Graphic EQ Woes.....

[Snakeman1066]

Ok well my head has a 10 band Graphic EQ and i have tried many many times to use it to further my tone but i end up getting disgusted and turning it off...

I have discovered that all my bases sound thin at 1 Khz, all my basses sound boomy at 125Hz, my basses really seem to growl at 600Hz, and I get great bottom at around 80Hz however that said i can't seem to adjust the other frequencies to go along with the ones i mentioned above

your standard 10 band is as follows

30Hz 64Hz 125Hz 250Hz 500HZ 1Khz 2Khz 3Khz 5Khz 8Khz

so any sound gurus out there want to give me some advice?

[badboy1984]

I'm not a big fan of graphic EQ myself. They complex to me and i can't dial in a good tone. I guess if you know what those freq means on each one then it probably can dial in the tone and can control everything.

[niftydog]

Most peoples mistake is to use too many sliders and to slide them too far away from the centre detent. On a ten band EQ, if you need to use more than 3-5 sliders to get where you want to go, you're asking for either added noise or phase issues.

(EQ bands are literally just frequency specific amplifiers - boost too much and you're adding noise and creating a phase shift compared to the adjacent frequency bands.)

So, I'd maybe boost 64hz a bit and cut 125 slightly to compensate for the boominess - boost 500hz very slightly if that's what you like, cut 1khz a little (actually, I'd go a bit lower like 800, but you've got no option between 500 and 1000hz) and if I wanted a bit of top end, bump up 5khz.

Oh yeah, and don't forget that all these bands overlap and interact, so boosting 1khz is also going to boost the adjacent two or four bands by a lesser amount.

[atheos]

Keep everything flat and turn each band individually to max - if you like the boosted band, turn it back to flat. If you don't like it just cut it some amount. If it's total horror you might want to cut it more. I'd guess that 250Hz would be one of those "you don't want this mud into your sound" bands.

More, 1KHz is the basic center of all sound so that's the middle middle, you may or may not want it. It's up to you. You get the clang from 2KHz to 8KHz and by balancing them you can adjust the tone of the clang. Boosting 8KHz and cutting the lower creates a Korn-type snap attack while cutting 3KHz and above makes tha attack softer.

I'd begin by turning the 34Hz all the way down but hey, I'm a metal head. The kick drum punch is usually from 50 to 60Hz so no need to go there with bass but instead have the bass punch at from 80 to 120Hz. The whole idea is that cutting the lowest end causes less power consumption for the amp and allows louder and brighter tone and makes the kick drum stand out more. But again, this is for my band and rock in general so it may or may not work for you. Worth trying anyway.

Anyway, the basic rule for EQ is: Keep the good tone flat and cut the bad. Turn one band at time to max and make your choice whether it's good or bad band. Depending on the EQ you can boost the good bands but some EQs get overdriven from that and sound just horrible. The safe way is to cut only.