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For those more fluent with the EQ models on HX effects...


cjplace86
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Pretty noobish at this stuff but wondering if the HX effects is capable of doing what this guy does here at 00:27 of this video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKtotzp7SBM&t=31s

 

I know we have an MXR 10-band EQ model and I was able to copy his settings on that one.  But with the other two he is using, sine effects parametric EQ and MXR 6-band EQ, i'm not sure what to do.  I looked at the EQ titled 'parametric' but didn't really know how to match up his settings.  And i'm not sure which model to use to replace the MXR 6-band EQ that he is using

 

Any recommendations?

Is the HX effects capable of doing this or am I better off buying the same pedals he is using?

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WELL, JUST MATCHING SOME SETTINGS IS NOT LIKELY TO PRODUCE THE SAME SOUND. (not shouting - just left caps lock on!)

Even if you had exactly the same guitar and exactly the same amp speaker combination and DI'd with the Two Notes Torpedo with the same marshal cab IR, pots on these things have wide tolerances so it's not that simple.

You have a parametric EQ - but you can't expect the knob positions to mean exactly what they show - they are also pots - potentiometers - and they are analog devices with probably about 20% variation across the batch.  So it will be a starting point - you will need to use your ears.

And the 6 band.....well you have the 5 band Mesa  EQ........

But at the end of the day - these are just a batch or EQs - it's totally possible to get this effect without all this EQ.

He's mostly scooped the mids on the amp.

He's then added a mid boost in a smooth curve on the MXR 6 band - pretty much undoing the amp setting - maybe even resulting in a slight mid boost.

Then he seems on the parametric EQ to be boosting a narrow bit of lows  - no way to be precise about that - but maybe 100hz - but not a lot.

Some mids at maybe 800Khz - a fair bit but with a wider Q - I'd just call that another mid boost

And the highs at maybe 3.5K again with a wide curve - call that an upper mid/highs boost.

But what he's really doing with that para is  - he has the gain all the way up - so he's using it mostly as a big gain knob.

The thing to note on the 10 band he's cut 1K drastically and the 800hz a noticable bit - kind of undoing the mid some of the boost of the Parametric and the 6 band. (that 1K cut might be the one thing to take out of this)

So if he's really achieving much with all this it's about gain boost and probably introducing some weird phase distortion due to all the cuts and boosts working against each other.

I'd not be trying to copy that personally!  The result sounds thin to me - which is what you get when you strangle your tone like that.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/16/2021 at 9:23 PM, rvroberts said:

WELL, JUST MATCHING SOME SETTINGS IS NOT LIKELY TO PRODUCE THE SAME SOUND. (not shouting - just left caps lock on!)

Even if you had exactly the same guitar and exactly the same amp speaker combination and DI'd with the Two Notes Torpedo with the same marshal cab IR, pots on these things have wide tolerances so it's not that simple.

You have a parametric EQ - but you can't expect the knob positions to mean exactly what they show - they are also pots - potentiometers - and they are analog devices with probably about 20% variation across the batch.  So it will be a starting point - you will need to use your ears.

And the 6 band.....well you have the 5 band Mesa  EQ........

But at the end of the day - these are just a batch or EQs - it's totally possible to get this effect without all this EQ.

He's mostly scooped the mids on the amp.

He's then added a mid boost in a smooth curve on the MXR 6 band - pretty much undoing the amp setting - maybe even resulting in a slight mid boost.

Then he seems on the parametric EQ to be boosting a narrow bit of lows  - no way to be precise about that - but maybe 100hz - but not a lot.

Some mids at maybe 800Khz - a fair bit but with a wider Q - I'd just call that another mid boost

And the highs at maybe 3.5K again with a wide curve - call that an upper mid/highs boost.

But what he's really doing with that para is  - he has the gain all the way up - so he's using it mostly as a big gain knob.

The thing to note on the 10 band he's cut 1K drastically and the 800hz a noticable bit - kind of undoing the mid some of the boost of the Parametric and the 6 band. (that 1K cut might be the one thing to take out of this)

So if he's really achieving much with all this it's about gain boost and probably introducing some weird phase distortion due to all the cuts and boosts working against each other.

I'd not be trying to copy that personally!  The result sounds thin to me - which is what you get when you strangle your tone like that.

two things

1) i feel he did a good job recreating dimebags tone.  If you listen to him play then listen to the song back to back to compare it sounds identical

2) what he did in the video and Your explanation of what he did goes over my head and I don't know where to begin to attempt to understand.  scoop the mids then boost the mids then scoop the mids then boost the low end.  it all sounds like gibberish to me and i dunno what to do.

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15 hours ago, cjplace86 said:

two things

1) i feel he did a good job recreating dimebags tone.  If you listen to him play then listen to the song back to back to compare it sounds identical

2) what he did in the video and Your explanation of what he did goes over my head and I don't know where to begin to attempt to understand.  scoop the mids then boost the mids then scoop the mids then boost the low end.  it all sounds like gibberish to me and i dunno what to do.

