Isolating then manipulating vocal frequencies

[yadadamean9]

I just read that you don't want to have instruments 'competing' for the same frequencies--especially with vocals.  You want to find what frequencies your vocals are and then kind of EQ the instruments that are traveling in that same freq. range.  If theres any merit to this idea than this could be directly correlated to the problem I'm having now--which is getting my vocals to stand out over the beat. 

Does this technique work/ help with anything?

[RawDepth]

Yes, that works to some degree. You just need to be careful that you don't slice things down too thin.

First off, the band should not have so much instrumentation during vocal passages that it buries the vocals. An element of good song writing. Secondly, you can control the levels of those instruments during mixdown. Lowering volume of the most offending ones can help. Lastly, if you still cannot get the vocals to come out, you may need to make use of compression to bring them more forward and in-your-face. If you need help with that, I have made a video to explain how to do it. It is over in the articles section of this site.

I hope this helps.
...and welcome to this site. We hope you like it here.

[stainless]

I would add that keyboards are often the main competing culprit as keyboardists often (to some extent) follow the melody line more closely than say bass or guitar... and is often in the same register (frequency range) that many people sing in-  and some of the high frequencies inherent in the keyboard tones (especially organ and synth, both of which typically rely on multiple oscillators to generate the tone) really "cut through" the mix even though the level may not seem excessive.

there are a number of frequency analyzers (some of which are freeebies) that will allow you to "sweep" the sonic spectrum of the track and you'll quickly find the predominant frequencies. If the instruments have 'peaks" in the same frequency a narrow (high Q) cut (and modest cut at that) at the colliding frequency using a parametric EQ will help ( I would avoid boosting the same frequency in the vocal track as an work around... in general I would tend to be very frugal boosting EQ bands as this can quickly contribute to an overall summing of level in the song and cause some clipping.

If you find it's routinely one instrument, have them play up or down an octave to see if that doesn't help (the less you need to do after you've recorded the track the better... at least that's my humble opinion... and I'm sticking by it     )