Comparing EQ of a Few Boosts

[Mike_R]

I wanted to try comparing a particular $233 boost I have to a couple of other pedals I use. This isn't comprehensive by any means, but helped me sort out why I am probably going to let that pedal go. I love the pedal BTW. It is compact, looks great, and does what it does extremely well! I just have some other solutions that work well for my use case and want to free up space for another overdrive. In order of appearance, these are no pedal, Fortin 33 (dial at noon), MXR 10 band, TS7 setting 1 and 2, Seymour Duncan 805 setting 1 and 2.



The MXR 10 band (18v Silver version) wasn't set for the best sound to my ear. I set it to approximate the 33 in about 90 seconds. I am sure I could tweak it closer, but I figured this would be representative of what it can do.
TS7 setting 1 was classic 0 Drive, Level 10, and tone at noon. Setting 2 was same drive/level with tone on full. Both are in TS9 mode (not the alternate "Hot" mode).
SD setting 1 was Level full, 0 Drive, bass full cut and middle/treble at detented noon.
SD setting 2 is roughly my preferred settings, depending on pickups/amp- level 3 o clock, drive 9 o clock, bass 9 o clock, mids and treble 3 o clock. That is where I start when I pick up a guitar and plug in then dial from there.

The 805 and MXR can both cut the lows effectively as well as the 33 can to my ears. The TS7, no matter how hard I twist the tone knob doesn't cut really lows any further, it just adds more to the top end. The 33, as you can see, pretty much is cutting lows and boosting the level. The 805, for me, emphasizes the right frequencies of mids with my amps/cab/guitars, but without adding as much fizz/sizzle to the top. The MXR can tamp down on the highs as well- for this comparison, I was trying to mimic the Fortin. I really like the active EQ of the 805. I think it gives me enough shaping ability on the front end that I will keep the MXR in the loop, or maybe eventually off the board. On my 5150 I like the EQ in the loop, on my 5153 Stealth I don't really need it to get the sound I want in the room. My Dual Rec needs the loop modded before I can see if the EQ helps there.

Signal chain was Signal Generator Pink Noise>Interface Out>Radial X Amp>Pedals>Interface Hi Z>Voxengo SPAN. I'm a noob at this so take it with a grain of salt, but I have seen a similar setup for pedal EQ comparisons done by others on YouTube.

 

[Necky379]

Did you use eMo or another VST for pink noise? I’ve done something similar with Voxengo Curve but I didn’t use pink noise. After reading your post I feel stupid for not experimenting with a signal generator but hey, live and learn.

 

[Mike_R]

Did you use eMo or another VST for pink noise? I’ve done something similar with Voxengo Curve but I didn’t use pink noise. After reading your post I feel stupid for not experimenting with a signal generator but hey, live and learn.

I used the "pink noise" option in a plugin called Signal Generator in ProTools, I am not sure what other plugins might have a similar function. I've seen a few channels on YouTube use pink noise. Dome_Nightbearer comes to mind- he has a bunch of HM2 comparisons among other things including video of the EQ responses to knob twiddling. I used really low gain on my input pre to try to limit any coloration from the interface, but a lot of the demos seem to have higher levels (judging by the scale on the right). I will say that the shape of my EQ results was relatively unaffected by input pre level, so I picked a level that worked for everything and kept it consistent for all of the graphs. Speaking of which, I forgot to upload this one which is the 33 on full. My first graph was at noon, which is roughly optimal to my ear for the amps I have on hand.

 

[Bearitone]

So after adjusting your MXR 10 band to match the 33... how close was it? Could we get a picture of your settings?

 

[Mike_R]

So after adjusting your MXR 10 band to match the 33... how close was it? Could we get a picture of your settings?

In the past I have got to a tone that I would consider to be pretty close in the room. In this case, I tried to line up the measured MXR plot to the 33 EQ plot. Typically, I would cut the highs and use a more gradual slope on the low end cut, as well as boost the volume and gain sliders a bit. If you push the volume and gain too much, the lights will cut out on hard palm mutes as I don't think the pedal can keep up to extremely high boost with hot pickups very well- I think that isn't unique to my MXR, but a limitation to how much the pedal can push the output. I'll try to record an AB clip either with a Captor or close mic when I get a chance, but it may not be very soon. I will say while the 10 band can pretty much get there (on the less extreme output settings, anyway), my perception is that the 33 adds less noise to get the same effect, and does so on 9 volts while taking a fraction of the pedalboard space. The 33 is a premium option and the one knob simplicity takes a lot of the guesswork out.

 

[Mike_R]

For those curious about how this translates to sound, I did a quick reamp session with my Dual Rec Rev G. The recording is a DI Ola had uploaded somewhere (it is mono). Track A is the unboosted Dual Rec, B-D are boosted. The IR is an Ownhammer Mesa Rec OS cab. I upped the level slightly on the Fortin 33 and MXR from the plots above to bring them closer to the output of the 805. I'll post the answers in the next post, in case anyone wants to try shooting them out blind. I am trying Dropbox, I don't really have any music related content on my YouTube so I'll try hosting it here for now:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4st2ey2rrr0ides/AAA-Pq4WThCAloleO6zfCxj8a?dl=0

I am open to feedback here if I can make the content more useful (provided I haven't sold any of the gear off), I didn't do any sort of post EQ or anything, just applied the IR and bounced the MP3s.

 

[Mike_R]

For the Dropbox comparison:

Spoiler

A is the unboosted clip
B is the MXR set to approximate the 33
C is the Fortin 33 at about 1:30
D is the 805 using the setting 2 described in my first post

 

[Mike_R]

An opinion was expressed to me that it was unfair to run the 33 at noon, so I repeated the test with 30 seconds of quick DIs. In this case, the 33 is on full, the MXR is matching it as best as I can and the 805 is still using the same settings. I will say the MXR was struggling to provide the boost even though I didn't have every slider maxed out, the lights were blinking and it may have been clipping, but I can't hear that in the track:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0iz6jn6jt6138hr/AACvcoE7_MhVOcQoEEUP9d8ca?dl=0

A-D maintain their respective identities from the spoiler post/prior test above.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

Now do the VFE Focus.

 

[Mike_R]

Now do the VFE Focus.

That certainly looks like a very flexible pedal, but I don't have access to one. I too would love to see how it stacks up against the other pedals here in terms of shaping the EQ. If somebody had one and an interface it is a pretty simple test to run.

 

[Cynicanal]

I've actually run a test like the above before (I wanted to compare a TS-9, SD-1, and my Moser boost pedal), and have a VFE Focus being made in the current batch; I could do it when mine comes in. That said, if the pedal does what it's advertised to do, the answer is "pretty much any comibnation of the above that you want".

 

[Mike_R]

Now do the VFE Focus.

I found a YouTube review for the Focus that runs a similar procedure and walks through the different knobs and switches:

I've actually run a test like the above before (I wanted to compare a TS-9, SD-1, and my Moser boost pedal), and have a VFE Focus being made in the current batch; I could do it when mine comes in. That said, if the pedal does what it's advertised to do, the answer is "pretty much any comibnation of the above that you want".

That would be awesome. I would be very curious to see what your preferred EQ looks like!

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

Very interesting results. A lot of variation available.