[Rwp] How does eq works - cutting frequencies off guitar amp tracks.

Sat Mar 5 11:06:19 EST 2016

Graphical EQ similar to the EQ found on guitar amps or etc where the frequency and q are set, but instead of a knob its a slider. On physical units the sliders usually have a grove in the middle that lets you know when its  at 0 or centered and no boost  or cut is happening. You push the slider up to boost that frequency and pull the slider down to cut that frequency. They are called graphical eq because of the use of sliders someone can look at the eq and visually or graphically see how its set in a glance. The name has nothing to do with an actual EQ graph of any kind. 

BTW Jon from the reaper blog and of home recording show fame recently posted a video on EQ’ing distorted guitars. 
http://reaperblog.net/2016/03/how-to-eq-heavy-distorted-guitars-in-a-mix/ <http://reaperblog.net/2016/03/how-to-eq-heavy-distorted-guitars-in-a-mix/>

> On Mar 5, 2016, at 7:11 AM, Hadi <hadirezaei at gmx.com> wrote:
> 
> God damn, @TheOreoMonster that was one of the most helpful guides I've ever received; It was simple enough to follow while it contained lots of things that I always was wondering about. Now I know what engineers are actually talking about when saying "cut it narrow" or "boost it wide" or shape that like that or apply a whatever filter/pass. I am really thankful for this post, I think you've saved me hours and hours of googling and listening to Youtube videos.
> P.S what are graphical eqs? I suppose they just turn all this info to a graphical thing so engineers can see and shape it as they desire.
> I'll be on hunt for  the values that mesa boogie amps apply for their 5-band eq, specially  since they sound awesome in progressive metal tracks. I'm pretty sure people show their graphical-shaped eqs around, but I gotta find the value. now that I know about this, I can do it very easily than before!
> thanks a lot!
> Cheers
> Hadi
> 
> 
> On 3/5/2016 4:35 AM, theoreomonster at reaperaccess.com wrote:
>> The audible hearing range generally speaking goes from 20 hertz (20hz) to 20 kilohertz  (20khz)  which is also 20,000 hertz. 20hz is the extreme low end and 20khz is the extreme high end . Unless you have bionic hearing you probably won’t be able to hear much that low or high  but atlas on the low side you will feel it if you have speakers that can output that much low end. And Eq in its basic of terms is a volume control for any given frequency. An  Eq like ReaEQ which ships with Reaper is a Parametric EQ. This means that it allows you to set the exact frequency value, (anywhere from 20hz to 20khz ) set the Gain (how much you want to boost or cut that frequency - positive values boost the frequency and negative values cut it) and the Q which sets how wide the boost  or cut is. Wide as in how the frequencies around are affected. So lets say you  set the frequency to 100 hz, and pull down the gain to -3db you will be cutting  that frequency by 3db. Now where you set the q will dictate if you are only affecting 100hz  (which will be a narrow q with an extremely low value) or if you start to affect the frequencies around it to some extent  like say 98hz or 102 hz .  The wider the q The more frequencies on either side  of  the preset gain value that gets affected to some extend.  However this affect isn’t linear. Say you cut 100hz by 3db you may only be cutting other frequencies by 1 or 2db  the further out they are the less they are affected.  To generalize this further, 20hz to 200hz give or take is considered the low end. 200hz to about 2khz (or 2000hz) is considered the mid range area and 2khz (2000hz)  to 20khz (20,000hz) is considered the high end.  Things like guitar amps that have EQ on them usually have a low, mid and high controls. In this case the amp designer preset the frequency , and q for the eq and the knob you as a user is provided with is just the gain knob to cut or boost those frequencies. Consult your favorite amps manual to learn where  they set the frequency and q as this will vary from amp to amp. The other interesting  thing about guitars is your typical guitar speaker doesn’t reproduce much above 5khz (5000hz) so this is why amp modeler can sound unnatural at times since they don’t always have the same steep drop off after 5khz like a guitar speaker. So This is where using a full parametric EQ like ReaEQ after the amp plug in can help shape the tone. A high cut and low cut filter is  also useful in the case of shaping a guitar amp modelers tone ’s well. a Low cut  or high pass as they are also known (and different EQ’s use one or the other title for them) do just that cut the lows or allow only the highs to pass through.  