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Double Bass Euphonic Audio EQ points

bass dan

bass dan

Feb 18, 2007
845
72
st. simons isl. GA
#1
I've had the iamp800, the new micro and now have a iamp200 combo with a whizzy speaker. I am trying to find some eq points to use with my upright. The simple answer is to use my ears till it sounds good. Problem is sometimes on a gig it's difficult to hear yourself play therefore making it difficult to use the extremely powerful eq that the iamp have. In the bedroom it's easy but not always on the gig.

I know everyroom is different so there is no right answer but was hoping some folks could chime in with some of there eq points they use for upright bass. I know the new micro and doubler center the mids @ 800, not sure about the lows or highs. Acoustic Image 60 lows, 650 mids, 10khz highs.

I was going to make a chart of some different settings to take to gigs with me. That way if I'm having to adjust my eq in hard to hear situations I wont be doing it totally blind.

Just thought it would be fun to see what works for people, or if they have a go to setting or favorite setting. Really just curious.
 
#4
Yeah, I just remembered sharing photos of our iAmp eqs and then searched on threads I had posted to. Would have been hard for anyone else to find it that way.

The eq section is really cool on these amps, but requires a little more edumaction than the simple low/mid/high dials. I need to get me some more. I'm still using these controls in a very pedistrain way. I know what you mean about difficulty working through it while you're playing. Much easier with a bass guitar, because you can walk up to it, make a change, walk away and around, keep playing, walk back to it, etc.

It helps to have another player to trade with. I've been been saying for years that I was going to hire my favorite recording engineer for 1/2 an hour to teach me to use my ****. It would be a good investment.
 
#5
Interesting to see how different peoples eq's are. I'm not sure what people mean by setting the Iamp flat. What is flat on a Iamp? Is it when the button to bypass the eq section is pushed? I think it sounds pretty good just like that. My setting are really close to TroyK's. I'm using a Upton hybrid with a full circle and super silver strings. Playing mostly bluegrass.
 
#6
Yeah, I assume that "flat" is with the eq section defeated.

I arrived at that setting (I think I still had the Realist at the time) at the first and only TBDB Seattle Chapter hang to date. A friend of John's was there and while I was playing, he started making adjustements and like magic it snapped into place right about there. I had someone else play and did some sweeping my own. Really helpful process. Need to do it again, new pickups, better ears, etc.
 
#9
I did not realize if the knobs were all at noon the slider had no effect. I think I need to work with this amp some more. It's really easy for my ears to get fatiged when messing with the amp. But maybe the reason I can't hear any difference when I move the slider is I usually have all the knobs at noon.

It's starting to make sense now. I usually use the presets with my electric bass so obviously I could hear changes with the different presets. With my upright I have been either disengaging the eq or centering the the eq point at different spots but not usually cutting or boosting any of the frequencies.
 
#10
bass dan said:
But maybe the reason I can't hear any difference when I move the slider is I usually have all the knobs at noon.
Click to expand...

If the slider sets the frequency to be cut/boosted by the dial, then it stands to reason that wherever the slider is, if you're neither cutting nor boosting that frequency, you won't hear a difference when compared to any other slider point. Because there isn't one. Right?
 
#11
Just though I'd chime in as I was in on the design of the Doubler. What I thought would be cool ---which they did, was have the mids on channel 1 at about 550 or 600 (can't remember exactly--it's been a while) and channel 2 at 800. I've found this very useful having the choice. Not sure if the micro has different mid eq points.
 
#12
GrowlerBox said:
If the slider sets the frequency to be cut/boosted by the dial, then it stands to reason that wherever the slider is, if you're neither cutting nor boosting that frequency, you won't hear a difference when compared to any other slider point. Because there isn't one. Right?
Click to expand...

I think this is right. I guess in my mind I was thinking simply by moving the slider I was moving the center of the frequency whether or not I cut or boosted it. This appears not to be the case. I guess if you dont boost or cut any frequency they are centered at whatever frequency comes out of your instument?

It's all really confusing but I think I'm beginning to understand. I just naturally kept putting the knobs back to noon thinking it was more of a volume control.

The way I understood the manuel was to turn up the frequency you want to hear 5 to 10 decibals to hear the difference. In my mind after finding the frequency center I liked I would turn the knob back to noon. I guess I was thinking the center frequency would be moved but putting it back to noon would keep everything even volume wise.

