These are some great responses. These graphs are great and drives home a concept that can be difficult to understand. I completely agree with Andy that a graphic eq is limited in how it cuts (or boosts) a signal, but I still think that there is a place for the graphic. When working live sound, you
sound check with an empty
house, and then 1000 people
walk in the door and everything changes. You have less than 90 seconds to get the band sounding good before you lose your job. Live
theatre is a little more flexible, as you can
sound check in rehearsals and make small changes each night, slowly dialing it in to perfect as the show goes on. It is much faster and easier to change the graphic rather than messing with a parametric. As far as standing back and listening to the overall sound, there are only a small handful of people that would be able to ever hear the difference if you use could use both well.
In the end, it doesn't really matter which you use, as long as you know how to use it and use it well. I also agree with Andy about the
RTA, but I was going to let it go. Since it is out in the open, I use a dbx driverack in my drive rack (which has a built in parametric eq.....so yes, I use both). It sits back
stage in amp world in a
road case and gets set for the particular rig for that show and for the
house or
shed that we are in. I have never purchased the
RTA for it, nor do I plan on it. I think that the best tool and engineer has is his/her ears. With training (and there are some great programs, including Golden Ears) you should be able to know exactly what needs to be cut or boosted, where the compressors need to be set, and where to set the
crossover. All of these things are fancy gadgets to tell you how to fix a problem that you should know how to fix just by listening to it.
There is (at least there was) a great program on roadie.net that would present you with a 31band eq and you would hear a
feedback frequency. You would
pull down the proper frequency and the ringing would stop, and go on to the next. This is especially great for monitors, and best of all....it was free. If anyone finds it, please post it.
(And to Eboy87, absolutely.....it all starts at the mic)
And as far as something else that I think is important to have in a professional rig, how about something simple.....good
microphone (
xlr) cables. There is nothing worse that the lead singer taking the handheld mic off the stand and all you hear is the hiss, crackle, pop of loose solder joints, unshielded cables, and the like. You can buy cables on ebay all day for $3 each, and they are great for things like clothes lines and tying up your dog, but not as
xlr cables. I have had pretty good luck with whirlwind, but there are several other good companies out there.