EQ settings, a survey of sorts

[tegendemuur]

Got a new phone, so again needed to spend some time setting up the EQ to make things sound good. It seems that droop gets more intense as the years pass by.

This made me curious, since were such a diverse group here, what shapes such graphic eqs take among us. As of the last few years I felt the highs to become very grating, so I cut those out a lot. Is that an age thing? (I am 43).

Do any of you need specific bands be cut of boosted? Had the sharp focus on guitar made you appreciate / loathe certain bands?

A lot of guitar sounds have started to annoy me; I really liked the mid / high when I was a teenager. The pleasure I found in fast and shrieking black metal of the past had to be replaced by blackened death, because the core sound seems to fit my current hearing much better.

I've got no real focus on where a thread like this should be heading, so everything about broken hearing and personal adjustments goes, as far as I am concerned.

 

[Erik S]

I do have some high frequency loss more in one ear than the other. I had a job for a while that required annual hearing tests. Not sure if I have those saved somewhere, but they would be interesting to look at now.

There have been a couple times I was working on something and thought there was something wrong with my setup because there was some harsh frequency only on the left or right - then I'll spin my headphones and the problem stays on the same side.


In terms of guitar frequencies I like, I've been playing a lot of DI guitar through this SansAmp on approximately their "Champ" setting with a big 3k boost. I recently tried to get a matching sound out of a junk graphic eq and ended up with the settings below. Not something I'm actually going to use for anything, but a useful exercise in trying to get better at knowing what numbers to go to to get more of something I like or less of something I don't.

 

[rossbalch]

On my phone I create a high pass basically with the 30 and 60 bands, a little dip in the 250 region and a small boost in 8k. That seems to help with podcasts and other vocal focused content.

 

[tegendemuur]

I do have some high frequency loss more in one ear than the other. I had a job for a while that required annual hearing tests. Not sure if I have those saved somewhere, but they would be interesting to look at now.

There have been a couple times I was working on something and thought there was something wrong with my setup because there was some harsh frequency only on the left or right - then I'll spin my headphones and the problem stays on the same side.


In terms of guitar frequencies I like, I've been playing a lot of DI guitar through this SansAmp on approximately their "Champ" setting with a big 3k boost. I recently tried to get a matching sound out of a junk graphic eq and ended up with the settings below. Not something I'm actually going to use for anything, but a useful exercise in trying to get better at knowing what numbers to go to to get more of something I like or less of something I don't.

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View attachment 112153

Yeah, everyone's ears probably got a quirk or two? Be it genetic or by outer influences. Makes the whole audiophile idea behind "no eq" utterly stupid. As if that whole community has the exact same hearing quality that a flat setting should work for them all. As if they got the exact same hearing as the musicians behind a record.

For some reason I need to have perforated eardrums to hear well. When doctors closed it when I was a kid in elementery school (after that tubings in your eardrum procedure when you kept getting ear infections as a child). After that I (unawarely) couldn't hear for shit in class and was the horrible ever distracted kid who got into trouble constantly for a few months. When they figured my hearing was screwed up, they punctured the drums, all was well; they don't heal by themselves, luckily. But now I am wondering if this has a broader influence on how my hearing differs from others.

Such a lengthy eq is a dream to measure things out tactfully! <3 All this touch screen nonsense is a freaking pain to set them even rudimentairly. Give me some stepped controls!!

 

[rossbalch]

Yeah, everyone's ears probably got a quirk or two? Be it genetic or by outer influences. Makes the whole audiophile idea behind "no eq" utterly stupid. As if that whole community has the exact same hearing quality that a flat setting should work for them all. As if they got the exact same hearing as the musicians behind a record.

For some reason I need to have perforated eardrums to hear well. When doctors closed it when I was a kid in elementery school (after that tubings in your eardrum procedure when you kept getting ear infections as a child). After that I (unawarely) couldn't hear for shit in class and was the horrible ever distracted kid who got into trouble constantly for a few months. When they figured my hearing was screwed up, they punctured the drums, all was well; they don't heal by themselves, luckily. But now I am wondering if this has a broader influence on how my hearing differs from others.

Such a lengthy eq is a dream to measure things out tactfully! <3 All this touch screen nonsense is a freaking pain to set them even rudimentairly. Give me some stepped controls!!

Sounds like a classic case of chronic otitis media. Basically ear infections put pressure on your ear drum all the time making it harder to hear. The grommet they put in helps to aliviate the pressure and also reduce infections becuase your ear canals stop sucking up bacteria from your mouth.

Its bound to affect your hearings frequency response is some way.

 

[gonzo]

Honestly I listen to music on my studio monitors in a fairly treated room with no eq. The flatter the better. Unless the recording is so bad, it's distracting. I just feel it's the way most recordings were mixed and intended. Most headphones and average stereo speakers have an eq bump added. Usually on purpose. Little phone speakers are even worse. I'm sure my hearing isn't as great as years before.

In a band and mixing it's surprising how much less bass a guitar actually needs compared to bedroom solo amp sounds.

 

[HamishR]

Similar to compression - I can't stand playing with a compressor on my guitar but for recording I'm happy to use as much compression as needed in the mix to make it sit right. Playing at home I love a big fat guitar sound but obviously that's not gonna work in a band. It's why I like bass controls on my OD pedals. Well, another reason!