Equalizer Tricks

[Theo Verelst]

Playing around with digital and analog equalizers can be fun. Preparing some instrument to sound right in a mix or a space with an audience is like a job, and there are effect related equalizer setups that are frankly a chore. Making proper studio recordings with equalizers and dynamic signal processors can be a beautiful job.

 

For today, two tricks I worked on/came across recently. First Double Equalizers at the same frequency

 

Say you try to make some normal sounds on CP4 sound normal on good monitoring and you want to put frequencies around 2.3kHz (I did this but don't recall the exact details by heart) up, AND down. How could this be? Well, presuming "normal" non-shelving, more or less symmetrical equalizer effects when plotting the amplification and damping of an equalizer section in a frequency graph, you could take two eq sections with different bandwidth or Q values, and put one of them up, and the other down, with equal or different amount. The CP4 can do that.

 

Another actually interesting trick is to take an analog equalizer, and a mirrored digital equalizer, and see if putting them in series can work neutral.

So, it's first like a "quality test", we take an analog equalizer, maybe a graphic rack unit, or a module from a synthesizer, and a digital equalizer with the same settings, from a computer with AD/DA convertor with some VST filter or a dedicated digital eq box, and A/B compare them, and try to make them sound the same. Interesting experiment, and with quality material and monitoring, probably you'll hear considerable difference.

 

Suppose you find comparable ana/digi eqs anyway, you could try to invert the setting on one of them, and see if the resulting sound path is neutral!

 

T.V.