EQ Is Made Of DELAY | How This SECRET Could RUIN Your Mix!

Linear Phase EQ is a tool which can help combat the phase discrepancies caused by regular EQ, but at the cost of more processing power and with the introduction of pre-ringing, does it cause more problems than it solves?
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[@tonynekrews]

This is the clearest and most straightforward explanation on EQs I have ever come across. I thought Dan Worrall had nailed it, but you pipped him. Congrats

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you so much, that is a very kind compliment. However, there were one or two bits that I deliberately omitted from this, because it would just be too much to take in for one sitting, so I believe a part 2 will follow soon!

[@Pummelfay]

Check out dan worrall if u wanna dive deeep. Loved this one too though

[@tbaier101]

"If your music sucks, nobody's going to listen to it anyway." - the most important information in this video.

[@alexisondrums_]

Bro, after 8 years of learning to mix in a DIY fashion, this has been the most clear explanation of what eq actually is that I've come across so far. Thank you.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers Alex!

[@mathyoooo2]

7:10 bell and shelf eq shapes are typically very safe choices when used in those parallel signal flows. Unless you go for extreme settings their phase shift is rather minor and won't cause issues when combined with the other mic sources. You have to be a lot more careful with other eq shapes though, in those cases linear phase can indeed make a lot of sense.

[@lucassmusicofficial]

I'm gonna be honest with you, I self researched this, and literally no one has explained it like you have. Not the FFT, not the delay that causes the phase shift across frequencies which is why people say the phase shift is the timbre of an EQ was explained as clearly as this, and I am so thrilled to see my hours of research were correct. This made my year, honestly. Thank you.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you so much! Glad to help! :)

[@1337murk]

You need to drop an affiliate link to your barber in the video description, hairline is on point

[@PresentDayProduction]

Hahaha thank you 😂

[@almightytreegod]

I’ve known this, and yet I still got something out of this as a refresher. Thanks! I think Ethan Winer also has an article about phase and EQ on his website. There are also stock linear and min phase EQs in Logic, and they sound great. One project I was using to test I had noticed that I could both literally tell no difference in lin/min phase EQs on individual tracks, and for some reason the full mix sounded way better with linear. No idea why or if my ears were just lying that day. I’ve got a few questions but I think I’ll drop them in the discord. For now I gotta go buy/not buy flopcat or something. I’m compelled but not sure why.

[@tommyottobisdee]

A few weeks ago I was nearing the end of a big mixdown job and I started hearing this squeaking sound in the higher frequency range tearing through my studio monitors - it sounded a bit like the high pitched noise you get from an old 45" vinyl record near the start from the needle squeaking on the opening grooves. Anyway, I started subtracting the mix elements on my DAW controller one-by-one - and yet this squeaking just wouldn't go away - it was still there even as I neared the very basic percussion layers?! Finally I realised what had happened, and it was a big lesson learned from my point of view! Off all things, it was the snare drum which had a multi-band dynamics plug-in applied early on in the chain to brighten it up and flatten the spectrum a bit - the explanation was that because I used a "linear phase" multi-band plug-in, the cross-over over points of the band-splits were simply too steep - resulting in otherwise unnoticeable pre-ringing. Bearing in mind that I hadn't done any EQqing on the snare drum yet, I was quite astonished by this - so the squeaking was actually there in the mix stem very early on but I simply hadn't been able to hear it yet until I put the snare through an 1176 compressor - which then boosted the lower noise floor so hard that this insanely unexpected noise suddenly spoiled my mix completely. The solution? Well, I did it the no-nonsense way and just bounced a few snares as flat WAV files, and then I manually chopped off the pre-ringing sections - problem solved - but I guess my point is, if you can't get a problem solved with anything else, then by all means go the linear-phase route, but remember that pre-ringing also happens in multi-band (and probably spectral-band) compressors and limiters too - if the cross-over slope is set to anything over 24 db/Oct then you should be very suspicious indeed! P.s. I would highly recommend NEVER using the High, Very High, or Maximum settings on Pro-Q3 Linear Phase - the Low and Medium settings run at much much gentler Q values, but the higher settings are almost never worth risking IMO. Peace : )

[@peterbrandt7911]

Your sponsor will be happy! Being a sponsor for such a fine video, can only be considered as a win. Seriously, very nicely done and well explained. It should be noticed, that using linear phase eq's as a plugin consumes a little bit more CPU power, at least on my system (PC) and I haven't tried PRO Q.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers Peter! And yes, you are correct with your information here - I may possibly do a part 2, as there is so much more to cover but didn’t want to put it into one super long video as it’ll be too much to take in :)

[@peterbrandt7911]

@@PresentDayProduction Hey James, I'll happily watch a part 2 as well. And it is a deep topic and hard to show on KZbin. Thanks for the effort!

