IV. OPERATING PROCEDURES
The ME 15 and ME 30 are extremely accurate, professional quality instruments capable of
precise equalization down to a fraction of a dB. You can expect several advantages from your
constant-Q equalizer over conventional designs: Moving one sliderwill not affect neighboring
filters as much, so you won’t spend time re-adjusting sliders (we call this “equalizing the
equalizer”). You’ll be able to obtain better feedback control without losing sound quality. All
sliders maintain smooth, consistent and accurate calibrated control over filter levels, which is
especially critical in low-profile equalizer designs. Because of this, the overall EQ adjustment
process is significantly easier and more effective.
While a top quality equalizer helps considerably, equalizing a sound system by ear is a VERY
difficult process to achieve successfully, especially in a timely manner. Although the human
ear is very sensitive, it is NOT calibrated, nor constant, and frankly the odds AGAINST a well-
behaved, clear sound system are very great when tuned by ear. Most people know when a
sound system doesn’t sound good; unfortunately they just can’t tell exactly why and where it’s
not right.
BECAUSE OF THlS, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE USE OF A REALTIME ANALYZER TO
PROPERLY EQUALIZE YOUR SYSTEM WITH THE ME 15 OR ME 30.
Forget everything you’ve thought about analyzers and consider this: there’s a new generation
of analyzers which are compact, simple, very easy to operate and surprisingly affordable. Best
of all, they can make a drastic improvement in the overall performance of your sound system
while saving you a great deal of time and effort. (Yes, we just happen to make such an analyzer,
the Model RA 27, but this is not a sales pitch. We are genuinely concerned that you obtain the
best performance from your system. Check around, there are lots of good analyzer designs
available. Get the one you like best.)
A realtime analyzer will help you quickly achieve things nearly impossible by ear: flatten
speaker response, minimize feedback, remove room resonance and allow accurate crossover
alignment. In most cases, simply “normalizing” or “flattening” a sound system is a surprisingly
drastic improvement, but DON’T STOP HERE:
REMEMBER THIS RANE “PRO”VERB: “LOOK, DON’T STOP, AND LISTEN.”
Once you have aligned the system by looking at the analyzer, don’t stop at this point. Listen to
the music program and make any additional adjustments to suit your taste, the type of music
and/or audience. Fatten the bass, sweeten the highs, brighten the mids as you see fit. Since you
are starting from a “tuned” system, your ear will not be fooled into thinking bass is too high
when actually mids are too low, or that highs are too weak when really the mids are too strong.
Fact: analyzers don’t have good taste--people do. Analyzers will consistently and accurately
“tell it like it is”, but ultimately personal judgement determines what sounds good or
appropriate. In fact, final optimum EQ settings, made AFTER analyzer testing, will vary greatly
dependingon the type of music, sound pressure level, size of the venue and disposition of the
audience.
Conclusion: TO CONSISTENTLY OBTAIN THE BEST SOUND FROM YOUR SYSTEM, YOU
NEED TO USE BOTH AN ANALYZER AND YOUR EAR, IN THAT ORDER. The analyzer supplies
the consistency and calibration while your ear supplies good taste.
If obtaining an analyzer is not feasible for you, then you will have to resort to Section 2408,
Paragraph 84-B of the Professional Audio Code, which reads:
“Fiddle with it until it sounds good.”
