Tascam PE-20

[famous beagle]

There's one of these on ebay right now:

TASCAM PE-20 4 CHANNEL 3 BAND PARAMETRIC EQUALIZER | eBay

And it's listed as a parametric EQ. But it doesn't look parametric to me; it looks as though the high band is simply fixed, and the mid and low bands are sweepable, but not parametric. I don't see a place to adjust the Q.

Am I missing something?

 

[Beck]

I had one of these for years and it really is a pretty nice unit. Although it's called a parametric EQ, PE-20 (Parametric Equalizer 20) it's just Tascam's usual semi-para design. The high EQ is 10k shelving and the medium and low have a fixed fairly broad Q. It's very usable and musical, but not something you’d use to really narrow in tightly to a specific frequency. I sorta wish I still had mine, but I sold it along with the rest of the System 20 modules and the meter bridge about 20 years ago. For a time I used the PE-20 as EQ for my Tascam 246 portastudio through the inserts of four channels because I felt the PE-20 was a bit better.

With a signal-to-noise ratio of better than 80 dB, the PE-20 is the quietest of all the System 20 modules but it's a little noisier than it needs to be, so I modded mine with better op-amps. If memory serves me correctly the System 20 modules had the ubiquitous (at the time) NJM4558’s throughout. I put NE5532A’s in all of them. If I had one today I would replace the op-amps with NJM4580’s, which are especially sweet in EQ circuits and are drop-in replacements for any of the earlier 45xx op-amps. I would also replace any carbon resistors in the signal path with metal film types.

Here are the stock specs:

S/N Ratio: Better than 80 dB
THD: Less than 0.1% @ 1kHz
Crosstalk: Better than 60 dB
Equalizer:
High: 10k Shelving type
Mid: 1 to 8k adjustable
Low: 60 Hz to 1.5k adjustable
All EQ level adjustable +/- 12 dB

I don’t know the exact fixed Q value because I’ve never seen it listed, but from experience… just listening to it, the Q is fairly low, which gives it a less harsh and more musical gentle effect. IMO it would make a pretty decent mastering EQ if you feed channels 1 & 2 into Channels 3 &4 for more control. You end up with a 2-channel EQ that way, but with a lot more options.

 

[famous beagle]

And another thing! Trying to tell people or at least suggest they need an analog plugin along with real analog tape is just desperate! Not to mention asinine! Sounds like you’re trying to open a whole new market. LOL Now I’ve heard everything… I’m actually cracking up here seriously LOL. Well thanks for the laugh… really. It’s funny as hell. I don’t get these side-splitting, tears in my eyes laughs quite often enough.

I now see that this must have been mistakenly pasted from the other thread. At first I was wondering what the hell was going on!

Thanks for the info. That's what I suspected. I wonder why they call it parametric? Is it just kind of like Fender switching the terms "tremolo" and "vibrato" back in the day?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I wonder why they call it parametric? Is it just kind of like Fender switching the terms "tremolo" and "vibrato" back in the day?

Swept frequency makes it semi parametric, and that would have been way closer to parametric than home recording eq usually got at the time. And the PE-40 is fully parametric (I have one).

 

[Beck]

I now see that this must have been mistakenly pasted from the other thread. At first I was wondering what the hell was going on!

Hahaha! Yes indeed. I had a couple replies written in MS Word and cut and pasted them. I fixed it now, but LOL that must have been quite confusing at first.

Thanks for the info. That's what I suspected. I wonder why they call it parametric? Is it just kind of like Fender switching the terms "tremolo" and "vibrato" back in the day?

You're very welcome.

Swept frequency makes it semi parametric, and that would have been way closer to parametric than home recording eq usually got at the time. And the PE-40 is fully parametric (I have one).

Yep, the PE-40 is a nice unit. I have one of those as well. Yet I could still find a use for a PE-20 if I found one for a reasonable price. Sometimes simplicity is an advantage in that you're more likely to use something with less parameters to worry about. I really love my PE-40 though and I've modded it as well to sound as sweet as can be. I use it for all kinds of things including final mastering EQ.