pre amp or power amp eq?

[sephuk]

ive just moved practice studios and my sound is shot theres so much soundproofing in this room my bass sounds muffled and muddy, where would you guys start the big tweak? turn off the preamp and get a good sound from the amps eq then tweak the pre amp eq or leave the preamp eq as its always been and ajust the amp eq or just wheel the amp out to the skip and throw it away cos you have tried both and you find a nice sound then it dont cut though no matter what mids you touch

[darkstorm]

The sound that arrives at speakers is the ready for recording one for me. So fix in a muddy room would be eq at PA to adjust for all the treble being damped out. Start at 5.6k to 6k range and raise that. If that solves the biggest part of the problem then your allmost home free. From there I would use 3-4 bands of midrange and monkey around with those along with cutting the 200-250Hz range which is responsible for most of the boom boom mud mud bass boombox sound in most systems. While leaving the 80Hz and below boosted, pref 60Hz or lower for that. Its how I get good articulation in the mix for low bass without boomy muddy which the 200-250hz range gives.

A cure in some cases is raiseing speaker off the floor a little with one of those acoustic insulated risers to decouple speaker from room. Also be sure your speakers arent in or near corners of the room as this just magnifies bass boomy muddies in cases like yours.

Hope this helps.

[bongomania]

^^^ Good advice. I'd leave all bass and pedal EQ in the settings that sound right outside that room, or in the recording mix; then use the amp EQ (or if you're using a rack rig, a nice full-featured parametric or graphic EQ) to adjust for the room. I agree too about cutting the 200-250 Hz range, though actually I'd have said 150-250.

[Darkglass]

I agree with bongomania! 150 - 250Hz usually makes any room rumble!

[sephuk]

Cheers guys took some time but its alot better!