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 My chart above shows the
approximate frequency ranges of various musical instruments and the human voice.
The black boxes represent their fundamental frequencies and the yellow boxes represent
their harmonic frequencies. It's much easier to understand and enhance the instruments
you want to hear when you know what frequencies they cover. |
The Main Recording Equalizer Interface |
| OK, I wanted to briefly familiarize you with the EQ. It's really easy to use.
Virtually everything is in front of you all the time. So here's a quick overview
of how to use it.
1. Browse and All Files Buttons give you access to opening your Wave Music Files. To open 1 or several files in a folder your looking in, Click Browse. If you're in a folder already and you want all of the files (tracks), then click the All Files Button and it will load them all with a single click. There's no real limit to how many files you can load. 2. Play/Preview your track(s). Now you can hear them and use the sliders to enhance them. 3. Lock Sliders is really useful. You can equalize each channel separately, but most of the time you will probably equalize the Left and Right Channels together. Just Click the Lock Sliders Button and any changes you make in one channel will be duplicated on the other. This is a really good button to use to save you time 4. The Bypass Button is my all time favorite button. Just slide all your sliders till you have the full excitement that you want to add to your music. It's amazing just how much drama, life and impact you can really add. Anyway, after you're set, then click this button to hear the startling day and night difference. You'll be a believer too and this might be a good time to let me know what you think of the DAK Recording Equalizer. Because there's nothing like an A/B test like this to prove just how good it is. 5. There are all your sliders. Just start your music. Don't worry, you aren't recording, you're just previewing. Anyway, start your music and adjust the sliders till you love it. There's no real right and wrong. If you like it, it's good. 6. Process/Record Button. OK, you like the sound. Now it's time to make an
entirely new copy of your track(s) When you click the Process/Record Button, The
DAK Recording Equalizer will make you an entirely NEW copy of your track. Your
original will be untouched and your new copy will have whatever new suffix you've
added (see options below). So, you can enhance 1 track or a 100 tracks. Just click
the one button. 7. Easy Mid-Track Access. One more thing about playing tracks. If you want
to hear a part of a track over while it's playing, you can grab the progress bar
tab and slide it backwards or forwards to the exact part of the track you want
to Play/Preview. You don't have to wait till you get to a part to hear how it
will sound. As I said in my review, I think I've included everything that could
help us. |
Choose One Or Many Tracks. |
| Above I showed you how to click the Browse button to choose one or several
tracks. Here's the Dialog Box that Opens when you click the Browse Button.
1. Here's all you do. Click on 1 track that you want to open and then click the 4 Open Button. IF you want to open several tracks and they are together, then you can hold down your shift key while you click the files. So if you wanted to open Tracks 1 and 2, you could do it this way. If you'd like to open several tracks, but they are not in order like the example above, then Hold Down the Control Key while you click the tracks you want to open. Then Click the 4 Open Button and they will all open. Also you'll see a list of the tracks you are opening in the box marked with arrow 3 above. 2. Where are your files? You can navigate to the folder you have your tracks
in by opening the 2 box and finding the folder. I've also put an arrow next to
Desktop on the left. In Win XP, that's a shortcut to get to your desktop.
|
Here's Your Track List Once It's Loaded |
| Again, this is what your tracks look like once you've opened them in the program.
