What is your go to EQ?

[susiwong]

Here's my take.

1. Most people don't know that eq's technical distort the signal,read into that muddy and color.

2. EQs are perhaps the mostly often used efx and therefore the main goto eq should be the most utilitarian.

Bearing those two points in mind you want an eq which muddies the least and colors the least. Which means stay away form any eq that mentions coloring or vintage this and that. With this in mind, when it comes to eq's you get what you pay for.

My choice's are among the these; URS FULL TECH, Focusrite Saffire EQ, Or the Sonnox. Why? Because they have put gobs of research and development into their algorythms and it shows through transparency. Something that the EQ's which come with a host can't hope to compete with.

Fair point, however myself I do enjoy EQs that color my sound in a nice way, in fact I choose them for their personality.
Haven't tried the FULL TECH yet, but isn't it supposed to be a Pultech emu ?
As such it should be one of the nicest colouring EQs around, but the opposite of utilitarian and uncoloured ?
At least that's the main reason why I enjoy my UAD Pultec so much, it just loves well recorded guitars and vocals
Cheers,
susiwong

[kpd]

i'm using Blue Cat's Parametr'EQ and Triple EQ

http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Ca ... ndFilters/

[advaya]

Thanks for mentioning us! We also just dropped the price of all these EQ's to a mere $20.

http://koblo.com/studio

Nice price!!

+1 almost no reason to just get the pack of all four if you want a couple of these. Very nice.

Add my +1 to the list. Great EQs for a mere $20 each. Very kind offer botkiller.

[bduffy]

Here's my take.

1. Most people don't know that eq's technical distort the signal,read into that muddy and color.

2. EQs are perhaps the mostly often used efx and therefore the main goto eq should be the most utilitarian.

Bearing those two points in mind you want an eq which muddies the least and colors the least. Which means stay away form any eq that mentions coloring or vintage this and that. With this in mind, when it comes to eq's you get what you pay for.

My choice's are among the these; URS FULL TECH, Focusrite Saffire EQ, Or the Sonnox. Why? Because they have put gobs of research and development into their algorythms and it shows through transparency. Something that the EQ's which come with a host can't hope to compete with.

Fair point, however myself I do enjoy EQs that color my sound in a nice way, in fact I choose them for their personality.
Haven't tried the FULL TECH yet, but isn't it supposed to be a Pultech emu ?
As such it should be one of the nicest colouring EQs around, but the opposite of utilitarian and uncoloured ?
At least that's the main reason why I enjoy my UAD Pultec so much, it just loves well recorded guitars and vocals
Cheers,
susiwong

Yeah, I was tempted to point out that the URS FullTec (not "FULL TECH") is a vintage-modeled EQ too! Maybe I'm missing the point, but if you want no phase distortion whatsoever, you might as well use a linear phase EQ on every track! Phase distortion is on every track you listen to, and it's the Nyquist thing you should be worrying about more, IMHO.

And I think there are more choices than just those three that also have gobs of R&D put into them as well. They just might not have sexy "studio" brands behind them.

[Nokenoku]

1. Most people don't know that eq's technical distort the signal,read into that muddy and color.

This distortion is in an area, where nobody could ever hear it.
I tested loads of EQs and not a single one had distortion big enough to be important. At -180db it's not even on the last bit of a 24bit audiofile.

There's a single one EQ, which CAN (if you want it) add some nice saturation to the signal (it's the Electri-Q). All the others I tested don't do such things.

My choice's are among the these; URS FULL TECH, Focusrite Saffire EQ, Or the Sonnox. Why? Because they have put gobs of research and development into their algorythms and it shows through transparency. Something that the EQ's which come with a host can't hope to compete with.

That's not really true.
I compared the EQ2 of FLStudio to the Sonnox. They have basically the same curves (if you leave the bands of EQ2 in the first order .. in the second it has the curves of the PSP Neon). What the Sonnox can do and the EQ2 can't, is prevent the curves from suffering near the Nyquist frequency without oversampling (or at least I think it's without oversampling, since no latency is added and no additional phase shifting appears). The ddmf IIEQ can do the same by the way.
The EQ2 does phase shifting oversampling to achieve that. That's theoretically not so good, but I personally can't hear the difference.

