Does anyone have any shortcut tricks for determining the frequency of a
problem note without access to a parametric or sweep EQ? (I have
several stepped "sweep" EQs, but the steps are so far apart as to make
this method hopeless).

I'm trying to determine the frequency of a single note that causes the
speakers in home hifis to crap out, even though every studio monitor
plays it back without problem.

thanks.

steve

hollywood_steve wrote:

I'm trying to determine the frequency of a single note that causes the
speakers in home hifis to crap out, even though every studio monitor
plays it back without problem.

What note is it? Can you tell what string and fret it'd be on a guitar?
Hit it on a piano or other keyboard?

--
ha

Hardwa frequency counter.
softwa spectrum analysis tool

rd

"hollywood_steve


I'm trying to determine the frequency of a single note that causes the
speakers in home hifis to crap out, even though every studio monitor
plays it back without problem.



** Huh ??

Is the frequency a very low one ???

Or a high mid ( voice frequency) that annoys the tweeters in cheap boxes ??




.............. Phil

hank alrich wrote:

hollywood_steve wrote:

I'm trying to determine the frequency of a single note that causes the
speakers in home hifis to crap out, even though every studio monitor
plays it back without problem.

What note is it? Can you tell what string and fret it'd be on a guitar?
Hit it on a piano or other keyboard?

Believe it or not, I carry a Palm Pilot around with me and sometimes
determine problem frequencies by using an old program called PocketSynth.
It's just a little program that puts a mini piano keyboard on the
touchscreen and plays square waves when you tap with the stylus.
So I tap on the screen until I hear the right thing.

Once I know what note it is, it's a simple matter of plugging the
note into the formula 440 * 2^(N/12), where N is the number of half
steps higher than A440, to determine the frequency (roughly).

- Logan

RD Jones wrote:

Hardwa frequency counter.
softwa spectrum analysis tool

rd

wetwa piano

--
Les Cargill

hollywood_steve ) wrote:
Does anyone have any shortcut tricks for determining the frequency of a
problem note without access to a parametric or sweep EQ? (I have
several stepped "sweep" EQs, but the steps are so far apart as to make
this method hopeless).

A guitar tuner.

Another trick is just a calibrated frequency generator. Turn the knob until
it hits the problem frequency.

I'm trying to determine the frequency of a single note that causes the
speakers in home hifis to crap out, even though every studio monitor
plays it back without problem.

That is going to differ considerably from one installation to another.
Sadly there are no standards of any sort in the consumer world and very
few rooms and speaker systems are properly set up.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Its a low bass note, somehwere between 40Hz and 100Hz or so. And no, I
don't have a piano in my 14ft x 8ft edit bay. Acoustic guitars and
guitar tuners are handy, but the note is almost certainly below the low
E string. I could determine the 2nd harmonic and assume the note is an
octave down.

My little Tannoy Reveals just filter out what they can't reproduce,
like any decent nearfield. But cheap home speakers try to give you
bass far beyond their actual capabilities, and that results in flapping
woofah cones. Its funny that my little 6.5 inch Reveals sound so good
on this particular song, but so many bass heavy consumer systems just
get beaten down by this recording. And it just goes to show that
having a 300watt high quality power amp is a good thing, even when the
speakers are only rated for a fraction of that amount.

And a rant for another day - why do jazz trios playing in small clubs
insist on using a bass amp? This problem would not exist if the bass
player had just played without an amp, and I would have had much more
control of the low end, instead of being forced to filter low end
rumble out of every mic channel.


A guitar tuner.

Another trick is just a calibrated frequency generator. Turn the
knob until
it hits the problem frequency.

I'm trying to determine the frequency of a single note that causes
the
speakers in home hifis to crap out, even though every studio monitor
plays it back without problem.

That is going to differ considerably from one installation to
another.
Sadly there are no standards of any sort in the consumer world and
very
few rooms and speaker systems are properly set up.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

hollywood_steve ) wrote:
Its a low bass note, somehwere between 40Hz and 100Hz or so. And no, I
don't have a piano in my 14ft x 8ft edit bay. Acoustic guitars and
guitar tuners are handy, but the note is almost certainly below the low
E string. I could determine the 2nd harmonic and assume the note is an
octave down.