They won't normally be in any particular order, but don't worry, when you play
them you can choose any track you want to Play/Preview. |
Great System Controls Make It Easy. |
| Here's just a quick picture of the 4 main buttons you'll use to control the
Equalizer 1 Reset. Very simple. This returns all the sliders and volume/balance controls to flat default settings. 2. Presets. This gives you access to your saved presets and the create preset button. 3. Lock Sliders. Here you can lock the Left and Right Channel Sliders or unlock them if they are locked. 4. Bypass. Well, this button you'll use a lot. Wait till you hear the sonic
difference. The bypass works on all sliders and volume controls. |
Preset Heaven - Do it Once, Enjoy It Always. |
| Unlimited Presets make things great for using my Equalizer. Of course you
want to use presets so you don't have to reset your equalizer. But also use them
because if you're like me, you might forget a setting that you really like. And
with one click save or delete, you can create new presets with confidence because
you know you can always delete them with a single click. 1/2. Load. OK here's how you use your presets. Click on any preset in the list and then click the Load Button. That's all there is to using them. And when you do click load, you'll see all the sliders on the equalizer jump to their saved position. Neat. 3. Save. OK this IS NOT for saving new presets. If you tweak a preset you already have and want to make changes, then load it, use it, make your changes then come back to this preset box and click save. This will change the preset to what you want now. 4. Delete. Well, like I said. You're always one click away from deleting a preset, so make lots of them. You'll be glad you did. 5. Create Preset. This is all you do. Click this button and jump to the next section. 6. After you've loaded a preset or saved or deleted one, just click the OK
button and your ready to use it. |
Instant Preset Creator. |
| Making Presets couldn't be easier. Just Enter any name you like in Box 1 and then Click OK at button 2. |
What Do You Want to Call Your Tracks? And Where Do
You Want Them To Go? |
| Here are the other Buttons from the main interface screen. Button 1 is the
Process Record Button. When everything is set, just Click it and let the Equalizer
improve all your files. Right now, Click the Options Button (2) and we'll decide
what you want to name your new files and where you want them to go when they are
re-recorded. Options Of What To Call Your Tracks And Where To Send Them. |
 |
| This is another UNIQUE extra plus for My DAK Recording Equalizer. This is
a very important section. 1. This is the section where you decide What to ADD to your new Recorded Tracks. Take a look and you'll see that the default EQ is added to the tracks as they are recorded. This way you will know which tracks have been Enhanced and which ones have not. You can (A) Remove this and have nothing added to the tracks. (B) you can type just about any suffix or word you want and it will automatically be included as part of your track name. Use _Car if you want the tracks for your car, _Office for the office and so on. There's no limit to what you can do. 2. This is the box YOU CAN ADD to your ORIGINAL track. If you'd like your track names after you've equalized them, then don't put anything in box one and add something like _OLD to this box. That way the new tracks won't have any new suffix, but the tracks you've copied from will. It's up to you, you can have EITHER the NEW OR the OLD Tracks have a suffix or BOTH can have a suffix if you put something in each box. 3. Where do you want the tracks to go? OK this is really great. If you want your new equalized tracks to stay in the same folder as your originals, then leave this box blank. But if you want to send them to a new folder, like My Enhanced Tracks, then just Click the B button to Browse your computer for the folder you'd like to use. (See Below) 4. Are you ready? Great Click the OK button and your changes will become active. |
Oh, Where Shall I Send My Tracks? |
| When You Click the B Button Above, you get this Window's Dialog Box. Just
pick any folder on your computer 1, and then Click OK 2 and you're all set. All
tracks that you Process/Record will be sent to the folder you have chosen here.
This is a terrific ease of use feature. You will love having it just like I do.
|
What's So Special About Play? |
| Oh, you know me. You can't just have a simple Play Button. OK Click Play (1)
and the Play Button becomes a Stop Button so you can stop the track Play/Preview
at any time.
But that's not all. You'll see a progress bar move across the screen (2). You
can grab the handle of the moving bar and drag it to any place within the track
that you want to preview. That way you don't have to sit through the whole track
if there's really just one or two sections you want to Preview. And of course
you can just drag it back to hear a section again. |
So, Which Track Do You Want To Play? |
| OK, if you've only loaded 1 track, no big deal. But what if you've loaded
2, 10 or 100 tracks. Which do you want to Preview/Play? Well no problem. If you've
loaded more than one track, you'll get this Dialog box when you click play that
let's you click which track you want to play. This really makes your life easy.
So, Click (1) the track name and the Click (2) OK and your track will start playing.
Plus, then you can use the Progress Bar Handle I mentioned above to play any part
of the track. Then Click stop and you can Preview/Play another Track. Very Neat. |
So Many Sliders What's A Person To Do? |
| Which Sliders to you use? Here's the simple answer. There's no right or wrong.
