KFyock1 Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 Hi all! About a year ago, I was using an MXR 10-band EQ in the FX loop of my amplifier and it sounded amazingly good. I noticed it was giving me some bad hiss though, so I switched it out for a Source Audio EQ2 about 6 months ago, which also sounded good. I wanted to add delay, reverb, and an amp modeler into the amp's FX loop along with the EQ, so I ultimately decided to sell the EQ2 and put an HX Stomp in the amp's FX loop to do all of this. Currently, this is how my HX Stomp functions and here is my signal chain: Guitar > front of amp effects > preamp > FX loop send > HX Stomp 10 band EQ > HX Stomp digital delay > FX loop return > power amp The problem is that upon switching out the EQ2 for the HX Stomp, when I set the Stomp's 10-band EQ parameters to what the previous EQ's were set at, I realized there was an extremely noticeable jump in some of the frequencies. The signal immediately sounded very nasally. Through messing with the frequencies, I realized there was a boost in frequency right around 1K Hz. To give an idea of how different the frequency hike is, 1K Hz on the old EQ was set at +2 dB (I run a little hotter for more gain in the FX loop). On the HX Stomp, I have to run this same frequency at -2.0 dB to achieve a comparable sound. However, running this frequency this low on the Stomp's EQ is causing some fidelity issues; coming out of speaker, anything around 1K Hz sounds like it coming out of an AM radio. You can imagine this is frustrating. Has anyone had this issue and/or does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, or advice on how to fix this? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rd2rk Posted February 3, 2022 Share Posted February 3, 2022 What is your amp make and model? Attach a copy of your preset (the actual preset, not a screenshot) so that someone can troubleshoot it for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiganderton Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 The MXR's bands cover +/- 12 dB, while the Helix does +/- 15 dB. So if you set the sliders to what appears to be the same position, Helix will be applying more gain. Also note that both devices introduce phase shift due to splitting the audio up into bands. So they won't respond in exactly the same way. If you have recording software with a spectrum analyzer or can load a VST/AAX/AU plug-in like Voxengo's Span (which is free), you can feed in pink noise (free file downloads are available on the web), look at the MXR's actual frequency response and level, and set the Helix sliders to duplicate that response. Or, you may be able to get the same sound with the Parametric EQ. HTH 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmalle Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 Make sure your fx loop is serial and not parallel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HonestOpinion Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 On 2/2/2022 at 10:31 PM, KFyock1 said: Hi all! About a year ago, I was using an MXR 10-band EQ in the FX loop of my amplifier and it sounded amazingly good. I noticed it was giving me some bad hiss though, so I switched it out for a Source Audio EQ2 about 6 months ago, which also sounded good. I wanted to add delay, reverb, and an amp modeler into the amp's FX loop along with the EQ, so I ultimately decided to sell the EQ2 and put an HX Stomp in the amp's FX loop to do all of this. Currently, this is how my HX Stomp functions and here is my signal chain: Guitar > front of amp effects > preamp > FX loop send > HX Stomp 10 band EQ > HX Stomp digital delay > FX loop return > power amp The problem is that upon switching out the EQ2 for the HX Stomp, when I set the Stomp's 10-band EQ parameters to what the previous EQ's were set at, I realized there was an extremely noticeable jump in some of the frequencies. The signal immediately sounded very nasally. Through messing with the frequencies, I realized there was a boost in frequency right around 1K Hz. To give an idea of how different the frequency hike is, 1K Hz on the old EQ was set at +2 dB (I run a little hotter for more gain in the FX loop). On the HX Stomp, I have to run this same frequency at -2.0 dB to achieve a comparable sound. However, running this frequency this low on the Stomp's EQ is causing some fidelity issues; coming out of speaker, anything around 1K Hz sounds like it coming out of an AM radio. You can imagine this is frustrating. Has anyone had this issue and/or does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, or advice on how to fix this? Thanks in advance. On 2/4/2022 at 12:25 PM, craiganderton said: The MXR's bands cover +/- 12 dB, while the Helix does +/- 15 dB. So if you set the sliders to what appears to be the same position, Helix will be applying more gain. Also note that both devices introduce phase shift due to splitting the audio up into bands. So they won't respond in exactly the same way. If you have recording software with a spectrum analyzer or can load a VST/AAX/AU plug-in like Voxengo's Span (which is free), you can feed in pink noise (free file downloads are available on the web), look at the MXR's actual frequency response and level, and set the Helix sliders to duplicate that response. Or, you may be able to get the same sound with the Parametric EQ. HTH Once you have adjusted the positions for the frequency bands per @craiganderton's info (+/- 12db vs. +/- 15db) I might focus on the two sliders/bands adjacent, left & right, on each side of the 1k band. They may overlap with the 1k band somewhat differently than the original pedal and might account for some of the difference from the original MXR pedal's response. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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