(Not being an audiophile, id like to know how to set my 20 band parametric equalizer)

ive read alot on getting software on laptops and high end microphones and checking wavelengths and pink noise and white noise and all that jazz...
id really like to know how i should go about setting it so it sounds the best. i cant carry a tune through a doorway, so i was wondering what the best way to approach this would be.

customsex

Just move the sliders until it sounds good to you. Everyone is different with what they like, no one can tell you how to set your own audio.

If you don't have any preferences, perhaps start with just the bass and treble adjustments in Hijack and go from there.

playing with sliders is fun, ive done it for fifteen minutes at a time, at times. but.. there seems to be a correct way of going about it that im not catching on to.

The "correct" way involves being a bit of an audiophile and knowing what to listen for. You professed at the top of the thread that you aren't an audiophile.

Basically, you move the sliders to remove frequencies that are too prevalent in the spectrum. You just fiddle with them, a little at a time, and try to listen to what effect they have on the overall sound of the music in your car. Adjust them to where each band sounds the most pleasing to your ear.

Do what Tony says until you get it just right to where the sound is perfect. Then change it back to a flat setting and it'll sound 10x better. I do it at least once a month.

What I also like to do is make designs, like a V or a W or a slanted line. I think it makes you feel like you're putting some sort of actual scientific method into it.

ROTFL, yeah, that is where I'm at too. If I ever need proof that I am a very poor audiophile I can beat my head against the equalizer for a while.

The method I've used previously is completely objective, as it needs to be if you're not sure what you should be listening for ! Start off by downloading SpectraRTA from Sound Technology and learn how to use it. Best if you can install it on a laptop and take it out to the car. I then used my (cheap) Radio Shack SLM as the microphone set up at ear level in the car. My Empeg had the frequency bands on the EQ set to some strange values - I'd recommend changing them to the normal octave bands of 32, 63, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 & 16000 Hz to start off. Set the SLM to C weighting, play a CD of pink noise and tweak the EQ until you get a nice flat plot on the RTA. Do *not* underestimate how long this takes ! I think I spent almost two days tweaking my system last time. You can see some before & after pictures from my pre-Empeg install here. Result was a generally smoother sound that was less tiring to listen to. It called for some pretty extreme settings on the EQ, I know I wouldn't have been able to do it purely by ear. If nothing else, running a quick RTA will show you how far off your current system is ! Steve.

I like to have the totally flat sound. To listen to the music the way the guys in the studio who spent thousands of dollars on it meant it to be heard like. But with listening on a flat curve requires highg end speakers and perfect placement so that you are in the sweet spot. Good clean power is a must also. Cheap speakers, amps and wiring will color your sound and thus require an EQ to get that pure sound back. Unless you like alot of bass or treble, which in that case do as TFABRIS says " fiddle with it until you like it"

Or... use RTA to get the sound perfectly flat first, so that there's no unnatural peaks in the response curve. Then, using that as a base, tweak to taste.

http://www.genelec.com/support/g_pink.mp3

would that work as a pink noise signal to play while calibrating?

would that work as a pink noise signal to play while calibrating?

Negative. That is an MP3 file. Don't ever used lossy-data-compressed audio files for calibration, use WAV files only.

Most audio editing packages will generate test audio tones for you, and most of the calibration spectrum analyzers will also generate test audio tones. These can be save to a WAV file and put onto the player for playback. Watch that volume control when you're doing it, as the volume level of these test tones will be considerably higher than regular music. You could damage your speakers and/or your ears if you're not careful.

I prefer using frequency sweeps and combined frequency bursts to pink noise anyway.

And, um, just in case you're not getting the point of the whole thing, don't take that MP3 file and decode it to WAV and try to use that, either.... You need to generate these files "pristine", without the data compression being in the loop at all.

ok, ill continue my search. as for frequency cycling and what not, im still a little confused as to how im going to get this pink noise to create a flat line. wouldnt know what to calibrate to if using variable noise.

The definition of pink noise is that it contains the same amount of energy at every frequency, so a perfect system would create a flat line. You're going to be trying to use the equalizer to ``emulate'' a perfect system.

Interesting thing is that when I put pink noise through SpectraLab, it doesn't come out flat. A combination of spectrum peaks comes out flat, but not pink noise.

Well, unfortunately, you have to define what ``flat'' is. And I suppose it could vary from spectrometer to spectrometer. I'm not really familar with it on a practical basis, but that's the way it's supposed to be. Maybe SpectraLab has a logarithmic scale or it's weighted by frequency (so that white noise would be flat) or something? Maybe you can change it?

It should at least be a straight line or a very smooth curve, I'd think. Is it?

Edit: I guess the question is, ``What is the axis perpendicular to frequency measuring?'' If it's power, then it ought to be flat. If it's volume, it shouldn't.

Edit Edit: Here's a good overview of the different color-based noise names.

Just download "Get the party started" or "Lady Marmalade".

yeah, but she doesnt really cover the spectrum im looking for.


customsex

Do what Tony says until you get it just right to where the sound is perfect. Then change it back to a flat setting and it'll sound 10x better.

Paul isn't just trying to be funny here.

If there's anything I have learned in tweaking my highly tunable system (8 channel "main" amp with separate gain and bandpass crossover controls on each channel pair; subwoofer amp with 82 selectable crossover points (41 for low pass, 41 for high pass), four frequency centers and 32 level settings for "Q-bass enhancement", continuously adjustable high/full/low pass pass-through outputs; dual 1/3 octave equalizers (one for left channel, one for right channel); remote gain controls for center channel and subwoofers; etc.)... but, I digress.

As I starated to say before I rudely interrupted myself, if there's anything I have learned, if I am tweaking by ear, I cannot do it for more than about 20 minutes at a time. After 20 minutes, anything I change makes it sound better. I'll be convinced that I am a Golden Ears genius -- until the next morning when I get in the car and hear it with fresh ears and wonder just what in the world I could have been thinking.

One option that nobody has mentioned yet... take the car to a high-end stereo shop, and if they are any good they will have a high quality RTA system with a calibrated microphone and somebody who knows how to use it. It will probably cost you $35-$50, but you can have them "flat-line" your system for you -- assuming you have enough tuning controls in your system to do that.

Even if every speaker in your car were "perfect" (there is no such thing) you would still need to tune them so that you can induce "imperfections" designed to compensate for the acoustics of your vehicle and the interactions of the various speakers with each other.

I have found that the only way I can tune a system by ear is to listen to it for at least a day or two, then decide that (for example) there is a resonance in the 350-500 Hz range that needs to be attenuated, and then with the stereo turned off, take 2--3 dB out of the appropriate equalizer band(s). After that, I'll listen for another day or two and then move on to the next problem area. It can take months to tune a system this way.

tanstaafl.