Relax. Boost whatever sounds good to you. Is your room Hard? All hard floors and
no drapes? Boost the lows. If you have lots of carpets and drapes, then boost
the highs. Have you aged? Sorry! Then boost the 8K and 16K. And maybe even the
4K. The point is boost whatever sounds good. Just drag up the sliders till your
sound is great. Then sit back and enjoy live vibrant even throbbing sound from
now on. This is the heart of the DAK Recording Equalizer, but it's the simplest
thing in the world to use. Enjoy. This is really great. And Don't forget to use
the Lock Sliders Button so all your enhancements take effect on both channels
and then use the Bypass Button to hear the massive improvement you've made. You'll
be amazed at the difference. |
Oh, the Super High End. |
| OK, this is a 10-band equalizer with +/- 12 db per Slider Frequency Band.
Except for the 16,000Hz band. Here I've allowed you to add up to 18db (Still 12db
minus) if you'd like. Now if your hearing has fallen off, or if you just like
really clear, sharp highs, add a little more than the 12db to the 16,000Hz slider.
Probably you'll never add all 18db and if you still can't hear anything different,
then turn it back down and use the 2K, 4K and 8K sliders. But, you will find this
extra 6db can really make a difference. |
Master Volume, Balance And A Built-In Limiter Too. |
| OK, remember when I described an equalizer that it's really just a group of
20 volume controls? One for each of 10 frequency bands for each channel? Well,
that's exactly true. When you turn up any or all of the bands, you tend to also
increase overall volume because an increase in any frequency area adds to the
total output.
So, I've included a highly sophisticated limiter so that as you increase the overall volume with the sliders your recording won't get too loud and cause distortion. We call that Over Recording Or Recording Too Hot. Either way, you'd get distortion and we don't want that. So, here's what to do. Look at the meters. (1) If you see any red, then turn down the master volume control slider (2) till you don't see any red even on peaks. Of course the limiter will cover you if you miss some, but even so, it's better for you to set the master gain after you've adjusted all your sliders. Also, you have a full +/- 20db of volume control, so you really can make up
for a lot of too low or too high recordings with our Equalizer. And finally (3),
you can control the balance easily and instantly if one track is louder than the
other. Here I'm showing you that by sliding the balance over to the left, you
effectively mute the right channel. |
What Does A Sweep 20-20,000Hz Sine Wave Look Like? |
| Wow, you can really see the frequencies. Here I am play a 20-20,000Hz Sine
Wave. You'll see the frequency bands of the real-time spectrum analyzer move from
left to right as the frequency increases. You really can see the frequencies as
they move across the analyzer. |
 |
| Here's a blow up of a spectrum analyzer showing a 32hz sine wave. |
| Bass (Approximately 20hz-140hz) There is little musical material with fundamental frequencies below 60hz. What is normally perceived as low bass material is actually in the 60hz-140hz range. Only a few instruments actually reach this range such as the organ, contrabassoon and string bass. The 60hz-90hz range is where
we notice the greatest perceptible changes in "bass response." Try a
test tone and see just how well you hear 20hz or even 32hz, compared with the
same volume of 60hz or 90hz.Mid-Bass (Approximately 140hz-400hz) Mid bass has lots of instruments included in its frequency range. Cello (my instrument), Bassoon, French Horn (Freedom Horn this year) and yes Male Voice are all here. This is where most 'bass' controls really muck up your music. Overemphasizing the mid-bass range gives the music a muddy, or "boomy" quality. If the mid-bass region is underemphasized, the music sounds hollow and thin. Midrange (Approximately 400hz-2.6khz) Since our ears are most sensitive to midrange frequencies, midrange has the greatest effect on the overall sound of your stereo system. Actually there is controversy among engineers and audiophiles as to what the proper balance should be in this range. Some settings are best suited to particular types of music. The "proper" settings
are the ones most pleasing to you the listener. I won't list instruments here
because virtually all instruments have fundamentals found here in the midrange
with the exception of Contra Bassoons, Bass Tuba and a very few others.
