is that,
in rooms where a lot of damping material has been applied, you'll often find that it only absorbs effectively down to around 250-300Hz. So what actually happens is that frequencies below 300Hz are allowed to predominate, making the sound seem congested or boxy."
So do you guys (and gals) think that the room is the cause of my problems or am I just an idiot. If it's not the room is my voice really that low or are these just natural frequencies created by room ambience that are always that amped...
as usual THANKS in advance and please excuse my ignorance
PEACE AND LOVE
