EQ + Monitor Speakers?

Hover

New member
This may be kind of a silly question but I'm curious so I'll ask anyway.

Has anyone ever paired up a parametric EQ with their Monitor speakers to improve their frequency response and sound quality? I know that monitor speakers are supposed to be designed to have a flat frequency response but I was wondering if adding an EQ to the output of the speakers might help either with cheaper costing monitors or maybe help tune them to your room acoustics.

Thanx, Hover
 
I have my monitors set with the bass, and treble in the middle, and they sound really close to what my home stereo does. That is what I went for, as I like the way my home stereo sounds with commercial Cd's, and I tried to get my mixing system to sound close to this. I'd say, if you need to do some tweaking to get your environment to sound how you are accustomed to listening to music, do it. Get it to where you are comfortable, and everything sounds as good as possible. My room is a 20X26 room, and so mixing on a pc with monitors close to me sounds good, but moving away, they lose alot. Getting stuff sounding good, and used to that stuff is what will help.
 
Just remember (or find out if you haven't tried it) that moving your listening position just a little can make large changes in the lows and low mids. So gentle curves might be fine to tweak the balance. But with no room treatment, try a two or three hundred Hz tone, move around just a bit. Which hole will you eq for?
:D
 
> Has anyone ever paired up a parametric EQ with their Monitor speakers to improve their frequency response and sound quality? <

That doesn't work for many reasons. As Mixsit said, "Which hole will you eq for?" The text below is from my Acoustics FAQ.

--Ethan

Another common misconception is that equalization can be used to counter the effects of acoustic problems. But since every location in the room responds differently, no single EQ curve can give a flat response everywhere. Over a physical span of just a few inches the frequency response can vary significantly. Even if you aim to correct the response only where you sit, there's a bigger problem: It's impossible to counter very large cancellations. If acoustic interference causes a 25 dB dip at 60 Hz, adding that much boost with an equalizer to compensate will reduce the available volume (headroom) by the same amount. Such an extreme boost will increase low frequency distortion in the loudspeakers too. And at other room locations where 60 Hz is already too loud, applying EQ boost will make the problem much worse. Even if EQ could successfully raise a null, the large high-Q boost needed will create electrical ringing at that frequency. Likewise, EQ cut to reduce a peak will not reduce the peak's acoustic ringing. EQ cannot always help at higher frequencies either. If a room has ringing tones that continue after the sound source stops, EQ might make the ringing a little softer but it will still be present. However, equalization can help a little to tame low frequency peaks (only) caused by natural room resonance, as opposed to peaks and nulls due to acoustic interference, if used in moderation.
 
1) how is the outboard EQ different than the internal EQ settings on active monitors?

2) what if your just eqing the mix-seat? is it 'slightly more acceptable" to use the EQ to even things out?
 
COOLCAT said:
1) how is the outboard EQ different than the internal EQ settings on active monitors?
Outboard EQ is optional, internal EQ is not (unless the monitor happens to have a bypass filter.)

The bandpass EQ switches on some monitors are marketing ideas more than engineering solutions.

Can they make the monitor sound "better"? Yes.

Do they make the monitor's response any "flatter"? No.

Are they effective in flattening anamolies in room response? No.

Do they help one make better mixes? Only in the fact that if they "sound better" they may not fatigue one's ears as quickly. Other than that, no, not if the engineer has good ears.

COOLCAT said:
2) what if your just eqing the mix-seat? is it 'slightly more acceptable" to use the EQ to even things out?
It's no different. Two big reasons for this:

1.) Graphic EQs do not have the resolution to correct room acoustics and parametric EQs do not have enough bands to plug all the holes.

2.) The phase and coloration issues are still there regardless of whether one is EQing for the whole room or for one cubic foot of that room.

But all this talk misses the main point: Monitor flatness is not required for good mixing. If it were, there'd be no such thing as good mixing because there's no such thing as flat monitors.

Ear training and the ability to translate are what's important. If your ears happen to like a bit of, say, 2k boost in your monitor and your mixes do not wind up deficient around 2k when played back on another system, then who cares that there's a bump in your monitor or room response at 2k?

The idea of acheiving or approaching "flatness" does come in handy if one is an engineer who works in more than one studio. Knowing what to expect from the foreign monitor chain and not having to learn and adapt to the local coloration for every desk he sits at is a good thing.

But if one is running their own rig in their own home and they are the only one driving it, then worry about one's ears and translation skills. If the monitors and/or the room are so bad as to make good relaible translation impossible or just too difficult, or it gives one a headache after a half hour of mixing, then those problems will definitely need addressing with new monitor placement, acoustical treatment, or new monitors. But beyond that, forget the flatness chase.

G.
 
G, thanks. I was seriously wondering what the difference was. One of those brain-teasers. The phasing and coloration comment I've read about, and accepted as physics.

Studiomaster, I'm quite impressed with your studio list, especially noticing your only 12 yrs old. I'm in awe. That puts you around 7th grade?dang!

fyi, the Bestbuy salesman, I spoke too was probably about 21yrs old. He told me all speakers do the same thing "they produce sound". Whats important is you get the most expensive Monster cables. Because cables transfer the sound from your amp to the speakers. Expensive Monster cables can transfer the sound faster and that makes your speakers play the songs in correct time so they sound "waaaaayyy better" he said.
Most people at HR disagree with that philosphy and say the 10cent a foot cable works just as good.

You might want to go to Guitar Center, instead of BestBuy, they have PRO STUDIO MONITORS with FLAT responses.

hehe
 
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