Graphic Equalizers

[partyadz]

Hi Everyone.

 

Looking to buy a graphic equalizer, to use with a touring theatre company. Will be micing up the band, and using about five radio mics in different venues. I was looking at the Behringer Ultragraph Pro FBQ3102.

 

Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with one of these? Or recommend a different unit to use?

 

Any thougths would be much appreciated.

 

Adam

[StevieR]

Most graphics perform the same function so the main thing is go for the best you can afford. The higher priced units will generally have better electronics and will provide more accurate control over each frequency band and hash up the others less.

 

I have used budget units but if possible I would go for a better unit such as a BSS FC966.

 

Steve

[MarkPAman]

Ultragraph needs to be flightcased - well OK, any graphic will really, but the Behringer tends to lose its sliders rather easily.

[lightsource]

Ultragraph needs to be flightcased - well OK, any graphic will really, but the Behringer tends to lose its sliders rather easily.

 

Very easily ;)

[Rob_Beech]

No, easier than that.

 

The LED's in them are also wired up in 2 sets I series I think, so break one slider and you'll lose half of the LED's for that channel.

 

The FBQ's are certainly a step up from the older GEQ graphics. That said, bypassing the GEQ's was better. On a budget you wont go far wrong with the FBQ's but if budget allows then I'd step up to 966's of 960's, GQ600's an the likes. You'll notice there is a large gap I price, there are many eqs that fill this gap, that are not worth the extra money over the behringer IMO

[StevieR]

Ultragraph needs to be flightcased - well OK, any graphic will really, but the Behringer tends to lose its sliders rather easily.

 

Interestingly enough, we have had quite an attrition rate on the fader knobs on our BSS FCS966's and have recently replaced quite a few pots. The shafts on these are not as tough as you would hope at the price point.

[MarkPAman]

The LED's in them are also wired up in 2 sets I series I think, so break one slider and you'll lose half of the LED's for that channel.

 

Not so (for me anyway).

 

I've got too many of the things, and several have lost sliders. Remaining ones light up no problem. I swap them round to get non working ones up at 20kHz.

 

[Rant] Most of the missing ones are due to a person who borrowed them & took them out of their rack as he was short of space in the car ;) [/rant]

[soundiesam]

I think you need to consider how much you wanna end up spendin! People have suggested the bss units but they are far more expensive than the behringer units

Hope this helps

Sam

[mervaka]

<-- here's another victim of those fragile behringer LED knobs.

[norty303]

I suppose this thread does at least show that a lot of people are/have been using the Behringer EQ's.

[paulears]

I think the real truth is that many of us actually have a fair amount of their kit, simply because, like in the case of compressors, you need a lot, not just an odd one - so you can fill a rack up with behringer, and accept the odd problem. I'd love a rack of expensive ones, but I do have a couple of what I call 'nice' ones, and loads of Bs. I'm happy to admit that pretty much of what I put through them wouldn't benefit from the sonic improvements the big name/big ticket would make. One poorly tuned, cheap tom tom sounds pretty dire through either. I have a couple of 32 band eqs in the rack, one B, one not, and I can't say the audio differences are that evident - although in the studio there is a 'roughness' to the B that the other one doesn't have.

 

I don't worry too much about it.

[Rob_Beech]

Having checked, I was wrong, it was my last remaining GEQ pile of rubbish that has a couple of the faders knocked off, NOT the FBQ.

 

Thinking about it, on the FBQ they HAVE to be all separate for the inbuilt laziness function to work. The GEQ doesn't have this feature so they can all be linked.

[partyadz]

Hi Guys

Thanks to everyone so far. What about going down the digitall route - I've seen behringer do the

ULTRA-CURVE PRO DSP8024 which still fits my price bracket. Is it worth the extra money over the FBQ3102.

 

Thanks again

adam

[mervaka]

what does digital EQ bring you?

[Rob_Beech]

If you need the features of the digital then they are an advantage of course. And the 8024 whilst an old model has plenty of other stuff on it. I thought that model was discontinued now (replaced by the DEQ2496) which incidentally I'm selling one of. They are not as quick to use as the analogue eq's but become easier as you get used to them. They are MUCH better quality than the analogue eq's that Behringer have to offer and IMO better than some more expensive analogue ones. If you don't need the features of digital then don't do it.

 

Rob