Various Types of
Equalizers
Audio Ksharing: Rajesh Sharma
1Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Why Use an Equalizer
Two fundamental reasons for using an
equalizer
To increase the naturalness or intelligibility
of the sound system e.g. to create a flat
frequency response sound system.
To increase the gain or volume of the
system before feedback occurs
Audio equalizers have operating frequency
range of 20Hz-20KHZ
Boost/Cut Range is normally , in some
steps.
dB12±
2Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Position
Equalizers are generally positioned in the
system signal flow between mixer and power
amplifiers.
Though it can also be used independently for
each mixer channel.
3Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Bandpass Filter Parameters
4Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Cont….
5Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Shelving Filter Equalizer
Most basic of all:
Used in home stereo systems and basic sound
system, mixer/amplifiers
These equalizers have three knobs
Bass: Low Pass Filter, below 100 HZ
Treble: High Pass Filter, above 10KHZ
Mid: : Band Pass Filter, also known as Peeking
Filter
6Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Graphic Equalizer
One can graphically see the equalizer response
from settings
Constant-Q, Proportional-Q, Perfect Q are
various Technologies.
Three basic types of graphic equalizer:
Octave Band Equalizer: 9-10 Bands
2/3 Octave Band Equalizer: 15 Bands
1/3 Octave Band Equalizer: 27-30 Bands
7Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Parametric Equalizers
Big Boss of all equalizers:
Three Knobs/Band Controls:
Boost/Cut Control
Center Frequency Control
Band Width Control
These equalizers have usually 3-4 bands for
Analog Equalizers and may have 10-20 for
Digital Equalizers.
8Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Semi-Parametric Equalizer
In these equalizers, few of the bands have fixed
bandwidth and center frequency.
For example, low/high pass filters are fixed and
the rest have three controls like in parametric
equalizers.
9Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Mono/Stereo Equalizer
Mono Equalizers have same equalization
applied to both channels
Stereo Equalizers have independent
equalizations for both channels.
10Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Digital automatic feedback controller
These equalizers systems sense feedback and
insert a very narrow filter on the offending
frequency
It is like a parametric equalizer which is set
automatically
11Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Programmable Equalizers
It is like any other equalizer
But it also allows multiple settings to be stored
for future use
12Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Channel Equalization
Following two equalizations are used for
channel equalizations
Blind Equalization
Adaptive Equalization
13Types of Equalizers
www.rajeshsharma.co.in
Usage
Equalization of the loudspeaker system
Compensation for loudspeaker placement
Compensation for room acoustic
To reduce feedback
Compensation for the microphone
characteristics and placement
To create special effects

Audio Graphic Equalizer