Quote:
Originally Posted by neb  Hi Eric
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.
Mine is a short one, and please forgive me if it's bleedingly obvious. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what the "N" switch is (just below boost and cut) in the EQ section on your console.
That's some cool flexible eq you guys have designed. I want some.
Thanks in advance.
Ben |
The "N" stands for "Notch". It allows you to turn any of the 4 bands into a notch filter. A notch filter, in theory, allows you to totally eliminate a particular frequency in the spectrum. On the UTA eq both the shape and Q controls remain active when in Notch mode. That allows you to turn one of the parametric bands in to an active HP/LP filter or have control over the width of a band pass notch move. You can achieve as much as 50 or 60 dB of cut at a particular frequency when in notch mode.
This is how a notch filter works: It takes the original signal, filters it to a specific part of the frequency spectrum, reverses the phase and then blends it back in with the original signal causing a cancellation of the frequencies left by the filter. You can create a notch filter in your DAW by duplicating a track, filtering it lets say with McDSP F2, flipping the phase and blending it with the original track (delay compensation would be essential for this to work). As you blend it back in there is a "null" point where one achieves the maximum amount of attenuation. On the UTA EQ this happens half way up the gain scale at a setting of "5".
We realized there is another thing that you can do when you have access to a filtered phase reversed signal in an equalizer... you can use it as a phase manipulation tool. When you take that same filtered phase reversed signal and continue to turn it up past the point of cancellation, you can get it to blend back in with the original signal at unity. Then what you have done is simply phase reversed a particular slice of the frequency spectrum. This is what happens on the UTA EQ when you turn the gain control fully clockwise "10". It is a really interesting effect. When you listen to that track by itself it doesn't sound any different. It only changes how that track interacts with other tracks, particular if they are mics on the same sound source. So if you select lets say 200hz on a band in notch mode with gain fully clockwise, then what you get is a full 180 degree phase shift at 200hz. The degree of phase shift starts to travel back to 0 degrees the further you get from 200hz. How quickly that happens is determined by the "Q" setting. this allows you to make variable phase adjustments to particular parts of the frequency spectrum. It is a feature I have never had before and I am still finding interesting ways to utilize it. There is an example video of one way to use it on the UTA website. check out "video #3 variable phase adjustments" here:
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