[@PeterKluge]

perfect mixture between sophisticated audio-nerding and Cat-Interludes! Well played!

[@timothyforry2222]

This gave me the information I needed to 90% understand what eq to grab . Thank you .

[@timbeaton5045]

NB:- in case you are a Logic user, the usual Channel EQ can be in minimal mode (default) OR you can select Linear Phase from the dropdown EQ menu.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Good point out!

[@timbeaton5045]

@@PresentDayProduction You're welcome! I didn't;t discover this for a while, myself. Just thought I'd pass it on! Keep up the good work... nice to have a bit of theoretical stuff on the channel. don't be afraid to do more! We can take it!

[@simonbuchner8330]

Very nice video! It's always nice to find a goog and thorough explanation to a question in one video :)

[@Adsol]

Hands down the best / all in one technical video about EQ. Simple and understandable.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you!

[@seansley]

Good. Flopcat is the best YT sponsor yet.

[@caprimaniac01]

Thanks a bundle for this informative video. Learning more from you guys than by studying books. Cheers mate.

[@LongshanMusic]

“. . . but if your music sucks, no one’s going to listen to it anyway.” You just had to get personal, eh?!? *sniffs and sobs*

[@furiobisotti8150]

Very well explained. I was able to hear big difference on ringing, but not on kick example. Anyway, knowing the thing is better than ignoring.

[@KacyDennis]

This explains why if you parallel process a channel and want to use EQ on it, you should put the EQ on the source channel rather than on the parallel channel. Otherwise you will get some phase cancellation when the two channels are combined with each other since the parallel channel will be out of phase with the source channel. If you have a lot of paralleled tracks with this problem your mix can start sounding like it's kind of falling apart somewhat. You may notice that things aren't sounding quite right and then you might intuitively fumble around the mix trying to do corrective EQ for these problems that you created.

[@graysonwilson3343]

@Wayne Brown sure, but it’s definitely a major problem to have happening without even knowing it- like my mixes until I learned about this a couple months ago- after a decade of amateur production

[@LongshanMusic]

Thanks for such a greast deep-dive into EQ, guys! You can tell this new Flopcat sponsorship is a lucrative one, cuz James has a new hoodie.

[@PresentDayProduction]

First person to notice the new hoodie!

[@LongshanMusic]

@@PresentDayProduction It's very nice, James. Stay away from Whistler though-they're pretty pissed at you now, lol.

[@natelivingston5528]

🤯 mind blown! And that’s just from Flop Cat.

[@TheRealXira]

Best sponsor on KZbin. Awesome video also! Really informative. Love these videos you put out.

[@kadiummusic]

Interesting subject explained very well. I could hear the difference on the final kick drum examples even though it was minimal. Thank you.

[@djvidual8288]

Ok preringing is pretty unpleasant for fast transients. Something to keep in mind. I thought there were almost no negatives to linear phase EQ. I will now listen more carefully :D

[@PresentDayProduction]

Glad to have helped you here! :)

[@yona9798]

So I just had the flopcat song stuck in my head and came back to the video because of it. My subconscious really wants this to be a thing apparently xD

[@PresentDayProduction]

Wow, good to know! Now we know how to keep you all coming back… ;)

[@TheRTM]

Ever seen the movie Scanners?….Remember the scene where the guys head exploded that just happened to me when this guy gave the liner phase number explanation of what eq is.

[@marleenvos4126]

That sponsor is living the Fine Life

[@joost3783]

great work as always. Also nice example at the end + I never heard pre-ringing as extreme as in the earlier example. sick

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers Joost! In the first example, of course this was massively exaggerated to demonstrate what pre-ringing is, so you would never have heard it anything near as much as that in the real world! Hopefully the second example was a little closer to real world usage.

[@joost3783]

@@PresentDayProduction Sure. I am Intereted in your sponsor you didn't provide any links to them did you?

