Using the 10-band equaliser well

Ten sliders, and a strong temptation to push them all up. Here is what each region actually does for a film.

What the bands cover

The lowest bands are rumble and bass — explosions and music foundation. The middle is where speech lives, and where most film problems are. The top is detail and air: rain, cloth, room tone.

Shaping it for dialogue

A modest midrange adjustment can help speech presence, but effects in the same frequency range change too. A small cut in the lowest bands helps too, because heavy bass masks speech.

Presets and restraint

Ready-made curves suit particular material — film, music, voice — and are a better starting point than a flat guess. Small moves work; large ones make everything sound processed. Flatten resets the lot. The presets and the other sound controls are listed on the sound page.

Match the curve to what you are listening on

Speaker and headphone responses vary; compare small equalizer adjustments on the output you actually use. Equalizer settings are saved globally; adjust them for the output you are using.

Avoid raising every band without a reason

Raising every slider. It does nothing except make the whole thing louder and more likely to distort, since the relationship between the bands is unchanged — and it is the relationship that shapes the sound. If something needs to stand out, reduce what is competing with it rather than boosting it further. Compare a small bass cut and a small midrange adjustment, and keep the setting that helps your source and speakers.

When the equaliser is the wrong tool

Dialogue boost (AIX Pro) applies a speech-presence equalizer curve; compare it with a small manual EQ adjustment. If the problem is that loud scenes are startling, loudness levelling is the right control. Both of those are Pro tools; the equaliser itself is free. The equaliser shapes tone; it does not narrow the gap between whispers and explosions.