036 – Frequency in Live Music: "1k" Explained
Manipulating frequencies is one the main ways we shape our mixes.
Written by Scott Adamson
As I discussed in last week’s post about Signal Levels, we’re launching our brand-new YouTube channel with a series of audio tips that are found in our flagship course, Essential Live Sound Training. These are some of the critical concepts that every audio engineer (and performing musician) should know.
This week, we’re looking at one of the fundamental building blocks of music: Frequency. In live sound, we’re constantly using EQ to manipulate different parts of the frequency spectrum. This is how we change the tone of instruments or speaker systems to create a full and balanced mix.
So, talking about frequency is something we do a lot. And when we refer to frequencies that are in the thousands of Hertz (cycles per second), we use the term “k”. To explain all of this a bit better, I just posted the latest audio tip on YouTube:
