Equalizing

[Foxinabox10]

What is the best settings for an equalizer for a play? A musical? A concert? A variety or talent show?

[propmonkey]

theres not a general setting, you adjust for the venue and you balance the sound out thats the point of eq.

[Foxinabox10]

Roughly though...what is a general rule of thumb?

[rgsw]

i always start from everything at middle and work from there

[propmonkey]

personly i like the mid in the middle and higher lows and highs. kinda like a wide u

[autophage]

It depends on what sounds you want to bring out hte most. As a general rule, cut rather than boost (amplification stages in EQ sections are not known for their quality) and try not to do weird, vast changes with the EQ (as it pushes each section out of phase with the others, causing the sound to become vaguely muddy).

As for which band sounds like what, I'll refer back to an issue of TapeOp from a few months ago:

30 Hz is barely audible, but with a decent sound system can add a lot of "oomph" to the sound.
80 Hz is what Graham Hick refers to in the article as 'rumble', and 100 Hz is just plain muddy.
200-700 Hz is the warm, very audible bass area.
1 -5 kHz is the area humans hear best, and where most of speech occurs. A slight boost at 1 kHz will make the entire signal seem a little louder, while 3 kHz will bring out speech and generally make words a little clearer.
5 kHz is where much of the "ess" sound occurs. Cut it to get rid of hiss, or boost it to add to some words - but be careful, boosting too much will sound just plain bad, no two ways about it.
8 kHz is a high sound that sounds high, probably not necessary on many male voices and can be cut somewhat for most voices period. Anything too far above that can probably be cut altogether, though it's worth doing so with a lowpass filter rather than a graphic EQ if possible because that'll screw less with the phase of the signal.

Hope that was somewhat helpful.

[ccfan213]

autophage, that is a very good consise way of explaining it, equalizing is one of the things i find hardest to teach people because it relys more on your ear than on any technical rules, but i like your way of explaining it in a physical sense, i hope you dont mind if i print that and give it to new techies to help them understand what you do when you equalize.

[DMXtools]

I don't equalize for a specific type of program so much as for the room. Most of my work is punk rock concerts, but the same idea works for any live sound gig.

The first time a band has to sound-check with me, they think I'm out of my mind. I don't wait for feedback to happen and try to fix it. Instead, I intentionally cause feedback... during the sound check. After the show, they usually thank me - they could actually hear what they wanted from the monitors.

What I'm doing is finding the frequencies that the room itself reinforces, then notching those frequencies out with the graphic EQ.

I start with the EQ set flat, both for mains and for monitors, and set a good but fairly quiet main mix... channel faders set to 0dB, submasters set to 0dB, main faders set to about -15 dB, monitor master knobs (my board has uncalibrated rotary knobs for monitors) just above 50%. I use the input gain knobs to set an initial level for each channel (faders are for tweaking relative levels to sweeten the basic mix as necessary), then use the channel-strip monitor sends (and requests from the musicians), to build good, but somewhat quiet, monitor mixes.

Then I'll start increasing the overall level on one of the monitor master knobs until it just barely starts to feed back. I'll make a best guess as to the frequency of the feedback and pull down the fader for that frequency on the graphic for that monitor mix. If that kills the feedback, I guessed right. If not, I put the fader back up and try the ones on each side of it, one at a time. If necessary, I keep spreading out from my original guess until I hit the one that stops the feedback.

Then I go back to the gain and push it up a little farther, until it starts feeding back at another frequency. Again I'll make a best guess, with the advantage that I know whether it's higher or lower than the one I just got done with. I repeat the procedure until I've got four or five frequencies notched out.

Then I go back to the first frequency and push it up, slowly, until it just barely starts to feed back, then pull it back down the tiniest fraction, until the feedback stops. Repeat for each frequency I notched out originally, then back the monitor master down by about 10%.

Then repeat the whole procedure for the next monitor mix (I can run up to four, but usually only do two... and that's often better than most of the bands I work with get from anybody else).

Finally I do the same with the main mix. By causing feedback during the sound check, I've found the frequencies where feedback is likely to occur and cut them down in the mix, both for the mains and the monitors. The result is that I can push the system, especially the monitors, a lot harder without causing feedback during the show. It works well enough I've actually had the occasional musician ask me to turn the monitors down - something you almost never hear a musician say.

While it may be time consuming at first, with practice you get to the point where your first guess at the feedback frequency is usually right and it goes pretty quickly. And not only is it louder, it sounds better, because you've compensated for the room accoustics.

John

[ccfan213]

thats an interesting process, unfortunately if i do a concert i have at least 8 bands and not enough time to do that even quickly. anyway even if i did they would look at me like i was crazy and probably walk of stage. :-) anyway ill try that next time i have a band thats willing to wait knowing that they will benefit from it (probably my brother's)

[autophage]

DMXtools, I like your method but it only corrects for feedback rather than what the mix sounds like - although both are of equal concern.

Another piece of advice is to play with lots of EQ units other than the one you usually use - you'll get to know quickly which bands feel good to you personally, which bands your board's onboard equalizer doesn't isolate well, that sort of thing.

And remember that it varies based on what room you're in, not just for feedback but for everything. I have to add a LOT of 2 kHz to the stereo in my room, for instance, for it to approach sounding good - I'd suppose that's the phase cancellation between left and right - but that issue moves down to about 900 Hz in my living room (which is, sure enough, about twice the size of my room).