If you want great sound, it is crucial to EQ your room. It comes with three main benefits:

1. You practically eliminate feedback issues.
2. Channel EQ becomes really simple (if you even need it).
3. Your live stream mix sounds better because you are not putting unnecessary EQ on individual channels.

EQing your room is putting EQ on your main mix so that your overall mix is shaped to fit your room. Each room has its own response to sound. It reverberates certain frequencies more than others. This will level the playing field.

It will take time to EQ your room, especially if you haven’t done it before. Set aside at least four hours with just you and the WING. You will really get to know each other.

You’ll need to buy yourself a reference mic. I use the DBX RTA measurement microphone. Get the best deal from Sweetwater and support our channel in the process using the link in the description.

You can’t do this with just any mic. You must have a measurement mic because they are the only type of mic with a flat frequency response.

Now let me take you step-by-step through EQing your room.

You’ll probably have questions as you are doing this. Get them answered quickly by joining my Inner Circle. This will give you access to one-on-one coaching calls and my private chat group, amongst other benefits.

Step 1: Level your main mix EQ.

We will be using the main mix EQ to EQ the room. So, if you already have EQ parameters on your main mix, reset all of them.

Step 2: Set up the WING’s oscillator.

In order to EQ your room, you need to play pink noise through your sound system using the WING’s oscillator.

1. Find an open channel, turn the fader all the way down, and then select it.
2. Head to the channel routing screen and tap the unlock button.
3. Change the source group to oscillator and tap OSC1.
4. Next, head to the Sources screen and change the Oscillator type to PINK and adjust the level to -18dB.

Before we head on to step three, you should know that I put all of this information in a cheat sheet so you can print it off and set it next to your mixer as you are doing this. Download it for free here:

EQ Room Cheat Sheet (FREE)

Step 3: Set up the reference mic

Place your mic in the middle of your room, facing toward the speakers at ear level. Make sure the mic is tilted to the same angle as your speakers.

1. Connect this mic to an open input on the WING.
2. Route this input to an open channel.
3. Activate phantom power.
4. Make sure compression, gating, and EQ are all deactivated.
5. Now, turn up the oscillator channel until it is about the same loudness as a normal worship service at your church.
6. Select the reference mic, head to the input screen, and set gain so that it is hitting the first couple of yellow lights.

Step 4: EQ your room.

With pink noise playing, open up the EQ for your reference microphone.

1. Make sure the RTA is enabled.
2. Tap the settings button
3. Turn RTA autogain on
4. Set the size/mode to OVL for overlay
5. Tap close

Now you can see what the reference microphone is hearing.

Tips for EQing Your Room

You want to look for frequencies that are significantly above the rest. This is what’s sticking out in your room. Now you can apply EQ on your main mix to fix the problem areas.

You’ll make an EQ adjustment on your main mix, and then come back to your reference mic to see how things changed, and so on. Every room is different, so there is no way for me to predict how this will turn out for you. But I can give you a few general guidelines.

First, focus on areas where frequencies need to be cut. When EQing a room, boosting frequencies is usually not the right strategy.

Next, use PEQ filters only. Generally, you will not use high-cut, low-cut, or shelving filters when EQing a room. And when it comes to the Q value, start around 4 and then adjust to fine-tune.

You may need to make it more narrow if your cut affects neighboring frequencies too much, or you may need to widen it out to get the desired result.

And keep in mind you most likely won’t need huge adjustments when EQing the room. If you are cutting more than 6dB, you may be a little too aggressive. But hey, some rooms do require bigger cuts, so don’t be afraid to use them if needed.

And this one is important. Don’t obsess over perfection. You are simply looking to fix frequency ranges that are significantly out of line.

Final Tips

Once you feel like you have solved the major EQ problems in your room, play your favorite song through the sound system and toggle the Main mix EQ on and off to hear the difference.

If this is your first time, it probably won’t sound as good as you want it to. Simply level out the main mix EQ and do it the whole thing over again.

It took me about five times to get it right the first time I EQ’d my room. So don’t beat yourself up. Just don’t give up. Do it as many times as it takes.

You’ll probably have some questions. Get them answered quickly by joining my Inner Circle. This will give you access to one-on-one coaching calls and my private chat group, amongst other benefits.

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