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551E
552E
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How do I find the right frequency to cut or boost if I don’t have a spectrum analyzer? There
are a couple of tune-by-ear methods that, although crude, are quite effective. For lack of a
better name we’ll call the first method “boost-and-sweep”.
Pretend for a second that you are recording an acoustic guitarist in your studio. Everything is
fine until you notice that there is a weird low-mid resonance in the guitar body that makes the
open A string sound louder than everything else. All you really want to do is reduce the
volume of the open A without affecting any other note. No problem. Just insert the 551E/552E
in the input channel send/return loop and follow this procedure.
First, select an EQ band and set its BANDWIDTH very narrow (.50 or lower). Then take the
BOOST/CUT knob and crank it to +12 dB. This will sound terrible (and is risky to do in a live
sound situation), but hang in there. Now turn the FREQUENCY control (and toggle the
RANGE switch) until the offending note gets really loud. Although this will sound incredibly
bad, it lets you know that you have adjusted the FREQUENCY control correctly. Now adjust
the CUT/BOOST (try a starting cut of around 3-6dB) and BANDWIDTH (try widening it a
little) until the open A string sounds like it should.
Operating TipsChapter 6
Most professional engineers follow this rule of thumb: Use narrow bandwidths for cutting, and
wide bandwidths for boosting.
Though a narrow bandwidth setting can be very useful for the “surgical” removal of a problem
area, it can cause excessive ringing (and generally sound worse) if used for boosts. Wide band
boosts (over 1.0 octaves) sound more natural, more like a tone control.
Setting the Frequency Controls - Part 1
Try a “cut-and-sweep” approach if you are using the 551E/552E in a concert sound application.
Use basically the same procedure as in Tip #1, but use an extreme amount of cut, not boost, to
find the trouble spot. This is a more subtle approach to corrective equalization that you can use
during soundchecks (even during shows) without getting nasty looks from the audience.
Setting the Frequency Controls - Part 2
Bandwidth Control
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