There's a lot too much myth on this whole topic. Really. Today there's absolutely no reason to spend 300€ on a non-linear-phase-EQ .. maybe for the GUI/handling, but not for the sound-quality.

[s4w2th]

Here's my take.

1. Most people don't know that eq's technical distort the signal,read into that muddy and color.

2. EQs are perhaps the mostly often used efx and therefore the main goto eq should be the most utilitarian.

Bearing those two points in mind you want an eq which muddies the least and colors the least. Which means stay away form any eq that mentions coloring or vintage this and that. With this in mind, when it comes to eq's you get what you pay for.

My choice's are among the these; URS FULL TECH, Focusrite Saffire EQ, Or the Sonnox. Why? Because they have put gobs of research and development into their algorythms and it shows through transparency. Something that the EQ's which come with a host can't hope to compete with.

Fair point, however myself I do enjoy EQs that color my sound in a nice way, in fact I choose them for their personality.
Haven't tried the FULL TECH yet, but isn't it supposed to be a Pultech emu ?
As such it should be one of the nicest colouring EQs around, but the opposite of utilitarian and uncoloured ?
At least that's the main reason why I enjoy my UAD Pultec so much, it just loves well recorded guitars and vocals
Cheers,
susiwong

That's because you a guitar person, and I'm a synth guy. Fundamentally diferent views you and I. You see color, I see distortion. For you it's probably your precious tone, for me it's my precious distortion. Don't screw with my distortion, I'll take offense. I like my distortion nice and cold.

Anyway, please correct me if I'm wrong, but could you be referring to the EM-PEQ or the Digidesign Bomb Factory Pultec Bundle. Without out a doubt the ui's look similar, but that could be a marketing decision. I had to look past the vintage style ui, and listen to the advice I was given.

http://www.ursplugins.com/ursFullTec.html

I'd hasten to say that I noticed neither lush or smoothness as described in the advert, but then again I don't use the boost knobs.


btw it sounds like your loving your uad setup, I almost bought one myself, please don't make me jealous .

[s4w2th]

Here's my take.

1. Most people don't know that eq's technical distort the signal,read into that muddy and color.

2. EQs are perhaps the mostly often used efx and therefore the main goto eq should be the most utilitarian.

Bearing those two points in mind you want an eq which muddies the least and colors the least. Which means stay away form any eq that mentions coloring or vintage this and that. With this in mind, when it comes to eq's you get what you pay for.

My choice's are among the these; URS FULL TECH, Focusrite Saffire EQ, Or the Sonnox. Why? Because they have put gobs of research and development into their algorythms and it shows through transparency. Something that the EQ's which come with a host can't hope to compete with.

Fair point, however myself I do enjoy EQs that color my sound in a nice way, in fact I choose them for their personality.
Haven't tried the FULL TECH yet, but isn't it supposed to be a Pultech emu ?
As such it should be one of the nicest colouring EQs around, but the opposite of utilitarian and uncoloured ?
At least that's the main reason why I enjoy my UAD Pultec so much, it just loves well recorded guitars and vocals
Cheers,
susiwong

Yeah, I was tempted to point out that the URS FullTec (not "FULL TECH") is a vintage-modeled EQ too! Maybe I'm missing the point, but if you want no phase distortion whatsoever

Well ok you did miss the point and you also you used incorrect english while correcting my spelling. Go figure. While your at it please expalin to everyone with out cutting and pasting what phase distortion is and what the "Nyquist thing" is as you put it? How is it relevant?

Interesting... perhaps I should have been more PC. I addressed the the question proposed by the op within the parameters he specified monetarily wise, ie less than the price of a car.

If I stepped on some toes, it was unintentional. I din't say you couldn't color outside the lines.

If I wrongly recomended Fulltech(yes I left the "h" in there), please post a link or two.

edited-due to sleepy misstyping.

[jdtrbn]

Well ok you did miss the point and you also you used incorrect english while correcting my spelling. Go figure. While your at it please expalin to everyone with out cutting and pasting what phase distortion is and what the "Nyquist thing" is as you put it? How is it relevant?

