Nord User Forum

hey guys i need help to get the best Eq settings for the piano sound someone who can help me or write what numbers i should set the Effect EQ on ?

Equalization is a matter of personal tastes and also depends on the Piano sample and the speakers/headphones you use... there are no "best settings" in absolute, you need to try yourself based on what you hear (do you want more Basses, more Trebles...?)

As maxpiano said, only you can find the best values for your particular audio chain.

In my experience, besides adapting the bass and treble values to your particular situation, the midrange around 1...2 kHz plays a crucial role in getting the sound "right". My steps usually are these: Set the Mid EQ frequency at around 1.5kHz for a start, but leave the level at 0. Then adjust the bass level to your liking, but leave treble at 0. After that, adjust the level of the Mid EQ, in order to get the most natural sound for piano. It's really hard to tell where you will end up here. After that, adjust the treble.

But that's just a first approximation - you need to go back and forth, making finer adjustments to the Mid EQ frequency and all other parameters. You will get the hang of it after a while. Good luck!

Search this forum. There have been multiple threads that talked about approaches to using EQ on the pianos.

Sometimes a request for advice on EQ settings means the OP is not happy overall with the sound.
Just in case you running with a single speaker, try the Royal Grand.

Agreed. There are such wide variances in amplification. And EQ isn't going to fix crappy amplification. All it can do is make you cringe a little less when you hear yourself play.

I use theEq on my Stage Barely on few songs, when it's obvious that the Eq was made to give a proper Color to the sound, a proper " Special effect with EQ". Rest of the time, I'm running my EQ flat!!!!

Aleksander music wrote:hey guys i need help to get the best Eq settings for the piano sound someone who can help me or write what numbers i should set the Effect EQ on ?

The "best" EQ for a natural piano sound is none. If the piano sound could universally, clearly be better with different EQ, Nord would do it, rather than expect you to do it... they're not going to intentionally ship a piano that needs untrained ears to make it sound the way it should.

You could want to adjust it for your particular room, or your particular amp, or just to your personal taste. Obviously, nobody can give you the "right numbers" for any of those things (except maybe their suggestions for a given amp, if they are using the same amp as you are). There are some tools that can make it easier (you might find it interesting to experiment with a spectrum analyzer app on your smartphone), but honestly, most players aren't doing that, and it's probably nothing you need to be dealing with at this point either. Is there a particular problem you're trying to solve? Does it not sound good to you through your amp? You could also look into a better amp. An EQ might make an amp sound better, but it's not likely to make it sound as good as a simply using a better amp to begin with.

Some other uses for EQ could be for special effects, to make it cut through in a mix of particular other instruments, or to come closer to approximating the sound of some other piano (perhaps on a given recording you're trying to emulate). Again, these are not fixed numbers anyone could give you. An EQ is not about knowing the numbers to plug in. It's about using your ears and understanding the controls so you can tune it to the sound you're personally looking for in a given situation (or, as mentioned, sometimes using it in conjunction with other tools, to correct for specific problems).

I'm not a fan of EQ. It's an admission that the player believes the sample is flawed, at least through the amplification he/she is using at the time. Given that most amplifications systems these days are of pretty high quality, assuming some money has been spent, EQ becomes an attempt to change the character of the sample itself.

EQ has been most promoted on this board as an effort to improve the Rhodes samples. There it's clear that the samples are lacking and while some people here swear by EQ as the fix, I haven't found it does much. I end up jacking up the treble to make it brighter and then live with it.

For acoustics, I won't use it. I think it adds an artificial edge to a sound that is doing its best to NOT sound artificial. The Nord libraries have a lot of different pianos - I would recommend downloading a bunch of Smalls and finding a few that sound best in your system - then upload larger samples of those and call it done.

Time is better spent practicing scales than fiddling with the EQ anyway . Or better - pick your favorite pop/jazz song and play it in all twelve keys.

Gambold, I generally agree with you about EQ on acoustic pianos (which is what the OP asked about), except in particular situations I mentioned. But I put Rhodes in a different category. A piano sample should sound like the piano sounded in the room, there is a known target. A Rhodes recorded "direct" will not sound like any Rhodes anyone ever played... like an electric guitar, the Rhodes makes almost no sound until put through amplification. (Except Suitcase models which could be played through their own amp/speaker cabinet.) So any direct sampled Rhodes is not going to sound like a Rhodes in the room unless you also duplicate the characteristics of the rest of the signal chain, which is usually amp simulation and very possible EQ (especially if any tone controls were used on the amp). Unlike an acoustic piano, the sound we're looking for isn't necessarily actually in the raw sample.