essexbasscat Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 HI all, the journey into the dark art of sound engineering conitinues After my recent monitors thread, the question about which 31 band graphic to aim for has come into focus. It's been said around here from time to time that tone circuits (I guess we can include the 31 band graphic in that description, as it's a tone shaper after all) alter the tone just by being in circuit. Do some graphics alter the tone at ground zero more than others ? Are some graphics more pleasing to work with than others ? smoother ? harsher ? some more user friendly than others etc ? Does anyone have any experience of working with 31 band graphics and wouldn't mind sharing their knowledge ? Thanks all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molan Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 We always had Alesis ones, I think simply because they were pretty cheap and seemed to do the job OK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 You wouldn't want it to add any bias if set flat...that would be rather crap, IMO... but people like them to notch the P.A and I see this as the primary use otherwise you are second guessing the desk...which is NOT good So. you would use it to get the general room and P.A sound in harmony..and then use channel EQ for the instruments. You EQ the P.A to the room first and then shouldn't want to touch it again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elephantgrey Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1360496619' post='1971144'] You wouldn't want it to add any bias if set flat...that would be rather crap, IMO... but people like them to notch the P.A and I see this as the primary use otherwise you are second guessing the desk...which is NOT good So. you would use it to get the general room and P.A sound in harmony..and then use channel EQ for the instruments. You EQ the P.A to the room first and then shouldn't want to touch it again... [/quote] The other use for a graphic EQ is to cut sll the mic's feedback frequencies in there monitors, by individually turning the mic's gains up until they start to feed back, and then cut that frequency from there monitors. Repeat this for each mic maybe two or three times. This has the dual advantages of both allowing you extra headroom on the gain of the mics, and also making your life easier during performances by reducing how likely it is a mic will feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexbasscat Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 Checking out evil bay, there's a wide price range of EQ's available, so certain units may in some way, be better than others ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinman Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I've been using a Behringer 31band for controlling feedback in monitors as elephantgrey above describes. It has a nice feature of lighting the fader where the strongest signal exists making "ringing out" easy. However, it does feel a bit cheap and I've not noticed any obvious sound degradation but.... I've heard criticism of these units in them drifting and a bit of experience seems to back that up - I get them set but after some time as they get warmer new feedback frequencies seem to creep in. Of course, this could be due to other factors such as room changes as people come in, mics being moved etc. The other criticism is that compared with better units it's sometimes necessary to make bigger cuts to reduce feedback or that the bands are not as sharp meaning more of the overall sound is affected by notching-out the troublesome frequencies. I've seen that the dbx231s gets good reviews - I'm after one myself. I'd quite like to use the other half of the unit to eq the front of house but I think I'd need a spectrum analyser to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted February 10, 2013 Share Posted February 10, 2013 I must admit I don't use Belringer as everytime we have come across them, the channel seperation is not good. You can get ok sounds per channel but the interference between others seems to get intrusive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 [quote name='molan' timestamp='1360495482' post='1971118'] We always had Alesis ones, I think simply because they were pretty cheap and seemed to do the job OK [/quote] Ahhh yes!! If you can find one - and they are a bit rare these days, I use an Alesis DEQ 224 [url="http://www.computersunlimited.com/images_products/alesis_deq_224_equalizer_b16242.jpg"][/url] Though there are full length rack units too - programmable and sound superb. The 224 has been discontinued and can be picked up for no money at all considering how good it is. - Case in point, I sold mine on BassChat, then many years later managed to buy it back from the guy I sold it too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexbasscat Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Aha ! thanks for the recommendations guys. More for the GAS list ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterfire666 Posted February 12, 2013 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Rane graphic eqs are awesome and can be picked up cheap second hand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essexbasscat Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 [quote name='winterfire666' timestamp='1360684844' post='1974628'] Rane graphic eqs are awesome and can be picked up cheap second hand [/quote] Thanks WF, I'll check them out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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