#5: Finding The Sweet Spot: Getting The Desired Vocal Sound In IEM Mixes

In addition, the plain and dry (nearfield) sound that happens by having drivers (miniature loudspeakers) so close to the ear drum and not receiving much natural acoustical information doesn’t help either. My EQ settings usually include a large amount of air (anything above 12 kHz) on a shelf, as well as a wide band around 3 to 5 kHz.

Of course, this makes it very clear but sibilant, so if needed I add a mild de-esser in line as well; again keeping in mind that the amount of high frequencies I hear is louder by comparison than what my artists hears. At a glance, they may seem super bright (Figure 1), but as mentioned above the key is the level of the bodypack.

Figure 1

My next step EQ-wise is engaging a high-pass filter (HPF) at about 160 Hz. Then (most importantly) I cut a considerable amount of low-mids (usually around 400 Hz) and some lows (in the 180 to 200 Hz range). This cut is way more than you’d ever do if you weren’t wearing IEMs, but listening through loudspeakers or headphones, especially when singers are right on the mic, the result is a lot of proximity effect.

If the singer stays right on the mic, then a fixed EQ with these settings works perfectly. However, with singers who tend to back up from the mic more often than not, we don’t want to lose those warmer frequencies while the mic is farther from their mouths, considering the fact that as they back up the sound gets thinner. In these cases, I apply a multiband compressor just enough to suppress certain low-mid frequencies produced by the vocalist being right on the grille of the mic, and I leave the fixed EQ untouched in that range (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Compression settings can vary, but a rule of thumb (at least for me) is to never have the gain reduction go below the sound that they hear from the bone resonance. Allow some gain reduction, but just enough to keep it from becoming overwhelmingly loud while remaining right above their resonance level.

Putting It Into Practice

How do I gauge this? I spend some time singing and/or checking the vocal mic at
the proper level and in all areas of the stage as the band is performing sound check and the house PA is on. This way I can experience what the artist will experience during the show.

In fact, if you’re standing next to me at the monitor position during a show you might hear me singing or humming the melody along with the singer, as this helps me get the closest sonic blend of their vocal as they might hear it. Why?

Let’s try a quick exercise: Plug your ears with you index fingers, and then say “Hello, I enjoy reading Live Sound International.” You’ll notice that the sibilance or clarity has gone right away and that, all of a sudden, it sounds as if you added lots of lower frequencies, or it appears “muffled.”

The goal is to protect our hearing while still being able to find that “sweet spot” or crossover point between the volume of the bodypack and the resonance traveling through the head bone structure and ear canals. This technique has proven to work for me in helping to keep my clients from experiencing ear fatigue. Of course, not only does it apply to vocals but also to horn players, drummers, etc.

Another aspect of this technique is to keep in mind the summation or coupling of low-end frequencies onstage from the house PA. This is also a key factor to consider when handling certain instruments in artist IEMs, i.e., bass guitars, synths, kick drums, and more.

Next time I’ll address this aspect further along with detailing additional IEM mix concepts and approaches.

Eddie “El Brujo” Caipo is a veteran touring engineer who works with numerous top-flight artists.