High Pass Filter on Lead Vocals?

[rockwithrespect]

I did some experimenting yesterday in preparation for a female vocalist. I cut vocals in a good sized walk-in closet which I treat like an iso booth. The room is carpeted, and 3 walls and the ceiling are covered with wedge foam. On the fourth wall I have hung two heavy blankets, layered on top of each other. I wouldn't say I'm completely happy with the sound of the room, reflections and reverb wise, but it serves my purposes and more importantly is really the only option i have at the moment.

My problem is that there is noticable rumble and low frequency noise in the room. The problem only gets worse with quiet, intimate singers who deliver a less than desirable signal to noise ratio. Because of the rumble I am usually forced to use a SM57 or 58 on vocals rather than a large diaghram condenser which picks up too much of the offending room noises.

So last night I'm messing around, getting things ready for an upcoming session. I have an Audio Technica 4033 and an SM57 set up in the booth. I realize that a high pass filter at 180hz almost completely eliminates the problematic room noises.

Two questions:
1.) What steps can be taken to get rid of the rumble in my room?
2.) Is it acceptable to use a HPF at 180hz for lead vocals? How much useful information am I losing by setting the filter so high? When I A/B the track with the filter engaged, I don't hear any loss in the quality of the track, but my control room is not treated, so I'm not getting a truly accurate picture of what is happening.

Thanks in advance!

Kyle

[Chris Coleman]

Is it acceptable to use a HPF at 180hz for lead vocals?

Just about the only things I don't highpass are kick drum and bass (and the occasional piano, depending on the mix).

[PhiDelta308]

I use high pass on everything (even kick and bass...I just set the high pass filter really low). As far as whether or not it's acceptible, or if you are losing useful information, use your ears, and the bypass button. Do you notice a radical change in the sound of the voice, other than the lack of rumble? Unless the girl has a voice like James Earl Jones, you shouldn't lose any important information. You may also want to play with shelving eq's, and experiment with different slopes for the high pass filter. You may find that you can set the filter even higher if you use a gentler slope.

-chris

[dissolve]

2.) Is it acceptable to use a HPF at 180hz for lead vocals? How much useful information am I losing by setting the filter so high?

It depends on the vocal part. Here are guidelines I'd keep in mind, these are approximate fundamental frequencies for pitches:

Note Frequency (Hz)
C8 4186
C7 2093
C6 1046
C5 523
C4 262
C3 131
C2 65
C1 33

So if you have a female vocal part where the notes are in the Alto range, the F below middle C on a piano (F3) to the D above middle C (D5) you could safely filter out anything below 180Hz. Now if it was a male Baritone (Jim Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Josh Groban, male rappers) 180Hz would be close to the fundamental frequency of the lowest notes in that vocal range. Keep in mind that the cutoff frequency on a filter refers to the frequency where the signal is attenuated by 3db, so it actually starts cutting frequencies slightly higher than that (in the case of a high pass filter).

[Ruben_B]

Hi guys,
just wondering, some have mentioned that they put a HP filter on everything, how are most people doint this? are you just putting a HP filter on the master fader or putting them on individual tracks.

thanks,
ruben

[PhiDelta308]

individual tracks, because I cut off each track at a different frequency.

-chris

[Ruben_B]

thanks, so its not uncommon to have 20 hp filters on a session? can you recommend a plugin to use for this that doesnt drain the system too much.

[Paul Cavins]

I use whatever EQ I have, which is a Waves Ren EQ, I think. It is amazing how much musically useless (in my opinion) information there is down in the lower end on all kinds of tracks. In basic rock mixes, cleaning out that low end stuff allows the bass guitar track to live in the mix, and the guitar tracks that are cut aren't harmed a bit. I love to axe out the low end on guitars, as long as I don't overdo it and end up with thin guitar tracks.

PC

[dissolve]

A couple other thoughts on the use of High Pass filters:

If you get into the case of high pass filtering everything, the mix in the end could lack fullness and sound bright and thin. If you need to do alot of high pass filtering it may be because you're compensating for a room problem. EQing and filtering alot of elements will also introduce phase shifts which will not be helpful for your overall mix.

On vocals, you can be pretty sure that there's nothing musical going on in the 25Hz to 50Hz region, so pull it out. But above that there may be information down there that you don't necessarily hear, but "feel". An experienced singer will definitely notice if you start filtering out the "chest" in their voice.

[Bendrissa]

I don't think it's about automatically high-passing each track, so much as choosing which tracks have the most essential lower frequency content for the track (bass, kick and toms go without saying, but this could include piano a little higher up) and then high-passing other sounds to fit around this. I did a track recently in which I used a HPF on guitars - it really helped them stand out. I guess it's about building closely fitting layers - HPF help you avoid lots of overlap and, as a result, clutter.

I'd a say the basic Digi 1-band is fine. Cutting with digital EQ is rather less telling of the EQ's quality.