Who uses a graphic equaliser?

[Andy P]

I've been thinking about adding one now I have a decent PA sorted. Anyone else here run through one or do you just use the one on the mixer

[rth_discos]

I've been thinking about adding one now I have a decent PA sorted. Anyone else here run through one or do you just use the one on the mixer

Might be worth merging this topic with mine at http://www.forum.mobilediscodirectory.co.uk/showthread.php?42520-Psychoacoustic-Effect-Unit as it is in effect discussing the same thing. :)

One thing I've found though is the better the speaker, the less EQ you need to add - my current ones sound great with even just a flat input. Back in the day (15 years ago) when I had the QTX equivalent back then, I had to really drive the EQ hard to get any form of bass and treble out of it - and knock out the harsh mids.

[Nakatomi]

Sometimes you might need a graphic eq to counteract problems caused by setup location. We may not have any choice but to plonk our speakers in the corner of a room, for example.

In such cases, merely turning down a simple eq band may not be enough because of the overall shape of the room, materials & how things are constructed.

An example is one hotel I play where the speakers are on a balcony close to a wall. There's no room to move them and some bass notes are noticeably louder than others. There's a peak in the LF response where there wouldn't be if the PA was more optimally placed. A graphic, or at least parametric eq could help with that.

A guy I used to work with runs a big pa system for reggae. His 'mid bass' cabs are bigger than most peoples subs. He uses a 32 band eq to tune out room resonances. You'll find that just about every big pa operator does this too. For smaller rigs it can help too.

I plan to add graphic eq at some point, because I won't be happy if one day I'm stuck in a corner & have to take the bass right off to stop the mic feeding back at the low end

[DazzyD]

A good graphic equaliser can be a godsend when doing karaoke as you can tweak the sound to reduce the effects of feedback. Knocking the overall bass back a couple of notches, for instance, is a good way of reducing feedback as it helps stop it rumbling on.

[Nakatomi]

It might be worth trying a feedback exterminator. They're alleged to be very good, but a lot of big pa operators are still using graphic eqs and manually tuning them for every setup.

[Andy P]

I got a feedback unit - it blew and needs some TLC if anyone fancies a look - think its a psu issue

[RobKennedy]

The other option is to consider a DSP unit which will give you various EQ options along with limiting, crossover, feedback control etc etc.

[ukpartydj]

I would prehaps consider it if I could have a software EQ and wonder off with my phone / a remote and adjust it but I've not heard of one of these.

My speakers sound ok as they are flat... most of the time
Can't be bothered with a seperate bulky unit and the time setting it up, well unless it makes a big difference.