How to equalize: basic guide to adjusting the audio of your devices

We all have audio equipment at home. It could be an 80s relic with a turntable, cassette player, amplifier, radio receiver and tuner, or a modern wireless speaker. Or maybe some small headphones true wireless stereo (tws), the kind that is inserted into the ear and that tech companies release almost weekly.

Despite the huge differences there can be between one and the other, there is one aspect in common, and that’s what brings us together in this article: they all give us the possibility of equalizing audio . Some analogously, with the movement of buttons, like old equipment, and others digitally, through apps. That’s what’s happening with portable and wireless speakers, as well as the latest headphones.

It’s not just about changing the equalization in predetermined modes, such as the classic “Rock”, “Jazz”, “Pop” or “Live”, but rather about customizing the timbre with which we want to hear the audio . Some equipment includes more adjustment possibilities, others are more limited, but in all cases there is something you can do to find the sound that brings out the music you like the most.

It is quite a grace that they contain this possibility. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people don’t know how to manipulate an equalizer.

Classic mistakes such as turning all the variables to maximum, in the logic of “the more volume there is in everything, the better”, are repeated over and over again. Tomás Castro, sound engineer, producer and founder of the electronic music project janeiro explains that the only thing that is achieved with this is “to generate a fight between all the frequencies and a dirt that will not allow us to understand what we hear”.

Excessively raising the levels of the low frequencies, a sort of modern temptation, is also not recommended, because it is very likely that they end up “covering other frequencies and you cannot, for example, hear the vocals of a song” .

But don’t bang your head against the wall: no one has taught us anything and we can all make mistakes. That’s why we’re here, to share some basics that will help you get started with equalization.

Let’s start at the base. Sound is transmitted by sound waves, the tonality of which depends on the frequencies that compose it. These are measured in Hertz (Hz) and the human ear is able to identify an approximate range from 20 to 20 thousand Hz.

Frequencies that range between 20 and 400 hz are called bass. From 400 to 2,000 hz there are the middle ones, and those that cover the range from 2,0000 to 20,000 hz correspond to the treble or also called treble.

So we ask the experts: what is equalization?

Tomás Castro says that it is the exercise of listening, assimilating, amplifying and reducing the different frequencies of the auditory spectrum, in order to obtain a clean sound product, with character and intelligibility. “We can equalize the dialogue within a film, for example, or the entirety of a song, with its different elements and timbres”, he illustrates.

Ricardo Guzmán, musician and musical producer in his study of goethe , adds that through the equalizer “you can modify the timbre of a sound; make it more serious, brighter, more nasal, or remove excesses that could be annoying”.

For Vicente Fernández, musician, teacher, music producer and audio post-producer, equalization is an “additive or subtractive process”. For example, if you want to accentuate the high frequencies more, it is better to start by “cutting” or “extracting” – as we say in the jargon – the lows or the mids and then, if necessary, “boosting” the highs. “If you start by raising the frequencies you want to highlight, it’s likely that everything will start to sound a little ugly and unbalanced”, adds the owner of Carmen Studio .

Now there is another detail that is not minor. As Ricardo Guzmán says, “there are people who like everything very clear”, with well-defined highs, while “others want the floor to shake with the bass”. Are some right and some wrong? The answer is no: EQ is inherently subjective, a matter of taste. But in a spectrum where there is logic based on technique. So that you won’t smash the bass trying to justify yourself with something that you misunderstood about that note.

Let’s re-contextualize: The goal is to take advantage of the customization options that audio gear gives us, like old-world sound systems, modern speakers and headphones, and even the computerized “radio” in the car.

According to Tomás Castro, there are two types of equalizers: parametric and band. The latter are most common in home and portable audio devices. It is also the one that can be found in the preferences of Spotify, which, although somewhat hidden in the settings, also offers equalization options (to access it you have to go to Preferences > Playback > Equalizer) .

Band EQs generally don’t include many variables. Rather, they are reduced to low, medium and high, which can also be defined as “low”, “environment” And “triple“, respectively. Although they are few in number, according to Castro, they are enough to “color and give character to the sound”.

For ordinary users, equalization or “EQ” – as it is called in the environment – offers us two possibilities, says Ricardo Guzmán: “to embellish” the sound or “to solve the problems” that we detect in it.

