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Is "Q" in the parametric EQ block the actual Q which you would find in a DAW or digital mixer?


loopinit
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 Line 6 uses nominal values of 1 to 10 in most of the adjustable settings.  This leads me to wonder if a "Q" of 10 would actually be 10, or if it would be a higher number.  If I am going to use the parametric EQ for cutting, there is no way I can carve out frequencies with a Quality parameter that wide.  In my experience, cutting with a "Q" any wider than 14 will remove far too much of my essential frequencies.  I just got my Helix last week, and the potential is making me all warm inside.  But not knowing this is messing with my equalizing OCD.

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To my knowledge (spanning some 47 years in audio), although there may in fact be AES specified parameter guidelines, actual implementation is totally arbitrary.  So happens I have my DAW fired up, a quick glance at 3 different paras show 3 different top numbers - 10, 12, 20 to be specific.  So don't obsess over one-to-one relationships here, just assume that "10" is as tight as it's gonna get.  Is it as tight as the "14" you're used to working with?  Let us know...

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When I get a chance, I'll send the signal to an RTA, and see how much 10 carves out. I spend much more time playing lead guitar on Sundays than I do behind the soundboard at my church. I'm fairly certain the parametric EQ on our Midas M32 can be as narrow as 40 though, I'll look tomorrow. I need to start focusing on mixing a lot more, as I begin buying the recording components of my studio. My experience in DAWS is limited to the Recording classes I took during my couple of years of Music Production in college, so if you someone with your experience tells me the numbers aren't standardized, I'll take your word for it. FWIW, the standard 7 band EQ in Pro Tools only goes up to 10, so I suppose you are correct that I should focus on what my ears tell me. My professor told me the same thing constantly, haha. I'm in the process of selling gear, so I can pick up a pair of Avantone Pro Abbeys. Then I will feel much more at ease with tweaking my presets from home.

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With a "Q" scale of 1>10 then no, there is clearly not a correlation between the number and the actual Q of the filter circuit..given it is very reasonable to want to use values < 1.

 

I had been very frustrated with TC G (& Nova) systems EQ settings until i put it on an analyzer.. their Q numbers are upside down... so there was me putting in a wide dip, and i wasn't smh .. some notes on a pad and all is fine..

 

you can get free spectrum analyzers on the web, so if you have an idea of what you wish to implement prior to fine tuning by ear, then i suggest to run a quick map of a filter response to get a handle on L6 version of Q

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