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Originally Posted by Ben F  I've seen a few focusrite blue 315s in some mastering studios. I'm interested in peoples experiences with this sexy looking EQ, and what modifications, if any, are required to make it sound better? |
The 315 mkii as stock sounds like shit IMO and I'm shocked that they were used by anyone for mastering, but they were, and they billed plenty for the time! If modified with better ICs and less caps it then has all the features I need for a basically clean eq with a bit of a sonic character that's good for my chain.
The bottom line of the unit is that the freq points and steps are comprehensive and useful, but the 60+ 5534 ICs are hazy and distorted in this circuit. It's not clean enough to be called clean as stock and it's not a truly nice color. The Sontecs do a better job with this IC. The ICs can be replaced with any number of cleaner chips. We settled on the OPA627 and a few AD chips as well 8xx? ... I forget. We also were able to remove over 40 caps, and to simplify the input gain section with 2 or 3, not 5 ICs.
The result is a much cleaner and still slightly forward IC tone, that is a perfect balance to the slightly seated tube effect of the Fairman TMEQ. I had the Weiss and prefer the modded Blue's tone by a mile. Would the modded tone I use work well for you? Can't say. Would you be better off with a digital eq? Likely so. It's not a piece I can recommend heartily because it takes a lot of money/effort to get it to where it MAY be useful. The lower circuit board is very hard to get to, as well.
Ultimately, the best it can do is clean with a little attitude that's musical, not the messy clean as stock. I use it every day for steep cuts, the 33 hi pass and like to drive it at times for a touch of compression/limiting ... I would replace it if I had to. The input side is touchy to overs, so use it early in the chain and boost mostly after. If you do get one the OPA 2134 is a nice choice that's used by Phil Demetro last I checked ... he prefers that to my uber fast OPA 627s. 2134s are cheapish and retain some musical warmth but open up the top, and beat 5534s so there you go ...