[@PresentDayProduction]

Only an Instagram account ;) www.Instagram.com/flopcatpdp

[@joost3783]

@@PresentDayProduction Yo I gave it a second watch. I think if you needed a suggestion for a video that could be it. There is always this "dilemma" regarding the different EQ types when mixing multi-miked drums. On one hand we want the transients on the other we want the set to keep in-tact phase wise.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers! :) will have a think about this :)

[@axilleas]

I won’t even pretend I understood every tiny detail (same way I don’t understand every tiny detail in Dan Worral’s videos) but it was still a very very interesting video! Thanks for going deep diving in theory to explain complicated stuff to us!

[@efensiemusic]

Amazing video lads...

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers :)

[@mannietheart]

This is awesome technical content that no-one else is providing. Thank you so much!

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you for watching!

[@Virtual-Media]

Learn something valuable on every video you’ve posted!

[@pieterjanjordens]

Can anyone explain why linear eq generates prering?

[@Bucking_Fastard]

Flopcat looks glorious in 4K!

[@imagesofstyle]

The single most informative presentation I've encountered on EQ so far, with bonus pragmatic advice. Brilliant!

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you James!

[@JayBeBerg]

I was surprised how big a difference the EQ had on the 50 hz boost. The transient is completelty gone with linear phase EQ. I've noticed I sometimes have to flip the phase on the outside kick track if I low pass it. I'm going to try linear phase on it.

[@nectariosm]

Unreal how this channel does not have 100k+ subs

[@PresentDayProduction]

We’re getting there! But we’ll keep the great content coming!

[@thewatchmanstudios6257]

Devious ..Drop in a Flop Cat ad break to make sure old farts like me clap my hands with glee and then proceed to watch the rest of the video..which was great by the way

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thank you! Glad you liked the ad breaks 😂

[@skreim]

You guys are awesome! Thx a bunch

[@AnSpirAlucard]

Guys, you are the best!

[@FLH3official]

Thank you for this very informative video.

[@BandiFornosky1]

I have been to school but I didn't learn about linear phase EQ in that depth. I can't help wondering what what Flop Cat tought.

[@secretelitemusic]

I tend to stare intently at those pre-ring wibblewaves in my audio editor, and make a musical decision based on the type of music. If the kick and the bass require full doof! doof! transient mode, I deploy bogstandard EQ. If the track is more jazzy, soulful, or ambient, I'm happy to let it bounce with linear phase, and get a bit more twang in the upper mids. If I'm making perc loops that require all (or most of) the transients to be zinging from zero to max amplitude for the sake of clarity, I'm more likely to deploy the mute function ahead of the zero crossing, or re-draw the waveform to iron out most of the pre-wub. You can definitely hear the pre-ring if you're creating percussive loops, because they create a niggling microdelay ahead of the one. You can also crop to the front of the ramp and do the "60,000 divided by bpm" calc to nail the precise loop length if you're really fussy. In hardware, the SPL Transient Designer seems to work the same kind of magic with the plus/minus attack and sustain controls, which is probably why it sounds so much tighter than any of the digital options.

[@cornerliston]

Very good to see. I often struggle to hear that pre-ring so well done with the example. The pre-ring could be used to get modern harsh attack samples sound a bit more pleasant. I'm a big fan of that softer attack we get from tape recordings and not a big fan of adding extra sharpness (to drums) as we often see and hear today.

[@AfferbeckBeats]

Something I've never really dug into is the Linear Phase slider in Goodhertz' Tone Control. You can shift between Minimum and Linear at will, and even have a blend of them if you want!

[@peterpeper4837]

Great ! Thank you for sharing you knowledge with us.

[@DjBydLo]

very clear thanks

[@tristanishtar8906]

Damn. You guys are smart!

[@stevedunn4284]

perfect! thank you

[@latheofheaven1017]

Thank you Flopcat. Your content is always really interesting.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Meow!

[@the_newvoice]

Yup. Pre-ringing sounds like someone is swinging a stick before hit. I never noticing that time-smearing, cause thought my monitors are doing that or whatever. Minimum Phase is fast and sharp (digital) but have a harsh or distracting unpleasant upper twists and not round bass. But a fast bass. Just a little bit knowledge about a process is great. Firs i was: -"Linear phase is better always!" :) Not always. Got to listen (if you know what to listen to and what to compare). Thanks!

[@bluesteelbass]

Does phase shift also occur when using a high or low pass filter? Great, conscience explination! With speakers, matching the Q value (phase shift degree) of capacitors for filters in speakers seems to make more of an improvement versus nailing matching capacitance ratings (at what frequency the filter takes effect). Now I know why!

