PARAMETRIC EQ VS GRAPHIC EQ SOFTWARE

People commonly expect to be able to transform a sound completely through use of EQ, and really drastically change the sound, and this isn’t necessarily the case. When there’s a build-up of any individual frequency, it can sound really harsh to a listener, and it will also use up some of the valuable headroom and energy available to you in your mix. It’s also worth noting that in a lot of cases, the best mixes sound very well balanced in terms of frequencies, and there will be a spread of frequencies right across the audible spectrum. If you think logically – there are only a certain amount of frequencies the human ear can hear, regardless of how densely a track is arranged, so carving space to give each instrument its own room can really help make a track sound full. It can be a great way of creating space and separation in a mix, and giving each element its own place. The frequency determines the pitch of a sound.ĮQ can be one of the most valuable tools in an engineer’s arsenal, and typically it’s used on multiple occasions within a session, often on almost every channel.

The frequency of a sound is the number of waves that pass a point in unit time – so if a wave is longer, it will take longer for it to pass a fixed point, so the frequency will be lower. The human ear can hear from 20Hz – 20,000Hz, although as we age, that decreases quite drastically in the upper end. Every sound is made up of different frequencies, and they’re measured in Hertz, or HZ. I've probably confused you more than helped.What Is An Equalizer? Fab Filter Equalizer – Q3Įqualization, or EQ, is the process of adding or removing frequencies from a piece of audio. So you can boost a frequency without necessarily needing to reduce anything else. They can boost as much as their internal analog gain can allow. Parametric EQs allow you to select specific frequencies.Īnalog EQs are different. A graphic EQ is too general and won't have the frequency sliders at exactly the frequency you want. Parametric EQs allow for finer control which is necessary if you are using an EQ to correct for specific aspects in a headphone's sound.

PARAMETRIC EQ VS GRAPHIC EQ SOFTWARE

So if you boost 220 Hz by 5 and click 'auto level' then all frequencies will get decreased by 5 to compensate.įor software based EQs, many of us are using parametric EQs rather than graphic EQs. The auto level button will lower all the sliders to prevent clipping. The Foobar EQ has a button for 'auto level'. Some have no master gain slider at all and it is up to you to use the rest of the sliders in a manner that protects from clipping (in such a case you'll want to only cut and never boost a frequency above the 0 dB mark). Some will do automagic clip protection that will kick in when it detects that the EQ processing is about to cause clipping (the corrections it does will sound odd). Some will have a master gain slider and it will be up to you to set that slider as appropriate. Different digital EQs can have different ways of doing that. So if you boost 500 Hz by 5 dB then you need to lower the overall gain in the EQ by at least 5 dB to match. The main rule to follow with digital EQ is that you don't want to cause digital clipping on any of the frequencies. why am I having a hard time finding a good quality software EQ that matches up to the hardware EQ that I have, when everyone else is raving about software EQs?ĭigital EQs, both software based and hardware based, have different rules that need to be followed to properly use them compared to the old analog EQs. For lack of a better word, I'll quote another Head-Fi'er by saying the software EQs I've used (Creative, iTunes, and Foobar) only 'mangle' the audio. The result: Well it definitely does a much better job in manipulating the audio to my headphones than any software EQ does. It's a very low end EQ, but I can't detect too much noise added to my setup. So I found a cheap deal on craigslist for a hardware EQ and picked one up yesterday. I've tried using Foobar, and while it won't distort, it appears reduce the volume of other frequencies when the amplified frequency is heard. If I amplify any frequency range, it automatically distorts. I'm currently running an X-Fi sound card and using Creative's EQ is just pathetic. I know many suggest software equalizers as they don't add noise throughout the line up, but my experience with software EQs has been bad. Well I'm the exception and want to use one between my source and headphone amplifier, which outputs to Sennheiser HD600s.

From what I've read on Head-Fi forums, there seems to be a majority opinion on EQ: Don't use one, especially for headphones. Before I begin, I'd like to say that I'm a fairly new member to Head-Fi and audio in general.

Parametric eq vs graphic eq