RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean?

EQ guys are using on their cabs/systems. A good starting place if you don't have your own RTA.
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Bruce Weldy
Posts: 8301
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:37 am
Location: New Braunfels, TX

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#16 Post by Bruce Weldy »

byacey wrote:I think I would forget about the various "tunings" and just set it flat as possible and then adjust it to taste from there. Full response more or less flat will sound good for music and speech.
I used to always set up flat, but then I'd pretty much end up mirroring the "band" setting in the driverack to make it sound right (bumping the bottom and pulling the 125-250 range).

Good example was yesterday. We've been playing this same venue for about a year now, once a month. I've been running with my driverack set on a flat EQ setting. Haven't ever quite got the bottom dialed in. Music sounded great through the system, but I always felt that the bass guitar was a little muddy.

So, I went a little early and ran the driverack auto-EQ with the "band" setting. I could immediately tell the difference in the low-mids - they were cleaner. The bass guitar was instantly better as the whole bottom end was open and every note was articulated. I didn't make any changes to my overall system EQ - just left it where the driverack set it.

Bottom line is that flat is just usually too lacking in the bottom end. And since the biggest problem with mud is in the low mids - using the "band" curve gets you closer to fixing these two problems before you start tweaking.

I'm pretty much sold now on this setting. I had been using it this summer when I was running my full rig, but was still using the "flat" setting when using only 2 subs....not anymore - I'll be leaving the "flat" behind.....the other one is just that much better and less work.

Anyway, try it both ways and see which one sounds better. Do a flat AutoEQ, save it over to a new preset, the AutoEQ with the band setting. Then while listening, you can go back and forth - listening to both settings. That's what I did, and it was very noticeable.

6 - T39 3012LF
4 - OT12 2512
1 - T24
1 - SLA Pro
2 - XF210


"A system with a few knobs set up by someone who knows what they are doing is always better than one with a lot of knobs set up by someone who doesn't."

Dan56
Posts: 164
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:44 pm

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#17 Post by Dan56 »

Bruce Weldy wrote:
Anyway, try it both ways and see which one sounds better. Do a flat AutoEQ, save it over to a new preset, the AutoEQ with the band setting. Then while listening, you can go back and forth - listening to both settings. That's what I did, and it was very noticeable.
I have all 3 saved, flat, band, speech. I have switch between the 3. Speech is out. The band sounded good, but not as well with a recorded tune (Bodhisattva, my fav for testing) while on flat. It allowed me to fine tune it with the channel eq better. With that, the band setting did tweak my interest regarding live with the band. Hearing the difference between the 2, I could hear how the band setting might have it's advantage.

If I recall, you cross your sub higher than most? Do you think this makes a difference?

Dan

Bruce Weldy
Posts: 8301
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:37 am
Location: New Braunfels, TX

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#18 Post by Bruce Weldy »

Dan56 wrote:
Bruce Weldy wrote:

If I recall, you cross your sub higher than most? Do you think this makes a difference?
Low pass on the subs is 118, high pass on the OT12s is 125. I'm just afraid to put too much bottom in the OTs.

6 - T39 3012LF
4 - OT12 2512
1 - T24
1 - SLA Pro
2 - XF210


"A system with a few knobs set up by someone who knows what they are doing is always better than one with a lot of knobs set up by someone who doesn't."

byacey
Posts: 948
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:09 am
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#19 Post by byacey »

I boost the bottom end too; the point I was trying to make is flat being a good starting point compared to the aggressive speech curve. If the system is EQ'd well, speech and music should sound equally good with the same setting.
Built
T48s
WH8s
SX212

Dan56
Posts: 164
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:44 pm

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#20 Post by Dan56 »

byacey wrote:I boost the bottom end too; the point I was trying to make is flat being a good starting point compared to the aggressive speech curve. If the system is EQ'd well, speech and music should sound equally good with the same setting.
Yes, my comment about running a song through the 3 different settings was related to hearing what each sounded like without tweaking the eq. Just wanted to hear what the Driverack did to the system via it's RTA and the 3 settings. BTW, I used the high sensitivity setting too.

Where do you have your cross over set?

Bruce Weldy
Posts: 8301
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:37 am
Location: New Braunfels, TX

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#21 Post by Bruce Weldy »

byacey wrote:I boost the bottom end too; the point I was trying to make is flat being a good starting point compared to the aggressive speech curve. If the system is EQ'd well, speech and music should sound equally good with the same setting.
I understand....and I always did the same thing, but then I'd end up making changes that pretty much mirrored what the driverack would have done had I used the Band setting.....so, I'm just saving a step. I don't do any speech gigs - all are live band shows, so it's working good for me.

6 - T39 3012LF
4 - OT12 2512
1 - T24
1 - SLA Pro
2 - XF210


"A system with a few knobs set up by someone who knows what they are doing is always better than one with a lot of knobs set up by someone who doesn't."

byacey
Posts: 948
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:09 am
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Re: RTA'd my speakers, here's what I got. What does it mean

#22 Post by byacey »

Dan56 wrote:
Where do you have your cross over set?
I run my crossover point relatively high, 125hz. My mid high boxes fall off really fast below that, so I push the subs a little higher up than usual.
Built
T48s
WH8s
SX212

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