Frequencies

Allow me to help you understand how frequencies work. Also this is an excerpt from my book Essential sound principles.

Before we look at the equalizer itself, we need to understand what frequencies are. Frequency, to put it simply, means the number of times something happens. For example: How frequently do you wash your hands? How frequently do you listen to music? etc. In the audio world, this means the number of cycles (oscillations) per second and this is measured in Hertz(Hz). So when I mention 1000Hz, it means 1000 cycles per second 

As human beings, we have discovered that the lowest frequency we can hear is 20Hz and the highest is 20000Hz(20KHz). Equalizers are used to influence the volume of a specific frequency or a range of frequencies within the audio spectrum that we humans can hear. That means they can be reduced or increased depending on the situation. Changing the frequency of a sound will change its timbre. 

Timbre is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound, or tone in music. It is also known as tone color or tone quality. Different types of sound output, such as choir voices and musical instruments, are distinguished by timbre. 

The audio that we hear is broadly classified into 3 parts – Low, Mid, and High Frequencies. But it can be further broken into Sub- Low, Lower-Mid range, Higher Mid-range, and High range. Remember, this is regarding the spectrum of frequencies that human beings can hear. 

For more information buy the book Essential Sound Principles by Edison Muhwezi