Equalizer Frequency SettingsMusic

[Diego440]

I tried searching and came with nothing, so here it goes.

For the past eight months or so, I've been resident DJ at a local disco. The place plays mostly rock & roll and, heavy/death metal, and we have a few futurepop nights. I limited myself to playing CDs and the odd mp3 directly from the computer. The owner of the place was in charge of adjusting the crossover and equalizers.

Now, about a couple of months ago, the owner died (lung cancer), and not too long ago we had an invited DJ who played very weird stuff... something between industrial noise and feedback. Anyway, this invited DJ screwed around with the equalizer/crossover and in short, he ruined the sound.

Since then, every weekend I've been playing around with the equalizer/crossover and the sound doesn't come out as good as it did before. I've searched around the Internet for equalizer settings, but it seems the PC-based variety is what's IN nowadays. Anyway, recently I've been playing about 90% of the place's music through my own mp3 collection (about 120 Gbs of music)... and I've been playing it with the Winamp player, using their own equalizer and having mild success. However, the sound still has to go out through the old equalizer/crossover.

And now, to the point: does anyone know/have a good equalizer setting I could use to optimize the sound? There's no way to simply disconnect the equalizer and work only with the Winamp one, since the new owner (the owner's widow) doesn't want anyone tampering with cables and equipment, so my only choice is adjusting frequencies and the like. If it's any help, the equalizer is a BST CTC70 10 Band Eq. (probably made in 1980 or somehting) and the crossover is Fostex EN3020 (most definitely of the same year).

 

[Satorian]

What's exactly the problem with the sound?

 

[Omnis]

Here's the perfect EQ setting:

0.

That's the 'audiophile' approach, anyway. I have some foobar EQ files if you want them.

 

[Satorian]

While I'm waiting for specific statements on what's wrong with the sound, here are two of the main 'rules':

1. Cut rather than boost.
From most sound engineers experience it's more beneficial to cut in most cases than boost frequencies.

2. Never go more than 6db in either direction.
If you need to change a frequency or frequency range by more than 6db, something is so fundamentally wrong that you should look for other reasons to lacking sounds, like general setup, faulty hardware, etc.

And for general sound advice:

1. <40 Hz rarely of any use and can be shelved off in most cases to improve sound.
2. Too boomy and bassy? Reduce the 100-200 Hz area.
3. Sounds to much like everything is made out of wood and plastic? Try reducing the 400-800 Hz area.
4. Not enough punchiness and presence: Increase 3k to 6k.
5. Need more sparke? Increase 12k+.

Things to take into account with that:
1. Careful with the treble and high frequencies at high volumes. Sounds can wash out. Additionally humans perceive middle frequencies a few times louder than high ones and those a few times louder than bass. Keep that in mind when equalizing.
2. While bass is very indirectional, weak or wrong sounding highs can be due to general wrong speaker setup.
3. At best only make changes with the usual amount of people being there as they soak up specific frequencies and change the soundscape depending on the venue and setup quite a bit.

 

[VIPFREAK]

Here's the perfect EQ setting:

0.

That's the 'audiophile' approach, anyway.

Do you have to have "audiophile" equipment for that?

I usually just do the bass and tremble up enough so everything sounds vibrant but not distorted.

Here's my current Winamp settings...

 

[Satorian]

I would avoid cutting the mids in this contect though.

Lots of bodies to soak up the sound and most of the actually trying to be louder than the music when talking and making a lot noise would really drown out your sound if you cut the mids.

 

[Diego440]

that's what I was thinking after a while... either set all eq's to zero and have it work with the winamp eq... or copy the winamp settings and adjust them manually.

To describe the sound... hmmm... let's see, first of all, and I'm sure this is just a problem with the equipment, regardless of equalizing, it's that you hear the sound in the booth (through the earphones) about 1/4 second before it sounds outside... so when playing something with a beat it's like b-boom--- b-boom... anyway the quality of the sound is like when you're playing around with the EQ and you lower all the mids... you only hear bass and somewhat tweeters. I'm guessing the age of the speakers is a big problem here, and/or the use they have received. But the sound itself is like a muffled sound, so I guess higher mids and tweeters could take care of that.

The mids could be cut when playing, and as the place fills up, highered (is that a word?)... the sound quality in the dancefloor varies from what you hear say, in the bar.

Anyhow, if you can send those EQ files would be great... I'll PM you my email address if that's alright.

 

[Solid Lifters]

Maybe the speakers are out of phase. Check to make sure they're all connected properly. You know, negative to negative, positive to positive. If they all are connected properly, try reversing them anyway. Sometimes speakers aren't hooked up correctly internally.

Check to make sure all WOW or Sonic Maximizers, or other audio processing, are turned off. Make sure the PC EQ and sound effects are turned off.

The last thing to check is room acustics. That's difficult to describe here, so I'll just provide you with a link that could better explain things.

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/rooms.htm

I couldn't find the room acoustics calculator I normally use, but this should be good enough. http://www.hunecke.de/english/calculators/room-acoustics.html