So unlike a regular parametric eq band, if you set a low cut or high pass filter to 100hz and cut it by 3db this  pulls down 100 hz and everything below 100hz  as well. This means only the frequencies above 100hz is allowed to pass through for the most part.  This is useful for say a guitar amp since not a lot of info resides in the low end for a guitar and turning down some of that stuff below 100hz allows for the frequencies  above 100hz to be heard better but allows for more space for the bass and kick drums to be heard. The opposite of these filters are the high cut or low pass which cuts the highs or only allows the lows to pass through. Given what we understand of how guitar amps work in the real world  you can set a high cut or low pass somewhere above 5khz and cut it to help your amp modeler sound more natural.   In both the case of the low cut/high pass and high cut/low pass you will want to pull the gain down  and then sweep around the frequencies to find where they sound best to set them. Another thing the term scooped usually means that you scoop out or cut the mids out of a signal. While this may work for rhythm tones, you may actually want to boost the Mids on a solo or lead part to make it more  audible in the mix.  Hope this wasn’t too long and confusing and helps a bit. Also if i goofed anywhere and need to make any corrections let me know.
>>> On Mar 4, 2016, at 1:34 PM, Hadi <hadirezaei at gmx.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi there
>>> Thank you guys for  explaining EQ and  how it works. I've read  the awesome post of Chris bell, I'm actually going to reread it several times to grasp the idea
>>> P.S, Regarding hardware EQ that scot mentioned, I really have to get a guitar amp that  has some EQ settings on it, because I am extremely unfamiliar with it. I know what tone i'm aiming for though, so that's always good. I want my solo  guitar tracks to be chreemy and a bit of scooped, while having a  huge wall of  smooth sound for my rhythm guitar.
>>> II've been told  lots of times that  guitar amp vsts have lots of high frequencies in them, compared to real amps. Does that mean that I should go after 7 to 10k hz frequencies?
>>> 
>>> On 3/3/2016 11:45 PM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
>>>> I started out EQ-ing on hardware mixers, and as a consequence never
>>>> had a clue about numbers. When I switched over to DAWs, I thought I'd
>>>> learn the numbers on the go by finding presets I liked, then examining
>>>> the parameters of those presets to see what was happening under the
>>>> hood. In actuallity, all I was doing was building up a collection of
>>>> presets I liked spread across a bunch of different EQ plugins, so
>>>> unless you have more resolve than me, don't try learning that way lol.
>>>> I think Chris is spot on with the suggestion to take a sound you're
>>>> very familiar with, insert an EQ plugin on that, boost the gain and
>>>> then sweep up and down the frequency spectrum to figure out what stuff
>>>> sounds like. Start with broad strokes, for example, if you can tell
>>>> the difference between a 3K and 5K boost, give yourself a pat on the
>>>> back. Soon enough you'll narrow it down to being able to tell the
>>>> difference between 3K and 4K, and so on and so forth. ReaEQ is a
>>>> decent plugin IMO, and is very usable via the parameters dialog you'll
>>>> get by hitting Shift+P.
>>>> 
>>>> Also, if you've got anything that runs iOS, once you become vaguely
>>>> familiar with what the frequency spectrum sounds like, there's an app
>>>> called QuizTones that's a fun way to practice identifying cuts and
>>>> boosts applied to songs taken from your music library.
>>>> 
>>>> And that's about it. Practice practice practice.
>>>> 
>>>> Hth a bit
>>>> 
>>>> Scott
>>>> 
>>>> On 3/3/16, Chris Smart <csmart8 at cogeco.ca> wrote:
>>>>>> How did the rest of you learn to use an equalizer, and eventually,
>>>>>> learn to recognize various parts of the audible spectrum? Am I way
>>>>>> off with my suggestions? I realize we all learn this stuff differently.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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