Why the 1.5 Q value?
Yesterday we talked about roughly where to find bite, presence, and air in the high end of a sound (to refresh: 3k, 5k, and 8k Hz, respectively).
And I suggested that you try it out for yourself, using boosts with a Q of 1.5.
Why 1.5?
The reason is that 1.5 is a nice amount of Q for “this area and not other areas too much.” In other words, it’s relatively specific while still being relatively gentle. It’s a medium Q! A nice Goldilocks place to start for boosts.
Any narrower, and you start getting into “resonant peak” territory — where the peak is increasingly localizable. Which can be great! But it’s a more specific sound.
Any wider, and you start getting into “general” territory — where you’re boosting a vague area rather than a specific area. Which, again, super useful, but not always.
For example: if you want air, boost at 8,000 Hz-ish with a Q of 1.5. if you want air+presence, widen the Q to 1.0 or even 0.8 (and maybe bring the frequency down 500 Hz, if you find that you’re grabbing too much supersonic garbage).
The effect of the boost bleeds into adjacent frequency regions as you widen the Q.
Thank Q — jamie