It’s the second to last day for the Godsmack gear auction in the Daddy’s Junky Music online eBay store! All the auctions close out at 9:00 EST tomorrow night. If you plan on getting in on the action and owning a piece of the band’s history, now is the time. CLICK HERE to go to the auction pages. In this post I’m going to focus on a few of the other items that the band used in the studio. The first of which is the Ashly PQX571 Parametric EQ. 
Here’s the deal on this EQ. First of all it’s mono. So for those of you out there who aren’t familiar with the term you could also refer to mono as being a single channel. So to have EQ in stereo with a piece like this, you need two. The back has a single 1/4″ or XLR in and out. The difference between a parametric, and graphic EQ is this. A parametric basically has two knobs per frequency, (sometimes more) that effect the sound. One knob determines the frequency, or frequency range, the other boosts (increases) or cuts (decreases) the amount of that frequency in the signal. A graphic EQ lays everything out in a line so you can make a smiley face out of it. Really the only difference between a graphic and parametric EQ is the fact that the graphic EQ predetermines the frequency that will be cut or boosted. The parametric allows you to select it. Here’s a quick interesting fact for you. I bet most of you who have used an EQ have seen the old smiley face setting. Here’s the thing. Generally a graphic EQ has the lower frequencies on the left, mid-range frequencies in the middle and high frequencies on the right. The reason why most people do a smiley face on the EQ is because they like the sound of a boosted high and low frequency with a cut mid frequency. This is because human ears are most sensitive to mid-range frequencies. This is the range of frequency that most of the populations voice hovers around. People do the smiley face EQ because their ears pick up the mid-range frequency more than the lows and highs and so they do that so it sounds more pleasing to them. This unfortunately can be a bad thing. Especially when you are EQ’ing a signal with a lot of prominent low frequencies, like a bass guitar for example. So for all you bassists out there, if you have a graphic EQ on your bass amp, try experimenting with the mid-range frequencies. I think you’ll be surprised at the impact it will make on your sound for the better.
The two processor above are the TC Electronics M-one and D-two. The M-one is a multi-effects processor that focuses on reverb type effects. It has a couple of delays, and a chorus or two, but mostly it’s reverb. The D-two is a primarily delay type of effect that has a large selection of different types of delay’s with the addition of a few other effects thrown in for good measure. Both of these pieces can have a huge impact on your sound or the sound of the overall mix depending on which way you decide to hook them up. You’ve got options here. Most of the time an effect like this is used on an auxiliary send and return on your mixer. That way you can decide exactly which channels get the effect and which don’t. You might want to put reverb on the lead vocal, but not on the backing vocal for example. By running the effect on an auxiliary send you can determine exactly where you want the effect to go. If you put the main output of the mixer through the effect then it would alter the sound of the entire band, or mix with the effect. Usually you do not want to do this, but there are some situations where it can be useful. I know it get’s boring reading this at the end of blog, but as always, I’m here and happy to answer any questions that anybody might have whether it’s related to the post or not. I’d actually appreciate one of our Daddy’s Junky Music customers sending me an email at bfoley@daddys.com requesting I cover a topic that interests them in particular. I’d be happy to see if I can provide some insight that would help our customers make an educated decision. Give me a call a 800-373-8393 X100 or send me an email if there’s anything I can help with. Until next time…..
