just finished the Melcor GME-20 rack. WOW!

jrepro · Post by **jrepro** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:43 pm

Well I just finished (for now) my 2U rack with a pair of Melcor GME-20 2 band EQs. These are just like the ones Joel posted a picture of. Mine don't include a pair of PVE Eqs. DAMN!!!!! Anyway, I just plugged them in, and they worked great!

Even with the EQ set to 0db on both bands, the unit adds a nice subtle (discrete) sound. It seems to add a touch of clarity to the track. Of course by-pass is completely out of the circuit. (true bypass). What I found so far is that the EQs are really musical, and not harsh. Even with 4 or 6 db of boost, they sound pretty natural. ( I did not add transformers, so the tone is just from the Discrete opamp-simular to API 2520). It seems to add just a little upfront clearity. I normally do Subtractive EQ, but this was musical enough that its boosts were just as nice.

I tried the eq in several places. First accross the two buss, just because it easiest to hear changes to an entire mix. By adding a touch at the top (7.5k) and a touch at 110 the mix fattend up but remained clear. This is not where I would normally place it, but for sanity, its easiest to here it here.

Next I place one on the channel of a 18x18 kick drum that was a little wimpy. More attack and less boom...no matter how I tracked it. The eq gave a gentle boost that fattened it right up. The second channel I used on the bass which was a DI into API. It had a great clearity, but I was having trouble getting the bass and kick to lock together. Well with a 2 db boost in the right spot the fattened kick and bass now locked together. I bussed that into a 160X to level it all out. Sounded natural and clear.

Next I placed it on a sax track. Just a little cut around 220 and a slight boost around 3200 and the sax was breathing real nice.

Last I tried it on vocals. With a slight boost around 220 and around 7.5K the vocals were warm but had nice air and breath. Again very musical, and natural.

I also used them in conjunction with my boards eqs. I used them in the insert on my console to I could add detail with the GME's while reducing some mud with the console eqs. Worked great.

So far I love this EQ. I wish I had a few more. I may have to twist Drews arm to give up another pair. He's a luck bastard to have a bunch to play with!

As soon a Photo bucket is up again, I will post some pics.

Joe

Mix413 · Post by **Mix413** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:02 pm

Try them on electric guitar with some extreme mid boosts.

jrepro · Post by **jrepro** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:58 pm

Top rack is the pair of GME-20 eqs. The silver box below it is 4 API 312 cards from a vintage console. The black box below it is a single API 312 with a hotter transformer. Give a real upfont sound.

drewbass · Post by **drewbass** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:29 pm

yeah man! i'm glad they worked out of the box. a relief for me. i think i'm going to keep the remaining 8 out of the original 14. you, john noll and joel have the other 6 so i know they're in good hands/ears. try john noll's earlier suggestions about doing a low and high pass while cranking different bands. additionally run one into the other for 4 bands, i do that a lot. i believe b/c they're notched at A, they lend themselves well to, generally, sharp keys, namely e,a, and d. mho.
i noticed to that that 55hz notch always seems to do it for me on bd
..

the mccurdys are on their way to bri roth to get looked at. i'll hear the diagnosis soon.
congrats again,
drew

jrepro · Post by **jrepro** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:00 pm

Thanks again Drew. I first tested these on a scope with a real clean signal generator. I was able to crank these up all the way with no distortion being shown on the scope. So I will hold off on any recaps etc. I did contact Brian Roth about him cleaning these up if needed. The knobs were really tough to turn. So I soaked them in contact cleaner. After a few hours they loosend up and started turning free. I checked the contacts and they seem to be fine with no wear. So yep these are cool.

I hope the Comps work out for you too. They should sound killer when he's done with them.

Joe

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:58 am

The melcors rock.

A agree with the above post:

Try cranking the christ out of the mids on guitar. You will all of a sudden hear "that sound."

Amazing. I have the Melcors in a powered rack (racjekd by Bradb) with a pair of neumann PEV's. Totally huge... Brad did a great job as well, so the thing looks great.

Mix413 · Post by **Mix413** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:17 am

I put together a recall sheet for the Melcor GME20's. If anyone needs one, send me an email.

jn145@verizon.net

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:29 am

Emailed you.
Lets hang sometime soon.
You should meet Bradb as well.

um... MELCOR!

(that was the on topic part)...

jrepro · Post by **jrepro** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:17 pm

Ok I did some more mixing tonight with the GME. What I find is that it can be a very subltle boost that is fairly wide and musical. But being that it is semi parametric, the Q really gets narrow. If you boost 12db the Q is very narrow and almost surgical. What I find is that a Guitar can really stand out in a mix by boosting a narrow band like 1.7k or maybe 3.4k. If the band was not so narrow, it could get ugly, but with it so narrow it really makes it stand out in a nice way. I have not tried it with Rock and Roll yet, but I bet a heavy distorted/compress guitar would really pop with this eq. So far jazz, swing, blues and some pop guitar.

Thanks for the Guitar suggestion. I also tried it again on a Sax with the large boost, and got the same excellent results. So I like it for very subtle boost on kick and bass, and for drastic narrow boost on guitar and sax.

Joe

automaticallthetime · Post by **automaticallthetime** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:31 pm

hey sup jrepro.. if you dont mind me askin where did you get your Melcor's from?

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 6:35 pm

The PEV's rock for guitars as well. The Melcors are totally cool. I am actually going to toss some xformers in that rack for the melcors. I have a couple of jensens laying around... I want to get some 1:1 lundahl's in the output though... They dont NEED them, but I do get some funkiness depending on what is next in the chain.

Guitar tone helper rack:

http://www.vsa.cape.com/~twreck/JoelEQrack.jpg

automaticallthetime · Post by **automaticallthetime** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:13 pm

i which to buy a Melcor eq but cant find a place to buy...

bhahahaha

no really, how much is a good price to pay for one of these?

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 6:57 am

joel hamilton wrote: http://www.vsa.cape.com/~twreck/JoelEQrack.jpg

nice rack Joel !

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 9:15 am

beard_of_bees wrote:
joel hamilton wrote: http://www.vsa.cape.com/~twreck/JoelEQrack.jpg
nice rack Joel !

You say that to all the boys....

Bradb did that for me. Amazing work. Brad makes the coolest looking compressors, ever. He has an 1176 copy that you all should check out, and buy one from him for 1400 dollars. Based on a kit, but with Lundahls, and the toughest looking 1176 on the planet. Like if Darth Vader had an 1176.... amazing.

s00p3rm4n · Post by **s00p3rm4n** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:39 am

Anyone have some extra Melcors lying around? I'm feeling saucy, and since I'm replacing all my other gear anyway why not get a nice hardware EQ?

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just finished the Melcor GME-20 rack. WOW!

just finished the Melcor GME-20 rack. WOW!

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