[@greenenoiseaudio]

I came for flop cat. I stayed in case there was more flop cat.

[@BojanBojovic]

Ah, phase issues... After you notice it for the first time it is hard to unhear it. It drives my OCD mad...

[@studio.hermit]

Love you! - nothing more to say.

[@fona24]

First video I watched for the sponsor ... :D

[@thewatchmanstudios6257]

I’ve done some of the reading over the years , so some of these details weren’t unknown to me. However I’d be the first to admit, that hearing the subtle differences between eq types might be a bit daunting for an old fart like me. I certainly appreciated how it made e reconsider my usage of them though..well done boys…………………………………………….FLOP CAT!!!!!!!!

[@momatyi]

Wow. I have studied about convolution (and c. filtering, of course) in the form of a bunch of mathematical expressions, thus processing the signal by putting it from time domain to frequency domain via (Discrete Fast) Fourier Transformation, then modifying the different Fourier components and lastly, transforming it back to time domain - but that approach, that this whole process is basically adding different amounts of delay to the original signal, kind of gave me another perspective about the 'whole' thing.

[@R3BBiT]

The first SECRET that can actually RUIN my mix 😂 Love it

[@PresentDayProduction]

Just doing our best to make some content to help people out!

[@gooshie3]

Ow, my head...

[@KennWall]

Great video as always!

[@cudi313]

MASON MOUNT IS GREAT AT THIS MUSIC STUFF

[@bojanstojanov6431]

Where do I get the flopcat plugin?

[@zerolelouch22]

can you combine both EQ's? Imagine a regular phase that kicks in on the transient then milliseconds after the linear phase kicks in. Wouldn't that cut the pre-ringing and post-ringing?

[@caprimaniac01]

Do you know any book, website or KZbin channel /video which you could recommend when wanting to dive deeper into the EQ physics and maths?

[@mixedbymikael]

After watching this my IQ went over 9000!!

[@user-tf7nj3oo6z]

Curious to know what you think of Pro Q3 "natural phase" which seems to be a compromise of the two?

[@schoovaertssimon7904]

i'm sampling that Kick

[@dariofromthefuture3075]

I don't understand why 54 samples of delay effects 2kz less than 18kz. Can someone explain that bit to me?

[@ruithealmightyYT]

Great video! Just one thing: around 2:56 those values would more accurately represent a saw wave rather than a sine wave :) keep up, love the channel

[@CorNigrum]

"And don't get too sucked into the deep wormhole of worrying about complex audio engineering knowledge such as this" he reassuringly ends the video.

[@monolithaxdxo1665]

What would you recommend as a good resource for learning more in-depth topics dealing with the technical and creative side of mixing.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Doing it, getting it wrong, and doing it again

[@jacquithurgood1682]

You beat me!

[@troeteimarsch]

So is it safe to say that linear phase works best when it not has to deal with low end information because of the wavelength respectively the amount of time a signal needs to be pre shifted?

[@randomgeocacher]

I thought EQs did something like transform to from time space to frequency space, and then boost frequencies selectively. Basically filter / signaling courses in computer science. But eh, that would not work in zero latency filters, which probably is preferred in some audio applications. Now I wonder how much difference there is between such a filter and the EQs you explained… :-)

[@ApolloIrish]

Is the phase sweep on the word frequency at 5:32 intentional,? If so, well played.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Not intentional, but well-placed nonetheless

[@analogkid4557]

If it sounds good, it is good.

[@izaakgray1718]

Heya fellas. I own some IRP knowles analogue linear phase EQs and they're physical units, so it can be done!

[@headpox5817]

Nice explanation. I thought you'd present better and more examples to hear, in order to showcase the points discussed.

[@DidoInFlames]

But why some engineers said to never use Linear Phase EQ? That's interesting?

[@Barnet310]

If you eq something in linear phase, bounce it. Reverse it and apply the same eq settings you have linear phase with no preringing

[@andresnol]

Why do most digital EQ's report 0 samples of latency though?

[@andresnol]

​@Wayne Brown Wouldn't that mean that the first samples are not actually equalized, when you bear in mind that there is 0 samples of latency?

[@tutubeos]

🤯

[@Pummelfay]

Cant hear the difference. But i can feel it even on my phone.

[@matts.1190]

Flopcat 🕺✨🕺

[@drydessert4198]

A while back, you had ATC HiFi speakers and said they are as good as their studio speakers but more cost efficient. Now you apparently have ATC studio speakers. Why not bigger ATC HiFi speakers?

