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Author Topic: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?  (Read 7648 times)

eric_hedford

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are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« on: November 28, 2010, 07:25:34 PM »

I read someone's opinion that "parametric EQ's are more musical" than graphic.

What does that mean and do you think it's true?




and would you consider the PT and McDsp Filterbank EQ's para or graphic??
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Edward Vinatea

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2010, 09:16:36 PM »

I don't think is true. IMO, choosing pre-selected set of frequencies at pre-selected Q's over wider control equalization has nothing to do with being 'musical'.

Quote:

and would you consider the PT and McDsp Filterbank EQ's para or graphic??
I'm not sure about what PT means (ProTools?) but that McDsp sure looks like a paragraphic equalizer to me, in essence, similar to a Waves Q10.

Regards,

Edward

ssltech

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2010, 09:16:47 PM »

"Musical" is a marketing term.

It means nothing.

Therefore; -simple answer- No.
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MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36

I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics..

compasspnt

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2010, 10:38:26 PM »

The only thing that is "musical" is the one thing that works for you in any one particular instance.
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seedyunderbelly.com

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2010, 02:21:59 AM »

I think I might know what he is getting at ..  Certain semi-parametrics have a high resonance like a resonant filter or wah pedal putting them one step closer to a synthesis instrument --hence the correlation with musical  --  but yeah  perhaps the ear candy of a resonant Eq or lack therof is not what constitutes "musical"  but   yeah a resounding yes for life in the resonanance ALSO _____    compare but I do think I know what you mean __  using failed EQS as additive synthesis...funfunfun  j

Hallams

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2010, 07:09:31 AM »

  I always assumed the term "musical" eq was referring to an eq that was not surgical narrow notch EQ but  broadband enhancement eg a parametric with a wide Q, or shelving or the simpler old broadband eqs before parametric. So with this meaning then a parametric eq could be said to be more musical than a standard 32 band graphic. Of course a parametric with variable notch can be very surgical etc etc but as a loose form of description with out getting pedantic, that's what i would assume someone was getting at if using that sort of description.
So to answer the question with the above in mind, parametrics are more musical than a 32 band graphic if used with a wide notch or Q. The API 10 band graphic EQ is more musical than a Klark Technik 32 band graphic, and a passive broad band eq like the Pultec EQP 1A (or the EQ on my old Audek console) are examples of the most musical of the various EQ designs and options.
 Now i know anyone could pick the shit out of this description for the sake of articulate precise and technically correct communication but in general terms this is my take on the question.
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Chris Hallam.
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Tim Halligan

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2010, 08:07:59 AM »

I'm of the opinion - like with multi-band compression - that people should be required to pass a stringent exam in order to be licensed to use a parametric eq.

These tools are far too dangerous to be left in the hands of just anybody.

Cheers,
Tim
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Edward Vinatea

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2010, 09:07:12 AM »

Hallams wrote on Mon, 29 November 2010 07:09

  I always assumed the term "musical" eq was referring to an eq that was not surgical narrow notch EQ but  broadband enhancement eg a parametric with a wide Q, or shelving or the simpler old broadband eqs before parametric. So with this meaning then a parametric eq could be said to be more musical than a standard 32 band graphic. Of course a parametric with variable notch can be very surgical etc etc but as a loose form of description with out getting pedantic, that's what i would assume someone was getting at if using that sort of description.
So to answer the question with the above in mind, parametrics are more musical than a 32 band graphic if used with a wide notch or Q. The API 10 band graphic EQ is more musical than a Klark Technik 32 band graphic, and a passive broad band eq like the Pultec EQP 1A (or the EQ on my old Audek console) are examples of the most musical of the various EQ designs and options.
 Now i know anyone could pick the shit out of this description for the sake of articulate precise and technically correct communication but in general terms this is my take on the question.


In this case then, the most "musical" eq would be the bass and treble control on your car stereo.

Seriously though, there is no real reason to believe that an eq is more musical than another when it has less frequency control. The same goes for 'resonance'. If an eq introduces resonances within its processes then it is a processor with a very flawed design and not something desirable to work with.

Regards,

Edward

Fletcher

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2010, 04:35:57 PM »

I've always used the term "musical" as a grouping for the various distortions that occur in a product.  You have harmonic distortions, phase distortions, intermodulation distortions [blah, blah, blah] -- some of these distortions can leave a very pleasant [musical] set of artifacts, others - not so much.

