I have a battle of the bands coming up where im doing an acoustic show with another guy but i've never ran an acoustic threw an amp before, now i've got a ovation celebrity with tone an volume control an my amp is a solid state with a clean channle i plan to use, but how should i set the eq on it to get the best quality sound out of it cuz right now it sounds echo-y, please help
be good at what you can do-
Rambling EQ Thoughts. A RULE, boost less and cut more. It is the most-used, mis-used, over-used and most under-used signal processior. Yet it's the most powerful.
Equalization effects the tone because it changes the level relationship of the fundamental and harmonic frequencies. Boosting harmonics is one of the first techniques a guitarist should learn to increase clarity and distinction of their instrument. Boosting of fundamental frequencies should be the last thing ever considered. If an guitar sounds thin or small you can carefully boost fundamental frequencies to correct this.
Reducing fundamental frequencies if the guitar tends to accent all of the harmonics and is a good alternative to boosting harmonics. The method is most often used in recording rock guitars but works well for all styles of music. Here's the technique and suggested frequencies.
Bass -40 Hz- Reduce to decrease boom and increase recognition.
Guitar -100 Hz- Reduce to decrease boom and increase clarity.
Vocal -200 Hz- Reduce to decrease muddiness of vocals.
"Acoustic Guitar, cut if its Tinny at 2-3 KHz. Boomy at 200 Hz. boost to Sparkle above 5 KHz. Full at 125 Hz."
An equalizer is a level control for certain rangers of frequencies. When you boost a frequency with an EQ, you are making the dialed up frequency louder than others. EQ's can also help to correct for poor room acoustics. No one yet has been able to define what sounds good and what doesn't, however various techniques for emphasizing what are considered to be the more pleasant qualities for musical sounds. Tailor the sound of an instrument only so far without losing its identity, every instrument can't be full, deep, bright, sparkly, etc. all at once. Leave some room for contrast.
Use this below as a recommended frequencies chart for a starting point.
50Hz - Increase to add fullness to lowest frequency, Reduce to decrease the boom of the bass and will increase overtones and the recognition of bass line in the mix.
100Hz - Increase to add fullness. Reduce to remove boom & increase clarity.
200Hz - Increase to add fullness(harder sound). Reduce to decrease muddiness of the mid-range.
400Hz - Increase to add clarity when at low volume. Reduce to decrease cardboard sound and ambiance.
800Hz - Increase for clarity and punch. Reduce to remove cheap sound for guitar.
1.5KHz - Increase for clarity. Reduce to remove dullness.
3KHz - Increase for more attack. Reduce to disguise out-of-tune guitars,
5KHz - Increase for presence, brightness and attack. Reduce to soften thin guitar.
Hope this helped.
joe
Forgive me for being dumb but that went right over my head, is there something I should know or shall I just keep twisting the knobs till it sounds good, thats what I normally do.
On most EQs there are a lot of knobs leading to a lot of combinations of settings. Most people get lost in the possibilities very quickly and end up not sure about what to do. Joe has provided a list of short cuts to get one to certain, commonly needed results faster -- in some cases a lot faster. One can twiddle -- and sometimes it's a great way to learn -- but a graphic EQ with more than five bands and almost any parametric equalizer are more complicated to use well than the uninitiated might expect.
-Greg
-=tension & release=-
