About Equalization - Hartke HyDrive HM5410 User Manual

About Equalization

The Hartke LH Series Bass Amplifier gives you enormous control over
shaping the sound of your bass, using a process called equalization. To
understand how this works, it's important to know that every naturally
occurring sound consists of a broad range of pitches, or frequencies,
combined together in a unique way. This blend is what gives every
sound its distinctive tonal color. The LH Series EQ controls allow you
to alter a sound by boosting or attenuating specific frequency areas—
they operate much like the bass and treble controls on your hi-fi amp,
but with a more musical response that's ideal for bass.
The LH Series tone stack equalizer offers three bands of "boost only"
equalization. Since the LH series equalizer is comprised of boost
only filters, when you turn all the EQ knobs down, the sound will go
completely off (unlike an typical PEAK EQ circuit). When all three EQ
knobs are in their center positions ("5"), the response is actually set to
a preset equalization curve, with a low and high-end boost and a mid-
range cut, producing an EQ contour (at Hartke, we like to say, SHAPE)
that sounds great for bass. The LH series tone stack is very interactive.
The different sections of the EQ feed into each other, so there's not
really any one frequency that the BASS, MID and TREBLE are set at.
For example, with Bass at "O" the Mid control pretty much boosts all
frequencies. Turning up the Bass adds more lows so the sound gets
louder. Then, the TREBLE knob acts like a blend control between the
Equalizer controls
BASS - MID section and the high frequency filter. Anyway, the result is
a really musically EQ section that's simple to use. The setting for a flat
response are; BASS "2.4", MID "10", and TREBLE "0"
So, experiment with the LH Series EQ and your particular bass to dial
up the best sound. The most important thing to know about the LH
equalizer is that it's extremely musical and sounds great with all EQ
knobs set to "5". Actually, it's hard to make LH series EQ sound bad.
Turning all EQ controls up the same amount will have virtually the
same effect as simply turning up the VOLUME; conversely, turning
them all down the same amount will have virtually the same effect as
turning down the Volume. Both approaches are pointless (after all,
that's why we gave you a Volume control!)
In addition to the three EQ controls, the LH Series also includes a BRITE
switch, which will add an overall boost to the high-end frequency
response. Use the BRITE switch in conjunction with the EQ to control
your tone.
In many instances, the best way to deal with equalization is to think
in terms of which frequency areas you need to attenuate, as opposed
to which ones you need to boost. Be aware that boosting a frequency
area also has the effect of boosting the overall signal; specifically, too
much Low EQ boost can actually cause overload distortion or even
harm the connected speaker.
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