 

1) Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what this guy's final product sounds like. Simply mirroring whatever settings he used doesn't guarantee that you'll hear the same result on your end... in fact, it's a virtual certainty that you won't. There are numerous other variables that affect what you will hear with your rig, guitars, monitors, headphones, etc etc etc... the list goes on.

 

2) If you are unfamiliar with EQ and the terminology surrounding it's use,  I suggest checking out Jason Sadites' YouTube channel... he has numerous Helix- specific tutorials, in which he explains the how's and why's of creating certain tones. Being able to effectively use modelers requires that you think like a recording engineer and have a basic understanding of the tools they use to achieve a given result... thinking like a guitar player plugging into an amp won't get you very far. It's a learning curve.

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It sounds like you are not familiar with EQ terminology. I will try and help as much as I can but know that there are terms that are interchangeable like q and width, or terms that represent two different things but the differences are subtle visually like shelving EQ and low pass or high pass EQ. Lots of terms that only experience will get you to eventually sort them out. I will be trying to explain this as if you know little to nothing. OK, down the rabbit hole we go.

 

Regarding the MegaPara parametric EQ. It is a 3 band parametric EQ; Lo, mid and hi. You are able to adjust the frequency each band is focused on. There are three settings for each band. Frequency, gain and width. Width is often referred to as Q in EQ jargon. It refers to how wide the "bell" of the EQ is. It's called a "bell" because that's kind of what it looks like.

 

2061698379_Qexample.png.24047d55880ee3f3928f3d9fe77fcce9.png

When using Q to describe the "bell". the higher the Q, the narrower the "bell" as you can see in the diagram. The wider the bell, the more frequencies the EQ effects. Now this brand of effect refers to the Q as width. In this case, as you turn the width knob counter clockwise the numbers get bigger. I'm going to guess the numbers they us are an actual width measurement. So the numbers are the opposite of what a Q number would be. I could not get my hands on a manual for this device so everything I say about it is a guess.

 

Another thing I noticed on the SineEffect device is the Lo and the Hi parameters have a switch labelled LO MODE and HI MODE. Notice the two symbols they have above them. The first symbol represents the "bell" curve. I know it looks like a circle but it's just showing that the bell can be like a hill or a valley. The second symbol represents what is know as a shelf EQ. As you can see the symbol doesn't make a bell. It goes up or down and then never comes back down or up. Making what looks like a shelf when you turn up the gain. Both switches on this EQ are on the "shelf" mode. The parametric EQ in the Helix has 3 bands plus a low cut and a high cut. You could consider the low cut and high cut to be shelving EQ's that will only cut those levels and not boost them. They are actually, technically a low pass filter and a high pass filter. Having said all of that, here's what you would need to do to get close to his settings. Remember many of the same devices react differetly. Just because one brand's device is set on a "3", doesn't mean another brand's device's same parameter set on "3" will sound the same. I also notice in going through his computer, he is slightly EQ'ing more and he has added an "enhancer" which is essentially more EQ.

 

Having said all of that, the Helix has no shelving in any of their EQ's that I know of. I am not in front of my Helix so I can't say for sure. But, it looks like you are already starting from a place that is not equal to what he has. You could use the lowcut/highcut filter in the Helix if he lowered those but he boosted them. So what I'm leading up to with all of this is I don't see a way to do what he does in the video with just the Helix. Not only that but he doesn't use the same parameter terminology so using some of his numerical settings probably won't react the saem in the Helix. You could recreate the 6 band EQ with two Helix parametric EQ's but there is still an issue. The Q parameter on the MXR EQ is fixed.  I seem to recall somewhere where someone listed what the Q is theoretically on the MXR's since that parameter is set in stone on them. So to do this, you're already up to 4 different EQ's with only one being directly what he has. In order to mimic his SineEffect EQ you would need a parametric EQ and a shelving EQ. Now you're up to 5 EQ's in one patch.  I'm not trying to discourage you but the reality of what you request is you probably won't be able to EQ exactly the way he is and even if you were able to, there are no guarantees that it would sound the same anyway using his devices parameters in your Helix. But really, in my experience, if you're using that much EQ, you're probably doing something else wrong. to put it in very simple terms. You could probably EQ a Fender Deluxe Reverb with a Tube Screamer and a Strat to sound like a Marshall with a Fuzz Face and a Les Paul to get close. But you're never going to get it exact. A Fender gain of 3 is not the same as a Marshall gain of three.  Ya pretty much have to have exactly what the other setup is. the Helix doesn't have what he has. I hope this all helps in some way. Good Luck. Check out Line 6's Customtone area. The patches are very much hit or miss and mostly misses, but you could get lucky.

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