AKARSH SHEKHAR
How To Equalize Choirs and Harmonies with Ease
We all can unanimously agree that choirs and harmonies sound awesome . Who doesn ’ t love the incredible sonic structure of a musical piece being performed by a well trained choir ? The different voices singing in unison add so much character and feel to the music . However , there ’ s more to a choir sounding great than just the members of the choir practising very hard .
Equalizing choirs and harmonies plays a critical role in the amazing sound that everyone enjoys . While the choir members might be the most important element of the whole sound , improper equalizing can make even the world ’ s best choir sound terrible .
In the scenario of a choir , the main voice is the most important element of the mix , and the rest of the instruments surround it and help it shine . But if there is any element that makes it truly shine and blow people ’ s minds away , it ’ s the rest of the voices of the choir . There is nothing that reinforces the voice more than choirs and harmonies .
Understand what the spectrum is , discover each region of frequencies and stop doing masked mixes where instruments collapse on each other . If people skip songs , it ’ s not because it ’ s annoying and requires effort to be enjoyed .
Okay , let ’ s see how to equalize choruses and harmonies . Needless to say , we are talking about voices .
Once you ’ ve equalized the backing vocals and they sound good , it ’ s time to think about readjusting that EQ so they don ’ t compete with the lead vocal .
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► 100 Hz- 300 Hz : The first movement will be an HPF ( high pass filter ) to eliminate that low-end noise that we don ’ t need , but also so that the choirs and harmonies don ’ t have as much low end as the main voice . That weight is better for us to stay in the main one , which is the one that goes in the center of the mix along with kick , snare and bass . Solid , grounded , and well centered .
► 300 Hz – 600 Hz : In this region , we will decide if we want choruses with a lot of body or thinner than usual . It will always depend on our taste and the genre or voice of the song . As always , near 500 Hz we can have that “ boxy ” sound .
► 700 Hz- 1100 Hz : Beware of the nasal sound that resides in this area . Many times the harmonies are textures to support the voice and the message has to come through the main vowel . A cut in this region can create a much nicer sound .
► 3 kHz- 8 KHz : Sibilance is in this zone , it cuts those “ esses ” that do not contribute anything to choirs and harmonies . You can be more aggressive than on the lead , as we have said before , the message has to be understood on the center vocals , so make sure the choruses and harmonies don ’ t add to the problems up there .
► 8KHz- 20KHz : Clarity and presence are here . But do we want clarity and presence in secondary voices ? On many occasions , the answer to that is no . You must remember not to compete with the leading voice . You can even roll off with a Low Pass Filter to make these boosts darker and send them deeper into the background .
To all this information you should also add a correct balance in terms of volume . A lower volume makes the instrument feel further away and not as forward . Never make the fatal mistake of ignoring EQ settings in a choir scenario , it can easily go very wrong and sound like a muddled mess to the listener . You don ’ t really want to give your listeners that , do you ?