Behringer Program to simulate "Cello Palette"

[mikebse2a3]

EQing..............Its in our equipment,our active and passive crossovers ,our rooms and our recordings!

It's a dirty word to many purist audophiles!!! I myself have used some forms of it in the past and wasn't satisfied with what it offered me but what I'm able to acheive with today's DSP based Crossovers and Equalizers has changed my mind and my system for the better IMHO.

One thing that many people who acheive a very accurate reproduction system will notice is the widely varying quality of our recordings and when very high quality recordings are reproduced through very good systems it can be a wonderfull experience but unfortunately far to many of our favorite music was recorded using bad methods, equipment, and often with an eye/ear on what will sell good soundwise(ie,, over a boombox or car system) instead of trying to faithfully capture the sound of a real event with the best equipment and methods we have today.

Even when the best methods and equipment are used to make recordings there are still many variables that will effect the tonality that the recording engineer heard and recorded versus what we will hear when we reproduce the same recording over our own unique system/room. This alone IMO shows the need for us to have the ability to compensate the best we can for the recordings we want to reproduce in our own listening rooms.

One ear opener for me was about 10 years ago when I was repairing a Marantz 7C for a friend. I installed the pre-amp in my system and as I listened over the next couple of weeks I noticed how much I enjoyed more of my music by the subtle use of the bass and treble controls of the Marantz 7C.

As many know there are very few high quality pre-amps made with tone controls and even when they do have them they have been of limited use.

Another product caught my attention when it was produced and to me made more sense when it comes to EQing for various recordings was the Cello Palette Preamplifier and of particular interest was the EQing features it offered.

So if anyone has a desire to see what being able to EQ like the Cello Palette would offer them and they own a Behringer DEQ2496 or similar processor I have come up with the PEQ settings that will very closely mimic those of the Cello Palette.

For the Behringer DEQ2496 program into the PEQ Module the following settings:

Freq. B/W(Oct) Gain(db)

20Hz 2 0.5db see note (1)
120Hz 2 0.0db see note (2)
500Hz 2 0.0db
2000Hz 3 0.0db
5023 Hz 2 0.0db
20khz 3/2 0.0db

(1) note: You must program some value of gain into one of the PEQs for the Behringer to save your PEQ module into memory so if something is already presently programed to the PEQ module before you add these Cello Parameters then this can be set to 0.0db also.

(2) note: All PEQs set to 0db Gain will be adjusted as needed depending on recordings.

One great feature of using the Behringer like I am is when I have very good recordings I just place the Behringer in Bypass Mode but otherwise I have the ability to make subtle but very enjoyable changes to the less than ideal recordings.

I would suggest reasonable adjustment limitations so far based on what I have experienced are; the bands of 20Hz, 120Hz and 20khz should be limited to approximately +/- 6db with something around 2db to 4db being more common. The 500Hz , 2000Hz and 5023Hz will often stay within +/- 2db with (1/2 db adjustments being discernable in these bands). On vocal recordings it is really pretty easy to tweek these 3 bands for the best tonal balance and the reproduced image is often improved in a meaningfull way also.

This ability to compensate tonally has definitly improved my ability to enjoy more of my recordings.

Something I didn't expect was how easy it is to use these bands for compensation (because they are very wide bands) and used within reason there effect is subtle yet clearly discernable and I never really could srew up the sound.

This: is another tweek I added after forum member Cask05 brought some articles to my attention about room gain. I could easily see a recording being made and the engineer's tonal balance choice being made based on a unique room gain and other variables in the recording studio and even studio monitor system. Also our own rooms unique construction and room gain could easily come into play and after using it I do consider it a very usefull adjustment.

I actually found myself using this more and in preference to the 20Hz and 120Hz PEQs mentioned earlier. For my room and recordings I tried this with I used 100Hz and gains of usually around +2db to +4db maximum for the most realistic reproduction.

Using the Behringer DEQ 2496, program one of the (10 available) PEQs for a Lshelv 6db slope and by varying the frequency from around 100Hz to probably a maximum of 200Hz ( I'm assuming unique room size, types and other variables like modes might alter the best frequency for this purpose) and also by adjusting gain you can again add some compensation for differences in recordings and your own listening room possibly.

Not sure how many have the equipment to do this or interest but I of course would be very interested in anyone elses thoughts on this subject and especially if you have the Behringer or something equivalent and try this.

Note: Remember this EQ program is best and proprely used when used with subtle adjustments and any large increases at the extreme low or high frequencies aren't necessary and could damage equipment and/or loudspeakers.

Enjoy your music!

mike tn

[mikebse2a3]

Please read this Link to the Cello Palette review because it highlights IMO some very important reasons why the ability to EQ is very logical when done properly.

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/692cello/index.html

Note: The graph showing the bands and their maximum ranges but of course small adjustments would be the proper way to use this method of EQing.

[Fjd]

Since the Cello Pallet came up for discussion in the "Equalization" thread, those that may be using a Behringer DEQ2496 may find this thread interesting.