Phase distortion means that a filter will apply different delays to different frequencies. Nyquist frequency is the maximum frequency the signal can have (22050hz in most music applications). Near that the filters can sound somewhat different. If you're into DSP, I was told it's because of z-transform. Phase change in itself is very hard to hear, although there's a persistent myth that says otherwise (in fact, a majority of EQ plug-ins have identical phase behaviour). The sound near Nyquist frequency can matter especially with high shelves if you're into that.

[bailees7irish]

1973

[zerocrossing]

Phase distortion (from an eq) will be that "muddy" kind of sound. It's actually pretty easy to hear. Not so much a dullness in high end, but a less distinct kind of sound. It's hard to describe but you can often hear it in crappy home stereos. The graphic eqs of older Pioneer gear (90s) used to drive me nuts. (CRAP) It's actually inherent to the way traditional filter circuits work and is usually corrected for on high end gear. I can't for the life of me think of why you'd get it in software. Any software. Unless you were trying for it as some "emulation."

The Nyquist frequency isn't the maximum frequency that can be duplicated (unfortunately for other reasons) it's just a theorem that states "you need to sample a wave form at least twice to be able to reproduce it." 44.1khz was chosen (for Compact Discs) because the upper range of human hearing is 20khz. Here's the rub. A dollar (I know, not really worth anything these days) says that if I played you a 20khz tone you wouldn't hear it. Sadly, if your an adult male (females do better at this one) you probably don't hear much over 15khz. Oh and it gets worse. Our hearing isn't linear.

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html

Fun eh?

Well ok you did miss the point and you also you used incorrect english while correcting my spelling. Go figure. While your at it please expalin to everyone with out cutting and pasting what phase distortion is and what the "Nyquist thing" is as you put it? How is it relevant?

Phase distortion means that a filter will apply different delays to different frequencies. Nyquist frequency is the maximum frequency the signal can have (22050hz in most music applications). Near that the filters can sound somewhat different. If you're into DSP, I was told it's because of z-transform. Phase change in itself is very hard to hear, although there's a persistent myth that says otherwise (in fact, a majority of EQ plug-ins have identical phase behaviour). The sound near Nyquist frequency can matter especially with high shelves if you're into that.

[bduffy]

Here's my take.

1. Most people don't know that eq's technical distort the signal,read into that muddy and color.

2. EQs are perhaps the mostly often used efx and therefore the main goto eq should be the most utilitarian.

Bearing those two points in mind you want an eq which muddies the least and colors the least. Which means stay away form any eq that mentions coloring or vintage this and that. With this in mind, when it comes to eq's you get what you pay for.

My choice's are among the these; URS FULL TECH, Focusrite Saffire EQ, Or the Sonnox. Why? Because they have put gobs of research and development into their algorythms and it shows through transparency. Something that the EQ's which come with a host can't hope to compete with.

Fair point, however myself I do enjoy EQs that color my sound in a nice way, in fact I choose them for their personality.
Haven't tried the FULL TECH yet, but isn't it supposed to be a Pultech emu ?
As such it should be one of the nicest colouring EQs around, but the opposite of utilitarian and uncoloured ?
At least that's the main reason why I enjoy my UAD Pultec so much, it just loves well recorded guitars and vocals
Cheers,
susiwong

Yeah, I was tempted to point out that the URS FullTec (not "FULL TECH") is a vintage-modeled EQ too! Maybe I'm missing the point, but if you want no phase distortion whatsoever

Well ok you did miss the point and you also you used incorrect english while correcting my spelling. Go figure. While your at it please expalin to everyone with out cutting and pasting what phase distortion is and what the "Nyquist thing" is as you put it? How is it relevant?

Interesting... perhaps I should have been more PC. I addressed the the question proposed by the op within the parameters he specified monetarily wise, ie less than the price of a car.

If I stepped on some toes, it was unintentional. I din't say you couldn't color outside the lines.

If I wrongly recomended Fulltech(yes I left the "h" in there), please post a link or two.

edited-due to sleepy misstyping.

Well, as for sleepy mistyping, I'm sure I've done plenty, and I seem to be miscommunicating lately. For the record, I wasn't correcting the "FULL TECH" thing as a grammar error. You seemed to spell the other brand names just fine; it's simply not written like that, in all caps with a space, so I wanted to make sure we're talking about the right plugin (as there are quite a few Pultec copies now!) and set things straight. No offense intended.

