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| ALACHUA FLORIDA
— The Sabine GRAPHI-Q makes life easy for veteran soundman Jan Holm at the
April Jazz Festival
in Espoo, Finland. “The most impressive thing for me about
the GRAPHI-Q was how it made everything so easy,” states Holm. The
GRAPHI-Q “took a minute or two to set up the [FBX Feedback Exterminator®]
filters, and after that I just left the unit to do what it does and had
all the level I needed,” he continues. “The unit created a lot
of interest among colleagues dropping by and was also used by visiting
domestic sound engineers. Everyone was amazed at the smooth and easy operation
and the resulting gain increase,” proclaims Holm. The GRAPHI-Q is an all-digital 31-band graphic equalizer, FBX Feedback Exterminator®, parametric EQ, compressor/limiter and delay. GRAPHI-Q comes in single channel (one in, two out) or dual channel (two in, two out) models. GRQ-3101 and GRQ-3102 GRAPHI-Qs can be controlled by their front panels or by very powerful computer software. GRQ-3101S and GRQ-3102S GRAPHI-Qs have blank front panels and are computer controlled. All GRAPHI-Qs have 70 on-board program memories, multi-unit linking ability and password protection. Holm, one of the most respected audio consultants in Finland, is very impressed with the GRAPHI-Q’s ability to solve feedback problems inherent with the use of microphones on a grand piano. “We have a large Steinway grand piano on stage that we use with the lid open, and mic with a pair of condensers (in my opinion this is according to the nature of the instrument and as it should be),” declares Holm. “Obviously this arrangement is very prone to feedback … I used the FBX section to reduce feedback on the grand piano mics with very impressive results. Sabine literature states that one can expect a gain increase of 6 to 9 dB. I did not make any actual measurements but according to the console fader scales my improvement was more like 12 to 15 dB! Quite amazing,” Holm proclaims. The April Jazz Festival attracts many of the world’s top Jazz performers. This year’s play list included Dave Brubeck, the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, the Scott Hamilton Quartet and the Jan Garbarek Group. Holm states he has done this festival with essentially the same speaker system for the last five years. This year, by placing a GRAPHI-Q in the signal chain, the grand piano was “loud and healthy with plenty of low end present,” states Holm. Holm sites a few examples:
The transparency of the GRAPHI-Q’s FBX filters further impresses Holm. “I compared the FBXed sound and bypassed sound with my pair of Sony cans,” Holm says. “Very transparent indeed." “I had absolutely no problems with the GRAPHI-Q,” attests Holm. “No problems installing the software on my laptop, no problems establishing connection with the GRAPHI-Q, no problems running the software—which seems to behave very well indeed—and no problems operating the unit. First I must say that this is as it should be, but I've learned the hard way that very often this is not the case. The front panel is very clear and well laid out,” Holm continues. The GRAPHI-Q is now SIA Smaart™ compatible. Newly released GRQ firmware version 3.20 allows users to run all 4 GRAPHI-Q models from the Smaart Pro software platform. Furthermore, current and future Sabine software and firmware revisions are FREE from Sabine’s website. Sabine also manufactures the True Mobility™ Wireless Systems with Targeted Input Processing (FBX, Compressor/Limiter, De-Esser); POWER-Q™ (nine Pro Audio products in one 2U unit); REAL-Q2™ Real-Time Adaptive Equalizer; FBX-SOLO Feedback Exterminators®; and the SDA-102™ Digital Delay. |
