Graphic Equalizers

[Peterson]

Looking for a good graphic equalizer, in pedal form/size, that will allow me to remove a little hiss from tape sources and such, and maybe take a little hiss out of microphone recordings. Any thoughts?

[bitewerksMTB]

I would guess than any eq pedal would help on tape hiss.  

I want to say that I use to own an eq pedal but it didn't make a huge difference, maybe, as part of a live set-up.

[Dr Alex]

Great and cheap!! I using this pedal for about 8 years and it's still works well. I also tried boss eq and marshal eq but this behringer shows better results. Bad thing is pedal is made of plastic but it's not matter of sound.

[Cementimental]

The bass version of the behringer eq is good too, possibly better for noise than the guitar version.

[tiny_tove]

I use the boss one ge- (don't remember the number)

[BLOOD EAGLE]

equalizers aren't like other effects, i haven't really noticed a major difference between units (sound wise) personally.
i'd also imagine for removing tape hiss you wouldn't really want a bass equalizer.

[E.D.K.W.A.R.]

I got my MXR ten-band equalizer pretty early on in my sound experimenting looking for something to shape tones, boost volume, etc. It is great, lots of possibilites, you can radically alter sounds with just tiny adjustments, plus the gain booster is nice when ya wanna blow everything straight to hell. A bit pricey mabye, but worth it in the long run...built like a tank too....

[Cementimental]

i'd also imagine for removing tape hiss you wouldn't really want a bass equalizer.

Not necessarily; depends on the frequency you're trying to tame but of but the Behringer bass eq at least has a higher range at both ends, goes from 50 to 10khs, tho more of the sliders are in the low range of course.

The other nice thing for noise about the behringer ones vs the few others i've tried is that they can add quite a lot of gain, to the point where if you take the sliders to max with a hot-ish signal it feels more like a kind of graphic overdrive :)


Hiss is more like white noise anyway and not always easy to remove via EQ without sacrificing some frequencies you might want to keep. But yeah EQ pedals are cheap and useful for all sorts of things so well worth getting one to give it a try.

[Cementimental]

Sounds like a plan, the Behringer is cheap enough that you can't go far wrong and MXR stuff is generally good and reliable I find :)

[FreakAnimalFinland]

EQ pedal is also very good for vocals. Or microphone use in general. Many times in bigger venues with loud subs, you can see situations where vocal feedback or sound gets nullified by crap sounding sub-bass rumbling what removes all power from noise itself. In such cases EQ pedal can be very simple solution. I got that behringer pedal. Tried to find where to put battery, ended up opening it only to realize all buttons/slides dropped into floor and it didn't have possibility to use battery as far as I remember. It still works, but couldn't assemble all parts perfectly so...

[Cementimental]

Tried to find where to put battery, ended up opening it only to realize all buttons/slides dropped into floor and it didn't have possibility to use battery as far as I remember. It still works, but couldn't assemble all parts perfectly so...

Behringer pedals have battery compartments! they open like digitech ones except badly, you press in the hinges of the pedal and it comes off, the battery is underneath, good luck getting the pedal back on again properly :)

It's worth noting that digital behringer pedals (delay, reverb, multi fx etc) won't really work at all with batteries, you need a power supply. EQ should be fine tho since its a more simple piece of electronics which won't take much power, and I have BEhringer fuzz/distortions which have lasted for ages on a single battery

[BLOOD EAGLE]

Thanks to everyone for the advice, after watching some YouTube demos on guitar, I realized how important they are in various people's ability to "get the tone."

Haha, I'm most likely going to have to get both the Behringer and the MXR, they both sound fairly tantalizing, and if the MXR ever did me wrong, I'd just give it to my friend to use with guitar.

you should totally get the Kerry King MXR... it'll make you look tougher... lol

i'd also imagine for removing tape hiss you wouldn't really want a bass equalizer.

Not necessarily; depends on the frequency you're trying to tame but of but the Behringer bass eq at least has a higher range at both ends, goes from 50 to 10khs, tho more of the sliders are in the low range of course.

since he had a specific reason for it (removing tape hiss which sits between 500-3k hz) making a regular one probably better (and the mxr probably the better choice).
if he was using it just to add some depth to his pedal chain, i'd say a bass one all the way...

[Cementimental]

Yeah, certainly a guitar one will have more fine tuning of the highs even if it doesn't extend as far. Anyway for a functional purpose like removing hiss the best would be a rackmount or hi-fi one with more bands and stereo, tho i know he specified pedal-size.

So yeah just buy any and all Graphic EQ pedals and read the bit of paper that comes with them and tells you how to put the battery in.

[Potier]

I can only recommend the MXR 10 Band EQ - great sturdy pedal, lots of gain if need be. The Behringer EQ is decent and cheap - does the trick but is flimsy, due to the small sliders that are so close to each other it can be hard to fine-tune, especially in a live setting.
Another good thing about the MXR is that you can use it as a noise source as well if you starve it of power and don't plug anything into the input. Sort of produces choppy, broken up white noise(ish) sounds.
Downside of the MXR is that it needs its own power supply since it normally runs on 12v - so it can't be powered with your usual 9v chain...

Related question:
Anybody have any experience with Parametric EQs? Been looking at the WMD Utility Parametric and various other options like Boss or Correct Sound... Any recommendations?

[tinnitustimulus]

I have been eyeing Realistic Parametric EQ for pretty cheap, can't seem to find a review of them since realistic tends to be an adjective describing any parametric eq.