Rough tune on your EQ - Page 3

JasonWW · 06-19-2006, 05:30 PM

Yea, before doing any EQ tuning you have to have the rest of your setup properly adjusted. Levels and x-overs.
If you play your music loud, try upping the front mids x-over point higher, try 100-120hz range. The higher the x-over the louder they can play (usually). It's almost always the bass that they try and reproduce that will start to distort the sound at higher volume levels. Also increase the slope to 12 or 18 dB/octave. They really don't need to be playing subbass. So start with a higher slope, turn off the sub and then turn up the music while playing with the x-over freq. Start low, at about 80Hz and listen for distortion with a few different songs or types of music. If you hear some at the loudest volume you will normally play, then raise it to 100 and see if that helps. If need be, try 120Hz. Usually you don't want to go too high like 150 or 200Hz as you will start to lose your midbass snap. So it's a compromise that you have to find.

Do you have a passive x-over between the mid and tweet or do they each have their own amp channel? Some passive x-overs have level adjustments to attenuate the tweeters. Let me know your mid/tweet setup.

The High pass on the sub is just a subsonic filter. If you want your bass to extend below 20Hz, then just turn the HPF off. If your sub can't play that low and you don't normally listen to music with low bass (pipe organs or speacialty CD's) then try raising it to 30Hz and 36dB slope. That will prevent the sub from wasting power and excursion trying to play frequencies that you aren't going to hear in a moving car anyway.

The low pass on the sub is a bit tricky as there is accurate and there is fun to actually listen to in a moving car.

You'll need to play around with it. Your 63Hz and 12dB slope is OK. Sometimes raising the freq and increasing the slope can reduce the midbass (which will draw your ear to the rear) while still keeping the low bass you need. This can help keep the image up front where it belongs.

Idec Sdawkminn · 07-19-2006, 08:12 PM

JasonWW PMed me asking me to put my info into this thread. I have already created a new topic about it. It's here: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81279

XxAndyxX · 10-23-2006, 10:00 AM

Has anyone that only uses a winamp or WMP equalizer tried this? I'm wondering how well these equalizer's will be able to smooth the response curve out.

JasonWW · 10-23-2006, 10:12 AM

I've never tried and don't really want to. I have a feeling it would onlt add distortion if any bands were boosted. If you can't get a good external EQ with more bands then I would recommend only using the software EQ to cut certain freqs.

RedGTiVR6 · 10-23-2006, 10:30 AM

Or, look at getting a seperate EQ program that's worth a darn!

JasonWW · 10-23-2006, 10:33 AM

Some of the ones I've seen were $300 and up. It can be pricey to get the good programs. Are there some cheaper ones you could recommend for folks?

XxAndyxX · 10-23-2006, 12:12 PM

It seems like there wouldn't be any dramatic improvement over different software eq's due to the fact that the limitations of software based eq's (I believe) are that they don't have the hardware capabilities to boost or reduce spl's like a stand alone active eq does.

RedGTiVR6 · 10-23-2006, 12:18 PM

From what little research I've done, the quality of the software EQ is directly related to whatever engine they use as a basis of their programing.

I'd find it incredibly hard to believe that there's not a software EQ out there that's top notch, expecially when many recording studios are going to software.

durwood · 10-23-2006, 12:34 PM

If you boost too much you are going to create distortion. I think at somepoint you are going to be limted to the hardware in some manner. If you have the volume all the way up on your soundcard, you will get distortion. My experience has been, if you really want to boost then you should lower the whole gain by as much as you want to boost one particular frequency. Then at least you won't clip the signal.

For example if you want to boost 250Hz by +6db, then lower the overall gain by -6dB.

XxAndyxX · 10-23-2006, 01:44 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by RedGTiVR6

From what little research I've done, the quality of the software EQ is directly related to whatever engine they use as a basis of their programing.

I'd find it incredibly hard to believe that there's not a software EQ out there that's top notch, expecially when many recording studios are going to software.

Well I know there's top notch software out there, but I think what makes it top notch isn't its eq ability but rather its ability to interface with different db and RTA meters, and the calculations it can do based on the information gathered from those devices.

I'll do a little more research today if I find some time, but it seems reasonable to deduct that external active eq's far surpass those that are software based and come at much lower price. None-the-less, the ability to make suitable corrections to the response curve with a software based eq would be great.

RedGTiVR6 · 10-23-2006, 01:51 PM

Lower prices?

I've found some 31 band 1/3 ocatve software EQs for less than $90.

btw- check here: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=88359

XxAndyxX · 10-23-2006, 02:31 PM

What I meant was price/performance ratio. Like a "good" $400 software based eq may not work as well as a $200 external eq. It would be great is someone had both a software and hardware and could compare the two independently

FyreDaug · 10-23-2006, 03:08 PM

Can you use software eq's for this too? Winamp has this 4front 10 band plug in I use at home, and I Use it to boost the bass a little and drop off some of the highs. Doesnt sound as good using the bass/treble knobs, so I got this plug in and it sounds good.

XxAndyxX · 10-24-2006, 08:13 AM

I emailed ANWIDA soft and this is what they said:

Quote:

The structure used in our eqs strictly mimics the one of analog equalizers with the advantage of not having termal drifts or lack of accuracy in the curve shape.
The main limitation is not in the eq itself but on your audio card quality.
Another issue to keep in mind is that digital distortion is quite different from analog one. So even if distortion due to high input levels must be avoided in both cases, it will be much more perceivable in the digital domain.

Hope this is of help

Best regards
Massimiliano Tonelli

ANWIDA Soft

RedGTiVR6 · 10-24-2006, 08:35 AM

good info, guess that answers the questions about software v. hardware eqs!