Relab Releases An EQ ...

[electro]

I may not like the way it's being advertised, but I can respect the indy hustle, even if I'm not the target audience for the product. This market has grown so saturated that I can imagine it being pretty difficult anymore as a dev to raise your signal above the noise, and it's not like Relab is a faceless corporate entity. I probably shouldn't have been so flippant about something I'm sure he put a lot of effort into.

I'm interested only because Relab is credible. They're super thorough and definitely don't fool around when it comes to hardware accuracy.

[bmanic]

It's definitely very accurate. That I can vouch for with confidence as I have some experience with the hardware.

[bmanic]

So let me get this straight. There's a furore over this uber-mojo Eq marketed as a magic analogue emulation of some magic hw Eq, that is actually very well modelled on the analogue Eq that is actually so clean it may as well be a digital Eq, apart from the fact it's got f**ked up Eq curves?

Hell yeah, I'll buy 3 of them, no make that 4. Software is a f**ked up world sometimes...

That pretty much sums it up yes.

Those weird asymmetric curves were a surprise though. I never knew they really were that.. My guess is it's too subtle to tell. The hardware is very valuable exactly for it's clean sound. It really does feel very invisible just running a signal through it (even a relatively hot signal) or when you turn the knobs, not something you can say about a lot of hardware in the analogue domain.


EDIT:

To further clarify why it's so valuable in the analogue domain:

I may have been imagining it but to me the Maselec always sounded like it smoothed out transients just a tiny tiny bit, but in a rather punchy/fast and pleasant way. Like it didn't sound "clicky" even if you boosted traditionally nasty frequencies like around 2kHz or 4kHz. I always attributed it to it being an analogue high-end unit but that was probably placebo on my part.Anyhow, it's not really possible to substitute it with a truly clean digital EQ within an analogue chain simply because you usually want to avoid unnecessary AD/DA conversion thus it's not all that attractive to slot a Weiss EQ in there (or any other digital one).

[electro]

Does Maselec hardware compete with Weiss digital? Are Mastering Houses using both?

[jamcat]

I've always found digital EQs to sound harsh and nasal, like you're running your audio through a variable sized phonograph horn. They've gotten better over the years, but some amount of that quality remains. So if Relab has created an EQ that is completely free of that, then it's worth what they're asking for it.

[bmanic]

Does Maselec hardware compete with Weiss digital? Are Mastering Houses using both?

Many use both. Weiss is always within the digital chain though, either at the beginning or at the end. The EQ from Weiss is extremely well designed and those knobs super nice to use. I suspect that is one of the main reasons it was so popular (and possibly still is today, even with the 1 to 1 plugin available).

[bmanic]

I've always found digital EQs to sound harsh and nasal, like you're running your audio through a variable sized phonograph horn. They've gotten better over the years, but some amount of that quality remains. So if Relab has created an EQ that is completely free of that, then it's worth what they're asking for it.

Have you ever tried DMG Audio EQuilibrium? You can make it sound pretty much any way you want. The most important control for the nuances/subtlety in that plugin is the kernel size.. with that you can simulate all kinds of transient responses. It's interesting how really low values sometimes mimic a very smooth analogue EQ.. the filters are ringing much more at those low sizes but for some reason it just sounds very natural to my ears when you abuse it in that way (though be sure not to use it in linear phase mode with tiny kernel sizes unless you love that weird wobbly pre-ring)!

Oh and another candidate to try is Acustica Audios Cherry EQ. That one has some very interesting yet subtle "openess" to it's sound. Even though I matched it's curves in Kirchoff to almost -100dBFS null I was able to pick it out in a simple ABX test (though to be fair, I didn't do enough runs to really see if it was placebo or not.. you need like 30 to 50 runs of that and at least 90% accuracy to call it certain, in my opinion).

[rod_zero]

I don't remember him mentioning the other EQ in his post. Other person (people?) did.

There was nothing bad in bmanic's posts anyway. He said what he thinks and plenty of it was actually useful for someone like me, who knows little. He was the one talking about that EQ being very clean for example, I did not know that. The fact that he didn't like it is irrelevant. He provided good information.

The 'marketing' of this thing paired with behavior in that GS thread would really cement my decision to never buy it. Luckily, I was never their target anyway so no loss for them there.

But as someone who is a beginner in 'mixing things' (but an old fart and with heavy music background), being bombarded by all kinds of nonsensical marketing shit from all sides at all times gets tiring.

Every single EQ or compressor emulation are somehow very unique and special. Apparently they have 'mojo'. So we have like 50 compressors and EQs, all being very special and all of them doing something different. That only select few can hear and rest of us should just trust them that it's better.

How are then they so special? I mean, they all eventually end up distorting the signal in some way, and some people might find that pleasant. Others might not. I am one of those that absolutely hated Vinyl and when CDs showed up I was the happiest man alive.

That old equipment is not so special because it was 'special'. It is so special to so many people because it was there at that time. Nothing else.

And it is insanely, and i mean insanely tiring trying to learn something properly when everything on both YouTube and forums just ends up being a f**king useless promotion for something. 6-12 months ago I was subscribed to quite few YouTube channels that were reviewing plugins and gear in general. I thought I will learn something. I learned f**k all. Well, I've learned that Internet is pretty much dead and has been replaced with collection of commercial networks that are solely focused on either trying to sell something to their users, or trying to sell their users to someone else.

So yeah, I really wanted to read the thread about that EQ because there were interesting things in there. And now it's all gone, we will only get to hear how that 'unique curve' is so special because no other curves or products can do that, therefore it must be so much better for transients and 'oomph' and whatever the hell buzzword of the week is.

Just like any other 'special' product.

Rant over (and I wasn't ranting at you ).

edit: typo

Look, this industry has gone bonkers, in order to survive developers make the most hyperbolic marketing they can, they know very well beginners and a lot of users are insecure about their tools, that people chase dragons and they take advantage of that and of Gear accumulation Syndrome that is very real once you see how people buy stuff here and in gearspace.

Use your DAW, learn the included plugins, those are more than enough to create very well crafted music. Invest your time in making music and not testing plugins. Down the road as you learn more you might get to discover what you might need for a specific task, but as a begginner you should avoid the bottomless pit that is the plugin world.

The plugin world is full of snake oil, not because the tools are useless or bad, but because 80% of all the stuff just doers the same, developers keep regurgitating the same emulations over and over.

Dan worral has an excelent video comparing PRo Q 3 and Ableton's native EQ8 and that is a great example of how even very advanced EQs have a small edge over stock plugins. Obviously they have some more features, but sound wise there isn't much to lose sleep over.