Can Someone Please 'Splain this EQ Stuff to Me?

NorioDS · 2008-08-12T09:57:13+00:00

Specifically, I don't understand ANY of the EQ stuff under "EQ" and "Parametric EQ". What the heck's the difference? ??? And how do you use it to get better sounds out of your guitar / recordings / etc? Oh and what's all this "Wet/Dry" stuff? A wild stab leads me to thinking that it relates to how much you want to mix in the effect. Dry is a little and wet is a lot? :-[ There's a LOT of terminology in the recording / "advanced effects" world that elude simple guitarists like me who are used to tone, volume, gain and distortion knobs ? Help! ☹

AlanRatcliffe

Quite a while ago I read about a bloke who recorded a full album with one mic, everything at once with NO overdubs.. All he did was use quite a good Omni mic, and placed the instruments in the room relative to where he wanted them to sound in the mix.. I havnt listend to how it sounds, but I'm on the lookout for the album.. Very interesting idea to get everything to sound good at the source.

Which album is this and what is the style of music? Quite common recording technique for bluegrass players - they often play that way live and understand mic control, playing dynamics and leaving space for soloists. True ensemble players with unamplified instruments.

Neps

it was Folk.. British band called Aderley (I think) will go look for the article tonight at home and then post the link.

It's all about mic control as you said.. Today people just dont know how to actualy do that.. Thats where those blokes from the 50's- 70's realy knew the best way..

I personaly blame Britney Spears and Kwaito for this (just covering international and SA bad habits)

C-LYDE

Gearhead wrote Not to answer all your questions - the 'standard' Fender 3-way EQ does NOT have a flat frequency response with all the knobs set to the middle position. To see how it works in practice, you can download a nice EQ simulator from Duncanamps.com.

Tube amp guru and Mesa Boogie owner Randall Smith says that they put the same kind of EQ on new amps like Fender did, because to his knowledge there has not been a succesful amp design that did not have it - drawbacks about overlapping frequencies and all. In other words, we should not complain about EQ that we seem to like so much.

...download the simulation - nah too easy :? I like doing things the hard way - I learn a lot more!
Not sure why ole Randall was so impressed with the EQ - it's not anything a bog-standard parametric could not achieve? I could not see any level compensation going on once the circuits start clipping .i.e. the louder it gets the less room one has for EQ boosting.

This also highlights another fun thought - various pre-amp models - all just different fixed EQ settings with a gain stage or 2 ?

Gearhead

(BTW we're sorta offtopic I think here)

C.LYDE wrote Not sure why ole Randall was so impressed with the EQ

I think what he meant to say was he is not prepared to miss out on a good selling product just because he wants to 'improve' the Fender 3-knob thing. He did though. My Studio Preamp has got exactly the same thing as the Mark IIc - both a Fender 3-way before the normal + gain stages and a 5-way graphic after it. Makes you able to first cut the highs, feed the lows through the gain channel overdrive and then cut the lows somewhat so it doesn't sound dark. For example.

C.LYDE wrote This also highlights another fun thought - various pre-amp models - all just different fixed EQ settings with a gain stage or 2 ?

I think there's more to it - they are using different plate resistors, coupling cap sizes and cathode bias resistor bypass - the tubes are working on different load lines - the rolloffs are at different frequencies - which all makes for a different sound. The rolloff you could mimic with a parametric EQ but it would still not be the same as the interaction between tube and coupling cap is different. The different load lines give you different harmonics added and there's no eq that does that. (am I putting it correctly here, Karel? ?)

C-LYDE

The interesting thing with the EQ and the electronic design is that if the EQ stage is a linear design and that gain stage is non-linear, the component interaction within the EQ stage is exactly that - linear.

I need to do some more experimentation and actually note and post results. But I suspect that my theory is probably right hence the proliferation of so many amp simulators - if the analysis was complicated the budgets for research would be large and only big companies would release those products - this is not the case though.

I am presently looking at research paper based on analyzing a fender champ, done by a single student...

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