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-- Would anyone care to explain to me how equalizers work?

Would anyone care to explain to me how equalizers work?

I realize that sound exists at frequencies, expressed in hz, but i do not understand how an equalizer serves to play with these.

i also know that the lower the freq. the lower the sound. the 60 hz end is the low end, then mid range, then treble

Sounds like you pretty much know all there is to know. A basic equaliser basically divides the sound up into different frequency ranges, from low to high, and can change the volume of each range indepentently. For example, turning the lowest range right down will remove the kick & the sub bass, whereas turning the highest range down will make the sound more muffled.

so then would one need a godly knowledge of the mechanics of sound in order to drop just the vocals, or just the bass line? ive been playing with winamp's equalizer because im bored, and i cant seem to isolate any single part of it. i realize that a bassline isnt just the first three sliders, but i cant really find any consistencies in it.

what I would like to know is...

which sliders are for bass and which are for treble?

hmm
maybe if i didnt try it with Ludacris and used some trance...

you probably wont be able to isolate any part of it.

it'll just start to either get muffled or too resonant

quote:

Originally posted by meneedit what I would like to know is... which sliders are for bass and which are for treble?

well, sound is just a series of vibrations on your eardrums, and the faster that the vibrations happen, the higher the pitch. as bass is low pitch, and treble is high pitch, the more frequent the vibrations, the closer to the treble end it would be.

which is the treble end?

well, frequency is measured in hertz, hz, and on an equalizer, a simple one like the one on winamp im playin with, goes from 60 hz, to 16000 hertz. the more frequent the vibrations are, the higher the pitch, so therefore, the 16000 hz end would be treble, and the 60 end would be bass.

Re: Would anyone care to explain to me how equalizers work?

quote:

Originally posted by Zenchowdah I realize that sound exists at frequencies, expressed in hz, but i do not understand how an equalizer serves to play with these. i also know that the lower the freq. the lower the sound. the 60 hz end is the low end, then mid range, then treble

An equalizer acts as a gate with a push - it can either cut off frequencies in a certain range, or it can boost frequencies in a certian range. Cutting off the high end will effectively run everything through a low-pass filter, whereas the opposite will do a high-pass, etc... Subtractive eq'ing is the most common (where you filter out frequencies), although boosts are also incorporated. It all depends on the application and the desired effect.

While 60Hz is on the lower end of things, it's not THE low end. I've seen mixers that will go down to 10Hz, and all the way up to 40,000Hz. Typically with a good eq unit, instead of separating the range into bass and treble, it will go low, mid, high, or low, low-mid, mid, high-mid, high, or even more specific for applications like production work instead of DJ'ing work.

quote:

Originally posted by Zenchowdah well, sound is just a series of vibrations on your eardrums, and the faster that the vibrations happen, the higher the pitch. as bass is low pitch, and treble is high pitch, the more frequent the vibrations, the closer to the treble end it would be.

Not exactly, sound is actually travelling in waves which compress the air. What you hear are the compressions and rarefactions as the wave passes through. The vibrations are what cause the sound, but the compressions are what let you hear the sound.

quote:

Originally posted by meneedit you probably wont be able to isolate any part of it. it'll just start to either get muffled or too resonant

Well all I know is that on my equaliser I turn up the farthest left fader up a bit to give it some more bass and turn up the farthest right fader almost to the top to give it lots of treble (when my friend spins his speakers put out lots of treble but it sounds really good so that's how I like it)

the lowest frequency the human ear can pick up is 20Hz and the highest being 20kHz

One funny thing I see people do with an EQ is turn both the low and high end all the way up. That kind of defeats the purpose of an EQ which is to isolate and amplify those frequency ranges that need to be amplified due to room conditions, etc. Turning the highs and lows all the way up basically turns your EQ into an extra amp.

Ok, so you will want to tweak the lower ranges to tweak the bass, and the higher ranges to tweak the treble, but how about the other elements of the song? Like Zen asked, I would like to know how to cut the vocals out, or vice versa (cutting the instruments out, leaving the vocals). Is there a specific range for the vocals, or will it vary by song?

quote:

Originally posted by j�c� the lowest frequency the human ear can pick up is 20Hz and the highest being 20kHz

so what would happened if you played a sine at 20Hz and jammed the volume right up? would you still not be able to hear it?

I don't think volume has anything to do with frequency, volume is just the amplitude of the wave.

You are absolutely correct. If it is a frequency range you can't hear, it doesn't matter what the volume is you still can't hear it. You can blow a dog whistle as hard as you want, but your dog is still gonna be the only one that can hear it get louder.

quote:

Originally posted by qwikk I don't think volume has anything to do with frequency, volume is just the amplitude of the wave.

My guess is you are gonna have to get some fancy mixing equipment or something to do that. An EQ isn't going to be able to, because vocals and music might be part of the same frequency range. You are looking to actually seperate the tracks that make up the music, and doing that is behind my knowledge. I bet a google search would give you what you need though.

quote:

Originally posted by Dojomaster26 Ok, so you will want to tweak the lower ranges to tweak the bass, and the higher ranges to tweak the treble, but how about the other elements of the song? Like Zen asked, I would like to know how to cut the vocals out, or vice versa (cutting the instruments out, leaving the vocals). Is there a specific range for the vocals, or will it vary by song?

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