“The second option is what the audiophile usually takes, people who pick up a bit more sound and audio than average.” In general, Guzmán says, “People can say it looks ‘bloated’ or lacks ‘brightness’. But you’re not going to hear an owner say ‘the radio is missing’. media‘”.

But it is not only our ignorance or our inexperience that limits the effects of equalization. The quality of the audio we listen to, where the sound equipment is located and the type of amplifier components are determining factors. There’s no point in trying to reproduce sub-bass on a small wireless speaker.

“Although we can amplify these frequencies on our tablet or mobile phone screen, that does not mean that our equipment will be able to reproduce them. We can even worsen the quality of reproduction,” warns Tomás Castro.

Here’s one thing to understand: Professional music is equalized so that, by default, the studio mix translates faithfully across all devices it’s played on. However, the physical space in which sound equipment is installed can dramatically change everything.

“Room acoustics are perhaps the most important reason why teams have an equalizer,” says Ricardo Guzmán. A room can generate different tones and reverberations depending on its size and the material it is made of. “The furniture and even the people who are there will affect the acoustics of the place”, adds Castro.

A large living room, with a high ceiling and built with non-porous materials, is likely to result in very pronounced reverberation in certain frequency ranges: the classic bounce. The same can happen if there is no furniture covering the walls or if there are a lot of windows.

On the contrary, says Guzmán, the carpets, curtains, shelves with books and photos on the walls absorb the rebounds of the waves. This means that what is heard is “more faithful to the pure sound of the speaker”.

Another relevant detail is the distance of the speakers from walls and furniture. If these are very close, they can excite certain frequencies which can be annoying. Vicente Fernández recommends that speakers should never be wall mounted and “hopefully at least 30cm from corners, to avoid generating excessive bass”.

A good exercise to recognize how the position of the speakers in your home can vary the sound is offered by Tomás Castro: “Leave the speaker at a fixed point and then move around the room. Can you identify the frequencies that stand out in the corners? Which ones stand out when you’re in the middle? »

Some of the imperfections you may notice in the sound, due to the acoustic relationship that occurs between the environment in which the audio is played and the quality of the speakers, can be corrected with equalization. It is clear that the more acoustic the room and the higher the quality of the sound equipment, the better the audio will behave and less “EQ” work will be required.

Just as it is advisable to try different locations for the speakers, in order to understand how it behaves in a place, it is also advisable to recognize the qualities and defects of your sound equipment. “A very small loudspeaker will hardly be able to clearly reproduce all the frequencies of the spectrum and it will not make much sense to amplify them”, illustrates Tomás Castro.

Whether it’s headphones, speakers, an old HiFi system or a soundbar, Ricardo Guzmán says that “you always have to listen to it flat in the first place”. That is, with the EQ off or with all its bands in the middle or at zero. “And without activating any function of the type ‘mega bass‘, ‘surround’ or something like that”. In this way, the producer says, we can know for sure how the equipment sounds. Only then “we will know what functions they can provide”.

It will always be essential to consider the physical possibilities of the devices and the hearing of each one. Vicente Fernández warns, yes, that if the equalizer allows to reach “+10” at some point, “it is better not to exceed 7, because we will force the components of the loudspeaker and we can also damage irreparably our hearing”.

In audio forums, an equalization called “V-shaped” usually appears, in which the bass and treble are relatively equal but not above the midrange. This, says Guzmán, “delivers a HiFi-like feel on first listen, but can sometimes compromise the tonal richness of the midrange.”

Fernández thinks it’s best not to get carried away with secrets or tricks that supposedly work everywhere. “You always have to consider the real place of listening. The most important is : ‘hear how we hear it ‘”.

Let’s not forget the detail that a good equalization is a bit subjective. As Tomás says, “there is an aesthetic and creative sense in the equalization that will depend on the taste of each one when listening”. For example, in an electronic or urban song, boosting the bass and treble, while slightly reducing the mids, can be helpful.

As Vicente Fernández says, equalization starts by subtracting frequencies and then enhancing them. Guzmán agrees: “There’s a phrase floating around the internet that goes something like this: To make the sound better, lower the frequencies; to transform the sound, to elevate. It is logic.”

If you want to go deeper into this subject, the interviewees recommend visiting specialized sites such as hispanosonic , sound on sound as well as YouTube channels such as Rick Beato , Nathan James Larsen And Fab Filter .