EQ difficulties

Leroy Riggs · From: Looney Tunes, R.I.P.

For as long as I have playeed steel, the one issue that I always struggle with is the setting of EQ. Since EQ setting at one level will overlap and affect the other EQ settings, where does one start? For example, I've struggled with setting low followed by setting the mid and then having to return to the low to compensate for the minor changes that the mid adjustment did to the low. I am using an older Session 400 and the age may be having something to do with it but I have seen this same thing on other, newer models.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Hi Leroy
Well there are no set rules for this,
but in general start flat and then decide what is the worst problem you hear and reduce it, then see if there is something wrong in other places and generally work for a balance.

many people think the tone controls only go up... inexpirenced soundmen are the worst offenders. but you can lower as well as raise, and both are equally valid.

Raising 3 EQ's wil leave frequency DIPS in between the controls center frequencies.

Lowering all 3 will leave PEAKS in between the controls center freqs.

As an experiment try pushing all your eq's up haed, if not redlined, and play a bit across the whole range, thenlower all hard and listen for the peaks and dips acorss the range. If you can then hear a range that really is disagreable then, this may be your problem area.

Also the harder you push the eq the more artifacts, or non-linearities, from true will be added on the slopes between flat and center peaks or dips.
This might be what your hearing.

It seems you have been on this course for awhile, and that the tone issue is so strong that you must really push one of the EQ's till it affects things next to it badly.

If you have been having an EQ issue
that just will never go away, it might be time for either a new amp, or a 10 or 26 band graphic EQ patched into your amp.

The 1/3 octave 26 band EQ. will allow you to make tone corrections essentially for everr 3 notes on your instrument.
If you can't get a tone you like with one of these babies in you amp, it is somwthing else besides the amp alone. It would be an incompatible sound chain.

I don't know your rig, so I can't say.

The 10 band is an octave equalizer and does what it says, rasies or lowers by about an octave of notes each slider along the audio range.

One other type of EQ is poarametric or semi-parametric. ususal in 4 channel versions.

But this is very powerful 4 channels, because each unit has ;
adjustable volume,
center frequncies
and adjustable Q, which means how many notes above or below the choosen center frequency are raised and lowered.
Essentially this means you can tune the 4 bands directlt to the trouble spots in your sound and nowhere else.
I use it every day in the studio.

My suggestion is take your rig to a dealer with both 10 and 26 band EQs and even a low end parametric, and try and see if you can make it sound good with either unit plugged in to your amp insert patch.

If you can't then, well try some new amps or a pickup etc.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 04 March 2004 at 01:05 PM.]

Leroy Riggs · From: Looney Tunes, R.I.P.

As the saying goes, 'You'll never find a steeler that is satisfied with their sound' and my sound, sometimes, really bugs me. I've been known to change EQ on the fly 10-12 times a night on stage--I don't think that is normal (at least my wife says I am not normal

). I have found that when the crowd increases or decreases, there becomes a need to slightly change the EQ. When I play in an old folks home, they hate the treble so I change and really flatten out the mid to high for them. But I still have never found a setting I am totally satisfied with.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Leroy, actually this doesn't sound that unusual..
no matter what the Mrs. thinks.

I've mixed bands since... oh around 1965 or so.
What you describe is SOP in every room except 2-3 nearly perfect spaces.

The acoustics of the space are changing, ie. the high frequency absorbtion is changing, the amount of power needed to drive different frequencies is in flux and you are making adjustments to compensate.

And different types of gigs such as playing for the retirees also require a different sound.

That's why any decent PA will have a 1/3 octave eq on both the mains and the monitors.
Niether will likely be exactly the same at the end of the night, though the monitors will only change by a band on stage request unless there is a side of stage monitor mixer.

I was in the studio of the rock band The Cars, Syncro Sound, in Boston many years ago. If you care to compare the 1st Aerosmith album recorded there earler with the 1st Car's album you will hear a very positive sonic improvement.

Now there was a studio redesign in there before,
but also Syncro had installed 1/6th Octave graphic equalizers on the main control room monitors.
Something they didn't advertise I might add.
And rather radically eq'd too.

This was instrumental in the studio going from a very fine studio to a world class sound.
In spite of having a control room too small to really be sonically correct.

Many acoustics designers feel that you can't have an acurate control room for bass response in a space smaller than
7 meters L x 7 meters W x 4 meters T.

So if you play in lots of different rooms, some will be odd with the bass frequencies ;

some will suck them up,
others will resonate and amplify them.

Sometimes A notes, some times G notes, somtimes C# notes etc. etc.
And also the relational harmonics of the notes.

Every room a different EQ tweaking to sound best.

So don't feel bad... you ain't alone.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 04 March 2004 at 04:23 PM.]

Leroy Riggs · From: Looney Tunes, R.I.P.

Well, perhaps I'm not strange. I'll keep looking for the 'perfect sound'--don't think I'll find it though.

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