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Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 9:36 pm
by bigdaveo11
When do you guys (if ever) use this and why? I know its not supposed to shift the phase (or at least not as much) as other types of EQ's such as parametric. Any further insight would be much appreciated!

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:09 pm
by restonspolie
use it when you route Two mono channel in stereo.
Apply different eq on the two mono channel to create widht effect without dephasing.
(sorry i'm not english hope you understand)

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:19 pm
by VirtualMark
I've done a lot of reading lately about these. From what i gather:

Due to limitations of FFT, linear phase eq's are more accurate in the higher frequencies. So they shouldn't be your first choice for bass.

Gentle cuts are better than steep cuts with linear phase eq's. This is because steep cuts can cause pre-ringing, a type of distortion unique to linear phase eq's. So, its generally preferred to use a minimum phase eq(standard eq) if you're doing steep surgical cuts or boosts.

Linear phase eq's use more cpu, and have higher latency.

That's about all i can say. I use them for gentle cuts when i'm processing a sound in parallel. I also only use linear phase eq's for offline processing, as the latency is noticeable if you use them in realtime.

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:09 pm
by vertex
I'm pretty sure Linkwitz Riley type eqs are supposed to keep the phase intacts, or it could be Butterworth.

Try LR first and see how it sounds

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:29 pm
by bigdaveo11
interesting, appreciate the replies!

i will look into LR as well.

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:01 pm
by Sharmaji
they can be nice in mastering to broadly boost the high end of something that already sounds good-- pretty much zero coloration from a linear phase eq.

the sonic opposite of a neve 1073 eq emulation, which has a great 12k boost, but sounds like a pretty tight bell.

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:06 pm
by vertex
bigdaveo11 wrote:interesting, appreciate the replies!

i will look into LR as well.
I've just had a look on Wikipedia and it appears it's actually Bessel filters that have the most linear phase response.

Have a look at the Bessel filter page on Wikipedia if you want a load of fancy formulae and graphs to look at ;)

EDIT: NO longer on my phone, here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessel_filter

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:41 am
by bigdaveo11
nice! thanks for the link, about to read it.

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 9:53 am
by JohnDoe
If you don't want that big eq-tweaks sound noticeable, e.g. corrections of a stereo source, mastering, etc.

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:25 pm
by cryptic
I use them on everything that is in the low end....( bass/ Kicks / Snares)

As when you cut the bottom out of lower frequency sounds, it tends to boost the overall level. I found that using a linear phase eq stops this.

Right or wrong ....i dunno. Works for me tho :)

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 4:31 pm
by bigdaveo11
interesting^ thank you. I will try that out as well and see how it sounds.

Re: Linear Phase EQ?

Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:47 pm
by vertex
cryptic wrote:I use them on everything that is in the low end....( bass/ Kicks / Snares)

As when you cut the bottom out of lower frequency sounds, it tends to boost the overall level. I found that using a linear phase eq stops this.

Right or wrong ....i dunno. Works for me tho :)
I remember reading the the human ear it more sensitive to phase at lower frequencies and frequency response at higher frequencies.

It's often worth just experimenting with different filters around the same frequency and see which one sounds good to you