Karaoke Forums

I am having trouble finding a good setting for my EQ. it's a DBX 231. 1/3 with 31 bands. Please share with me some of your karaoke presets.

THANK YOU,
K

Rent a spectrum analyzer and a RTA microphone. These tools will allow your to properly EQ your room. Or return the EQ and buy a driverack.

-..... do we really need to "eq the room?"

Maybe, if Elton John or Celine Dion were coming to your show for a concert... but we're talking something completely different here...

I think what a KJ with a decent ear can EQ is just as serviceable.

Either you have an ear for it or you don't.... if you don't and have to rent a device to tell you how to set your EQ then you wouldn't be qualified to make singer adjustments as you go along either and it'll sound like crap.

Yes! You still need to eq the room for sound & feedbak regardless of the entertainment IMO!

HOWEVER, in response to the rest, YES you still need to have an ear for music & KNOW how to adjust and KNOW what your equipment can do & is capable of.
As far as the original post, there is no 'right' eq setting, it is completely room & prgram dependent so chances are any tips on specific settings are not going to work, I will tell you to stay away from making your eq setting look like a smiley face - this is THE biggest mistake I see wannabe kj's make - all this does is boost lows & highs & cuts all midrange - primarily where the vocal range lies - and then they wonder why their singers sound like crap and muddy! Once your multiband eq is set for "the room" for feedback elimination & basic tonal control, then the only adjustments needed are on the mixer channels themselves for the singers & music. Like said, each and every singer - and usually every song need to have the eq on the channel strips of the mixer adjusted - there is no 'set it & forget it' setting as far as eq settings are concerned - these are adjusted constantly throughout the night- well at least they should be!!!

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Of course you need to set the sound for the room (or EQ the room if you prefer) but it doesn't need a spectrum analyzer or RTA microphone to do it so I disagree. Unless of course your own ears don't work and you have to rent a device to point out the obvious. I never understand why so many karaoke hosts think that you have to set sound up like you are providing sound for the Superbowl or a Kiss concert.... c'mon folks, this is "Saturday night Karaoke at the Watering Hole Bar & Grill."

You can "find feedback" very easily and eliminate it without ANY devices and you SHOULD be able to set the rest for good "sound in the room."

Especially with an EQ with so many bands.

Remember, you're not setting up sound for a convention of audiophiles.... it's a bar and 99.9% of "the crowd" consists of drinking people with impaired senses.

Time to come back to reality....

I picked up an impromptu gig last night at a new Eagles club in my town - they spent a fortune on beautiful wood panelling through the entire place - tall, tall ceiling, long L-shaped room. Stage is at the top of the L. I use a 12-channel Mackie board (not the big hummer but the DX maybe? with built-in EQ), 2 powered 350 Mackies with a 15-inch sub; 3 corded SM58s for the singers.

I was wondering what I would be facing when I cranked 'er up last night. It was "noisy" compared to my normal rooms - very bright I guess I should say. By the end of the first singer I was pretty sure I had set it up right and was amazed that the sound was very well equally distributed through the room. I never have feedback but I also don't push the EQ to either extreme.

You have to look at these different situations with an ear for detecting what the problem is - the number of times I've gone to a show and realized that the host knew absolutely nothing about sound - that is, what is wrong with it and/or how to fix it -- is alarming. I think 30 minutes with a really great sound man/woman who is able to give you those hypothetical situations with the solutions is a necessity for someone who can't hear it naturally. Get to know the board. There is no one setting or they'd build boards that didn't adjust. Don't experiment with singers at a show - experiment where no one will have to be your dummy but you.

This aspect of the show, to me, is the one that separates the pros from the amateurs. Your singers are the ones who benefit from your skill at setting up your sound in a room, and of all the things, that is the most noticeable as far as I'm concerned. The singers may not identify it readily but they will certainly realize that they sound better than normal. That's what it's all about for me.

I don't think one needs to use an RTA - although the Driverack has one built in - you ring it out using the boost volume & cut method.
However to me it's more than just Sat night at the local bar. WHich is why I pride myself on my sound.

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can anyone post a graphic picture of your EQ settings for karaoke?

