Some noobie EQ'ing questions.

[Zoofie]

Hey all
I have some noobish EQ related questions that i would love some help with :)

1) My mixer has Lows - 80hz , Mids - 2.5Khz and Hi's - 12khz. If people say a typical bassdrum has highs between 4.000 - 5.000 Khz. How do you do this on the mixer if the highs knob says 12Khz and +15 and -15? Its confusing me quite a bit :(

2) I have a High , Mid and Low knobs on my mixer , but i also have one called called 'Frequency' , located underneath the Mid knob. Which has 250 on what side , and 5k on the other. What does this control do?

3) This is sort of like the 1st question , but how do you set the EQ to specific things , for example 4 khz on highs? What does +15 and -15 all mean etc?

Thanks very much indeed :)
Regards , Zoof

[Mediocrefunkybeat]

Ok. The middle knobs are the key to this.

Your EQ is what's known as 'semi-parametric'. Between the bands stated on the knob, you can sweep to find a specific frequency (within a limited 'Q' factor) and then reduce it. Diagrams would explain this best, but there are three fundamental forms of EQ, shelving, semi-parametic and parametric.

Shelving reduces all the frequencies below the stated frequency (or between the stated bandwidth), semi-parametric is what I've just stated, parametric allows you to adjust as before, but with a specific bandwidth of adjustment. It's hard to word without a direct diagram - search for one.

[The Parasprinter]

Simple version is: The "low" knob will boost/cut everything below 80 Hz. The "mid" knob will boost/cut sounds centered around wherever the "frequency" knob is set (between 250 Hz and 5 kHz). The "high" knob will boost/cut everything above 12 kHz. And the +/-15dB means you can boost or cut the volume of each band by up to 15 decibels. A zero setting on a knob means no EQ is done in that range. It's best to start with all EQ on zero and make adjustments from there.

How to EQ for any instrument is pretty subjective. For a bass drum, you obviously want to let lows through, probably a cut in the low-midrange (250Hz-ish) to avoid overlap with other instruments, and if the highest frequency you want is 4 to 5 kHz, just cut above that. Rule of thumb is to start at zero, and shape the sound ONLY by cutting unwanted frequencies, if you can help it. There are plenty of recording experts here who can give you much better advice on that stuff though.