How do EQs work?

[Daz39]

Ok - shamelessly jumping in here; but given that I think it's an eq-y sort of thing: how do Tone Controls work?

[itu]

If you have time, please read these. Sound on sound is a very good source of knowledge.

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/whats-frequency

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-equalisation

Here are few reasonable comments to study:

https://www.izotope.com/en/blog/mixing/principles-of-equalization.html

[Skol303]

On 28/05/2019 at 13:07, Daz39 said:

Ok - shamelessly jumping in here; but given that I think it's an eq-y sort of thing: how do Tone Controls work?

A "tone control" is just another name for an EQ.

For example, on an active bass guitar:

• The high tone knob is typically a shelving EQ: as you turn dial, it causes the sound to be boosted or cut starting at a specific frequency.
• The low tone knob is also typically a shelving EQ, causing the sound to be boosted/cut starting at a specific low frequency..
• The mid control knob is a parametric EQ: it causes the sound to boost/cut using a "bell curve shape", which is centred on a specific frequency.

More advanced EQ/tone controls allow you to also adjust the frequency at which the EQ starts to have an effect.

Here's the frequency plot of a typical Fender 3-band bass EQ, which hopefully helps to illustrate:

Red curve is the "High" tone control; blue is the "low" tone control; green is the "mids" control.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Skol303

[Daz39]

Cool, so what about single tone pot on passive basses? Is it a high mid cut?

[itu]

Plain hi cut.

[BassThing]

3 hours ago, Skol303 said:

A "tone control" is just another name for an EQ.

For example, on an active bass guitar:

• The high tone knob is typically a shelving EQ: as you turn dial, it causes the sound to be boosted or cut starting at a specific frequency.
• The low tone knob is also typically a shelving EQ, causing the sound to be boosted/cut starting at a specific low frequency..
• The mid control knob is a parametric EQ: it causes the sound to boost/cut using a "bell curve shape", which is centred on a specific frequency.

More advanced EQ/tone controls allow you to also adjust the frequency at which the EQ starts to have an effect.

Here's the frequency plot of a typical Fender 3-band bass EQ, which hopefully helps to illustrate:

Red curve is the "High" tone control; blue is the "low" tone control; green is the "mids" control.

I was going to post that image with my previous post mentioning shelving filters but though it was too obviously the result of a Google image search (and also  the original is posted on Talkbass). Are the rules quite relaxed here about posting images like that? Other forums I'm on can get quite snotty about copyright.

Edited May 31, 2019 by BassThing