Topic: Soundforge 8 ? Can vocals be raised up in post using EQ?

[Rockinman59]

I was probably too close to the stage when recording at Izod Center (Meadowlands) the other night.  The tape sounds fine except the vocals sound like I recorded from the back of the arena.  I was just inside the left stack speaker and it was pretty high up above me.  The vocals seemed to have gone over the mics.  Is there any way in post production to get the vocals more to the forefront using any of the EQ bands?  I took a section of the wav file and played with the 20 band Graphic EQ with the 1.3k, 1.8k, 2.5k, 3.6k and 5.1k tabs.  I brought them all up from 0.0db to 3.0, then 4.0db.  I can hear a difference overall but not in the vocals.  Perhaps it's too late to do anything in post, but any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks guys

[Rockinman59]

I was advised it's a waste of time to try bringing up vocals.  Everything in the 1.2 to 5k range will increase too.  Too close of a location was the problem.  I'm normally much further back from the stack speakers.  Learned my lesson to tape further back and enjoy the concert close up.

[ilduclo]

I use the "vocal presence" preset in graphic eq. seems to help somewhat.

ildu

[cusnuff]

What type of band?  What type of singer?

[Rockinman59]

What type of band?  What type of singer?

Dave Matthews of Dave Matthews Band.  Thanks

[Rockinman59]

I use the "vocal presence" preset in graphic eq. seems to help somewhat.

ildu

I'm not seeing "vocal presence" in the Graphic EQ section, where do I find it?  Thanks a lot.

[cusnuff]

Just the other day I was looking at wiki for male vocal ranges - voice ranges aren't that high, 80-1000 HZ.  DM doesn't do a high falsetto now, does he?

Instead of trying to boost the vocal levels, how about dropping the low end of the EQ a couple of decibles?  It will cut down the drum and bass, which might help.

[ilduclo]

I use the "vocal presence" preset in graphic eq. seems to help somewhat.

ildu

I'm not seeing "vocal presence" in the Graphic EQ section, where do I find it?  Thanks a lot.

Sorry, one of my own presets.  However, all it is is +5 on the 2ooo hz slider.

try any of the sliders in that area, save small sections of the wav that you adjust, if they sound good, do the whole thing.

But SAVEAS, so you can still go back to the original, good luck, I had to do this with a Mascis set, sounded pretty good.

[Rockinman59]

Thanks guys for the advice, I'll try some of this before giving up.

[cleantone]

voice ranges aren't that high, 80-1000 HZ

Even if it is just talking about spoken word that number seems off. There is a lot of sonic information well above 1k. Load a track with voice on it and take everything out above 1k and tell me if you think there is missing frequencies. I think there is plenty up to 8k and probably plenty beyond that.

[KLowe]

FWIW.  I had to bass roll DMB from Peidmont park this year.  It brought the vocals out and made the recording much more enjoyable....IMO.

YMMV

[bluntforcetrauma]

I taped DMB here in tampa 2006 and 2007, Dave's vocals seem to be always lost in the mix, but to bring them out i use protools or PEAK pro with waves plug in for band eq multimaximizer and i go in and raise the vocal frequency by hand.  it takes so long, as both my shows have not been circulated yet.