Zhin
75 posts
Nov 21, 2008
3:25 AM
|
Hi, I've dissapeared for a few weeks because things I've been really busy meeting all kinds of musicians and working out things with my band. But most important of all, I've been in the woodshed and I've also been doing a crazy amount of research on the sound of the harmonica clean and distorted by amplifiers...
I made a lot of discoveries when I learned how to examine the waveforms I would record at my friends sound engineering studio and use his equipment to study it.
Why parametric EQ when there's something more "intuitive" and "easier" like a 7-band graphic EQ?
CUSTOMIZATION. simple as that. You got a fixed range with graphic EQ units unless you plan to invest on a rack which has 30 bands... And typically, you only need to push maybe 1 to 3 frequencies so any decent parametric eq unit would be a lot more practical. You have all the control and get to choose what works best for the harp!
Guitar amps were never configured to make the harp sound good. When they do, it's usually not on purpose. And most of us may not have the luxury of getting a nice pricey purpose built harp amp or one of those vintage toned monsters from the past... So why not just tweak that EQ and get the best sound you can get out of whatever you're plugged into?
I don't claim to be the first as I've heard some very ambiguous and vague talk about these things before... But never enough to actually tell me what exactly those folks are doing with their sound! Just understand it's been done before for sure and I'm just here to share whatever I've "discovered".
Here's one of those things I found out:
The Bass boost.
This is an important one but so easy to screw up your sound. Too much bass even by a decibel is enough to turn your tone into a pointless thick gob of sound mucking up the details. Too little and you get a tone that has not enough body. So deciding on how much is enough but there's more than just that! You gotta also know which bass frequencies to push... And this is when things get a little ambiguous.
Most people usually say "around 250Hz" which is technically true for most reed instruments but frankly it doesn't really sound "good" to my ears when I push that one up and regardless of how much q control I get with it.
What I did find out is that you've got a range that you can play with... Very loosely 600Hz and below. I found that I really like pushing 321Hz as it seems to give a good amount of punch/definition/body.
Does anyone else have a favorite bass frequency to push?
Last Edited by on Nov 21, 2008 3:33 AM
|
oldwailer
329 posts
Nov 21, 2008
11:49 AM
|
That's very interesting, Zhin--that there could be a kind of scientific approach to making the harp and amp sound good.
My approach has always been to just dick around with the knobs until it sounds good--then blow the trees down. . .
|
snakes
45 posts
Nov 21, 2008
2:26 PM
|
Oldwailer that is hilarious. I know your vocation!
|
Zhin
76 posts
Nov 21, 2008
4:06 PM
|
Oldwailer, you could say that. I did a lot of trial and error. Recorded everything I did and followed logical process.
Ultimately though, what I've chosen to boost my bass with is based on what sounds good to my ears. No science there, just trusting my ears.
Messing with those knobs is definately part of the process. Knowing exactly what they are doing speeds things up. ;)
|