So in essence I have not been properly using the eq on this amp or rhe Iamp 800 I had for a while. The newer Micro I had is a more traditional syle amp. THIS IS EYE OPENING. I feel pretty stupid.
 
#13
bass dan said:
I think this is right. I guess in my mind I was thinking simply by moving the slider I was moving the center of the frequency whether or not I cut or boosted it. This appears not to be the case. I guess if you dont boost or cut any frequency they are centered at whatever frequency comes out of your instument?
Click to expand...

You are moving the centre frequency, but if the relative loudness of that frequency is unchanged, you won't discern a difference.

bass dan said:
It's all really confusing but I think I'm beginning to understand. I just naturally kept putting the knobs back to noon thinking it was more of a volume control.
Click to expand...

It is a volume control, in a sense, but one limited to controlling the volume of a particular frequency band, centred on the frequency chosen on the slider control, the width and slope of the "shoulders" of the band (or "Q") pre-set by the designer; a fully parametric EQ also allows the user to set this parameter, hence the "semi-parametric" EQ on the iAmp.

bass dan said:
The way I understood the manuel was to turn up the frequency you want to hear 5 to 10 decibals to hear the difference. In my mind after finding the frequency center I liked I would turn the knob back to noon. I guess I was thinking the center frequency would be moved but putting it back to noon would keep everything even volume wise.
Click to expand...

One way of thinking of your EQ is to find and reduce "problem" frequencies, particularly in the mid-ranges -- keep the master volume knob turned fairly low so you don't risk damage, and turn one EQ dial most of the way up (they're usually something like +/- 12-15 dB; + 10 dB will approximately double the volume of the frequency band in question). Now move the slider in degrees along its length and play something like a 2-octave scale (to cover a reasonable range of your instrument) at each stopping point along the way. If something sounds really crap, you want to cut that frequency a bit relative to the rest.

For example, somewhere in the low mids, you're likely to get a lot of boom, and somewhere in the high mids is hiding all the "quack" and "gank". Low and high bands are often shelving-type controls (I don't know about the iAmp), so everything below (bass) or above (treble) the slider-selected frequency will be affected by the dial setting. Setting the bass slider fairly low and dialling back is a handy way to reduce the mud and potentially speaker-damaging low frequencies. Treble is to taste.

Note that these bands are overlapping, and adjusting one will also interact with the others to a degree. Listening for this is where the fun starts.

bass dan said:
So in essence I have not been properly using the eq on this amp or rhe Iamp 800 I had for a while. The newer Micro I had is a more traditional syle amp. THIS IS EYE OPENING. I feel pretty stupid.
Click to expand...

Don't feel stupid. No one's born knowing how to use an EQ, and some are a bit counter-intuitive. Try figuring out a Fender tone stack from scratch!
 
#14
thanks alot. I've got some time today before my gig to mess with it a bit. Thanks for the lesson on paremetric eq. I now understand how to work this thing. I kept wondering why the presets had so much difference in sound but my knob sliding seemed to do nothing.
 
#16
Related to the EA Micro's EQ points, this amp also has an adjustable HPF on channel 2 via a trim pot on top, but its use isn't documented in the manual.

Anybody know the range of the HPF or which direction trims off more low end?
 
#17
Have no experience with that amp, but with most of the High-pass filters I've used, turning the knob fully clockwise attenuates only the lowest frequencies; as you rotate the knob counter-clockwise increasingly higher frequencies are attenuated.

If you crank the bass boost it can be easier to hear the action of the HPF as you turn the screw/rotate the dial.
 
#19
Jazzdogg said:
Have no experience with that amp, but with most of the High-pass filters I've used, turning the knob fully clockwise attenuates only the lowest frequencies; as you rotate the knob counter-clockwise increasingly higher frequencies are attenuated.

If you crank the bass boost it can be easier to hear the action of the HPF as you turn the screw/rotate the dial.
Click to expand...


I just tested this on my EA Micro and that's exactly how it works. Full clockwise for less lows; full counter clockwise for fewer highs. I have a sneaky suspicion that the Micro's "HPF" doesn't perform in the same class as Fdeck's standalone HPF. Can anyone compare HPF performance of these two?
 

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