EQing the room - pros & cons

lwilliam 2 November 2001

I know there are pro's and con's of EQing your room, but I wanted to get some feedback. I've been moving my monitors around, putting Auralex up (and bass traps), but I don't know if the overall effect of putting in a parametric or graphic EQ (with inherent phase shifts) is overall, better than dealing with frequency inadequacies and having to "learn the room".

Any comments? I thought I saw somewhere that you (Julian) had a Behringer unit that automatically EQ'ed the room. Opinions on that box?

The first studio I worked in (back in the 80's) had an EQ'ed control room using White equalizers with Tannoy "Big Red's" and it seemed to translate mixes very well.

Topic Tags

room
eqing

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Comments

Ummm... how the heck is a piece of electronic equipment going to

Scott Gould Fri, 11/02/2001 - 14:15

Ummm... how the heck is a piece of electronic equipment going to EQ a room? It can tell you what the problems are that need treating, but the only way to EQ a room is by changing the dimensions and materials in its construction. You really need a professional to help you find solutions to resonant frequencies, cancellations, standing waves, flutter echo etc. Once you've cured the room's EQ problems, you'll find instruments, microphones, speakers & so on will all sound better. There's no magic box in your signal chain that can do this.

Scott

Funny you should mention it... I have JUST fired up my Ultracurv

Guest Fri, 11/02/2001 - 17:27

Funny you should mention it... I have JUST fired up my Ultracurve again..

The box and it's mic are so cheap...

It produces pink noise then picks that up with a mic (placed in the listening position) then eq's the speakers to a 'target curve' specified by the user (usualy a 'sad mouth' shape... cause getting it to make the room "flat", produces shitty mixes)

I found it usefull as a freelancer in many different control rooms.

If you are unable to add sound treatments to a room, it is a handy tool but has 3 drawbacks

1) it has to convert the sound to digital
2) it is a graphic eq AND THEY ARE BAD VOODOO FOR MONITOR AUDIO
3) it's a little complicated to learn to use..

It goes between the desk and the amp & speakers..

Oh, you're talking about EQing a monitor system to try to make u

Scott Gould Tue, 11/06/2001 - 14:59

Oh, you're talking about EQing a monitor system to try to make up for room deficiencies, not EQing a room. My bad. I say EQ the room, not the monitors - it'll sound better (duh!).

Scott
"Hard work may not kill me; but why take the chance?"

Question, does the Ultra Curve have word clock inputs to up the

anonymous Tue, 11/06/2001 - 16:55

Question, does the Ultra Curve have word clock inputs to up the quality of the conversion? I'm looking at one of these myself.

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://digitalsound…"]Digital Sound Lab[/]="http://digitalsound…"]Digital Sound Lab[/] :w: This little guy is cool!

No but the clock will travel down the AES anyhow.. You give me

Guest Tue, 11/06/2001 - 18:35

No but the clock will travel down the AES anyhow..

You give me some ideas to try hook mine up digitaly..

I wouldn't EQ the monitors unless the room is really fucked. The

MadMoose Tue, 11/06/2001 - 18:38

I wouldn't EQ the monitors unless the room is really fucked. There's too much harm that can come out of it due to phase shift and other bad juju. I'd like to try putting a spectrum analyzer in line though. That way I could use my eyes and my ears.