I've been messing around a little bit, lately, trying out different EQ curves on my arranger. Some interesting results...

As you probably know, most recordings from the sixties and prior had altogether different EQ responses to modern recordings, so cutting some highs, at the least (and shelving the lowest lows), can help to make some of the oldies styles and sounds sound a bit more 'period' when played back...

At extremes, and with some sharp mid boost, you can get all the way back to old 78's... Lot's of fun!

Anyone else experiment with this?

If you search online you can find out a lot about the RIAA Equalization Curve that is the standard EQ applied to all recordings when cutting them for a vinyl record. Then on playback the inverted curve is applied on the "phono" input on all hifi amplifiers ... that is how the phono input is different from the others.

It was applied for technical reasons to do with the record cutting and playback. Low frequency amplitude can reduce record time and cause skips. Also high frequencies are manipulated to reduce the hiss ratio. So there was a lot going on EQ wise with records that gave them a characteristic sound.

Read http://www.graniteaudio.com/phono/page5.html for a brief background.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 05-25-2008).]