Help learning basic EQ with Mixer.

[rmsstrider]

I am trying to teach myself how to use all the inputs available on my mixer. This is all pretty new to me and gets confusing without a tutor. Maybe there is a on line SIMPLE tutorial I can look at or purchase? I am solo acoustic guitar and vocal, small venues.
Here is what I have for a signal chain. Composite Acoustic Legacy with Fishman Prefix Plus T, Tc Helcion Harmony singer, RCF LPAD 6 FX mixer with effects , Bose LC1 Compact. And a Shure Beta 57A microphone.
Between the adjustments available on the Fishman Prefix, and the adjustments available on the Mixer, i am getting confused. I leave my Fishman on the Guitar flat to start as well as the controls on the Guitar channel 1, and mic channel 2 on the mixer. I set the Bose to 12 o'clock for volume for both channels. Then i start to turn up the gain one channel at a time on the mixer, then I play with the individual channel volume controls on the mixer, then I select an effect,lets say a little reverb. Then i try to adjust the amount of reverb per channel, then overall effect to send out from the mixer and finally the Master volume out to the Bose. Then I get lost in the Eq for Bass, mids, hi's, plus I have those adjustments on my guitar! Then I get frustrated and cant tell what sounds better. Any Advise? Be kind.

[jseth]

Sounds like you have a lot of "stuff" in the signal chain... that always makes it a bit more tricky to dial in...

First off, google "gain staging" and read up on that... it will serve you well in ALL your sound reinforcement applications, no matter what the gear you use.

Once you have gains set correctly, you can train your ears to "hear" what each eq knob does, simply by having ONE SIGNAL audible, then turn each knob all the way up and all the way down, and listen to what happens to the tone... do that for each of the eq adjustments you have, and you'll have a decent idea of what know affects what frequency...

All those adjustments are there for a reason, certainly, but I would always rather NOT turn any knobs unless necessary.

Take everything out of your signal chain and just plug in your mic and your guitar (without the processor), no mixer, no nothing... see how it sounds. Use the eq on your guitar to adjust things slightly.

No matter how good all the additional pieces of gear are, you will always get a purer sound without adding a bunch of stuff to your signal path... every piece you add will detract slightly from the overall, so you want to be SURE you actually need it in the line.

I'm sure there ARE beginning and advanced tutorials on line to read about this stuff... one good place to start (after the gain staging!) is the manual for whatever piece of gear you are using...

Good luck! Using all that fancy gear CAN be a bit daunting, but you can do it!

[necrome]

Hi rmsstrider! I don't have as much equipment as you do but I do have multiple EQ knobs that I meddled with for years between my guitar (with 2 different preamps) and an amplifier. The good thing is, I've used your pickup before and currently still use the Harmony Singer. I think it'd be good if you could record your sound with everything flat and share it here so we can help give some suggestions first! I personally use to cut mids completely on both my guitar preamp AND amp when I had a Fishman Prefix+ piezo because it sounded very quacky. Turning both mid knobs down all the way made it sound a lot better. Now I run an Anthem Stagepro pickup and drop the mids on my amp by half and raise or drop the treble by a hair depending on how new and bright the strings are

The Harmony Singer with its adaptive-EQ function (the red button) will make almost every mic sound good flat. With the latest firmware update, you do have a choice of more or less high treble frequencies (by holding the metal button down and then pressing the red - when it blinks once, you have less highs, when it doesn't blink, you have more) If you run into feedback issues, use the blink-once mode. I do believe the Beta 57A to be pretty bright and clear sounding the last I heard it. So blink-once is probably what you're looking for!

[rmsstrider]

Originally Posted by necrome

Hi rmsslider! I don't have as much equipment as you do but I do have multiple EQ knobs that I meddled with for years between my guitar (with 2 different preamps) and an amplifier. The good thing is, I've used your pickup before and currently still use the Harmony Singer. I think it'd be good if you could record your sound with everything flat and share it here so we can help give some suggestions first! I personally use to cut mids completely on both my guitar preamp AND amp when I had a Fishman Prefix+ piezo because it sounded very quacky. Turning both mid knobs down all the way made it sound a lot better. Now I run an Anthem Stagepro pickup and drop the mids on my amp by half and raise or drop the treble by a hair depending on how new and bright the strings are

The Harmony Singer with its adaptive-EQ function (the red button) will make almost every mic sound good flat. With the latest firmware update, you do have a choice of more or less high treble frequencies (by holding the metal button down and then pressing the red - when it blinks once, you have less highs, when it doesn't blink, you have more) If you run into feedback issues, use the blink-once mode. I do believe the Beta 57A to be pretty bright and clear sounding the last I heard it. So blink-once is probably what you're looking for!

