Korg Forums

[Randelph]

Thanks for all the tips!

The thing I keep coming back to is translation. I'm tempted to customize the eq for the built-in speakers, but for translation to other speakers the curve could be well off.

This is just one more example, that when you've got a complex system running, you can't deviate too far from the 'center point', everything affects everything else.

And not only for the built-in speakers. If I've got a bass sound for example, the question becomes, do I adjust the eq of the individual sounds or the Global EQ.

Based on my fairly limited testing of bass tones, my conclusion so far is I can do a modest jump on the bass to +3 at 90-100hz at the Global EQ. I agree, +3 seems reasonable in terms of speaker protection.

I do wonder how close to flat the system is without Global EQ. I'd be curious if someone had the mic and software to see how close to flat it was, there's bound to be sounds close enough to reproduce white and pink noise, or you could just use the line ins.

Or, if someone had some studio monitors they trusted to be reasonably flat, 5" in size to approximate the size of the built-ins, and then tune it by ear.

Having the system tuned so it's as flat as possible is not practical, you want the sounds to jump out as best as these little speakers can manage, but it's always helpful to have a starting / reference point.
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Keyboards: Kawai ES920 / Casio CT-X5000
Instruments: Keys / Alto Recorder and Melodica

[Musicwithharry]

[Korghelper]

I think the best way to deal with master compression and EQ is to have them turned off when you create your programs, sets, sequences and styles, and play through a decent flat set of studio monitors that you are intimately familiar with how they sound when playing professionally mastered CD's (no mp3's!).

I have a pair of relatively inexpensive Mackie HR824 that I've had for nearly a couple of decades. I also have a pair of QSC K10's for small to medium gigs and a sub to add for really big ones. The thing about the K10's is that they sound quite different in different rooms, different if the room is full of noisy people, different in heavily carpeted quiet rooms... And if I have my arranger compressed and EQ'd to make them sound like my home monitors at home, I have to do a LOT of work at the gig to compensate for that EQ (and especially the compression) on the fly.

So while setting up my songbook, I turn it all off. This gives me a great baseline setting, which I can quickly and easily modify to compensate for room acoustics and crowd noise. But if the baseline sound already has EQ and compression, it's a lot harder to change to match the already EQ'd and compressed sound.

Quiet room, compress a bit, and it's usually enough. I find the 'deep mode' on the QSC's great at making the arranger sound balanced at quiet volumes (maybe add the 'vocal boost' if the room is noisy). I had another arranger that was only sounding good with the factory compression and EQ on, and it was a LOT harder to dial in changes. If it sounds good flat, all you have to do is small changes, but once it is already compressed, changing the balance is a lot harder...

More and more I am seeing arrangers that come with all that stuff on by default, and it seems the style creators have created the factory styles in that condition, which leads to unbalanced styles once you defeat it. I wish they wouldn't!

BTW, I wouldn't worry too much about blowing your K10 woofers. They have built in limiters and bass management which should basically prevent this from happening. But there's a huge difference between trying to get a solid bass sound with speakers up on poles, and a subwoofer on the floor, where the coupling effect makes them very efficient at throwing low frequencies a long distance. If you are in a big room, do a lot of bass heavy dance music, it's likely the K10's bass limiter will kick in before you get loud enough.

But I've used them with a small Behringer Eurolive B1200D-PRO 500W 12" Powered Subwoofer and even just one of these is sufficient to balance out the K10's up to their clean operating limit. My old Mackie SWA1501 15" powered sub is a bit overkill to balance the K10's!

[Randelph]

[Biggles]

The Eq and Limiter functions is not a one size fits all.

There are multiple Presets available (6 if I remember correctly).

As you have a Preset set up for internal speakers, another for external, a third for medium sized venues etc.

It then is just a few second task to change the active Preset.
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Biggles
Lancashire, UK

[Scott]

I'd at least miss the aftertouch if I moved from a PA1000 to Yamaha.