Jump to content

Advice on using parametric and shelving eq


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Recently used a QSC K10. To my ears they got it as good as I've ever heard for my keyboards. Every sound I played sounded like the real instrument, and of course piano was the most revealing. I always thought it was a problem with the sampling, that was the reason some notes stuck out / honked / were problematic. Turns out my Nord Stage samples are great, it was the speaker that didn't reproduce the sound well. Playing the K10, for the first time in years, I was very satisfied to simply play piano, a rich satisfying experience.

 

I then did a comparison with the Yamaha DXR15, and while it's not fair to compare a 15" to a 10", it was revealing. As I played each note of the piano (or any sound for that matter, it was evident with Pandora playback as well) chromatically with varying degrees of velocity (max velocity is the most telling), in contrast to the K10, the DXR15 had a tubby woofiness that I'm guessing was in the 200-600 hz range, and for the first time I heard how the volume levels of those offending frequencies effectively blocked other frequencies. The net result was not only that overly "warm" tubbiness, but also a lack of transparency, I could no longer hear the spacious, almost 3D quality that I had with the K10. What an education!

 

Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of having the K10 as a reference point as I check out another speaker, the Turbosound IQ12. But right off the bat I wasn't impressed with the sound, nothing sounded spacious or compelling to play on my Nord. However, they have extensive DSP built into the IQ12, so I've been trying various options. None of the speaker modeling sounded great (you can choose 8 different speaker models that it emulates, I imagine through EQ), so I chose the brightest one (so I'd be able to cut frequencies instead of boosting). The brightest one sounded the best to me with no added eq so I think it was a good starting point. (I also tried EQ'g the default IQ12 sound, the bright one sound better before and after EQ).

 

This is where I need advice. How to listen to and adjust with a parametric and shelving eq. They give you low and high shelving and two fully parametric EQs. Being that I had noticed with the K10 the lack of honkiness / overly loud / strident notes that I usually hear with most speakers, I did a sweep with the parametric as I played chromatically. With the included PC software for changing the DSP parameters, I can grab a handle and adjust it (except for the Q, which I adjusted in advance to a fairly narrow band). As I swept the frequencies I was boosting them, to find offending frequencies. At 2.2khz and around 300 hz it gets strident and honky, respectively, so I cut a fair bit (-10 at 2.2khz, q of 2.5, - 5 at 292hz, q of 3). I didn't use the shelving.

 

Switching the eq on and off, I can hear an improvement as I play full velocity (which as you probably know uses a different sample than the low and medium velocity). The lows and highs sound reasonable, useable, but the mids are lacking, lackluster (about a fifth up and an octave and a half down from middle C).

 

I know the obvious answer, just get the K10, but I may be stuck with the IQ12, and I'm curious about ways of using the parametric EQ in ways I haven't thought of.

 

Suggestions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I don't specifically know the Turbosound speakers you mentioned but they do tend to make a decent product. Question: If you didn't have the K10s available for comparison, was it in a different acoustic environment? Even a great speaker in an odd environment can sound bad. Make sure you're as scientific as possible in your assessments (as many outside contributing factors being the same).

 

Just my .02

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Turbosound was acquired by Behringer. They have higher end speakers but this one is a $600 12 inch 2 way that is relatively new. It has fantastic DSP capabilities and connects to their ultranet system mixers.

 

I've read some great reviews of them on prosound and other places, so I thought I would give them a try.

 

Yes, I'm aware of how the listening environment can factor in, and this is the same exact listening environment and positioning that I auditioned the K10 speakers in.

 

The K10 was my first MI quality speaker I've ever had, and I was super impressed with it's eveness and spaciousness of sound.

 

I guess I just got greedy, I figured if the K10 could sound that good then something with a little more low-end, volume and all of this future upgrade abilities would be a step up, especially if I get an x18 mixer down the road.

 

Will probably return the turbosound and get the K10, which is about 15 pounds lighter and considerably smaller. But I wanted to take advantage of PC controlled EQ while I still had it,

 

It's so intuitive and quick when you can just grab a handle on the screen and play keyboard with the other hand. I was just wondering if I was missing out on some ways of doing some basic tunings with the system on offer here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hmmm I have heard the K10s and the Yamaha DXR 10s side by side before and in my opinion the K10s sounded brighter almost overly bright to my ears with no EQing. I ended up buying the Yamaha DXR 8 and use them with a sub. I do think the K10 is the best speaker in that line though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
I ended up buying the Yamaha DXR 8 and use them with a sub. I do think the K10 is the best speaker in that line though.
What are you using for subs under them? What frequency are you crossing over at? I'm somewhat thinking of picking a pair up to run over my 400w 15" subs. I'm using a pair of Behringer B208D's at the moment with that rig, crossing over fairly high to take the stress off them little guys.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Using EV ZXA1 crossed at 100hz and they seem very happy there. The Yamaha has a switch for 100hz or 120hz filter. I will say I think the rig would could benefit from bigger subs but the bottoms are very tight for rock and such. Probably not the best sub for hip hop or something like that but works for me. To me load in was very important in sometimes I have to contend with stairs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...