Parametric EQ tip - 'Contouring your sound'

[Casper]

I noticed pre-eq at 92hz -3db or so is common to many of the artist lead presets in the Prophesy II.
(pre-distortion eq). I'm not sure what the Q is though.

 

[InsideOut]

Wow! Great tip Rad. I just tried this on my CA3+ patch and it brought it up front much more - if that makes any sense . It sounds like it will cut through the mix much better without harshness. We'll see this weekend when I play with Animal... I mean my drummer :shock:

Great - keep in mind that you may need to do some minor tweaks at the gig to make it ideal. I would love to hear how it goes & what your bandmates think...

Well thanks to mother nature, it's not going to be this weekend. We've been canceled thanks to the foot of snow we've gotten so far, and it's still coming with a vengeance . I'll be sure to let you know how it eventually works out, and thanks again for the tip. Going back and forth with and without this PEQ setting, it's remarkable how much focus it give the tone. I can't imagine how this wouldn't help . A Plexiglas cube lowered by a crane over the drummer wouldn't be a bad idea either :lol:

 

[Radley]

Well thanks to mother nature, it's not going to be this weekend. We've been canceled thanks to the foot of snow we've gotten so far, and it's still coming with a vengeance .

That's a drag - ya gotta love that Global warming! :lol:

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

Yep, we're warming here too. Two feet of snow and counting.

 

[InsideOut]

Yep, we're warming here too. Two feet of snow and counting.

Hmmmm, the storm is coming from the south, and you're south of me so I place all blame for this mess on you :lol:

 

[dk_ace]

Radley,

I owe you a beer should we ever meet!!!

This may be the best tip I've ever seen for the Axe-FX. I spent some time dialing in my Plexi and AC-30 patch last night, and then I tried this. It took my patches to whole new levels and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when playing.

Thanks for sharing such an awesome tip!
D

 

[yek]

Curious: How is using an EQ different from using the low cut and high cut parameters on the Amp's advanced page?

It's kind of funny. When 9.0 came out lots of people were deleting EQ blocks in their patches because "these weren't necessary anymore".
Now we have threads on improving amp tones by EQ-ing, EQ-ing during the creation of IR's and improving Drive blocks by EQ-ing .... ;-)
No sarcasm here, just observing.

 

[javajunkie]

Curious: How is using an EQ different from using the low cut and high cut parameters on the Amp's advanced page?

It's kind of funny. When 9.0 came out lots of people were deleting EQ blocks in their patches because "these weren't necessary anymore".
Now we have threads on improving amp tones by EQ-ing, EQ-ing during the creation of IR's and improving Drive blocks by EQ-ing .... ;-)
No sarcasm here, just observing.

It's no different than with real amps. People have been doing these thing (tone shape with eq and w/o eq) long before modeling was around. The routing possibilities make the axe-fx particularly effective in the regard. On the other hand, over EQing can result in phase issues.

Pre distortion EQ will be different than after , PEQ is much more configurable than low/high cut in the amp block but cannot be placed after preamp but before power amp.

Here is an old article on it pre/post distortion eqing. It's been a while since I read it. I don't recall how accurate it is but it has some decent explanations.
http://www.amptone.com/#eqconcepts

 

[javajunkie]

Since upgrading to 9 and using Redwirez, I was getting great rhythm sounds, but when using a flat filter block for solo boost (as I always did before) It was too trebly.

So last few gigs I have been using a PEQ block instead of a flat filter with boost at the end of the chain. I use a peaking setting with a fairly wide Q but the peak is in the mids, so the solos cut through really nice without too much treble.

Works for me.

cheers

You probably know this but other may not; but the filter has all the features and more of the PEQ so you can think of it as being a 1 band PEQ. The filter also has a notching function and allows for higher q values.

 

[dk_ace]

Curious: How is using an EQ different from using the low cut and high cut parameters on the Amp's advanced page?

It's kind of funny. When 9.0 came out lots of people were deleting EQ blocks in their patches because "these weren't necessary anymore".
Now we have threads on improving amp tones by EQ-ing, EQ-ing during the creation of IR's and improving Drive blocks by EQ-ing .... ;-)
No sarcasm here, just observing.

I'll put it this way, my favorite tones are on albums. Those tones aren't just amps. They're a combination of micing, eq, effects, compression, etc that was added in the recording process. The sounds I hear in my head are based on those classic sounds. If a para eq block gets me closer to that sound, I'll use it.

FWIW, no amp I've ever used has gotten me as close to my ideal tones as the Axe-FX.

D

 

[VegaBaby]

Curious: How is using an EQ different from using the low cut and high cut parameters on the Amp's advanced page?

It's kind of funny. When 9.0 came out lots of people were deleting EQ blocks in their patches because "these weren't necessary anymore".
Now we have threads on improving amp tones by EQ-ing, EQ-ing during the creation of IR's and improving Drive blocks by EQ-ing .... ;-)
No sarcasm here, just observing.

