Why are there so many EQ's?

[dblock]

There must be thousands of EQ plugins with more being released constantly. I don't get it, why do vendors continue to release new EQ plugins nowadays and why are people still buying them? Are there serious advancements to EQ technology?

Because venders are smart enough to know that GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) is a thing and will Always be a thing.

[mjudge55]

Features. Not all EQs have dynamic or automatic options for example, and I don't have a stock DAW EQ that does that stuff (simply) either.

[plexuss]

Be careful not to impose your own context onto what I said. I never made any assessment as to the EQs on the market sounding the same. I simply said that if enough audible parameters are close enough, the EQs will sound the same to some number of people. End. Of. Story.

[Jac459]

Be careful not to impose your own context onto what I said. I never made any assessment as to the EQs on the market sounding the same. I simply said that if enough audible parameters are close enough, the EQs will sound the same to some number of people. End. Of. Story.

If this message is for me, that's how I understood your post and I wasn't disagreeing . Just elaborating.

[plexuss]

Be careful not to impose your own context onto what I said. I never made any assessment as to the EQs on the market sounding the same. I simply said that if enough audible parameters are close enough, the EQs will sound the same to some number of people. End. Of. Story.

If this message is for me, that's how I understood your post and I wasn't disagreeing . Just elaborating.

Not you specifically. Just a friendly reminder of the slippery slope of subjective analysis. Even objectively through measurement there ARE a lot of different EQ approaches that can result in a different sound aka vibe. I have different EQs and I learn how they sound and work so when I want a particular "vibe" I can draw out of my EQ palette. That's just how *I* work. Some dont care or can hear that stuff. Curve geometry, phase, distortions, other non-linearities and the code and algorithms used, all contributing to how and EQ sounds. Some people can hear it.

[BONES]

Some people think they can hear it, that doesn't mean it's there and it certainly doesn't mean it matters to anyone listening to the result.

[Jac459]

Be careful not to impose your own context onto what I said. I never made any assessment as to the EQs on the market sounding the same. I simply said that if enough audible parameters are close enough, the EQs will sound the same to some number of people. End. Of. Story.

If this message is for me, that's how I understood your post and I wasn't disagreeing . Just elaborating.

Not you specifically. Just a friendly reminder of the slippery slope of subjective analysis. Even objectively through measurement there ARE a lot of different EQ approaches that can result in a different sound aka vibe. I have different EQs and I learn how they sound and work so when I want a particular "vibe" I can draw out of my EQ palette. That's just how *I* work. Some dont care or can hear that stuff. Curve geometry, phase, distortions, other non-linearities and the code and algorithms used, all contributing to how and EQ sounds. Some people can hear it.

Agreed. It may depends of the people but more importantly, it depends of the situation. In an acid bass, with drive and resonnance, change in algorithm will have a dramatic effect.
If you are slightly changing a balance with no resonance, no drive, it won't make very noticeable difference.

[kritikon]

I never understood Eq obsession. Obvs everyone has their own foibles though - I've certainly bought variations of things that others likely can't tell the difference. TBH I've never bought a single Eq plugin, ever. Always been happy with any old Eq and stock DAW ones work for me. I've tried most of the alternative free ones over the years and never really heard any difference, so I never assumed commercial ones would impart that much of a difference either. I think that likely they do have different characteristics when you boost them to extremes, but I just never boost Eq to extremes, so...moot point.

Weirdly, I could easily spot differences in desk Eqs, so obvs it can be coded into sw. E.g the difference between A&H, Tascams, Mackies was fairly easy to spot, and Behringer used to sound radically different (woolly)...but likely those differences are down to curves and q rather than the actual Eq itself? Those differences were only really apparent at extremes...moot point again. I guess it's down to bread'n'butter fx - I'd rather use bread'n'butter than bagels'n'margarine. Everyone has their toys, Eq just seems a marginal toy to me, not much to play with.

[roman.i]

There must be thousands of EQ plugins with more being released constantly. I don't get it, why do vendors continue to release new EQ plugins nowadays and why are people still buying them? Are there serious advancements to EQ technology?

Sure, there are advancements.
Look as split eq, soothe, q3