Resonant shelf?

[donbray]

On the Waves website I was reading about the EQP-1A eq.
They said the following:
"Renowned for it's unique ability to boost and cut the same frequency simultaneously thereby creating a resonant shelf."
Could someone explain to me what a "resonant shelf" is, why I would want it and how I'd go about using the plug?
I don't actually use the waves plug but have a few others that replicate the same eq and have the same controls.

[Shooshie]

On the Waves website I was reading about the EQP-1A eq.
They said the following:
"Renowned for it's unique ability to boost and cut the same frequency simultaneously thereby creating a resonant shelf."
Could someone explain to me what a "resonant shelf" is, why I would want it and how I'd go about using the plug?
I don't actually use the waves plug but have a few others that replicate the same eq and have the same controls.

I saw that, too, and would also like to know what it is. The ability to boost and cut the same frequency sounds like snake medicine, shell games, and other cons. Here ya go; 15 brand new shiny nickels for a buck. I'm sure they have a perfectly good explanation for it. I'm also reasonably sure that I can live without it. Maybe I can buy it and they can credit me the selling price, and we'll call it a resonant shelf transaction.

Shooshie

[bongo_x]

I've never heard the term "resonant shelf", and it sounds pretty suspicious, but it's a pretty common technique for people to use the boost and the cut on the Pultec at the same time. They interact in a pleasing way, you're not canceling one out with the other.

I've looked some things up, and it's not a filter and a shelf as I previously thought. The boost is wide, the cut is narrow, right around the marked frequency, and gets narrower as you cut.

This is a Pultec thing, it has nothing to do with Waves.

bb

edited to actually contain correct information 05.17.2010 12:29
oops, I see Phil already posted something like that.

[newrigel]

It's just an amplitude master on the shelf since a shelf doesn't really have one. It does in a sense but if you cut, the slope is changed so in turn you can crank it to achieve a steep slope and still cut @ the same time. Shelfs will inherently (specific upon the design) vary their slope in relation to the amounts of boost or cut... just another level of control is all.

[Phil O]

One of the tricks on the Pultec units was to boost and cut at the same time. As Shooshie says it sounds like snake oil, until you realize what's going on. The Pultec had a narrower bandwidth in it's cut portion than in it's boost. So lets say you boost and cut 3 dB each. The center frequency would be at 0 dB (or close) and you'd have a bump below and above it. With a little creative tweaking you could get a boost that was a wider than the boost control alone could give.

To experiment with this, take the MW EQ and set two controls to the same frequency, say 2K (this works well with type 3). Set the boost Q wide (.64) and the cut Q narrow (around 2). Now tweak away and you'll get an Idea of what the Pultec did.

Phil

edit: I could be wrong, maybe the cut was wider than the boost, I can't remember. But, the principle is the same.

[donbray]

Thank you all my sage friends.
I'll be a-tweakin'.
And because of this new found knowledge my tweaking will be more on purpose.
D

[cloudsplitter]

A good reference for that kind of thing is in a book called "Mixing Audio" by Roey Izhaki it is a must have for any studio

[Shooshie]

Wow, so Pultec got the oil squeezed right out of that snake, and used the skin to mask the sound. Brilliant!

Shooshie