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UneducatedWeasl

Joined: 24/02/07
Posts: 82
Loc: Leeds, West Yorkshire

Parametric EQ Q Values
#1031062 - 29/01/13 06:24 PM

'Sup

Possibly a slightly subjective question, but what would you consider a low, medium and high q value to be? I tend to just go by ear, never really thought about it before.

Reason I asked, passed a mix onto another engineer, for his thoughts/advice on it, he said cut a bit at whatever frequency, medium q. Got me thinking about how, for a fairly technical if creative process, we use some really vague terms now and then!

--------------------
Freelance Engineer/ Musician / Nerd
<a href="http://www.jackbyrne.co.uk" target="_blank">www.jackbyrne.co.uk </a>

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SafeandSound Masteri...

Joined: 23/03/08
Posts: 857
Loc: London UK

Re: Parametric EQ Q Values new

[Re: UneducatedWeasl]
#1031156 - 30/01/13 11:37 AM

Hi Jack,

In my mind.... 0.5 wide, 1.0 medium and 3.0 + narrow.

cheers

SafeandSound Mastering
Music Mastering

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Hugh Robjohns
SOS Technical Editor

Joined: 25/07/03
Posts: 18530
Loc: Worcestershire

Re: Parametric EQ Q Values new

[Re: UneducatedWeasl]
#1031188 - 30/01/13 02:22 PM

The music spectrum, from 20Hz to 20kHz, covers ten octaves.

If you take a typical three-band approach to EQ -- bass, mid, treble, for example, then a band covers roughly three octaves.

So a low Q filter might be expected to affect an entire three-octave band, which requires a Q value of 0.4.

A filter with a 1 octave bandwidth has a Q of 1.4.

A filter with 1/3 octave bandwidth has a Q of 4.3

A filter with a 1/12 octave has a Q of 17

So in ball park terms, the previous suggestion is a pretty good one.

Q=0.5 is pretty wide, Q=1.5 is medium, Q=4 is narrow and Q>10 is very narrow.

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

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