"Q" value on old EQ's

[aoki saburo]

This was a while ago and might not have been on this forum, but some (older, experienced) dude said that one reason - one! - that old EQ's sound so much more musical than newer ones is that there wasn't an adjustable "Q" value that went to 7 for extreme EQ'ing.

He also mentioned that young 'uns go far too crazy with EQ sweeping around with narrow filters. Then I thought - what if I limited myself to a maximum Q value? Would that make everything that I EQ far less funky?

So I was wondering if somebody here who has worked with older EQ's could guesstimate how wide they were?

just a thought really....

cheers,
saburo

 

[bennychico11]

I don't think it's a matter of limiting yourself...I think it has to do more with not worrying so much about EQ. Back in the day, EQs were limited. They had maybe two or three EQ knobs on a lot of gear. And these things were used on the albums that people rave so much about today as being "the best sounding" records. Even on a lot (all) of consoles (both digital and analog) you don't see 10 band EQs, do you?
I think we (yes, me included at times) worry too much about trying to fix things afterwards and spend too much time EQing things....instead of getting it right the first time.

I know this strays from the question you asked...sorry.

 

[xstatic]

Well, the "Q" on every different console is different, so to make such a broad statement seems very misleading to me. back in the day when consoles did indeed seem a little more mystical than they do now, there were many differences. They used different parts and completely different build techniques. They specialized in different features for different techniques. Those are just a few of the things that makes equipment now different from that of the classics. There is a very large demand nowadays for cheap equipment. As a result the market is now saturated with a very large amount of pretty awful sounding equipment. Alo tof that equipment is using far cheaper parts and manufacturing techniques which tends to result in a much cheaper feeling console that does not sound nearly as good. I think this type of process has much more to do with the differences in the sound of EQ's from current consoles compared to classic consoles.

 

[aoki saburo]

hmm

of course you guys are right, and the components and build make older EQ's a totally different beast than the stuff we use now...

but it was mentioned that older EQ's were super simple, more like tone control than a 10-band fully-parametric waves plug. That seems like a part of the equation, no?

thanks for the replies,
cheers
saburo

 

[SonicAlbert]

That's not entirely accurate about older eq's. I own several hardware eq rack units that are fully parametric, meaning you can go from a very narrow "Q" to a very wide one. This is much more than a simple tone control. These hardware eq boxes will typically have 3-5 bands of fully parametric eq, although there are certainly boxes out there that aren't fully parametric.

Just because you can do a 10 band fully parametric eq in a plugin doesn't mean you should or that there is really that much use for it. I can't think of a single time I ever felt I needed ten bands of parametric eq, or ever used more than 3 or 4. Very often only 2 bands are needed, sometimes only one band.