BillFitzmaurice.info

Good day,

On our acoustic gigs, we have a very hard time separating acoustic guitar(s) from our female lead singer.

My main tool for separation is EQ. I band pass the acoustic guitar between 100Hz and 10kHz. I high pass the singer at 120Hz. That's all I do right now. Do you have any tips for keeping both very clear without standing on each other?

We add a bit of delay plus reverb to our vocals, and let the guitarists sort their own effects: usually very dry for acoustic gigs.

My apologies to Bill, I think a huge part of the solution is to use better mains, and I haven't made BFM mains yet.

Have a super weekend!

You need a board with EQ on every channel. The female voice is most prominent from 500-1000 Hz, as is our hearing sensitivity, so bumping her channel there will bring her up in the mix, with perhaps some boost around 3 kHz. Cutting the guitar in those same frequencies will help as well.

Unless she sings really low, you should raise the high pass on her vocal channel to around 200hz. That will help her not to fight with the guitars in the low-mid "mud" area.

Make sure you high pass the acoustics also. At least 80hz to keep out the boominess. And sweep the low-mids with a cut to find the sweet spot.

But, first and foremost - use the Mains EQ to shape the PA to the room. That's where you'll find that pulling some of the 100-250hz from the PA (depending on the room) will clean up a lot of problems before you even touch the channel EQ. I use a song that I know well to do that. Pick something you know and play it - listening for any frequencies that are muddy or too crisp.