Sorry: post a link or two to what?

As for Nyquist, the others have explained it fine. If you're really picky about clean EQ's, then it's something I assumed you'd consider.

[susiwong]

That's because you a guitar person, and I'm a synth guy. Fundamentally diferent views you and I. You see color, I see distortion. For you it's probably your precious tone, for me it's my precious distortion. Don't screw with my distortion, I'll take offense. I like my distortion nice and cold.

Don't screw with mine because it's nice and hot !
There is some truth in what you're saying, I'm mostly going for warmer colours in a complete mix.
To pull this off successfully I need to have some colder elements in the mix, too, to get contrast.
And then every once in a while I have to fight flaws in a track (hum, crosstalk, noise etc) or a poorly recorded take (cheap mic amp channel strips in inexperienced hands should be covered by the Geneva Convention ), that's where a more surgical EQ comes in handy and colouring is not needed.
"Like a surgeon, cutting for the very first time ..."

Anyway, please correct me if I'm wrong, but could you be referring to the EM-PEQ or the Digidesign Bomb Factory Pultec Bundle. Without out a doubt the ui's look similar, but that could be a marketing decision. I had to look past the vintage style ui, and listen to the advice I was given.

I haven't heard the Fulltec myself, but when it came out it was widely discussed as Pultec clone with extended parameters. And a Pultec is the archetypical colour EQ for me. Could be wrong about the URS, though.

btw it sounds like your loving your uad setup, I almost bought one myself, please don't make me jealous .

Think about the contrast thing ...
The introduction of the UAD-2 will be a very tempting opportunity to get on board, either by introductory offers or by buying some cheap used UAD-1 cards.

Cheers,
susiwong

[advaya]

1973

Yeah, I like that one a lot as well. It's not the most feature-rich eq out there, but I like it for quickly reducing/taming the low end frequencies. Price is rather fair too.

[jdtrbn]

Phase distortion (from an eq) will be that "muddy" kind of sound. It's actually pretty easy to hear. Not so much a dullness in high end, but a less distinct kind of sound. It's hard to describe but you can often hear it in crappy home stereos. The graphic eqs of older Pioneer gear (90s) used to drive me nuts. (CRAP) It's actually inherent to the way traditional filter circuits work and is usually corrected for on high end gear. I can't for the life of me think of why you'd get it in software. Any software. Unless you were trying for it as some "emulation."

Phase shift is a part of the filter algorithms, not just capacitors, inductors etc. The phase shift is measurable and you can compare different filters with an analysis software. I find it hard to believe that what you've heard was phase shift, but if it was, it has had to be of whole different order of magnitude than what the normal minimum phase filters (and the emulations I've seen) have. I very much doubt that even the highest quality analog EQs have no phase shift because the ways of achieving phase linearity I know of require memory (in software this shows as latency).
By the way, where did the "all software EQs are phase-linear" myth come from?

The Nyquist frequency isn't the maximum frequency that can be duplicated (unfortunately for other reasons) it's just a theorem that states "you need to sample a wave form at least twice to be able to reproduce it." 44.1khz was chosen (for Compact Discs) because the upper range of human hearing is 20khz.

I said it pretty unclearly. I should have mentioned that it's the maximum frequency that a signal can have at a given sample rate.

[Nokenoku]

Phase distortion (from an eq) will be that "muddy" kind of sound. It's actually pretty easy to hear. Not so much a dullness in high end, but a less distinct kind of sound. It's hard to describe but you can often hear it in crappy home stereos. The graphic eqs of older Pioneer gear (90s) used to drive me nuts. (CRAP) It's actually inherent to the way traditional filter circuits work and is usually corrected for on high end gear. I can't for the life of me think of why you'd get it in software. Any software. Unless you were trying for it as some "emulation."

The phase shifting is directly related to the form of the curve. If an EQ has the same curve like another EQ, it also has exact the same phase-shifting applied to the signal. Be it analog or digital.
Exceptions are linear phase EQs.

It has absolutely nothing to do with muddyness and things like that. You can rather notice it in the low-frequency areas (200Hz and below), if you do strong boosts. Then in some cases a linear phase EQ might make sense (belongs on the signal and what you want).