How do the attributes of a room affect the EQ?

[Jeff Babcock]

Re: How do the attributes of a room affect the EQ?

IF you're in a situation where you're getting a high percentage of the sound out into the room with your system. Anything short of that and you're kinda stuck. As someone once said, "You can't EQ stage wash".

Of course. In a very small room where you're pretty much just reinforcing vocals and unamplified "stuff", or on stages with rippin' loud wedges and fills spilling tons of low mids out front, your capabilities are obviously somewhat hindered.

 

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

Re: How do the attributes of a room affect the EQ?

I wonder if that humidity/HF phenomenon is reflected in regional preferences of brighter EQ settings or boxes in drier climates and less bright EQ/boxes in more humid climates. Anyone have any actual anecdotal or statistical info on regional preferences?

As someone who lives in a dry region, Phoenix, Az., I would say it depends. I have heard systems/mixes that are very bright here but when you walk back to the mix position it sounds pretty darn good. Sometimes the mix engineer doesn't have time or ability to get out and walk the area to see how the mix is translating all over the place and I think this can be part of the reason too.

In the last few year I have been doing a fair number of EDM events. During the "Monsoon" (dew points upper 50 - lower 80s) season here I find that I have to cut my HF curve because there ends up being too much highs. As we dry out in late September I have to starting putting it back in. During the spring months when the dewpoints are in the 20s is when it is toughest. Sometimes I find my ears fooling me and I have to be careful and really walk the area. Often times the mix position is the worst sounding area but it ends up being good in the audience area.

A bigger issue is that you just don't get the throw from your boxes here like you do in more humid places. It is amazing how fast the audio falls off, particularly from a point source rig. This can be used to an advantage though. We have one particular city here where you have to have the audio a maximum of 90dBA at 100 feet from the speakers. Here, we can use a Trap system to make the gig much louder up front where everyone is while still maintaining the required SPL at distance.

Another thing that may be affected but I have absolutely no proof of is the effects of comb filtering may be reduced or are less noticable. One of my competitors will routinely run four KF850s a side and have them splayed tightly and they sound great and are very even sounding as you walk the area. I frequently run three per side of my TCS2500s, again splayed pretty tightly and the coverage is nice and smooth. I haven't spent enough time setting up my rig in high humidity places to really take the time to see if I need to splay differently but it may be possible. I'll have to pay more attention next year in Sturgis and see what my ears tell me.

 

[Robert Healey]

Re: How do the attributes of a room affect the EQ?

Directivity is key in rooms with poor acoustics. Look for speakers that have pattern control down to 500 Hz or below and keep the sound away from places you don't want it (probably involves flying the speakers, using delay rings, etc...).

 

[Brad Weber]

Re: How do the attributes of a room affect the EQ?

Directivity is key in rooms with poor acoustics. Look for speakers that have pattern control down to 500 Hz or below and keep the sound away from places you don't want it (probably involves flying the speakers, using delay rings, etc...).

Of course it then also helps to point the speakers in the right direction. I've seen some very nice, controlled directivity speakers aimed so that most of their output hits the walls and ceiling rather than the audience.

This perhaps gets into another aspect of how the room or at least the listener area may affect EQ as speakers have patterns that vary with frequency so you may encounter situations where you apply EQ to compensate for some of the variations in off-axis pattern that affects a large portion of the audience. Another aspect may be how much direct stage sound affects what the listeners hear.

I like to look at equalizing for gain before feedback and equalizing for the subjective sound quality as two separate but related aspects and the art in spaces with poor acoustics is often in finding the optimal balance of those two aspects.