Practical Mixing
Vocal EQ cheat sheet for REAPER (frequency by frequency)
Published July 20, 2026
A vocal EQ cheat sheet is a map of which frequency range tends to control which part of the voice, so you know where to look first. The usual landmarks are a high-pass around 80–100 Hz, mud near 200–400 Hz, boxiness around 300–600 Hz, nasal honk near 1–2 kHz, presence around 3–6 kHz, harshness inside 1.5–5 kHz, sibilance around 5–9 kHz, and air above 10 kHz. Treat these as starting points to investigate, not settings to dial in blind. You can make every move here with REAPER’s stock ReaEQ.
A cheat sheet is useful because it tells you where to start looking. When a vocal sounds wrong, the hardest part is knowing whether the problem is low, middle, or high. A frequency map turns “something is off” into “check around here first,” which saves you from twisting knobs at random.
It is also easy to misuse. The numbers below are ranges, not fixed frequencies, and they shift with the voice, the mic, and the room. The same 3 kHz that adds welcome presence on a dull vocal can sound harsh on a bright one. So the smart way to read this chart is as a list of places to audition, then let your ears make the final call in the full mix.
How to use this without wrecking your vocal
Before the chart, four habits that keep a cheat sheet from turning into over-processing:
- Use the numbers to locate, not to preset. Find the exact spot with a boost sweep: take one ReaEQ band, boost it a few dB with a narrow width, and move it slowly through the range in question. The frequency that sounds worst is your target.
- Cut more than you boost. Removing a problem frequency usually sounds more natural than boosting a “good” one. Reach for a cut first.
- Keep moves small. A couple of dB does more than you expect. Large boosts and cuts are where vocals start sounding processed.
- Judge in the mix. A vocal that sounds great soloed can turn muddy or harsh once the rest of the track is under it. Make the final decision with everything playing.
The cheat sheet
Ranges overlap on purpose, because voices do not respect tidy boundaries. Start in the listed band, then sweep to pin the exact spot for your recording.
| Range | What tends to live there | Typical starting move | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
Below 80 Hz | Rumble, HVAC, handling noise, plosive thumps | High-pass around 80–100 Hz | Almost no useful vocal lives here |
100–250 Hz | Chest, weight, warmth | Leave mostly alone; tiny cut only if boomy | Cut too much and the voice goes thin |
200–400 Hz | Mud, congestion, boom | Cut 2–4 dB if thick or veiled | Judge in the mix, not soloed |
300–600 Hz | Boxiness, a “cardboard” tone | Narrow cut if it sounds boxy | Overlaps warmth; stay surgical |
800 Hz–2 kHz | Nasal, honky quality | Cut near the honk, often 1–2 kHz | Also carries intelligibility; go gently |
1.5–5 kHz | Presence and bite (and harshness) | Small boost for clarity, or cut if harsh | Double-edged; 1–2 dB moves only |
5–9 kHz | Sibilance, the “s” and “t” sounds | Use a de-esser, not a fixed EQ cut | A static cut dulls the whole vocal |
10 kHz and up | Air, breath, sparkle | Gentle high shelf if the voice is dull | Can lift hiss and sibilance too |
Band by band, in plain English
Below 80 Hz: rumble
There is almost no useful vocal information down here. What lives in this range is room rumble, air conditioning, footsteps, desk vibration, and the low thump of plosives. A high-pass filter around 80–100 Hz clears it without thinning the voice. For a very deep voice, keep the filter closer to 70–80 Hz; for a bright or spoken voice you can often go up to 100–120 Hz.
200 to 400 Hz: mud
This is the classic home-recording problem area. Too much energy here makes a vocal thick, boomy, or veiled. A cut of 2–4 dB usually clears it, but confirm the exact spot with a sweep, because it moves with the voice and room. For the full symptom-to-fix walkthrough, see why your home vocal sounds muddy in REAPER.
300 to 600 Hz: boxiness
Boxiness is a close cousin of mud that sounds more like the voice is trapped in a small container. It is common on close home recordings in untreated rooms. A narrow cut where the boxiness peaks can open the sound up, but keep it small so you do not hollow out the body of the voice.
