Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

If you think of Q as being a parked wah then you understand it affects a narrow band of frequencies, which is a sweepable.
That's what you're hearing when you rock the wah pedal.
A narrow band of affected frequencies which is being swept up and down the spectrum.
Remove the Q and you remove the effect and the signal returns to original.
So it's not a matter of boosting a wider range.
Its a matter of removing the boost.
Well, that kind of boost anyway.
It's an OD pedal so you're still getting clipping, which most people call gain because it comes bundled with a volume increase but that is a different sort of boost from Q.

I'm still not sure I follow what you're trying to tell me. Are you saying that in addition to the clipping, the Austin Gold is boosting a nice wide frequency range compared to the others?

The internet articles I read about "q" seem to indicate that it's a parameter of eq, such that "more q" = narrow notch, "less q" = wide frequency range of boost or cut. Having watched some MXR Q-zone videos it is clearly boosting a very narrow frequency range. It annoys my ears and the Austin Gold sounds really nice to my same ears. So are we saying the Q-zone pedal is at the extreme end of this "Q" spectrum, the Austin Gold is at the other end, and all the pedals in the Johann video fall somewhere in between?

 

[LLL]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

The Austin Gold sounded to me like a clean boost type stomp (e.g. no EQing or very little EQing)

 

[Aceman]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Q is simply put the "width" of a boost or cut about a center frequency.

Wide Q = boosts a number of frequencies 250-750k
Narrow Q = boosts a smaller range 500-550k

Now - Q in and of itself is nothing; there is also a center frequency, an amount of boost, and a shape too....they all contribute to the ultimate sound. Often people mod a TS9 to change the boost amount inherent in the design - but not the center frequency. Also, a very narrow width and a serious cut is what a notch filter for feedback does. Cool pedals let you change all parameters (Parametric EQ: Freq Center, Boost/cust, and width). Wah lets you change the center frequency holding the width and the boost constant.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

That was how I understood it, but the talk of "removing the q" made me think I had it all wrong.

Thanks to all for the edjumacation and such.

 

[MGW]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

That was how I understood it, but the talk of "removing the q" made me think I had it all wrong.

Thanks to all for the edjumacation and such.

I describe it the way I do because most often people don't understand what I'm talking about.
Even fellow enthusiasts on gear forums most often don't get what I'm after.
That's only natural.
Verbal descriptions of tone are so difficult to convey.
I've been playing for 50 years and there are still to this day plenty of catch phrases for tone terminology that are confusing to me because there seems to be no standard definition for so many of them.
Things like "warmer", for example.
For some people warmer means a shift in EQ to a lower part of the frequency spectrum.
Other people think warm has to do with harmonics, presence and sizzle.
Their thinking on that is that bacon (and other things) sizzle because they are hot.
Others think warmer means a bigger, bolder signal, basically stronger, louder.
Others think warmer means hairier as in that little bit of squared off clipping you detect when a signal is being overdriven.
These things fly in the face of those who think warmer is about sliding an EQ curve to the left.
It doesn't help that we call stronger pickups hotter, especially considering that in pickup design a stronger signal is often bundled with an EQ shift to the left.

I find if I describe Q as a separate thing and use a wah pedal as a way to help visualize it then they may catch my meaning more easily.
I hope that clarifies the confusion.
Since I disagree with the guy above and do not think that Q is in and of itself nothing, I leave my comment as it stands.
If Q is similar to a wah effect then "removing Q" is still a valid way to describe a change in tone.

I do not think it is helpful to think of any OD pedal as a clean boost.
There are hundreds of pedals out there that people describe as clean boost but they're not actually clean.
No OD pedal is ever going to be truly clean even with the drive rolled all the way back.
In order for a pedal to be called a clean boost it should provide only one thing, an increase in signal strength.
If it alters the tone in any way then it's not a clean boost.

 

[Artie]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

I think this video is a miss. his mic'ing of the Marshall isn't very good IMO, . . .

Yeah . . . the whole thing sounded like it was mic'ed on a cellphone.

Q is simply put the "width" of a boost or cut about a center frequency.

Wide Q = boosts a number of frequencies 250-750k
Narrow Q = boosts a smaller range 500-550k

Yes, and no. The "width" is just a sidenote to "Q". Q stands for "quality". But not sound quality as one might think. It refers to the ability of a filter to affect only the frequencies that it was designed for, and to not interfere with adjacent frequencies. Thus, the filters quality. The fact that on some EQ's, it can be adjusted, gives us the narrow/wide thang. Having a good "Q", or "constant-Q", (as it is referred to on a graphic equalizer), is important. Old vintage stereo EQ's didn't have constant-Q and their controls interacted with each other. A decent quality "pro" EQ, with constant-Q, won't.

 

[OLDERBUDWISER]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Q is simply put the "width" of a boost or cut about a center frequency.

Wide Q = boosts a number of frequencies 250-750k
Narrow Q = boosts a smaller range 500-550k

Now - Q in and of itself is nothing; there is also a center frequency, an amount of boost, and a shape too....they all contribute to the ultimate sound. Often people mod a TS9 to change the boost amount inherent in the design - but not the center frequency. Also, a very narrow width and a serious cut is what a notch filter for feedback does. Cool pedals let you change all parameters (Parametric EQ: Freq Center, Boost/cust, and width). Wah lets you change the center frequency holding the width and the boost constant.

750k? The average human only hears up to about 20k, and with all the shows you have played, I bet you cant hear above 15k anymore

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

750k? The average human only hears up to about 20k, and with all the shows you have played, I bet you cant hear above 15k anymore

I’m guessing he meant hertz, not kilohertz.

 

[LLL]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

1.21 Gigahertz?!?!

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

Re: Can someone with "good ears" tell me this overdrive is doing different? (Video)

1.21 GIGAWATTS?? WHERE ARE WE GONNA GET THAT KIND OF POWER!?!?