Upper Midrange (Approximately 2.6khz-5.2khz) Except for the pipe organ
and piano, not many instruments have fundamental frequencies this high. Well,
I guess the violin does touch into the range. But, it's really amazing just how
little fundamental frequency material actually starts above what we consider midrange. Speaker designers often boost
output in this range to affect the quality or "presence" of the music.
Too much energy, on the other hand, sounds overbearingly harsh and strident. A
good balance between this frequency range and the midrange frequencies gives the
most pleasing sound. High End (Approximately 5.2khz-20khz - Two Regions) The region from about
5.2khz up to about 12khz is normally perceived to be the high-frequency range.
(The dreaded treble control.) Only the pipe organ actually contributes any fundamental
frequencies in this spectrum (as well as a few others such as the flute), but
this is where the harmonics really enhance your musical enjoyment. It's this range
that effects the brilliance of music. Overemphasizing these frequencies gives
an unpleasant, harsh and even piercing quality to your music.
The final region, the super
high frequencies, from about 12khz-20khz, actually contains very little musical
material despite all the editorial coverage it receives. However, many very soft
2nd and 3rd order harmonics do reach into this area. Plus, most adults can hear
only subtle differences when adjustments are made in the 14khz-20khz range. It's
important to remember that adults, (mainly men) simply can't hear much above 15-16,000hz
after the age of 50. So, this area primarily adds a little more dimension to your
sound. Now a word about Graphic Equalizers and what they can do with your frequencies.
|
| The Truth About Graphic Equalizers This is not an ad. It is an
explanation of all graphic equalizers. It is not an attempt to promote equalizers
sold by DAK over any others. It is meant solely to give you a thorough understanding
of what an equalizer can do for your home, car and portable stereo systems. What It Is. Please Read This Section. An equalizer
is really just a series of 10 volume controls. The difference between your main
system volume and an equalizer's volume controls is that each equalizer volume
control effects only ONE area of the whole frequency spectrum.Bass and treble controls can't
help because they indiscriminately boost everything from the midrange down or
from the midrange up. Each actually effects about 30% of the entire frequency
spectrum. So, if you slide up the 40hz
volume control on an equalizer, only sounds in the 30hz to 63hz like a string
bass are really increased. Why is this important? Well, the human ear can hear
frequencies from about 20hz (20 cycles or vibrations per second) all the way to
20,000hz. Your stereo system, to a greater or lesser degree, produces these sounds.But for a number of reasons,
your stereo system and mine are unsuccessful. An equalizer simply helps your stereo
system accurately reproduce the entire frequency spectrum of your music. If your low bass is down 3
to 6db, you'll miss the excitement, warmth and fullness of a strong bass, a kettle
drum or the lower registers of a cello. By increasing the signal with an equalizer,
you're not magically creating something that doesn't exist, you're simply reviving
inadequate recording or reproduction.The same is true of the high end. The gentle sound of brushes on a cymbal, or the dramatic sound of glass shattering can be lost if the high end of your music is not reproduced at the same level as the midrange. Why Aren't Our Stereo Systems Perfect? The plain
bare fact is that virtually all systems and sources are flawed. FM reception suffers
from FM preemphasis which causes the FM station to cut back on the high frequencies
they broadcast.Try boosting the 8,000hz and
16,000hz to restore the impact and openness.While the low frequencies aren't a problem with the FM broadcast, when you or they play records and tapes instead of CDs they are a problem. Low bass sounds are massive.
That's why woofers are the biggest speakers in your system. If recording engineers
don't cut back the level of the bass on records, your stylus simply can't follow
the groove. And, I don't even want to talk about cassettes.But What About CD's? With a CD, you can, for the
most part, forget the limitations on your source material. Of course, they have
the capability to accurately reproduce the entire 20hz to 20,000hz flawlessly.But there are two things you should know. If they were made from analog (not digital masters), they may need help (see The Truth About CDs - What's DDD? Below). And don't forget, everything
about your system, your speakers, and your room is even more important than the
source. Read on.The Truth about CDs - What's DDD? Pick up any CD in your library.
