EQ Characters
See and hear how different EQ circuits curve — explore three characters, pick the curve you heard, or match one by ear. Our own curve models, described by what they do.
Two EQs set to the same numbers can sound quite different, because their curves differ. EQ Characters, under Games on the dashboard, shows you those curves. At the top is a control panel with knobs named by what they do; below it, the live curve from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, redrawn as you turn. Original / Processed switches between the dry and the treated sound, and Processed is level-matched to the original — judge the tone, not the loudness.
The three characters are our own curve models, tuned to published curve shapes and described by circuit and behaviour. They do not emulate any unit. The curve you see is computed from the same filter coefficients that make the sound, so the picture is what you hear.
The three characters
Passive tube program EQ — the low-end trick: boost and cut at once. Boost and attenuation share one frequency switch (20, 30, 60 or 100 Hz), but the attenuation turns over about half an octave higher. Turn both up and the very bottom lifts while the area just above it dips. Boost reaches about +13.5 dB, attenuation about −17.5 dB. The high section is a bell boost (3–16 kHz, up to 18 dB) with a bandwidth knob from sharp to broad, plus a separate high attenuation shelf at 5, 10 or 20 kHz.
Proportional-Q EQ — the harder you push, the narrower it gets. Three bands with switched frequencies, ±12 dB in 2 dB steps. At ±2 dB a band spans about 3 octaves; at ±12 dB about 1 octave. A dashed constant-Q bell at the same settings is drawn beside it — its width never changes.
Resonant shelf — a shelf with a bump. A low and a high shelf, ±12 dB, with a Resonance knob (Off, Low, Medium, High). As the resonance goes up, the curve overshoots just past the corner and dips slightly on the other side.
The three modes
Pick the mode at the top of the game. The choice is remembered in this browser.
- Explore — turn the knobs, listen, watch the curve. Nothing is scored. Pick the character under EQ character; Another sound loads a different stem.
- Which curve? — listen to Processed and pick which of three drawn curves made that sound. Right or wrong.
- Match — set the knobs so Yours sounds like Target, then press Check. The switch is Original / Target / Yours.
Both scored modes run on the eight-level ladder, without pre-listen — in Match you always hear your own setting; that is the game. See The level ladder and pre-listen. Outside its own screen — in Review, for example — the game asks Which curve? or Match at random.
How the levels change
Which curve? On levels 1–2 the questions come from the basics: a low boost, a high bell, a high attenuation shelf and the three proportional-Q bands. From level 3, the low attenuation, the low-end trick and the two resonant shelves join. On levels 1–4 the two wrong curves come from other moves; from level 5 they are the same move with other settings. The three curves are always clearly apart, and they get closer as you climb.
Match:
| Level | You set | Aid |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | the amount | the target curve, dotted |
| 3–4 | frequency and amount | a marker where the target moves most |
| 5–8 | every knob of the section | none |
Match is scored on how far apart the two curves are, from 30 Hz to 16 kHz, counted where either curve moves: within 1 dB 100 points, 2 dB 80, 3.5 dB 50.
On a phone speaker
In phone-speaker mode the low-frequency controls are hidden and the low-end questions are left out; the high and mid sections stay. See Listening devices and phone-speaker mode.
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