Measure the room with a tape measure and do the math. You'll find at least
a couple nasty modes.

My little Tannoy Reveals just filter out what they can't reproduce,
like any decent nearfield. But cheap home speakers try to give you
bass far beyond their actual capabilities, and that results in flapping
woofah cones. Its funny that my little 6.5 inch Reveals sound so good
on this particular song, but so many bass heavy consumer systems just
get beaten down by this recording. And it just goes to show that
having a 300watt high quality power amp is a good thing, even when the
speakers are only rated for a fraction of that amount.

Traditionally, this was the big difference between American and British
home stereo speakers. The underdamped bass is a traditional American thing
that dates back to the early jukebox era.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 6 Jan 2005 13:52:38 -0500, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

hollywood_steve ) wrote:
Its a low bass note, somehwere between 40Hz and 100Hz or so. And no, I
don't have a piano in my 14ft x 8ft edit bay. Acoustic guitars and
guitar tuners are handy, but the note is almost certainly below the low
E string. I could determine the 2nd harmonic and assume the note is an
octave down.

Measure the room with a tape measure and do the math. You'll find at least
a couple nasty modes.

My little Tannoy Reveals just filter out what they can't reproduce,
like any decent nearfield. But cheap home speakers try to give you
bass far beyond their actual capabilities, and that results in flapping
woofah cones. Its funny that my little 6.5 inch Reveals sound so good
on this particular song, but so many bass heavy consumer systems just
get beaten down by this recording. And it just goes to show that
having a 300watt high quality power amp is a good thing, even when the
speakers are only rated for a fraction of that amount.

Traditionally, this was the big difference between American and British
home stereo speakers. The underdamped bass is a traditional American thing
that dates back to the early jukebox era.

I think this may partly be the African-American influence... as a
broad generalization, white people like to turn up the treble, black
people tend to turn up the bass.

When I used to import reggae records, I noticed that older recordings
that were mastered in Jamaica always had fat, huge bass on them... the
same recordings mastered in the UK for that market would always sound
thin in comparison, the Brit engineers would take out the low end.

Al

On 6 Jan 2005 10:46:12 -0800, "hollywood_steve )"
wrote:

And a rant for another day - why do jazz trios playing in small clubs
insist on using a bass amp? This problem would not exist if the bass
player had just played without an amp, and I would have had much more
control of the low end, instead of being forced to filter low end
rumble out of every mic channel.

I asked this question of Chip Jackson, a jazz bassist. HE gave me a
paper in which he discusses the whole matter in some detail.
Basically, an amp, even a small one, gives the bassist a lot more
expressional freedom. Pull offs and and hammer-ons become different
matters. Plus is saves the bassist's fingers (Ask Christian McBride
who added an amp after getting a nasty case of tendonitis). Finally,
the amp changes the instrument in almost the same way that it changed
the jazz guitar when Charlie Christian and others started using it.

It's not just a matter of loudness.
Willie K. Yee, M.D. http://users.bestweb.net/~wkyee
Developer of Problem Knowledge Couplers for Psychiatry http://www.pkc.com
Webmaster and Guitarist for the Big Blue Big Band http://www.bigbluebigband.org

On 1/7/05 7:32 PM, in article , "Willie
K.Yee, M.D." wrote:


(Ask Christian McBride who added an amp after getting a nasty case of
tendonitis).


Yeah, but it gave him tinnitus, instead!

(Just poking fun!)


Allen
--
Allen Corneau
Mastering Engineer
Essential Sound Mastering
Houston, TX

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:32:25 GMT, tttttttttttttt
(Willie K.Yee, M.D.) wrote:

I asked this question of Chip Jackson, a jazz bassist. HE gave me a
paper in which he discusses the whole matter in some detail.
Basically, an amp, even a small one, gives the bassist a lot more
expressional freedom. Pull offs and and hammer-ons become different
matters. Plus is saves the bassist's fingers (Ask Christian McBride
who added an amp after getting a nasty case of tendonitis). Finally,
the amp changes the instrument in almost the same way that it changed
the jazz guitar when Charlie Christian and others started using it.

It's not just a matter of loudness.

But, funny thing, it always INCLUDES loudness :-)

No bass player minds clutching his instrument. Is he happy with his
amp facing in, at ear level? If not, why not? :-)

CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect