Monitor Equalization

[mantaray]

Hi there

We have moved our stuff in a rather difficult room in acoustic terms, and an expert on acoustics is visiting us shortly to test the room. What he told us is that we need to have a 31 band eq connected to each monitor set with a setting he will suggest in order to take advantage of the acoustics of the room. However, instead of actually placing a hardware eq, do you think that it is better to use a plugin eq and if yes, how can we switch the 2 pairs of monitors in PT in a way that it won't affect the actual sound of our mixes?

Many thanks in advance

[Ethan Winer]

Loudspeaker EQ is not a good idea in most rooms. Much more here:

Audyssey Report

--Ethan

[mantaray]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Loudspeaker EQ is not a good idea in most rooms. Much more here:

Audyssey Report

--Ethan

Many thanks for the info.

[Glenn Kuras]

The following is a post by Frank who works with me at GIK Acoustics. I think it explains pretty well why NOT to use EQ.

You can't fix a time domain problem in the frequency domain.

EQ'ing monitors flat might improve things somewhat but attenuating the room modes works far better.

Think of it this way:

Suppose you're not hearing 90Hz correctly / loud enough because your room dimensions give you a 90Hz reflection that nulls out your 90Hz speaker output right about where your ears are at.

Without any EQ in the monitoring chain, you boost the upper bass going to the MIX until it sounds "right" and then when you listen to your mixes on other systems they sound muddy. Crap!

WITH EQ in the monitoring chain, you try a few 1/3 octave sliders and you find that boosting at around 90Hz seems to help a bit (determined by ear or with a real time analyzer). This is an improvement over no EQ in the monitoring chain because at least you're not EQing your MIX, you're EQing what you're listening to.

BUT - now you have some new problems. Boosting the 90Hz in the monitors not only turns up the direct sound but also causes a stronger 90Hz reflection off the back wall and you still get the same null in your listening position. It's a bit better because you've brought up the overall volume and forced the near field (where you hear mostly direct sound) a bit farther back toward the wall. But you still haven't eliminated that room mode, you're still not hearing the 90Hz accurately, you've limited the headroom on your monitor system, you've boosted other frequencies near 90Hz which have different room mode effects, and the slight benefit you get is lost if you move your head even a foot.

The problem isn't the frequency response of your monitor system (it's probably pretty good already), so changing that isn't a good solution. The problem is the reflections in your room causing standing waves that either cancel or reinforce at various frequencies depending on where you're standing in the room. And those are distance dependant meaning TIME DEPENDANT so your choices are to move the walls and get the time alignment more pleasing (usually not an option) or dampen the walls to reduce the amount of reflected sound.