Gain/Frequency/Q-Curve

westcoast_canadian · Criminal Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 69 City: Penticton

I can adjust all these on my clarion stereo, jl amp&speakers, but what do these settings mean? I have figured out that boosting the gain makes a deeper, louder, better bass thump, but what about frequency and q-curve? I do know my frequency is set at factory 80hz and I think goes to 100 and to 200hz, but what does it do? It is very hard to audibly pick up the difference. The Q-curve is at 1.0 adjustable to 1.25, 1.5, 1.75(i think), and 2.0. Someone please fill me in about what these settings mean and do and what would be harmful to my speakers or not....

m4t1x · Newbie Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 19 City: Simi Valley

ya i neeed this help also. what does frequency, eq, and gain mean?

AndyDeeJay · Outlaw Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 239 City: Belfast

This is a massive topic but I will try and help.

Frequency......
Imagine a 4 string bass guitar - The fattest string is E and when you pluck it, it produces a very low frequency 44Hz. If you hold your finger half way down the fret board and play the same string it produces the same note E but one octave higher or at twice the frequency 88Hz. Keep going down the fret board or onto thinner strings and the frequency gets higher.

Imagine a drumkit. - The biggest drum (kick drum) produces a very low deep note with a low frequency. The snare drum is smaller and produces a mid/hi frequency. The crash symbols produce a very high frequency note.

When music is recorded, every instrument is recorded with a seperate microphone and mixed together to form a stereo track. If you dont like the mix you are kind of stuffed because it is impossible to isolate each instrument and adjust it in turn.

With some head units you have got a simple tone control - Bass and trebble. The bass gain (frequency set to 100Hz) adjusts the amount of thump and the trebble gain adjusts the amount of sizzle (frequency set to 10Khz). However if you want to adjust the amount of lead vocal (around 4Khz) you cant. If you have a head unit with a parametric equaliser (PEQ) you can determine the centre frequency the low gain control adjusts. 50Hz is the lowest notes of a bass guitar, 80hz is the fundamental of a kick drum, 150 is low mid and affects certain toms, 200 is good for higher toms. The mid gain is adjustable as well and again the centre frequency can be chosen. The difference is the mid gain has got a Q value which is the width of the adjustment. the lower the Q value the wider the adjustment is. The higher the Q is the narrower the adjustment is. If you want to adjust a whole range of vocals set the Q fairly low. If you want to notch out a small portion, set the Q higher. The high gain and frequency are adjustable also. Cymbols crash around 10K and the sharp edge of speech is around 6-8Khz. If you have access to a graphic equaliser (GEQ) the entire audio spectrum is layed out like a graph and is split up in 8, 15, 30 different bands. This gives you the most control but in most cases is unnecessary.

I hope this helps a bit...It is difficult to describe these functions without knowing your level of knowledge in audio. I have tried to strike a fairly medium balance.

good luck

westcoast_canadian · Criminal Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 69 City: Penticton

I made slight sense out of that, thanks haha. OK lets say I want the deepest loudest bass without sacrficing treble sounds...how would I adjust the bass?

AndyDeeJay · Outlaw Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 239 City: Belfast

Get a subwoofer and mount it in a vented enclosure tuned to about 20 Hz. Put a 1000 watt amp onto it and run it off 12 Optima Blue top batteries. That should set you up. If you only have a head unit and no amp, forget about getting good deep low bass - there simply isnt enough power to get it. You could try turning up bass @80hz for a bit more thump but distortion will come in at less volume.