XR18 / X Air Female Vocal starting point
Beginner Skill level for the five steps below.
Dial these in, then adjust by ear in the full mix. Check the loudest belt and the quietest verse; if the quiet verse disappears, add compression or ride the fader rather than adding more EQ.
1High-pass filter
120-150 Hz
Illustration in the style of the XR18 / X Air (X Air Edit) low cut / HPF, not a screenshot. Drawn at 12 dB/oct; the shaded area is what gets cut. Drawn at 135 Hz, the middle of the card's 120-150 Hz.
Higher-register voices let you move the HPF up from 100 Hz, even to 250 Hz for very high voices.
On the XR18 / X Air: No surface: in X Air Edit (or Mixing Station), open the channel and use the Low Cut switch/frequency in the Config / Preamp area.
2Gate
- Use
- No
Gating a vocal risks cutting off soft words.
On the XR18 / X Air: Channel > Gate tab: enable, then Threshold, Range, Attack, Hold, Release. A key filter is available for frequency-conscious triggering.
3EQ
- LC 135 Hz, 12 dB/oct
- 1 Bell 300 Hz, -2.0 dB, Q 0.9
- 2 Bell 3.5 kHz, +0.0 dB, Q 1.5
- 3 Bell 6.5 kHz, -2.0 dB, Q 4.0
Illustration in the style of the XR18 / X Air (X Air Edit) EQ screen, not a screenshot. Curve shows the midpoint of the suggested ranges; HPF drawn at 12 dB/oct; a band whose range runs from cut to boost sits at 0 dB.
| Frequency | Gain | Q / width | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200-400 Hz | -1 to -3 dB | Wide | Proximity muddiness/boxiness. |
| 2-5 kHz | -2 to +2 dB | Medium | Intelligibility vs harshness; listen at loud passages. |
| 5-8 kHz | -1 to -3 dB (or de-esser) | Narrow | Sibilance. A de-esser or dynamic EQ is better than a static cut if available. |
On the XR18 / X Air: Channel > EQ tab: 4 parametric bands per input channel (shelf/peq modes on the outer bands).
4Compression
Attack ~10-40 ms · Release ~300 ms (timing, not shown on graph)
Illustration in the style of the XR18 / X Air (X Air Edit) compressor screen, not a screenshot. The card gives a ratio range (3:1 (go to 4:1 if needed)); the graph shows the first value, 3:1. The threshold is an example only: it is set so a −6 dB peak gets about 5 dB of gain reduction, the middle of the card's target. Set yours by ear while watching the gain reduction (GR) meter. Drawn hard-knee with no makeup gain. Attack and release shape timing and don't change this curve.
- Ratio
- 3:1 (go to 4:1 if needed)
- Attack
- ~10-40 ms
- Release
- ~300 ms
- Gain reduction
- 4-6 dB
Same moderate starting point as the male vocal; adjust for dynamic singers.
On the XR18 / X Air: Channel > Dynamics tab: Threshold, Ratio, Knee, Attack, Hold, Release, makeup Gain and Mix (parallel).
5FX send
Modest send to a vocal plate (~1.2 s decay)
Vocal plate, about 1.2 s decay, send around -15 to -10 dB.
Illustration in the style of the XR18 / X Air (X Air Edit) sends view, not a screenshot. Bus numbering depends on how the venue file is patched; set the level by ear.
Helps the voice sit in the mix.
On the XR18 / X Air: X Air has 4 internal FX slots fed by dedicated FX sends (FX1-4) on every channel; set the send level on the channel's Sends tab and bring FX returns up on the FX return faders.
🎧 What to listen for
Check the loudest belt and the quietest verse; if the quiet verse disappears, add compression or ride the fader rather than adding more EQ.
Common gear for Female Vocal
- Shure Beta 87A · Handheld condenser
- Sennheiser e935 · Dynamic vocal mic
Scene / preset file
Coming later: downloadable XR18 / X Air channel preset for this card.
Sources
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