[@PresentDayProduction]

We still have both, these aren’t new, we have SCM200’s, SCM150’s and SCM35’s. The 35’s are ONLY available in hi-fi, so there’s no other option for that model if you want to own a pair. The 200’s are in the studio model because a) they’re black b) they are the pair we happened to buy at the time. We’d prefer the studio model of everything but that isn’t possible

[@DaveChips]

And that's why ladies and gents... U don't mix in "solo" ... 😁

[@Lutzifer31337]

[@SlightlyNasty]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with your explanations of how analogue and digital EQs function - I get that it can be tricky to separate out the nuances of phase vs. delay vs. polarity when talking about filter networks, but just lumping them all together as "delay" and pretending it's just a case of phase cancellation isn't really accurate at all. At the three minute mark you're describing a digital comb filter, not the digital biquad filter that actually underpins 99% of all digital EQs and only typically references a couple of samples either side of the relevant sample.

[@michiellombaers3198]

Shout out to the comment that he music should be awsome first before you start to quibble about minute technical approache differences.

[@mathyoooo2]

Saying EQ is just delay is a bit misleading and I feel it misses some of the nuance of the topic. First of all if you're speaking about analog components it's important to note that not all filters have feedback and the delay that's caused by the components depends on the frequency and sort builds over time. You can only look at it as straight up delay if you're looking at a single frequency and only once all transient phenomena have decayed. 3:00 this is also a very unlikely scenario. You would only really look back this far into the past for an FIR filter and then there would be no feedback loop. For standard IIR filters you only need as many delays as the order of your filter. Additionally they are typically a lot more interconnected than just feeding back into the start, but I understand this was done for illustrative purposes. In general all this just bothers me because this is the sort of dangerous half knowledge that leads people to the wrong conclusions.

[@PresentDayProduction]

I did make a note on the top right of the animation that a circular buffer is more suited to that type of situation, however that’s more difficult to explain to people who have no idea how plugin development works, I tried to keep it as simple as possible

[@mathyoooo2]

@@PresentDayProduction this is not about circular buffers, thats an implementation detail. I'm talking some more general theory stuff here

[@mathyoooo2]

@@PresentDayProduction watching the video people might think that the delay in the filter directly relates to the frequency being filtered. But (assuming standard minimum phase filters) the relation ship is not so simple, with the internal delay relating mostly to filter order while the gain of the feedback paths determines the frequency response and corresponding phase shift. I understand dumbing things down is necessary, but if you dumb things down too much things can become more confusing than useful and this is what I'm worried about here

[@mathyoooo2]

@Wayne Brown that eq or phase shift is just delay when in reality that only applies in very specific cases like a static sine wave

[@mathyoooo2]

@Wayne Brown Yes I don't think it's a bad video, although I would say some parts of it are better than others. The demonstration of pre-ringing was excellent for example. In general the video did a good job showcasing the more practical side of phase shift and what it means for production. The thing is though that phase is a topic that gets misunderstood frequently and therefore I feel that extra care must be taken the information is accurate and precise. There's too many misconceptions about phase out there but I'm not sure this video really helped in clearing those up.

[@CheapoCardCompany]

Been trying to post a comment... but seems to have been deleted (twice)... ah well, it’s the universe’s loss (unprobably).

[@PresentDayProduction]

I saw your name pop up but it was instantly deleted, certain things are auto-flagged by the KZbin bot if they contain links or certain words!

[@CheapoCardCompany]

@@PresentDayProduction Hhhhhmmmmm... was it because I used the words “Circular Buffer” and “Brois Jonhson” in the same sentence..?

[@makr638]

This is clearly flopcat biased

[@tob2089]

not a clue what any of this means but hey, there's a flop sponsor

[@onemanband3579]

A few issues. Why do you always upload when I'm not online? Why are you baffling me with science? Why do you do this little zoom in/out on your videos now? Just because everyone else does it doesn't mean it's right. It makes me dizzy and I fall off my chair. I love Flopcat. Okay, carry on.

[@PresentDayProduction]

I can’t answer most of those, but the zoom in/out thing makes it a lot easier to hide cuts where I mess up a sentence ;) otherwise I’d be there all week trying to actually do the whole video without messing up!

[@yona9798]

FLOPCAT!!!

[@yona9798]

When will the full version be released? I need this in my life!!!