WMD UTILITY PARAMETRIC EQ Pedal

[tabooze24]

Does anyone know if this thing is any good? Its a full parametic eq in a compact package.

here are some specs:

Freq

This selects the centre frequency of the filter. The three frequency ranges are: 31Hz to 1.6kHz, 100Hz to 4.8kHz, 300Hz to 16kHz.

Q

The Quality Factor (Q) gives you control over the sharpness of the filter. Turn it up and the filter section becomes resonant and more abrasive. Low Q settings sound like a traditional EQ, higher Q adds resonant nodes. The Q ranges from about .1 to around 30.

....and 9 to 24v operation for headroom

[LSMFT6]

It's pretty good. My only gripes are that the three bands can sometimes be a little too interactive, meaning that you end up undoing with one band what you're trying to do with another band. For example, you get the mids just right but when you go to set the lows, they seems to cancel out the mids. That, and the extremely wide range of each band can sometimes make it hard to dial in a specific frequency since the knob covers such a wide scope. YMMV, of course.

Cool pedal though, recommended.

[testing1two]

Originally Posted by LSMFT6

It's pretty good. My only gripes are that the three bands can sometimes be a little too interactive, meaning that you end up undoing with one band what you're trying to do with another band. For example, you get the mids just right but when you go to set the lows, they seems to cancel out the mids. That, and the extremely wide range of each band can sometimes make it hard to dial in a specific frequency since the knob covers such a wide scope. YMMV, of course.

Cool pedal though, recommended.

Doesn't the 'Q' go narrow enough to minimize the overlap?

My biggest gripe is that there are no useful markings on the pedal. You may be able to dial in a great sound, but you'll have no idea why.

[LSMFT6]

Originally Posted by testing1two

Doesn't the 'Q' go narrow enough to minimize the overlap?

My biggest gripe is that there are no useful markings on the pedal. You may be able to dial in a great sound, but you'll have no idea why.

I tried all kinds of different Q settings and it never seemed to help; it could've just been the way i was using the pedal though.

[sunbeast]

Originally Posted by LSMFT6

It's pretty good. My only gripes are that the three bands can sometimes be a little too interactive, meaning that you end up undoing with one band what you're trying to do with another band. For example, you get the mids just right but when you go to set the lows, they seems to cancel out the mids. That, and the extremely wide range of each band can sometimes make it hard to dial in a specific frequency since the knob covers such a wide scope. YMMV, of course.

Cool pedal though, recommended.

I got one of your old ones- I agree with both critiques, though part of the problem is indeed the wide spread of the Q control: the narrower Q settings in the range of what most Parametrics use seem to be in a very small slice of the pot range, so it can be very touchy to set (labels would definitely be extremely nice on this pedal!). The Q goes to almost adbsurdly wide settings, so for much of the range of the Q controls the bands get very interactive.

I also found the pedal to be pretty noisy when I bought it from you and I emailed WMD about it- apparently the earliest versions of the pedal after he added the Master control used a noisy IC, which he only discovered after sending out a batch. He replaced the IC at fault in mine for free and it is now relatively quiet (though extreme gain and resonance settings can still definitely still get noisy- the downside of having such extreme settings avaialble!).

For simplicity, the Empress Para EQ is far superior in my opinion (I didn't own both at the same time, but I definitely know that it took no time to dial in the Empress when I had it), but I like the versatility of a continously adjusable Q so I prefer the WMD (not to mention the smaller footprint). I will also add that both pedals seem to benefit greatly from higher voltages (I've been using the WMD at 24 Volts lately and it is much cleaner sounding to me).

[tabooze24]

Thanks for the great information.

I just have to make a decision on which pedal I should go for.

Empress and WMD are the two parametric ones that have caught my eye. Also, there is a third fully parametric EQ from a Russian company called "Correct Sound" that i just happened to find through google. It goes from 30Hz out to 5K.

http://correctsoundcustom.com/index/...roduct=9477113

Only thing is that the lead time can be up to 8 weeks according to the website...

The other pedal im looking at is the Whirlwind Bass 10 with constant Q. I know that this is a graphic, but, all of the useful frequencies are there for the most part.

[sunbeast]

Honestly I think the average user would probably be more happy with the Empress, if nothing else because of the markings around the knobs to give you some idea of the settings you are making. The WMD is capable of many more unusable/extreme tones (by "normal" standards!), and those tones are easy to find by accident because of the super wide range of control squeezed onto relatively small pots (with no labeling!). The Empress is very user friendly in that the extreme tones require more work to find and the available Q settings limit the interactive nature of the bands that the WMD can get so easily by dialing in too large a Q.

That said- the WMD is awesome if you are a tinkerer/tweaker by nature like myself and if you enjoy super extreme crazy and unpredictable sounds at times!

[Dezzmon]

http://correctsoundcustom.com/index/...roduct=9477113

Only thing is that the lead time can be up to 8 weeks according to the website...

Orders for Parametric EQ made ​​before the end of February will be built ​​​​up of 15-20 March.

[mjac28]

Bongo said it was good and to me that's the best endorsement you can get.

[bongomania]

Oh hey now, I appreciate the compliment but let me qualify whatever I said... I haven't owned or used the WMD! I have only recommended it on the basis that it is one of only a very small number of true parametric EQ pedals in current production.

[godspeed68]

cool thread. i'll be dialed in as i'm almost pulling the trigger on the paraEQ.

[tabooze24]

The thing that the WMD seems to have going for it is the fully adjustable Q control. The Empress has only three Q settings.

With that aside, what about the "other" things?..such as:

1) real world headroom (I believe both units can take up to 24v, but what does that mean in a real world situation)
2) Transparency (WMD metions that with everything set flat (w/ pedal engaged) their pedal should not change the sound at all)
3) Ruggedness of design (Empress uses all metal parts, where the WMD seems to use plastic knobs)
4) Noise...who has got the least noisy pedal?

Any thoughts?

[LSMFT6]

The WMD also has a master volume control which i found very useful. The Empress is boost-only, although it does have a three position input pad.

[tabooze24]

I overlooked that.