Its a term I use when I'm either being lazy or realize that my "in-depth" explanation will go zooming over the head of the person to whom I'm responding [which I suppose is another form of "lazy"].
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

bob ebeling

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2010, 08:03:04 PM »

Occasionally I'll use a parametric as a phaser.  Just grab one of the midbands and add about 10db gain, then grab the freq. (sweepable only) and start twisting.  Preferably you are recording the output, not doing this during a mix, but you can be brave.  No risk no rewards in experimental space rock!

The Tascam M-2524 board eq's were astounding for this.  That and a Lexicon LXP-5...very musical for me in 1995.
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Bob Ebeling
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Hallams

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2010, 09:16:27 PM »

bob ebeling wrote on Tue, 30 November 2010 12:03

Occasionally I'll use a parametric as a phaser.  Just grab one of the midbands and add about 10db gain, then grab the freq. (sweepable only) and start twisting.  Preferably you are recording the output, not doing this during a mix, but you can be brave.  No risk no rewards in experimental space rock!

The Tascam M-2524 board eq's were astounding for this.  That and a Lexicon LXP-5...very musical for me in 1995.


...... have done that a fair bit with the waves eq plugin, narrow Q boost. As you sweep the effect of it resonating with the program material is a cool effect especially if you use it to trigger some wacky reverb/delay effects that are available in space designer and other convolution reverbs.
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Chris Hallam.
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seedyunderbelly.com

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2010, 09:55:11 PM »

bob ebeling wrote on Mon, 29 November 2010 19:03

Occasionally I'll use a parametric as a phaser.  Just grab one of the midbands and add about 10db gain, then grab the freq. (sweepable only) and start twisting.  Preferably you are recording the output, not doing this during a mix, but you can be brave.  No risk no rewards in experimental space rock!

The Tascam M-2524 board eq's were astounding for this.  That and a Lexicon LXP-5...very musical for me in 1995.



exactly

Tascam 424/3500 too___   and neotek and neve vr for that matter...
I have only used that stationary  but I wonder if that is what he was refering to.
j

MagnetoSound

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2010, 03:09:46 AM »


Not really a phaser though, you would notch for that, no?

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Music can make me get right up out of my chair and start dancing or it can get me so pumped up I have to walk around the block.
It can also knock me back and make me sit there and cry like a little baby. This shit is as powerful as any drug!!!
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Fletcher

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2010, 07:14:44 AM »

bob ebeling wrote on Mon, 29 November 2010 20:03

Occasionally I'll use a parametric as a phaser.  Just grab one of the midbands and add about 10db gain, then grab the freq. (sweepable only) and start twisting.  Preferably you are recording the output, not doing this during a mix, but you can be brave.  No risk no rewards in experimental space rock!


What you describe is more of a "wah-wah" effect than a "phaser" [a "phaser" is based on a varying delay vs. "frequency sweeping amplitude" changes with an EQ].

Semantics I suppose - the result would be the same
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CN Fletcher

mwagener wrote on Sat, 11 September 2004 14:33
We are selling emotions, there are no emotions in a grid


"Recording engineers are an arrogant bunch.  
If you've spent most of your life with a few thousand dollars worth of musicians in the studio, making a decision every second and a half... and you and  they are going to have to live with it for the rest of your lives, you'll get pretty arrogant too.  It takes a certain amount of balls to do that... something around three"
Malcolm Chisholm

ssltech

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Re: are parametric EQ's more "musical"?
« Reply #14 on: November 30, 2010, 08:42:56 AM »

bob ebeling wrote

Occasionally I'll use a parametric as a phaser.  Just grab one of the midbands and add about 10db gain, then grab the freq. (sweepable only) and start twisting.  Preferably you are recording the output, not doing this during a mix, but you can be brave.  No risk no rewards in experimental space rock!


Boost will give you 'wah', not 'phase'.

CUT will give you phase. -The narrower the 'Q'/'Bandwidth' (along with a sufficiently deep cut), the stronger the sense of 'phasing'.

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MDM (maxdimario) wrote on Fri, 16 November 2007 21:36

I have the feeling that I have more experience in my little finger than you do in your whole body about audio electronics..
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