IIEQ Pro

My favorite Digital EQ so far !

It's my go to digital EQ. I use it mainly for surgical EQ (tame resonances/noise in a track or surgically.

correct the mix) and sometimes for tone shaping (Only when I wanna be quick. Otherwise, my taste is to 4 bands analog EQ with no graphical display and rely on my ears only).

There are 2 main reasons I love it :

1°) High quality with low CPU usage : Better than basic daw EQ (soft sounding in the high frequency) with less CPU usage than most external Digital EQ. I found that only Fabfilter Pro-Q beats it when considering quality over CPU usage. This EQ cost less than 50 bucks ! that's amazing.

2°) ease of use : Click to create a band and depending where you click the nature of the band is different (in the lows or high, you got a filter, in the medium you got a bell, and in between a shelf).

Other than this : stereo operation, mid-side, AB and serial/parallel processing ! There is also a feature that allows to control all the instances of IIEQ from a window. It can be convenient for quick mixing, but be careful not to mix with your eyes .

There only downside for me is the stability of the graphical interface, that can be buggy on some daws/software (doesn't work on maschine, works pretty well in reaper) or laggy (multi-window feature can become laggy with a lot of instances)....But at that price I still rate it 5 stars .

The IIEQ has a M/S EQ with Analyser for each - the Mid and the Side. You can visualize and work with them both in one Window. That is a feature I haven't seen before and might be useful for Mastering, although it is recommended as a track-EQ. The Sound of the EQ is fantastic and you get a good workflow. Negative is the point that (in Reason10) the presets load not until you move a knob on the EQ. But it works and doesn't need much ressources of the CPU.

Budget musicians life is kinda tough. I try to fit into the "you can make good song with cheap things" category as much I can, but truth is, It's not always like that. There are dozens of free or cheap plugins that do the job, even plugins inside your DAW do the job quite well, but good mix is all about fine tuning. About that little nuances. About those tiny detials that makes end results amazing.

That brings some problems... For example in definition of "what is good". When you've got $$$, then you try some real gear emulation by Softtube, Waves. Sound Toys or such, make a choice and live forever after. If you've got less money, you concetrate on "do it all" variants like things by DMG audio. (Would LOVE to have those. :/) But if you're even more pathetic, like me ... you need pretty much miracle to tune your mixes good.

Equalizers create big part of overall sound of the mix as they're most important device you use. Problem is that when you use just one for every track, your mix gets certain flavour characteristic to particular EQ. You can call up few freeones, but out of Melda and VOS teritory, not much of them will bring smile on your face. So where to next?

...exactly here! :) This dev pretty much perform the miracle you need. IIEQ is famous for being cheap, but amazingly smooth and it's absolutely true. Everything with IIEQ on it sounds a little bit nicer, slicker. Somehow it preserves low mids really well. ...and becouse this area is responsible for warmnes, you get really nice warm cuts.

Featurwise amazing too. Classic filters sound great and it also features bunch of Butterworth filters that I've met during my electrotechnic highschool, but am not sure about their benefits in music production. But just from listening, they sound really clean. Great for hihats sometimes.

Some bad sides? Well GUI could be bit more precise. But that's nothing compared to what you get fo your 30 bucks.

I compared it directly to demo of Equality. And yes, Equality is still a bigger beast. But soundwise, they both brings good qualitty to your recording. Slightly different but both good. Point is that with this pricetag you won't be ashamed to call back some DAW or free EQ when mix needs some other flavour. ...and if on budget, you'll be able to afford it! :)

I'm tired of giving tens, wanted to find something and give this 9, but I just can't. For that price, I just can't....

Conclusion? Go to watch 3 or 4 episodes of Pensado's Place. I'll guarantee you, if on budget, you'll get back with "I'll never be able to afford gear for those great mixes" depression. .... in this state, IIEQ is really "thank you, god!" kind of plugin. :)