How to EQ Your Dialogue from Start to Finish: Mastering Step 9

eq dialog start to finish how to listen critically

We've made it to the end of the mastering phase for your podcast, sermon or voice recording for video - the process of finalizing audio before it's released to your listeners.

We already learned how to use EQ to correct any remaining problem spots at the beginning of our mastering chain.

But how do we use an EQ in mastering to balance our voice-over recording's overall sound before it passes through the limiter at the end of the mastering chain?

Why Do We Use It?

The first question to ask is whether it needs to be used at all.

Why or when is it appropriate to use a broad, balancing EQ (like the Dangerous BAX EQ) in your voice-over recording's mastering session?

If not that specific type of EQ, why should you use a broad, balancing method of EQing in your mastering session?

Didn't we already EQ enough in the earlier corrective EQing process? The answer is maybe...

That's because you may have already solved all the problem areas with the corrective EQ.

On the other hand, you may find that after listening carefully, something still doesn't sound quite right.

We need to do another careful listening session using your voice recording processed through your mastering chain.

That is, you compare your "mostly mastered" voice recording to your good sounding reference recording.

And the two must be volume matched to make any kind of meaningful comparison.

The findings from this comparison will reveal if you need to do some broad EQ balancing to the overall tone of your voice-over recording.

And any EQ with broad, balancing capabilities will work by the way.

I'm using the Dangerous BAX EQ because I love its simplicity and sound, but the FREE TDR Nova will work wonderfully as well.

So, the reasons you would use a balancing EQ during the mastering of your voice recording are:

the overall sound or tone is still lacking or out of proportion in comparison to your reference voice-over recording...
that is, your recording still isn't quite comparable or similar to your professional sounding reference in some way...
for example, maybe it doesn't sound as clear in comparison, or it sounds too thin, or it sounds too muddy.

Where Do We Use It?

After you've decided that you do need some balancing from your listening comparison, you'll place your EQ in your mastering chain. But where?

The reason for calling the voice recording "mostly mastered" above is because your voice recording should now be running through the majority of your mastering chain.

The order of your processing plug-ins for this chain would be something like this:

gain (possibly)
corrective EQ
compressor
broad balancing EQ???
limiter

So when you did your comparison above, your "mostly mastered" voice-over recording was probably running through:

GAIN ====> CORRECTIVE EQ ====> COMPRESSOR ====> LIMITER

That was, in fact, most of what you would do for mastering your voice recording except the balancing EQ.

You can see above that this EQ is situated at number 4 right between the compressor and limiter.

Without getting too deep into the weeds of mastering intricacies, one of the main reasons for this is to have one last chance to balance the overall tone.

And some reasons for the tone being out of balance during dialogue mastering are:

sometimes the compressor shifts the overall tone slightly away from where I had it, leading to the need for some balancing EQ to get it back on track OR...
the tonal balance was off a bit to begin with in comparison to my reference and needs that final balancing EQ to bring it in line.

Consequently, it makes sense to place the balancing EQ after the compressor and before the limiter (the limiter is usually the final step in the mastering chain).

Take a look at the image of my voice-over project's mastering chain below to see the balancing EQ (highlighted in orange) in its place:

How Do We Use It?

So how do you translate any discrepancies you heard in your comparison above into small, broad, balancing EQ moves?

Here was some of my thinking based off of my comparison that may guide your EQ moves as well:

Overall the tone of my mostly mastered voice recording was close to my reference in listening comparisons after the corrective EQ moves we already put in place BUT...
I wanted just a touch more of that clarity and "openness" in the sound that I was hearing in my reference recordings BUT...
Any upper end boost would have to be small in order to not accentuate the sibilant areas in my upper midrange AND...
A gentle rolling off (reduction) of the lower end could also help bring out the upper mids and above AND...
My listening comparison revealed that I still had a bit too much of the low end (probably the proximity effect) in comparison to my reference SO...
I needed some more gentle balancing (reduction) in the low frequencies to get my tone sounding just right.

In my experience the Dangerous BAX EQ is a really special tool perfectly suited for what I'm trying to accomplish in my thinking above.

The EQ is excellent at the broad yet gentle overall tone shaping duties that are common in mastering dialogue audio or full mixes with instruments and voice.

Probably part of the reason is its design. It only uses low and high cut filters with very broad, gentle shelving shapes for musical boosts and cuts.

The manual mentions how these broad shelves extend well beyond typical shelves to achieve the great tonal balancing that the BAX EQ does.

The low shelves extend far into the mid frequencies to the right and the high shelves extend down to the lower mid frequencies to the left and way up to the right, octaves above!

Here are my settings on the Dangerous BAX EQ (see image below) to understand how my thinking above translated into specific EQ moves:

-0.5 dB low shelf cut (at 98 Hz) to reduce the low end and for opposite effect on upper mids and highs (it lets them come to the forefront)
+1 dB high shelf boost (at 18,000 Hz) for subtle clarity, intelligibility and openness of sound (but not boosted too much because we don't want to affect the sibilant areas)

A few final points on the settings to the EQ above:

I made sure to volume match the level of the EQ whether it's engaged or bypassed (using the output dial) to be able to truly hear how it affects the sound in my mastering session...
after doing that, I was able to hear that my voice recording does sound more open and clear with the BAX EQ settings - mission accomplished!

If you would like to grow in learning to translate problems in your dialogue recordings to simple audio corrections, grab this valuable, FREE 15-page PDF:

"Voice Recording Problem Solving Guide"

Let's Review

To recap, first find out if you even need to use a tonal balancing type of EQ in mastering your voice-over recording.

Do this by performing another careful listening session using your voice-over recording processed through your mastering chain.

Listen to this in comparison to your good sounding reference recording.

Next, remember to place the balancing EQ after the compressor and before the limiter for the last chance to balance your overall tone.

Finally, with your EQ in place, use small boosts or cuts with broad shelving shapes to compensate for any discrepancies you heard in your listening comparison.

Be sure to adjust the output of your EQ to have the same volume whether the plug-in is on or off. Then listen back and forth to make sure your changes sound better!

Have YOU used these steps on a recent voice-over recording? How did they help?