EQP-1A emulation advice/Tube-Tech opinions

[lesnow]

Hi there, first post.

I'm looking for a good emu of the EQP-1A.
So far I've demoed Waves, Black Rooster Audio, T-Racks and Softube versions.

I feel like the Tube-Tech is a step above all, followed by BRA VEQ-1P (which is also insanely cheap right now) and then PuigTech, which imo has a different, boxier color and sounds less "natural". Didn't like much the T-Racks one.

Tube-Tech is on sale for 99euros right now, which is still quite much to me, so I was wondering if that'd be worth it in your opinion, if you had past experiences with Softube (I never owned anything from them). Or should I just get the BRA VEQ-1P (14euros!) and keep my wallet a lil heavier and happier?

Sorry for my unpolished English and thanks in advance!

[PieBerger]

If you have a modern and fast CPU, you could try Titanium by Acustica Audio. It's my personal favourite Pultec and is based on the same Tube Tech hardware. It's 47 Euros until 11:59 tonight (CET) and you get the EQ, single and multiband band tube compressors and a channel strip with EQ and single band comp combined.

If you're not familiar with AA, their stuff have some quirks. They are based on a kind of convolution process and each impulse has to be loaded, so you can't sweep between values like you can with algo plugins and they ship with two versions, standard and ZL. Standard uses less CPU but at the cost of higher latency, around 80ms, ZL is around 1.5ms latency but at the cost of higher CPU.

[sleepcircle]

get PT-EQx by Ignite Amps, it's free and it's EXTREMELY high quality. It was made by a boutique amp manufacturing company in order to test out their new tube simulation code (they build simulations of their amps when designing them)

http://www.igniteamps.com/#pteq-x

it also comes with two other pultech emulations. and you can select which tubes you want to use through the whole system.

seriously, it sounds very good. don't let the fact that it's free fool your ears into thinking it doesn't sound as good.

edit: i probably got downvoted because of the last sentence in my post. I just want you to give it a fair shake before you spend any money unnecessarily.

[VariKusBrainZ]

I thought the current Pultec darling was from Noise Ash

[Ploki]

I thought the current Pultec darling was from Noise Ash

it is, but it's also garbage at being tube gear

[ronaldsifontes]

Hello!

Finally, fixed all problems with Rare and fully updated it!

Hope, you like it!

Enjoy!

Version 5.0

- Fixed noise with high samplerates

- Redesigned whole circuit

- Changed gain stage Single-Tube to original SRPP design to get better character

- Fixed Bypass switch (Reversed to make it work better with automation and MIDI control)

- Optimized CPU

- Fixed knob and switch sensitivity

Patreon link;

https://www.patreon.com/posts/34323244

If you are able, please support...


Here all plugins
https://www.patreon.com/posts/all-download-34851999

a nice review about pultecs
https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advi ... vintage-eq

Enjoy... Blessings from Mérida, Venezuela.

[subterfuge]

it is, but it's also garbage at being tube gear

Tube gear can produce even and odd harmonics depending on design and use, if that's what you are referring to. Single-Ended designs commonly produce even and push-pull designs odd harmonics, afaik. Pultec amp is a push-pull, in that regard Rule Tec seems to be correct. I would be more concerned about the oversampling feature and whether it actually works.

[Rockatansky]

Pultec amp is a push-pull, in that regard Rule Tec seems to be correct.

Oh wow, this alleged unicorn just will not f*cking die. So, a Pultec EQ is a passive design, which means it can only take volume away from the signal, but it can't add any. When you use a 'boost' knob, you're in fact lowering everything else rather than really boosting anything. This means that everything going into the device and being filtered by it will end up closer to the noise floor than before. To make up for the volume loss introduced by the filters, they're followed by an amplifier that is used to bring the low volume signal back up towards unity gain. The filters do some heavy dropping, the amp does some heavy lifting. This means that any noise going into the device, and any noise added by the device circuitry itself, will be significantly amplified, and will in the case of harmonics add even more harmonics. (Actually, to the best of my knowledge, the filters themselves will do some clever level make-up tricks. But still, they would amplify any noise floor.)

See for yourself what happens if you send a simple 1 kHz sine wave into that NoiseAsh thing and crank up the gain. Noise stays firmly floored, fix like concrete. That artificial 50 Hz bump is introduced by the EQ circuit, but just like the noise, it's magically not amplified by the amplifier behind it.

yeahright.gif

Now see what happens, if you run that same sine wave through a simple out = tanh(in) function, with no oversampling. If it were oversampling, there'd be some sort of roll-off towards 20 kHz from the downsampling filter. Recognize that progression of harmonics from somewhere?

softclip.jpg

People obsessing over push-pull circuits and blah di blah. It's a tanh soft clipper with a fixed, filtered noise floor and an added 50 Hz sine wave. Those filters are probably bog standard RBJ biquads as well. Anyone care to do the test if the filters are indeed parallel like in the original Pultec, which enabled the 'Pultec trick' in the first place? Or can we just let this unicorn be a horse with a flashy face and move on...

[lesnow]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll see what to do. Gotta say that PT-EQx is really great for a freebie. And no sadly my CPU doesn't handle Acustica's stuff very well, plus I don't like much the whole Aquarium platform anyway. Thx!

[simmo75]

Apogee does a very good Pultec, it’s the only officially endorsed emulation.
https://apogeedigital.com/shop/apogee-fx-rack-eqp-1a

[subterfuge]

Oh wow, this alleged unicorn just will not f*cking die.

Rather surprising response to answer which had nothing to do with imaginary creatures, but just pointing out what should be some of the most basic things when actually trying to emulate the real behavior of an existing circuit. How it is actually done in this software could be interesting information also, but never asked by yours truly. Maybe you want to discuss the merits of "obsessing" with Ploki who raised the issue, not me?

[ricowave202]

If you have Ozone 9 the vintage EQ module is a Pultec.

[v1o]

If you have Ozone 9 the vintage EQ module is a Pultec.

Its really good. People sleep on it.

[TIMT]

If you have Ozone 9 the vintage EQ module is a Pultec.

Is it truly Passive though through and through or like most Pultec models is it basically just mimicking the curves and then slapping a clipper on the end and calling it a line amp? I somehow don't see Izotope doing particularly deep analog models given that all their saturation stuff like their "tape"model, and the exciters in Alloy and Ozone are mostly based on really basic combos of EQ and waveshaping

The UAD one and Nebula Purple? Are the ones to beat for me currently

Just tried out that "Ruletec" meh not for me..also don't like the "Need"preamp EQ either. the non-linearity is definitely a simple clipping function by how abruptly the harmonics onset after a certain point of input. Neve's class A stuff is definitely a bit dirty sounding in terms of the harmonics but you definitely couldn't mistake it for basic hard clipping. something i'm really missing from most preamp plugins is the way inputting sounds through real preamps, whether it be drum machines, or VST's seem to have this almost invisible grasp or control on the signal. it's a bit like compression to describe it but i don't think that is likely the cause. I suspected maybe it was something like subtle variations in biasing in response to the input material applying a very subtle envelope following of the drive or something. i don't know near enough about circuits to know if that is the case, but that is at least how i hear it and more to the point, it's something i've never gotten from a single preamp emulation or an EQ with an integral active stage unfortunately which in my experience mostly just clip and kill the signal along with it.

Been out of the VST game for a while though so perhaps some of you have suggestions for some really realistic sounding preamp models that i may have overlooked

[Jet Set]

I am using the AA Purple and it does all I need.

For an easy Two band Pultec-Like effect - the completely free AA Coffee Pun is well worth having.