Husky, there is no one "magic" setting that works for every room. What's perfect for one room may be the worst possible setting ever for another room. On top of that, the perfect setting will likely change several times over the course of the night!

There's a whole list of things that will affect how the sound from your speakers travels around the the room and contribute to sound problems. The best thing you can do is start with a primer on using EQ to combat feedback, listen to the rooms you're in, and work your settings from there.

Here's an excellent beginner's article that will help you get started:

http://colomar.com/Shavano/pa_eq.html

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Dave's not here.

Husky as others have said you really just have to listen to your rig and learn how to tell what there is too much of or what is missing from the mix and adjust accordingly. If there's a ton of low end, then start in the 250 range and work to either side to find what the offending frequency is and take it out. If you're getting that ice pick in the eye harshness then look at your mid range, 2.6-4 kHz would be a good range to start in. Remember when EQ'ing you generally want to try to cut rather than boost, so start with a flat EQ, listen for what's coming through dominantly and remove it. It's a skill that has to be developed over time with a lot of trial and error. The more you do it the better you'll get and through experience you'll find the ability to pick out exactly what frequency is the offender and get it the first time. I could show you my house EQ from a show, but it would be meaningless to you. My EQ changes for each night at each venue (different conditions in the same place call for different adjustments). You just gotta practice.

I personally don't think that analyzing would be a bad idea or "overkill" for Karaoke. The bigger problem is who has the time to do that? It generally doesn't make the bar really happy when you setup your PA and then blast them with a bunch of pink noise over and over until you get your EQ dialed in. On the production company side, we do use our RTA quite often when mixing bands, but even then you have to do so sparingly unless your able to setup and test before patrons arrive.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Husky I'm nowhere near the sound man some of these guys are, but I get complements on my rig's sound following a pretty simple procedure with nothing but the little eq built into my mixing board. It won't be as perfect as using a 31 band eq, but it all seems to work out.

Here's how to "ring out" a room...

Get the venue to let you set up early when the place is relatively empty or if they'll let you play a little after the gig is over that will work as well. Make sure you have one mic near your mixing board and of course that none of your microphones are in front of a speaker. Make sure all your eqs are set flat to begin.

After you're all set up, make sure your mics and your music are turned all the way down, then bring your amp levels up to max if you're running a separate amp or to unity gain if you're running a mixer/amp.

Now set one mic up near your mixing board and talk into it as you slowly bring it up where you can hear yourself. Set your mic trim.

After the trim is set, slowly increase your mic gain till you start to hear just the faintest amount of ringing. As soon as you hear the ring, back your mic down.

Now drop all your mixer eq sliders down and take the mic back up to where you heard the ring. Start at your lowest frequency and bring up one slider at a time till you hear the feedback resume. See where you have to position the slider to get rid of the feedback. After that's set, bring up the next slider and repeat the process till you have adjusted every slider.

Now begin to bring the mic up a bit more till you just begin to get feedback again. Use the same principle as before, adjusting your sliders one at a time. Keep repeating the process until you feel like you have plenty of volume for your mics, not just for your own voice but for someone with a timid or weak voice.

Listen carefully to what the feedback sounds like in each range for future use. I often find feedback around my 500 Hz slider -- it usually has kind of a boomy horn like sound. The 1k, 2k and 4k ranges make more of what I'll call a "shimmery" sound.

After you've done all that try a song and see how it sounds. I think you'll like it, but if you're not satisfied you can repeat the process with your mixer eq flat and start adjusting one band at a time on your 31 band eq.

A short cut you might take if you're still getting familiar with running sound -- if your venue has live bands, go out and see them. During the band break, approach a band member and tell them you're new at running sound and you like how the band sounds and ask them if they would mind letting you look at the eq settings for the room. Most of the bands are pretty cool about letting you do that as long as you make it clear you won't touch anything, just look.

somewhere in between needing spectrum analyzer and a RTA microphone and doing nothing is the correct setting.

Some wise KJ here once explained to use the eq to CUT rather than BOOST just bass and treble. I once was a SMILEY faced KJ and used that type of eq to compensate for LACK OF POWER etc. Nowadays I use very subtle tweaks up and or down on the master EQ and adjust the channels as required.