Funny enough I've never been big on the low cut in the amp sims. Too much makes the amps sound too 'flat' IMHO. I rather prefer finding the frequency I don't like and tame it with PEQ. Have been doing this since the beginning and still even after 9.xx.

 

[RDeraz]

Funny enough I've never been big on the low cut in the amp sims. Too much makes the amps sound too 'flat' IMHO. I rather prefer finding the frequency I don't like and tame it with PEQ. Have been doing this since the beginning and still even after 9.xx.

+1 on that Vega.from what i have read,correct me if i'm wrong,the lowcut parameter is going into the amp block.so your cutting the lows on your guitar,not the amp.i always find the offending freq.'s around the 90hz to 100hz range.(at least through my speakers)usually drop them about 4db and it clears up the bottom.dropping the speaker resonant freq. in the adv. block helps also,

 

[browlett]

I'll ask again...

Wiki?

 

[GM Arts]

Curious: How is using an EQ different from using the low cut and high cut parameters on the Amp's advanced page?

I use power-amp overdrive in most of my patches, so using low cut (or low bass control settings) is the same as using pre-EQ to roll off bass. Gives cleaner (less) overdrive on the lower strings which I like. Bass can be restored with post-EQ if necessary.

 

[VegaBaby]

+1 on that Vega.from what i have read,correct me if i'm wrong,the lowcut parameter is going into the amp block.so your cutting the lows on your guitar,not the amp.i always find the offending freq.'s around the 90hz to 100hz range.(at least through my speakers)usually drop them about 4db and it clears up the bottom.dropping the speaker resonant freq. in the adv. block helps also,

Spot on . That's exactly my 'magic - clean bottom end' frequency range. I use it right after the cab and all is fine

 

[Radley]

I have always noticed that my favorite speakers have substantial frequency bumps just before the high & low roll-off points - it is this same effect we are creating with these PEQ settings. The key to it all is the 'Q' parameter, because it provides us with a controllable boost, centered at the roll-off frequencies we choose.

 

[javajunkie]

Funny enough I've never been big on the low cut in the amp sims. Too much makes the amps sound too 'flat' IMHO. I rather prefer finding the frequency I don't like and tame it with PEQ. Have been doing this since the beginning and still even after 9.xx.

+1 on that Vega.from what i have read,correct me if i'm wrong,the lowcut parameter is going into the amp block.so your cutting the lows on your guitar,not the amp.i always find the offending freq.'s around the 90hz to 100hz range.(at least through my speakers)usually drop them about 4db and it clears up the bottom.dropping the speaker resonant freq. in the adv. block helps also,

I believe it is actually cutting after the preamp section of the amp before the poweramp section. So it is cutting the lows on the amp after the preamps section but before the poweramp section.

 

[dk_ace]

Funny enough I've never been big on the low cut in the amp sims. Too much makes the amps sound too 'flat' IMHO. I rather prefer finding the frequency I don't like and tame it with PEQ. Have been doing this since the beginning and still even after 9.xx.

+1 on that Vega.from what i have read,correct me if i'm wrong,the lowcut parameter is going into the amp block.so your cutting the lows on your guitar,not the amp.i always find the offending freq.'s around the 90hz to 100hz range.(at least through my speakers)usually drop them about 4db and it clears up the bottom.dropping the speaker resonant freq. in the adv. block helps also,

I believe it is actually cutting after the preamp section of the amp before the poweramp section. So it is cutting the lows on the amp after the preamps section but before the poweramp section.

This is how I understood it to work as well. When I've adjusted these parameters, that is how it sounds like it is working to my ears.

D

 

[InsideOut]

I have always noticed that my favorite speakers have substantial frequency bumps just before the high & low roll-off points - it is this same effect we are creating with these PEQ settings. The key to it all is the 'Q' parameter, because it provides us with a controllable boost, centered at the roll-off frequencies we choose.

Hey Rad, I got so excited about the improved focus of my tones that I guess I kind of overlooked other things. When I go back to my other patches without this eq, they do sound a bit fizzy which is the part that I think is causing my tone to get washed in the cymbals. But the other thing I then noticed is the new eq is making my band patches sound kind of boxy compared to those without. Any suggestions on where to focus getting the boxy out?

 

[dk_ace]

I spent some more time tweaking last night. I still love what this did for my AC30 TB and FAS Crunch patches, but I didn't care for it with the cranked Plexi tone I was working on. It tended to make things boxy and lose some of that Marshall grind in the top end.

In the end, for the Plexi patch I was happiest by using the blocking filter on the low end with a high Q for a bump there and a blocking filter with a low Q to rolloff the top end. This allowed me to get rid of the ultra high fizz while retaining the signature Marshall sizzle (frequency center is much higher using a low Q though).

Like InsideOut, I gained an entirely new perspective on patches I was previously happy with. Some of them still sounded good to me, but a lot of them sounded fizzy to my ears when A/Bed with my new patches. I think both kinds of patches have their uses, but I'm excited to try these new ones in a band context. I'm certain my guitar is going to find it's place in the mix better now than ever before.

D