If you want a very high quality EQ 'half' based on a pultec and for FREE then you have to grab the plugin everyone here seems to have forgot about ie.......Sonimus SonEQ.

Its only half Pultec,the other half (mid-high) are API based I think but really,truly,its a VERY nice EQ and won't cost you a dime.

ps. I'm selling 2 T-Racks singles licenses,both unregistered and each includes the option of owning a choice out of 10 T-Racks singles,including the Pultec and Fairchild (but not new black n white plugs.

T-Racks Singles - 30 Euros each.

I'll also be selling Nomad British Bundle soon for around 25 Euro's.

Thanks, forgot about this one. I have this one too but haven't used it in a while.
I remember it was nice on kick/ bass.

this is my "go to" EQ for everything.
for precise correctings i use a linear-phase EQ

www.myspace.com/tombalcony

and don't forget this one!

it'not a pultec, but my weapon for high frequency sweetening

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/5188

www.myspace.com/tombalcony

Variety of Sound BaxterEQ is a Baxendall (type) EQ.
It plays on a whole different ballpark.

Right, not looking for that although I like & use it too.

People who are used to the UAD pultec or similar, which does NOT model any harmonic distortion or complex action (unless they've updated it recently) will need to remember to properly gain stage both the IK pultec and the Waves one.

You can not hit the unit with hot levels and expect it to stay smooth and creamy. Use PSP vintage meter or similar to check the VU levels before you hit the pultec.. it should be around 0VU (or around -18dB average) for a typical replicated sound.. however, I recommend going even lower than that as there is no noise emulation in the IK plugin so you can safely go -30dB before the pultec, do your EQ stuff, then boost it back up.

It's a bit of a bummer that people who code these plugins don't allow for flexible pre and post gain in their plugins as gain staging in the analogue domain is one of the most important aspects.. and not only for keeping noise levels in check but to actually change the tone.

Cheers!
bManic

I think G-Sonique does this at least (input/output gain).

And thank god more and more developers finally adopt -18dB RMS as reference level, or they did it and never mentioned it in any of their manuals.

If you hit the UAD Pultec with a hot signal and try to boost you will definately be going over 0dbfs.

Eh?

I think you didn't understand my post.

What I'm saying is that the UAD pultec doesn't have any kind of tube modeled. It is simply a plain, completely clean, EQ. It only models the actual "shape" of the EQ curves. Nothing else.

If you insert the UAD pultec on a track, without doing anything, and run a 1khz sine wave into it, that's exactly what you get out of it (+ some dither noise possibly). If you do the same on the IK or Waves pultec you get out a complex signal, one that has changed.. just like on the real hardware. You can drive it harder or less hard and depending on this the harmonic distortion plot changes.

Anyhow,

I just analyzed the IK LA-2A plugin and to surprisingly it is NOT a complex model of a tube at all.

This is very unfortunate as the "tone" of a LA-2A is to a great deal affected by the tube output stage.

Same goes with the 1176 emulation. It only models the actual compression, none of the E model's transformer.

This is really unfortunate as both their Fairchild emulation and Pultec are more complex and quite frankly, much more intriguing emulations due to their complex behavior. Especially the Fairchild is simply a wonderful "tone box". Just turn the threshold all the way to 0 and you can use it as a tube box.. and it does some truly bizarre stuff when you give it a very low level signal. It goes into some weird expansion stuff that I doubt happens in the real thing but it's still very interesting and unpredictable.

I really hope IK Multimedia update the LA-2A and 1176 at some point.. especially the LA-2A as using it as a pure tube box is a real benefit of the hardware.

Cheers!
bManic

I remember IKM claiming that they modeled everything. It was a huge discussion here in the FX section as well.

I remember them admitting at some point in that thread that they didn't model the tube stages because of cpu constraints but might update the plug-ins in future ... Dunno if it'll happen... I for myself like when developers push things further, not caring too much about cpu issues, like Urs with Diva

That sounds like an excuse to me. No offense IK but I remember reading it took a year to develop the 1176 and LA-2A models. That's a long time to not include tube saturation. Use some of that Sonic Character Cloning and Dynamic Saturation Modeling technology. From the Black 76 PDF "This dynamics processing legend has been carefully modeled with IK's maniacal attention to detail..."

That doesn't take away from the fact that the Black 76 has become one of my go to ITB compressors though!

If CPU usage is the issue then make "tube modeling" or whatever an option, just like the Amplitube quality options. We're not dumb if the plug-in is sucking up CPU then we can freeze the track or render it out, no problemo.

i have the ikm Vintage Tube Program Equalizer and the psp NobleQ and i like the psp NobleQ

G-Sonique Pultronic is pretty nice, but it explodes with over +48dB input signal, and that's where all the excitement is!