Question about EQ poles and the artifacts/phase they may/may not raise

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DjStephenWiley
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Columbus, OH

Question about EQ poles and the artifacts/phase they may/may not raise

I recall reading a book one time that emphasized the use of 6dB, 12dB (the best it said), and 24dB filters. It said anything higher starts to really create artifacts and phasing problems.

I'm asking this because EQ's like the FabFilter Pro-Q have slopes of up to 48, and I don't have a lot of experience with it or any other EQ's using 48dB slopes.

Could anyone with some knowledge here shine some light on the subject?

Thanks!

Jul-17-2010 23:20 United States

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Zombie0729
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Oct 2003
Location: .

hmm... i have no idea. why would an eq cause phasing problems?

Jul-18-2010 01:03 United States

Zak McKracken
Trance

Registered: Jun 2003
Location:

take me home

Jul-18-2010 01:16

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MSZ
godspeed

Registered: Jun 2005
Location: kill me

quote:
Originally posted by 19503
take me home

country road

Jul-18-2010 03:13 Canada

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kitphillips
is actually a guy.

Registered: May 2006
Location: Sydney, Australia

I don't know and only one or two people on here will. Search on Gearslutz IMO.

Oh, but for your own interest, set the slope on a low pass to 48 and sweep it, you'll notice a weird resonance. You get less of that with shallower slopes. Thats one issue. Another is the strangeness of these filters as they approach a brickwall. You just don't get those sharp cutoffs in nature and they sound very artificial to our ears. Those things are two issues but I think that they're seperate to the phase issue, which I don't frankly understand.

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Jul-18-2010 13:00 Australia

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farris
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Aug 2004
Location: NL

quote:
Originally posted by msz
country road

quote:
Originally posted by 19503
take me home

to the place I belong...

Jul-18-2010 13:42 Netherlands

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Stephen Wiley
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Apr 2004
Location:

quote:
Originally posted by kitphillips
I don't know and only one or two people on here will. Search on Gearslutz IMO.

Oh, but for your own interest, set the slope on a low pass to 48 and sweep it, you'll notice a weird resonance. You get less of that with shallower slopes. Thats one issue. Another is the strangeness of these filters as they approach a brickwall. You just don't get those sharp cutoffs in nature and they sound very artificial to our ears. Those things are two issues but I think that they're seperate to the phase issue, which I don't frankly understand.

same. i read it i believe in "mixing audio" - but yea, i have def noticed the unexpected results on a 48 pole filter. sounds like shit usually imo. 24 keeps the sound musical and offers plenty of cut.

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Jul-18-2010 14:00 United States

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kitphillips
is actually a guy.

Registered: May 2006
Location: Sydney, Australia

I've just been going back to using the least cut possible tbh. Generally 6 is fine for everything but the low cut on the master which I use an 18/24 for.

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Jul-18-2010 17:14 Australia

DJMaytag
Supreme Pizzaaddict

Registered: Dec 2001
Location: back in Madison, WI... again!

digital EQ's will have some phasing or coloration problems, but they are miniscule in comparison to analog EQ's found on outboard gear and on analog mixing desks. most EQ plugins are designed to minimize phasing problems and some even have switches to turn these optimizations on and off (at the expense of CPU horsepower).

that said, sometimes these artifacts are actually quite desirable, in both analog and digital EQ's.

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Jul-18-2010 20:07 United States