EQ settings and what they do

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My car has a 13-band EQ (40 Hz, 63 Hz, 100 Hz, 160 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1.0 kHz, 1.6 kHz, 2.5 kHz, 4.0 kHz, 6.3 kHz, 10 kHz, and 16 kHz.)

Could someone please explain what each of those bands means? What do they correspond to? (highs, mids, lows, bass, vocals, different instruments, etc.)

Thanks!

In: Technology

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Each of those bands is a specific frequency around which the band is centered. Increasing the volume of a band raises the relative volume of notes around that particular frequency.

Human hearing is, nominally, 20Hz-20kHz.

* Everything up to about 200Hz would be considered “lows”. Bass instruments and kick drums generally live in this range.
* 200Hz to about 2kHz is nominally “midrange”. Lower vocals, guitars, etc. tend to live here.
* 2kHz up to about 5kHz is going to be “highs”. Treble instruments and vocal melodies that sit “above” the rest of the instruments.
* 5kHz and above would be considered “brilliance”, which includes extremely high and bright instruments like cymbals, whistles, and the harmonics and upper range for treble instruments.

You can get as into-the-weeds as you like when it comes to defining frequency ranges like “upper-midrange” and the like, but this is a rough approximation of where instruments and vocals tend to fall.

The reason you have multiple bands within each range is that you can give each section sort of its own mini-EQ.

Within a given section, increasing the low-end will make that section sound warmer and smoother, but will lose clarity. Increasing the high-end will increase clarity but may cause it to sound tinny. Increasing the middle range will give it more “bite”, but can sound harsh.

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