EQ monitoring. bad idea?

[Chrisac]

I like a lot of mid range when mixing and my monitors (any of them) dont give me the mid range I like. I tried a little experiment and strapped a parametric EQ (hardware) from my outputs to my monitors, adjusted the sound a little and like it much better.

I realise that Im colouring what Im hearing a great deal and its probably a bad idea I cant do room treatments and such and cant go buying any more monotors as I have four sets already.

Does anyone else do this

bad idea?

[Jorg]

Loads of people do this, even mastering engineers.
However their EQ's are of the highest quality and their CUTS (I don't think they will boost. Maybe 0.5dB) won't be of any high gain.
Usually this is done by some guys after the room is treated in order to "flatten out the speakers" a little.

I guess as long as you are aware that I doesn't improve your room acoustics and that it will add noise and distortion of some degree, then you are fine. Just keep checking your mixes on the others monitors as well and don't go too crazy with that EQ.

[Billster]

Tuning your room first is always the better opportunity. That will make a huge difference already. Let me say it this way : I would rather change my monitors if I still had problems with the sound after tuning the room.

Cheers,
Bill

[Chrisac]

thanks for the replies.

Tuning the room isnt possible (many reasons) i cant do a thing to the room and I move around a lot.

I think its just a personal thing. I like hearing a lot of mid range, but at a certain frequency and I think I always over compensate when mixing through flat sounding monitors, although my fav monitors are JBL control 1's and i love the mid range they have...yep I like them, but theres little bass and if I add a sub they lose their character. I have larger monitors and its those I want to strap some sort of hi end EQ on.

Cheers

[Ethan Winer]

Chris,

> bad idea? <

Yes, usually. If you have decent monitors and still have too much midrange, the problem is likely caused by reflections and excess reverb at those midrange frequencies. In that case using EQ is a band-aid that might hide the problem a bit but does not really solve it. There are a lot of reasons that using EQ to correct room problems is a poor idea. The blurb below is from my Acoustics FAQ.

--Ethan

Another common misconception is that equalization can be used to counter the effects of acoustic problems. But since every location in the room responds differently, no single EQ curve can give a flat response everywhere. Over a physical span of just a few inches the frequency response can vary significantly. Even if you aim to correct the response only where you sit, there's a bigger problem: It's impossible to counter very large cancellations. If acoustic interference causes a 25 dB dip at 60 Hz, adding that much boost with an equalizer to compensate will reduce the available volume (headroom) by the same amount. Such an extreme boost will likely increase low frequency distortion in the loudspeakers too. And at other room locations where 60 Hz is already too loud, applying EQ boost will make the problem much worse. EQ cannot always help at higher frequencies either. If a room has ringing tones that continue after the sound source stops, EQ might make the ringing a little softer but it will still be present. However, equalization can help somewhat to tame low frequency peaks caused by natural room resonance, as opposed to acoustic interference.

[Kenny Gioia]

GET A PAIR OF NS-10'S.

[Jorg]

Originally Posted by Produceher

GET A PAIR OF NS-10'S.

[u b k]

Originally Posted by Chrisac

...cant go buying any more monotors as I have four sets already.

it sounds like you have 4 sets of monitors that don't work for you. in that case, it seems wise to sell them all and get one set that does. imo ns-10's and a boombox are better for mixing than 90% of the budget monitors out there.

as far as eq'ing is concerned, the only way to know whether it's a good or a bad thing is to hear how your mixes translate. if your mixes translate as well, or better, with the eq on, you're golden.


gregoire
del ubik

[Chrisac]

Thanks Ethan for your input. A lot of that stuffs a bit over my head and like I say its a personal thing I think. My room probably isnt to bad its just that I dont hear what I want to hear.

Pruduceher, I used to use Ns10s before I switched to the Control 1s. Like the NS10's if you can make a mix sound good on Control 1's it will sound good anywhere, and yeh the NS10 mid range is about on par with Control 1s....but I find the control 1s a more exciting speaker to mix on.....But in a way they are both crap.

The weird thing about all this is I have about 4k worth of monitors and I prefer the cheapest of the bunch (99 quid new)


UbK, your correct I dont have any monitors that I like for mixing except the Control 1s.

The set Im going to do the eq thing with are larger than the control 1s so I can hear the bass.

Im basically just trying to be able to use another set os speakers for mixing instead of always the Jbls.


Thanks all




......Now Ill have to think about what to use for the EQ?

[max cooper]

What if you dump the whole load for one pair of monitors that cost $4k?

or move to a different room?


If you were trying to learn to play tennis in a 9' x 12' room, and it wasn't working, would you re-string the racket with a different material, buy more expensive tennis balls, or try a different space?