NEW Black Box Analog HG-Q (Plugin Alliance)

[jens]

Do these guys actually try the plugins they "review"? The video for this plugin doesn't give the impression tbh. They trash talk for 5 minutes then the left guy reads the product description to the right guy which apparently has never heard of it before

Just from your description I was pretty sure I knew who you were talking about, even though I'm pretty sure I only ever saw two or three videos of these dudes.

[hagstone]

this any good folks?

[martinjuenke]

Only for experienced mastering engineers.

[plexuss]

this any good folks?

I mean, it's an EQ but it does have some interesting features and a nice resulting sound. I'd say it's worth demoing to see if it's a fit for you.

[billinder33]

If Wavesfactory Spectre could do EQ cuts and HPF/LPF filtering, you'd end up with a way better version of this.

[Dr.Gunjah]

do you actually get saturation on cuts?

[martinjuenke]

do you actually get saturation on cuts?

That's called desaturation.
Makes everything cleaner.

[Dr.Gunjah]

what a time to be alive

[billinder33]

do you actually get saturation on cuts?

Apparently the Cranborne hardware unit restores some of the cut with saturation, but the HG-Q does not. It's subtractive EQ on the cut, and saturation on the boost.

Disclaimer - I've not used either unit and am just going off information I've read or seen second hand. Would be interesting to see the HG-Q run through PluginDoctor.

[pekbro]

I didn't like it myself...

[Dr.Gunjah]

Apparently the Cranborne hardware unit restores some of the cut with saturation, but the HG-Q does not. It's subtractive EQ on the cut, and saturation on the boost.

Disclaimer - I've not used either unit and am just going off information I've read or seen second hand. Would be interesting to see the HG-Q run through PluginDoctor.

Then you're probably right that spectre is the better plugin and (right now) even cheaper

[Vortifex]

Far too busy UI for my tastes. I want EQ to be nice and simple, but visually this one's too much.

[simon.a.billington]

Far too busy UI for my tastes. I want EQ to be nice and simple, but visually this one's too much.

It actually expands to a sim[pler to understand UI. The default look is to reflect the hardware that was modelled for this plugin. So, as a plugin, you have the choice to use it either way.

[Kaboom75]

I love it can add really nice tube saturation on bands instead of all over the place. There's a hardware version coming out using real tubes I wish DMG audio Equilibrium had this.

[simon.a.billington]

I love it can add really nice tube saturation on bands instead of all over the place. There's a hardware version coming out using real tubes I wish DMG audio Equilibrium had this.

Yeah the hardware unit was just announced at NAMM 2025