Thanks for the tip on turning the mids way down. The quack was driving me nuts! With the mids turned down it sounds much better! I'll have to see about the firmware update for the harmony singer.

[rmsstrider]

Originally Posted by jseth

Sounds like you have a lot of "stuff" in the signal chain... that always makes it a bit more tricky to dial in...

First off, google "gain staging" and read up on that... it will serve you well in ALL your sound reinforcement applications, no matter what the gear you use.

Once you have gains set correctly, you can train your ears to "hear" what each eq knob does, simply by having ONE SIGNAL audible, then turn each knob all the way up and all the way down, and listen to what happens to the tone... do that for each of the eq adjustments you have, and you'll have a decent idea of what know affects what frequency...

All those adjustments are there for a reason, certainly, but I would always rather NOT turn any knobs unless necessary.

Take everything out of your signal chain and just plug in your mic and your guitar (without the processor), no mixer, no nothing... see how it sounds. Use the eq on your guitar to adjust things slightly.

No matter how good all the additional pieces of gear are, you will always get a purer sound without adding a bunch of stuff to your signal path... every piece you add will detract slightly from the overall, so you want to be SURE you actually need it in the line.

I'm sure there ARE beginning and advanced tutorials on line to read about this stuff... one good place to start (after the gain staging!) is the manual for whatever piece of gear you are using...

Good luck! Using all that fancy gear CAN be a bit daunting, but you can do it!

Thanks for the input. I I have tried straight to the Bose with guitar and mic, but the Bose only has treble and base adjustments for the mic and nothing for the guitar channel except a tone switch. It sounds OK, but not the best. A little bit of reverb and delay is nice. Hence I go through my mixer

[Kalani]

I have the Fishman Prefix+ on my Composite Acoustic GX. My mid is lowered only a little (from flat) on my guitar eq, treble up a little and bass flat or down a little. I play with fingers though, not a pick.

I use the guitar's onboard preamp to eq it and leave the PA eq controls flat. I do this because it lets me understand the relationship between the onboard preamp and this guitar so I can ultimately play thru any mixer and always retain full control of my guitar's sound. This will help when you have to play on someone else's mixer.

I would also set the phase button before making any eq adjustments. It only has two settings and one will usually sound better than the other and may differ for every different set up/location. Also, totally dropping the mids will eliminate a wide frequency spectrum so maybe try the notch first as it eliminates a much smaller band so you may be able to reduce a honking frequency while retaining others.

[rmsstrider]

Originally Posted by Kalani

I have the Fishman Prefix+ on my Composite Acoustic GX. My mid is lowered only a little (from flat) on my guitar eq, treble up a little and bass flat or down a little. I play with fingers though, not a pick.

I use the guitar's onboard preamp to eq it and leave the PA eq controls flat. I do this because it lets me understand the relationship between the onboard preamp and this guitar so I can ultimately play thru any mixer and always retain full control of my guitar's sound. This will help when you have to play on someone else's mixer.

I would also set the phase button before making any eq adjustments. It only has two settings and one will usually sound better than the other and may differ for every different set up/location. Also, totally dropping the mids will eliminate a wide frequency spectrum so maybe try the notch first as it eliminates a much smaller band so you may be able to reduce a honking frequency while retaining others.

Thanks for your advise. I find that lowering the mids a little when finger picking is fine, but when strumming I seem to need to reduce the mids more.
When played directly to the Bose , I can get the sound of the Guitar Ok, but not as good as when going through the mixer. The Mic on the other hand really needs the mixer as there is no real EQ on the Amp. And I do like a little reverb and delay in the mix.