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Hello everybody,
I was wondering if there is an "academic" way of using the equalizer on Nord Electros.
I find it sometimes hard to use to get the result I am thinking of.
4 buttons :
Bass, freq, gain, treble.
Do you adjust first the bass, than the treble, then the gain ( who seems the middle, and this with the freq in the middle position also) and at last the freq to adjust the middle ?
Or is there a good "official" way to proceed to get the best result ?
There is not any "correct" way to use EQ, it's all about using your ears. However, this answer isn't very helpful to you, so here are some things to think about which might help:
First of all, ask yourself: why are you using EQ in the first place?
The first reason is to correct any problems in your sound that EQ can make better. The second reason is to change or improve your sound for "artistic" reasons - or just for fun. The second reason is the hardest, because here "anything goes" and if you don't really know what your EQ does, it's easy to make things worse instead of better. EQ is very powerful, and adjusting all the controls can change your sound a lot.
I would suggest concentrating on the first idea for now because it will help you understand the ways in which EQ can change your sound.
And this is really quite simple:
If your sound is too bright or not bright enough, adjust the Treble up or down until you you have the right amount of Treble - to your ears.
If your sound is too bassy or not bassy enough - adjust the Bass similarly.
And the same, of course for the Middle.
However, the Middle is more complicated because it has two controls: Gain and Freq, which is a bit harder to explain, but let's try:
Gain is like the Treble or Bass controls, it increases or decreases the amount of Middle, simple.
The Freq control is a bit harder to explain. Basically you can think of Middle as "everything else between Treble and Bass" which is a very wide range of Middle. You can have low Middle, which is nearly as low as bass, and you can have high Middle, which is nearly as high as treble, or you can have Middle anywhere between the two (you can sort of have "middle Middle", if you see what I mean). So if you need some more or some less middle, you adjust the Gain control the same as you do for Treble and Bass, but the Freq control lets you decide "which" Middle you want more or less of. The Freq control sort of "points to" which area of Middle you want to adjust.
It's important to note that the Freq control by itself doesn't change the sound unless you have adjusted the Gain control somewhat. This is why: The Freq control adjusts, as we have said, "which" Middle you want more or less of, but if you haven't actually adjusted the Gain control, then you haven't actually told it to add more or less of anything, so of course the sound won't change. This is hard to explain and understand, but if you try adjusting the two Middle controls while reading this explanation, hopefully it will start to make sense.
One other small point: often Middle is called Mid or "the Mids". It's just the same thing.
Now, how much to adjust your EQ controls? Obviously "as much as needed". However, in practice you should usually start with only small amounts of adjustment, because large adjustments change the sound a lot, and it can all become very confusing to your ears very quickly - which I'm sure you have found out already!
Secondly, it is probably not needed to adjust all the EQ controls, just whichever ones you need to make your sound correct. Quite often, you will only need to adjust one EQ control to make everything sound right (or two if you're adjusting the Middle, of course). It's very tempting to want to adjust all the controls, but this is a big mistake. They give you several controls so you can fix any problem, but usually you just actually have one problem at a time. so with one sound, you might need to (say) just add a little Treble, but on a different sound you might need to (say), reduce the Bass a little.
The general rule here is: if you don't need to adjust the control, then don't - leave it alone. And don't be surprised if you don't need to use them at all sometimes - Nord have worked very hard to make the sounds right in the first place, so "if it isn't broken, don't fix it"!
So, a good approach to EQ is to ask yourself "Is there a problem? Is there something I don't like about this sound which I can fix with EQ?" If the answer is No, then don't do anything. If the answer is Yes, then you should now (hopefully) know how to adjust the controls to fix it.
Finally, I have only talked here about using EQ to fix problems. Using EQ creatively is a whole different subject, and I'm not going to talk about it for now, because that's a subject for another day.
Last edited by RedLeo on 29 Oct 2015, 22:37, edited 2 times in total.
These users thanked the author RedLeo for the post (total 2):
Hello RedLeo,
Thank you very much for your answer.
You are right, the equalizer can be confusing, I've tested it.
Anyway, with your explanations, I will have a better approach of it.
After reading your answer I'm thinking about something :
Maybe my old amplification system has sometimes not the crystal clear sound I love. So the tendency for me is to push the treble ...
But now, I maybe realise that I will have to buy another pair of monitoring speakers instead of using my old ones and try to correct their carracter.
Maybe buying the yamaha HS7 will correct that ... I will decide of that in a few days.
If someone has experienced that, your feedback would help
Yes, if you think that your monitor speakers are not very good, it is definitely a good idea to get something better. When you spend that much money on a good musical instrument, it's nice to hear it properly. There are plenty of good speakers in the same price range as these Yamahas, so you have plenty to choose from, and I'm sure that people here will have some good suggestions for you.
These users thanked the author RedLeo for the post:
Thanks again RedLeo.
So maybe did someone here get the combo Electro5 / Yamaha HS 7 to tell us what they think about it ?
Or maybe an other good combo ? I like good sound of pianos and it's never simple to get one crystal clear and precise on speakers ...
Leo was so complete in his answer that I can only add some footnotes .. I use EQ to reduce boxy AP sound by reducing mids ..this is highly dependant of speakers. Other use cases include pronouncation of heights for some samples (marimbas) which will alter the character of the instrument and may simulate different hammer types .. also, adding more punch to violin samples in the bass regions is a use case ..
But to say it brief, EQ is your friend.
Last edited by Dreamer on 30 Oct 2015, 22:47, edited 2 times in total.
I've posted several times in this forum regarding my approach to using the EQ. It is indeed one of the most powerful tools on the panel.
Mike from Central NJ, USA
Tools: Ten fingers, two feet, middle-age brain, questionable judgement and taste Current Nords: Piano 5 73, Electro 6D 73
Ownership History: Electro 2, Electro 3-73 SW, Electro 3HP, Electro 4D, Stage 2EX 76HP
Hello Dreamer, hello Rusty Mike,
It seems that I underestimate the power of those Nord Equalizer.
I am going to search more about it if you have before talk about it on this forum.
I saw the fonction wich permits a sound to be more clear when you play strong on the keyboard.
But I didn't try to much to transform a sound with those parameters. Just correcting it regards to my audio system.
I'll give it a try. It serms that I clearly missed until now the importance of those parameters
