Does anybody EQ their monitors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CrowsofFritz
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CrowsofFritz said:
This doesn't have to be strictly mastering related. Some guy made a comment over the internet and said "show me an engineer who doesn't EQ his monitors and I'll show you a terrible engineer."

I don't know anything about that, so I didn't address it. Is this guy talking out of his bum, or do people really EQ their monitors? I can't believe that is so. Isn't the frequency response what makes monitors special?
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moresound said:
If it's a live situation then no he isn't talking out his bum.
In the studio yes he would be talking out his bum. For the monitors are tuned flat as possible, and any EQing would be done within any single track.
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no ....... the word 'monitor' is a mostly marketing term having little to do with the speaker itself UNTIL you start to get to fairly high priced monitors.
Sure .... a 1500 dollar pair of Events is gonna be fairly flat but first, NO box speaker with multiple drivers is truly completely flat.

As Massive mentioned, even among expensive speakers there are variances in voicing and that's because of small discontinuities in the freq response curve ...... caused by all sorts of things from ports to impedance curve variances at different freqs and so on.
So even the best monitors aren't perfectly flat.

But at the 500 dollar and below range which is where the monitors most of us have reside, all they are is a bookshelf speaker. Some flatish and some not so much.
AFAIC a good pair of bookshelf speakers are just as good if not better than most budget monitors.

And yes, I have a slight amount of EQ'ing on my monitors. I real time all my stereo stuff and the same with my monitors. I have them as flat as possible at my listening position and since I use a reference stereo ( same one I listen to vinyl on) for my monitoring there are EQ controls handy and I use them.

And the Yammies NS10s are FAR from flat.
The most important thing is to know your monitors and know how mixes done on them translate to other systems.
 
Lt. Bob said:
And the Yammies NS10s are FAR from flat.
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But, of course!


Here is a measurement actually, though I don't know how accurate this is.


hs50m-vs-ns10.jpg




The Yammies seem to be good in that they have just the right sound that if a mix sounds decent on 'em, it sounds pretty good elsewhere. The same can't be said for other crappy sounding monitors. The NS10 started out as a hi-fi setup didn't it? That's funny. :D
 
CrowsofFritz said:
. The NS10 started out as a hi-fi setup didn't it? That's funny. :D
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yeah they did ...... I truly think one of the things that led to them being so popular was the white cones.
So someone would see them in a studio and want those "white woofer" speakers.

I'm a big believer in knowing your speakers.
Hell, I frequently mix down on headphones despite all the people who think that doing that will cause the Earth's core to meltdown and explode.
Granted ..... I have a high-endish headphone set-up with Sennheiser 600's and a Headroom headphone amp with their crossfeed circuitry in it .... but I could use lesser cans and once I got to know them I could mix on them too.
I would defy anyone to tell a mix I did on cans from one I did on my monitors.

It's all about knowing your system. Since mine is also the system I do my serious listening on ..... I know it well and I know what good recordings should sound like on it ...... that's the whole ballgame right there.
I would advise everyone to use their monitor system for listening for fun also ..... there's no better way to truly know what a good commercial recording should sound like on your system.
I have spent thousands of hours listening to my system since it is the system I use for all other listening purposes whether it's background while I clean the house or sitting down and listening to my new Valleys of Neptune vinyl so i know it extremely well.
 
EQ'ing monitors can work in many cases and not in others. That's pretty much it and why you'll have equally competent people doing it or not doing it. It's most useful with nearfield monitoring, where the room reflections have little impact on the listener in the sweet spot. It's like anything else... one size does not fit all in recording. Remember, monitors are EQ'd by design... the the construction, drivers and crossover all contribute to the character of a particular speaker. You can "EQ" a monitor simply by changing the crossover point(s). So yes, you can tweak the character to your liking with an active equalizer as well, but it may or may not improve the situation depending on the application.
 
never heard about equing the monitors..let em be as they are
 
EQ'ing a monitor speaker can be a very effective way to tune out a nasty frequency. There are whole systems devoted to this cause. JBL has one on a pair of their higher end systems. IK Multimedia has a nice system that can work with any speakers.

See: JBL LSR4328P and the IK ARC System 2

Now, this is indeed a niche product and not very common! But it does happen, and it can be a good idea. Keep in mind, part of the design philosophy to a nearfield monitor speaker is that the close proximity makes the room less of a factor in the sound. A good monitor speaker is built from the ground up to be tuned to flatness (I built my own for this reason). For example, if there's a 1.8 dB boost/resonance at, say, 2562 Hz, it will affect the mix but may not be conspicuous (to even a well-trained ear). An EQ system like this not only spots the error, but will also tune it out right at the source. EQ'ing a room is very important, but to make a precise adjustment like that 1.8 dB attenuation at 2562 Hz takes surgical precision with a specific tool. That would be very, very difficult to achieve that precision with room treatments.

It's not a necessary process, but it's not nonsense either. I'm unaffiliated with any company mentioned here, this is all just educational.
 
An EQ system like this not only spots the error, but will also tune it out right at the source. EQ'ing a room is very important, but to make a precise adjustment like that 1.8 dB attenuation at 2562 Hz takes surgical precision with a specific tool. That would be very, very difficult to achieve that precision with room treatments.
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But all that will do is make the speakers LESS accurate in spite of the room. If there is a buildup at (arbitrarily here) 150Hz and the speaker "knows" this, so it tunes out 150Hz, you've effectively doubled your problems.

"Room EQ" is nice for home theaters where "listening" is on the menu. When "accuracy" is, the ONLY way to effectively deal with the room is to deal with the room.
 
Massive Master said:
But all that will do is make the speakers LESS accurate in spite of the room. If there is a buildup at (arbitrarily here) 150Hz and the speaker "knows" this, so it tunes out 150Hz, you've effectively doubled your problems.
.
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yeah ..... in this example for instance you'd end up mixing way bass shy when you played it back on other systems.
I'm not seeing how that's a good solution.
 
Got a chuckle there - in this context, be sure you got accurate cable
:rolleyes::)
 
thesonicguru said:
chuckles here to, because these things would be apparent to you if you had an accurate signal path.
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since they're not true I doubt it.

EQ can add a layer of mud if misused but doesn't automatically do so. My Rane 31 bands don't do anything to the sound that I don't make them do.
And pretty much any cable, as long as it's a proper cable and not something being used in a mistaken use, such as using a speaker cable for signal cable, will be plenty accurate.
And my signal path is extremely accurate btw .... after 45 years of recording and audiophile obsession I have quality gear and know how to use it thank you.

and it would be "chuckles here too".














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