EQ for Monitors?

[Andre Favreau]

I just finished the acoustic treatment in my home studio.

I'm wondering.. do you guys think it's important to have a EQ for the monitors?

If so, does it need to be hardware or would a plugin work for that?

Thanks for your help

Andre

 

[Pete Thomas]

I just finished the acoustic treatment in my home studio.

I'm wondering.. do you guys think it's important to have a EQ for the monitors?

If so, does it need to be hardware or would a plugin work for that?

I would think only if your monitors are not sounding like you want/need, or if the room treatment leaves some issues that can be addressed by EQing the monitors.

However if that is the case, any EQing to fix room issues would probably only work in one specific listening position. It would be best to treat the room so that it isn't causing any big problems, ie treat the cause not the symptoms.

When you say you've finished the acoustic treatment, does this mean you got an expert acoustic treatment specialist to do it, or are you expert at acoustic treatment?

If not then how would you know what is wrong with the room?

You could of course use something like this:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr06/articles/jbllsr4328p.htm

Which automatically correct themselves to the room, though as mentioned above, only in the listening position at which you sample the room.

If you did need to manually EQ the monitors, I don't think it would matter whether this was software or hardware.

 

[Orren Merton]

I agree with Pete, and I'd like to add to one specific statement:

If not then how would you know what is wrong with the room?

Not only do I agree with this, but I'd go further. The ideal is to have a well treated room, and monitors that give you an honest reproduction of what is recorded. If you know the room is right, then it sounds like your monitors are simply not honest.

So I'd suggest forgetting about EQing monitors. Leave the EQ for the tracks. Get your room as tuned as you can, and then get to know your monitors. And if after living with your treated room and monitors for an amount of time you realize that your monitors are still not giving you the picture that other monitors in your room do, it's time to consider other monitors.

(FWIW, "other monitors" don't need to be super expensive. I'm using a pair of Yamaha HS80Ms in my project studio and find them to be wonderfully flat and honest in my space)

Orren

 

[Andre Favreau]

I did the treatment myself. I put absorption panels and bass traps made of Rockwool (Roxul) but I would like to make sure everything is good.

I guess I should have an acoustician come check that, right? And then see if I can better optimize from there?

(My monitors are the Event Tuned Reference 8 by the way. They cost 1000$).

 

[daveyboy]

There's a rta app for the iPhone that works ok. I measured my room with some expensive software while it was working in a trial mode and used a dbx o,NI directional measurement mic that was pretty cheap. My room is heavily bass trapped. If I didn't know what I was doing I might tryout that IK multimedia thing that analyzes your room and then puts on some corrective eq. You'd have to remember to bypass OT though before you bounce so it's probably a big pita.


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[Pete Thomas]

You'd have to remember to bypass OT though before you bounce so it's probably a big pita.

Not if it's only on the control room output. The way I have it with the JBL system only the monitors are EQ'd. The only downside is you need to recalibrate for diffent listening positions.

 

[bambony]

Is your space as symmetrical as possible? Are your speakers facing down the long way of your room? Is your listening position reflection free? Google "Reflection Free Zone".

Precise speaker and listening placement are crucial to effective mix translation to systems outside your own studio. As a rule of thumb place nothing at 50 percent of the height, width or depth of your room, particularly your low end driver and your listening position.

If you are a bit techie get a cheap Behringer omni measurement mic (ECM5000 or something - google it) and download REW (Room EQ Wizard) and start moving your speakers and listening position to get as flat a low end as possible. Use decent stands (I made my own and they are sand filled) and Blu Tac to place the speakers firmly on the stand.

As a starting point place the speaker 20%ish in from the front wall of your room with the tweeters pointing right at your ears (not your forehead). Start with listening position at 38% down. I will repeat that placing anything at a 50% position relative to any of the 3 dimensions usually results in hateful colouration.

Having said this these figures are starting points and did not work that well for me! I ended up much closer than 38% to my front wall for flatest response in my studio.

Then listen to and mix lots of music to get atuned to the space and your speakers.

None of this will cost you much apart from time and hard work. Moving speakers around ad infinitum is pretty boring but you can improve things greatly. Understanding how the software displays information is important to making the right placement decisions.

The best forum for advice here is John L Sayers place (Google it). There are lots of very clever people there who can help far more than I.

USE EQ ONLY ONCE YOU HAVE DONE ALL THIS. IT IS A LAST RESORT AND NOT REALLY AN EFFECTIVE SOLUTION FOR MOST PROBLEMS.

Hope this helps

Tony

 

[daveyboy]

Anyone here using Fuzzmeasure to check the acoustics of their room? I've been exploring the demo but since I got the app a long time ago I'm restricted in only being able to take 2 measurements at a time. Anyway, I might spend the $150 and just get it as I'm curious.