Something for audiophiles (what sound engineers already know)

I’m no sound engineer which is why the graphic equalizer is a revelation to me. After many years of playing my tunes thru winamp and of late iTunes I forgot about the good ‘ol equalizer ie. the big device that once occupied a shelf in your vintage hi-fi setup. My dad still has a kickass 40-band eq. I loved that thing. They don’t make those thingems anymore. Or do they?

Ahem, yes I know, Hi-fi is old-hat. Today we have “home-theatre systems” and iTunes (mentioned already). We’re all aware what EQ does for us. At least we all use the presets on our various sound devices. Right? My iTunes and iPod EQ is almost always set to “Rock”

Handy. Someone already worked out which frequencies need to be boosted or reduced to compliment certain music styles. But EQs can do more than just that. EQ is also useful to get the right sound in the wrong room. And for aspiring musos they’re a handy way to highlight or reduce certain instruments (and their associated frequencies). For instance, I’m a guitar guy. Vocals can get in the way of figuring out which notes are played by the guitarist because guitar and vocal frequencies overlap somewhat. Using EQ I can boost the guitar’s EQ range and dim the higher end of vocals somewhat. Anyways. I found the following link very very useful.

http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/ituneseq/

Go Now. Create your own presets! 

Its a good starting point. Now I wish I’d done a sound engineering course. Maybe I still can :P