Questioni have a alpine cda 9833 and have no clue how to figure out the 5 band parametric equalizer,need help with what the catagories mean its looks like this +or-6 1.0 3.2kz may be wrong about the kz anyway,i would really appreciate any explanation, help of any kind please thank you
Answersurely! EQing 101:
a paremetric EQ is a very powerfull tool when properly used. unfortunatly its difficult to setup without a good computerized analizer. some people can do a good job by ear with lots of experience but the problem with setting the eq by ear is that you really rely on the piece of music being recorded properly that you're using while setting it. and EQ's job is to compensate for speaker problems and room acoustics problems. so you cant really set an eq just by listening to 1 piece of music becuase if you hear soemthing wrong and adjust for it, chances are it will sound wrong with the next piece of music and you'll be adjusting for every song.
you need to listen to alot of music and over time when you notice certain flaws that are universal then you can compensate for them. NEVER use MP3s or cds created from MP3s while setting and EQ!!! pick good quality recorded music like Nora Jones for vocals and instruments. and for bass a few of the tracks on Nellyville like pimpjuice are pretty good.
ok, so now for what a parametric eq is. Simply put, a parametric eq lets you pick a freqency that needs adjustment, adjust it up or down (louder or softer, whatever it needs) and it allows you to adjust how many freqencies near it are affected as well.
the frequency is pretty self explanitory, 3.2kz (bass is like 20-120hz, midrange is like 120-3khz and trebble is about 3khz up to 20khz)
the +/- 6 is the loudness or softness you are adjusting that specific freqency.
then the 1.0 (in your example) is the bell shaped curve of influence on other nearby freqencies called the Q. a Q setting of 1 effects 1 octive. a setting of 2 effects 1/2 an octive. a setting of 7 would effect 1/7th of an octave. think of it as the higher the number, the higher the precision or the sharper the bell curve. so a very high Q like 20 would effect the center freqency the most (again in your case 3.2khz) and effect the nearby freqencies very little.
one of the easiest ways to go about setting a parametric eq if you have no RTA gear, is when you think you hear a problem in your sound, lets say all vocals sound harsh to you which would indicate something needs to be turned down, set the eq to a Q of 1 or 1.5 and turn the gain UP and see if you find a frequency where its now worse. once you find that turn it up and down to verify you are making it better or worse at that frequency. once you're centered on it, adjust the Q to where it sounds right again. verify a good setting by trying different types of music and adjust the gain on this setting up and down (between 0 and the setting you had it at) to make sure it was a wise desision on a broad scale of music.
Good luck! let me know how it goes!