800 Hz to 2 kHz: nasal and honky
When a vocal sounds pinched, like the singer is talking through their nose, the cause usually sits in this range. A gentle cut near the honk, often somewhere around 1–2 kHz, relaxes it. Go carefully, because this band also carries a lot of the vowel information that makes words intelligible. See how to fix nasal vocals in REAPER for the step by step.
1.5 to 5 kHz: presence and harshness
This is the most double-edged region on the chart. A small boost here adds presence and helps a vocal cut through a busy mix. Push it too far, or start with a bright recording, and the same range turns edgy and harsh. Keep boosts and cuts here to about 1–2 dB and check often. If your problem is an aggressive edge rather than a lack of clarity, see how to fix harsh vocals in REAPER.
5 to 9 kHz: sibilance
The sharp resonance of “s” and “t” sounds lives here. You can cut it with static EQ, but that dulls the entire vocal, since the same range carries useful high-end detail between the sibilant moments. A de-esser, which only reduces the range when a harsh “s” actually happens, is the better tool. REAPER ships a stock JS de-esser, and you can also target the sibilant band with a ReaXcomp band, so you can handle this dynamically without buying anything.
10 kHz and up: air
This is the openness and breath at the top of the voice. If a vocal sounds dull after you have cleared the lower problems, a gentle high shelf here can add sparkle. Use a light hand, because boosting this range also raises any hiss and sibilance that were sitting quietly underneath.
Put it to work in REAPER
REAPER ships with ReaEQ, an unlimited-band equalizer whose bands can each act as a high-pass, low-pass, shelf, or peaking filter. That covers every move on this chart, so you do not need to buy anything. Add ReaEQ to the vocal track’s FX chain, use one band as a boost-sweep probe to find the exact frequency, then set your real cut or boost. When you want the whole processing order rather than a single move, see the REAPER vocal chain with stock plugins.
What a cheat sheet will not do
A frequency map is a starting point, not a guarantee.
- The numbers are not universal. They shift with each voice, mic, and room, which is why the boost sweep matters more than the label.
- EQ will not fix problems that are not tonal. Room reflections, a clipped recording, or a flat performance are separate issues, and no frequency cut repairs them.
- Stacking “recommended” boosts across every band does not make a vocal better. It usually makes it louder and worse. Fewer, smaller moves win.
- A cheat sheet does not replace listening. It tells you where to look; your ears in the full mix decide what to do.
Use this chart to know where to look, not what to set. High-pass the rumble, cut mud around 200–400 Hz, watch the nasal band near 1–2 kHz, treat 1.5–5 kHz as both presence and harshness, de-ess rather than statically cut 5–9 kHz, and add air above 10 kHz only if the voice is dull. Find the real spot with a sweep, keep the moves small, and judge everything in the mix.
Want REAPER to find these moves for you?
The free StudioRescue vocal chain measures your vocal and sets REAPER’s stock plugins, including the high-pass and problem-frequency cuts on this chart, so you can hear a cleaner starting point in seconds. Stock plugins only, nothing to buy.
Get the free vocal chainSources
- iZotope, “How to EQ vocals” - presence and warmth roughly
1–6 kHz, small1–2 dBmoves in1.5–5 kHzto avoid harshness, sibilance around5–8 kHzbetter handled with a de-esser, and brightness/air in the8–12 kHzrange and above. izotope.com/learn/how-to-eq-vocals - Sound on Sound, “Managing Sibilance” - sibilance sits in the upper vocal range and is best reduced dynamically (de-esser) rather than with a fixed EQ cut. soundonsound.com/techniques/managing-sibilance
- Cockos, “ReaPlugs” - ReaEQ described as an unlimited-band equalizer with high-pass, low-pass, shelf, and band/peaking filter types, bundled with REAPER. reaper.fm/reaplugs
- Cockos, REAPER User Guide (current version 7.78, July 2026) - ReaEQ band types and stock effects including ReaXcomp and the bundled JS plugins. reaper.fm/userguide