First time on BFD and already interesting

[bcharlow]

Yes, yet another BFD virgin chimes in. I set mine up last week and EQed the sub manually (no computer near enough to run REW). Even done crudely, once I got the hang of it it seems to improve the tightness of the basslines and banish boominess. Still playing with the gain on the sub for best effect, but satisfied so far and will continue to experiment.

First, thanks to all for your posts and for the guides.

Second, I think you can simplify the language in the setup guides a bit. Just a smidgen more clarity helps. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, as it's far superior to even attempting sub EQ with the manufacturer's manual! That obviously wasn't designed for this particular use.

[brucek]

I think you can simplify the language in the setup guides a bit

Give us some examples. What guides?

brucek

[OvalNut]

bcharlow wrote:

... seems to improve the tightness of the basslines and banish boominess.

Yep, that's exactly it! Congrats, sounds like you're having some good success.


Tim

[bcharlow]

Brucek,

Don't you hate it when a newbie pokes his nose into the work you've given so much of your time and sweat to perfect? I really don't have any serious revisions. Reading it and re=reading it makes it clearer once you understand the steps in sequence, and reading posts where I had questions answered anything that I missed. You really didn't miss a thing. Just that we all learn new tricks differently!

I might have given a top level overview of the steps first, then the detail of the steps, then some typical Q&As on each of the steps. It's just a personal preference on how to take in something new, such as this project.

For example (and if you did this somewhere this way and I missed it, my apologies in advance!!!):
1. First you're going to take some measurements of your current speakers from your primary listening position: your speakers alone, your sub alone, and your speakers and sub together. (There is a manual way and a computer automated way; both work).
2. Then you're going to plot out how much and where you want to EQ the frequencies these measurements suggest (the peaks, not the dips).
3. Set up your BFD according to the instructions below..... Then familiarize yourself with the controls. Nothing will be saved or changed that cannot be reset, so don't worry.
4. In setting your BFD, first step is to set the maximum volume/gain at which you might be normally listening. This will give the BFD the top level at which it would normally clip feedback. (You don't want it set so low that it clips what you still want to hear.) This is done with the filtering off, then a quick flip of one switch and you're ready to set some EQ filtering.
5. Start with your lowest EQ peak and work your way up the frequency spectrum as far as you need. You can listen to the change you make while doing it before storing the setting, and you can store more settings later or adjust them again without losing your work, so methodically is better than trying to do it all at once.
6. The sequence for setting a single filter is: set filter number and make sure it's on PA; set filter center freq using chart to nearest octave; set filter center freq finely using chart to exact center point; set bandwidth to EQ using the chart (you may need to experiment as this is not linear); set gain up or down based on your desired impact on the freq range. When satisfied by testing, store that setting by clicking the store button twice. You will repeat this sequence for each of up to 12 filter settings for each channel (or both coupled together), as many or few as you need.
7. Test measure again once you're done. Then test it out on music with which you are familiar that includes some good bass lines. A quick flip of that --- switch allows you to A/B with all filtering off and all on.
8. You many find you need to raise your sub's gain a bit; some do. If dissatisfied with anything, reset it to your pleasure.
This is the general sequence; the details and a Q&A following each step are below... etc. etc.

I know that all this is certainly contained in your instructions, which I've now read several times. It's just the way I would like to have read it the first time and it would have made it easier for me. As an example again, I see others somewhat confused about setting the max volume in the say way I was, or how to store a filter properly.

[brucek]

Don't you hate it when a newbie pokes his nose into the work

Not really. I am always interested to hear specifics about the types of things that confuse people the first time they attempt to use REW and a BFD. Your points are well taken.

I look at every post and try to determine why the person is asking the question, and then see if the answer is clearly explained in the guides or not. If I think I can reword the guide to make it more clear, I do so (or suggest that a change be made). Most often, it seems the confusion is simply because they didn't read the guides. We do get a lot of very specific questions about sound cards, but you can never cover all the types, so we don't try, and simply rely on people searching the forum for others who have the same card.

I don't think there is anything that isn't covered in the BFD Guide, REW Cabling and Connections Basics, and the REW HELP files, and that has seemed to work fairly well.

I tried to tie all this stuff together at a single point with the REW information Index.

I have tossed around writing a super basic step by step of using REW to be backed up by the REW Help files, and I'll probably do that. The program keeps changing (for the better), so I keep putting it off.

brucek

[bcharlow]

Yes, you undoubtedly did cover everything somewhere. The REW guides I did not read in depth, because REW was not going to be used in my situation, so I could well have missed the "mother lode" of info.

Thanks for all the great work.