To start, I’m writing this blog for Steve W., who posted a question on the Facebook page for A Sound Church. If you have questions, ideas, suggestions or just want to stay in touch, I invite you to that page, and also my Twitter. Being relevant to what you want to know is my #1 goal, so bring on the interactiveness.

A channel EQ will typically be either a 3-band (Highs, Mids, and Lows) or a 4-band (Highs, Hi-Mids, Lo-Mids, and Lows) EQ. The confusion starts when your board has 4 bands, yet there are 6, 8, 12+ knobs. Look at the photo in this post. This is a 4-band EQ. There are 2 knobs each for the highs and lows (red and black knobs respectively). There are also 3 knobs each for the high- and low- mids (green and blue knobs respectively).

My guess is, if you’re reading this, that you are the type that always readjusts the treble and bass in your car, trying to find that ideal setting. If you understand treble and bass and how it affects the sound, you can start to build on that and adjust the mids, or high and low mids as well.

I’m guessing that your console (unless it’s a digital one) will likely have 2 knobs for the high mids and 2 for the low mids. The one knob will stick in the middle when it’s pointed at 12 o’clock. This knob turns the mid up or down, and probably goes to -15db on the left and +15db to the right. When you add or subtract the mid, you should hear the change.

The other knob allows you to adjust the specific frequency that the other knob is turning up or down. Here’s an exercise for you. Play some music through an open channel on your board and boost the mids (or hi-mids if you have it) by +9dB. Then, on the ‘sweepable’ knob, turn it left and right. This affects what frequencies are being boosted by +9dB. The further to the left you turn this knob, the more you’ll hear those boosted frequencies sound lower. Likewise, as you turn the knob to the right, you’ll hear the boosted frequencies get higher in pitch.

Think about a graph, where bass is on the left and treble is on the right. The knob that lists negative numbers to the left and positive ones to the right, turns the mids up or down on your graph. The other knob will then shift those frequencies to the left or the right. It’s sort of like an etch-a-sketch, if you know what that is. 1 knob adjusts up and down, and the other is left and right. Notice that if you are not turning up or down any frequencies, then the other knob will not make any audible difference when you move it around!

Know that when you turn up 4kHz on your EQ, that 4k is the center frequency, but you are actually boosting a range of frequencies around that center one. If your console has a “Q” knob, or you see that option on your digital console, that allows you to adjust how many frequencies are being affected around your center one. Use a narrow band to zero in on a piercing high pitch, and use a wider band to drop out the mud from that keyboard ethereal sound.

Using the EQ is an art form, and requires training your ear and getting practice. I wish I could explain it all in 1 short blog entry. This weekend I’ll be on a digital console, and as an incentive to send you to Facebook and Twitter (links above), I’ll try to post a video demonstration on how this works. So, stay tuned!