hi everyone. is anyone here has experience to tuning 30 bands EQ(+ or - 12 DB)? i don't know how to tune correctly. i would like to increase bass, mid bass and make the vocal a bit clear. i don't know which frequencies i need to start on. i was trying to increase DB in 40HZ to 6kHZ. it made the vocal get worse and very few bass increased. please help me with this problem. thanks you

PHD

If you read one of the stickies of this forum you will discover this:

http://www.caraudioaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=39668

That graphic gives you the relevant frequencies and the sounds which are normally found within those frequencies.

i have read this charts already. what i try to ask was which frequency should i start to tune to increase bass, mid bass and clean the vocal sound. what is the method to tune.thanks

PHD

Get you system on a 1/3 octave rta so you can visually see the response you currently have. Adjust the eq to a flat response as per the RTA, then tweek to achieve the desired sound.

Bass is generally 20-60 htz
Midbass is roughly 60-250 htz
Vocals are roughly 700-4000 htz

also refer to this thread:

http://www.caraudioaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=67582

without measuring the frequency response (with an RTA or plotting it with a dB meter and test tones), you cannot know how to tune the EQ. when done properly, don't be surprised to find the sliders all over the place: some up, some down, and consecutive ones in opposite directions. every system and every cabin's acoustics are different.

Cant stress that enough. Desired sound. Setting a 30 band dead flat will sound horrible. Might of scored you a 38 in the old IASCA days but its hardly what you'd call listenable. A nice healthy looking RTA readout should curve nicely and still keep all bands within a few dB of each other - this is kinda hard to explain without visuals.

Best EQs use sliders IMO, much much easier to match what the RTA is telling you. Once you know what you're doing, tuning should be an absolute cinch.

First post here but has been a lurker for quite some time now.
Try tweaking the 250hz and 400hz. Usually this freq brings out more body to the overall sound.
But I would try to consider first proper speaker placement and aiming before you do any EQing in your system. Sometimes an EQ can do more harm than good.

if you don't have a RTA Ect.

I suggest starting by dropping freqs between 500 and 1khz, and try it.

Boost 150-200hz if you want more midbass,

I'd try to leave your bass settings alone, probably 60hz if you really need too,
but likely you'll just cause distortion.

If you want more high end clarity try around 10khz boosting.
you may want to drop between 2-5khz if your tweeter sounds harsh, often at the x/over point there can be
a nasty boost which makes singers lisp on the end of words ect.

just play around really. only you know what sounds good to you.

althought this is so much easier with the proper equiptment, it is possible to get a sound thats nice to your ears without one.

In all my cars I've always found that somewhere between 500 and 1k there is a nasty boost which needs cutting down. and this usually gets me pretty close to a nice smooth sounding voice and music tones.

If at all possible, only Reduce the freqencys, don't BOOST where possible. Especially in the bass/midrange frequencys. If you want more bass, reduce the frequencys in front of the bass frequencys instead of boosting the bass frequencys themselves. If you boost you quite often add distortion.

Juls

Plus you tend to send the amp into clipping earlier as well...

If you have a large hole in your response curve, DO NOT BOOST THAT FREQUENCY!! I cant stress this enough. I did on my previous car, and the Amp clipping drove my previous speakers to their death. I was young, and stupid. Holes in frequencies are caused by poor speaker placement. Perfect your installation, then cut some frequencies to achieve a nice balance to the sound, dont try for a flat RTA response. It sounds sh*t.

i have tried to tune in 150-200hz to boost 9db but the result is make the whole sound crap. i still don't know how to solve the problem to increase mid bass. by the way, what do oyu mean by If you want more bass, reduce the frequencys in front of the bass frequencys instead of boosting the bass frequencys themselves. which frequency are you talkiong about?Thanks

PHD

All that advice is good but if you're like me and would not about as much about tuning a 30 band EQ as I do disarming high explosives (and it was my first day, accidents happen), take your ride to a good car audio place and have them fully tune it with a RTA etc.

First, your doors should be sealed, and SD. That makes a huge improvement. Also, try angling the woofers towards you slightly. I find it best using a Parametric, cause I get a better sound from it. At the low end, use a low Q and pull down the ~80Hz point by a few dB, shouldnt need much. Then use a larger Q (2 or 3 tend to go well, not too large, not too sharp) and hit the 250Hz point down by about 2-3dB. Then to compensate, bring the 400-800Hz down by about 1-odd dB as well. Dont worry about the sub-frequencies too much, because if you want it louder, dial up your bass controller.

What you are actually doing, is boosting the frequencies you want by lowering everything else. Its all relative after all. Doing it this way is better for your amps too. Now that its volume is less, all you do is turn up the music and wallah! (It certainly isnt that easy, takes a bit of playing around).

This should bring your midbass slighly more into the fold, though it wont make it snappier. I have found boosting the power (ie. changing amps) and running with a lower gain tends to do that better. Or just a different driver.

Several times in this thread it has been asserted that 'flat' systems sound terrible. Can someone explain why this is?
Home audio systems have long been tuned to reproduce a flat response and I never hear people say that they sound terrible.

I have been installing and tuning car audio systems for about 19 years and have always tuned systems with 30 band or parametric eq to be basically flat with a rising bottom end from 80 odd hz down and have never had a single person tell me my systems sounded terrible. The Toyota Echo I built with a parametric EQ was tuned to be essentially flat, including in the bottom end and more than a few people in the industry told me it was the best sounding car they had ever heard.
If flat sounds terrible then what do I aim for, the Himalayan Alps curve, the smiley face curve, the unhappy face curve, the amphibious landing craft shape curve???

I think maybe it is time to put the 'flat sounds crap' statement to sleep. It is simply a mistruth and only serves to further confuse those building systems with high levels of EQ adjustabiliy.

Well Hutch, thats a fair statement. In the end its a personal taste thing. My apologies if I sent anyone astray.

Rewording my previous post, I dont like my system to exhibit a perfectly flat response. It doesnt sound right, to me. I like my EQ set with a rise at 100-250Hz, lowering itself down in the mids, and pulling up higher in the 10+kHz range. It could be me, or my music, or my equipment, but thats me.

I dont know whether its my tastes, or my music, but I find systems that are setup for flat response slightly empty, like they are missing something that is there, but not. I cant really explain it, but thats my tastes. I also like my bass to be 'punchy and fast' rather then really deep. Heaps of people are different, hence why no-ones cars are the same.

In the end though, I aim for flat, and when I have it, I adjust to give me my sound. EQ'ing is about playing around to find that sound YOU like. Lots of tweaking, and then a bit more.!!

Fair comment. Always endeavour to get the system producing as flat a response as possible and tune from there to get a sound that floats your boat.

I'm with Hutch on this.

I tune for a flat mid to top end, and a 'presence' peak, seems to work ok.