Today's Lesson

Establishing an excellent signal to noise ratio is the first step in sculpting great channel EQs.

The signal is the source that you want to amplify in a specific channel; for example, a vocal or an instrument. Noise is any other audio content that you don’t intend to amplify; for example loud guitar amps or drums bleeding into vocal microphones. The louder the signal and the quieter the noise, the better signal-to-noise ratio.

To achieve a strong signal to noise ratio, microphones should be placed close to their intended sound source to minimize unwanted noise. 

The tone of amplifiers and other signal sources on stage should be adjusted so that they are producing the full range of frequencies appropriate for that instrument.

And lastly, it's important to set a healthy input gain at the mixing console. The input gain is the first component of the signal chain once the signal enters the mixing console. All other processing in your mixing console, including EQ, is affected by the input gain setting.

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