On most new discs today you'll see the DDD symbol. OK, all CDs end with D. But
there the similarity ends. Read on.The first D stands for
digital recording. This means that the recording engineer recorded all the instruments
using sophisticated digital equipment. Not analog mastering. So, that leaves out
all of our Golden Oldies, all the old classical favorites and well, Elvis and
most Musicals as well.The Second D represents
digital mixing. Engineers mix the masters using analog or digital boards. This
of course means no added hum or noise if you see the second D.The third D is the reproduction
media, and since it's a CD, it's always D. So, you can have CDs that are AAD,
ADD, or DAD. An audio cassette or LP would usually be AAA. Oh, A always stands
for analog.More Problems The Biggest Problem OK, here we are. The important
'stuff.' The biggest problem with your stereo system is probably your room. Speakers
placed in corners tend to boom at 125hz. If they're in a bookcase,
they tend to lack bass. Most speakers should be placed up to a foot from the wall
to avoid standing waves. But, which of us can have
an ideal room built for our stereos? This is what I do for a living, and I have
one speaker in front of a window and another in front of a wall. There's a
measurable and 'hearable' difference when the drapes
are opened or closed. So with the aid of an equalizer,
you can make your room ideal. You can compensate for a 125hz boom, or for a loss
of high end because of drapes or couches.Listen to the music, then switch
in your equalizer. Or, with the Recording EQ, just make a few sample Tracks of
each setting. It won't take you long to decide that equalized is a whole lot better
than non-equalized. They're not even in the same league. The results will be awesome
and repeatable. And that's a good thing. Plus, it's the same in cars.
Typically, they don't have a good high end. If you boost the signal at 8,000hz
and 16,000hz in the house as much as in the car, you'll hear really raspy sound. Studios have to produce their
CDs for average home systems. And you know the story about the statistician who
drowned in a lake with an average depth of 7". You can custom tailor CDs
you make for the weaknesses of various systems.
Don't be intimidated. You don't have to keep your system flat, I don't. I'm a cellist and I'm used to a stronger bass. THE OLD AGE PROBLEM And here's some bad news for
you. If you're like me, I'm going to be 58 !!!!! this year (horrors) your ears
are no longer as sensitive above 14,000hz to 16,000hz. So, even if your source is
perfect, even if your system is perfect, even if the room is perfect, you may
not be.Because I work with high sounds
(not loud ones) so much, I'm still able to hear 16,000hz to 17,000hz but I guarantee
you by the time I turn 70, I'll be cranking up the 8,000hz and 16,000hz controls.And this is important. It's not really that you can't hear the high frequencies. It's that you can't hear them as well. So, when you were 30 you didn't need to turn up the 16,000hz slider, now you do. By making the highs LOUDER, you bring back the sound you used to hear. Please,
I don't want to hear from the FDA, this isn't a medical device. But ask your doctor,
he'll give you the bad news.I guess someday I'll be reviewing
equalizers for the geriatric crowd with a line like, "If you're 82 like I
am, you probably haven't heard a cymbal crash in years…" Anyway, if you'd like to experience
the trumpets crashing out of your speakers, add a boost at 250hz and 500hz. If
a female vocalist sounds raspy, cut the 1,000hz and 2,000hz sliders. Or if you
want your walls to quiver with the pluck of a string bass or the blast of a bass
tuba, boost the 40hz and 64hz controls. When you switch in an equalizer
or Click The Bypass Button, you'll hear an earthshaking, spine tingling improvement
in your stereo system's sound. Oh yes, in addition to restoring
impact and drama to your music, you can easily adjust all the frequency bands
to increase dramatic intensity, excitement and openness. Nobody ever said that
flat was perfect, it's just a starting point. And, that's the way it is. I hope
this Equalizer and Frequency Equalization Tutorial was helpful.Enjoy. . . Drew
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