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Originally Posted by Riccardo  Well in an ideal world I would add the Knif to the party. And to be super slutzy a pair of Pulse Techniques EQP-1A3  |
Hey Ricardo, I emailed with Jonte (Knif) quite a while ago re his Vari-Mu comp. Never got to hear any of his stuff but some friends in Finland rave about it... Any hands on experience?
OK, MEA-2 is back to where it belongs - in the shop. I'll try to explain what I'm hearing:
ver6: EQ all flat, upper mids forward, some loss of air, loss of bottom end, SSL bus comp style "up your face" flattening effect... It can be very useful if you're after this kind of effect, otherwise I found 0.5db cut @ 1k and 8-10k and some bass boost somewhat neutralizes the effect.... Still, the hardness (especially the top end) remains and I found it sounding "plastic" and "artificial" and not desirable for any kind of acoustic material imo.
On the positive side, the control is very good, especially bass and low mids, although I preferred cutting, bass boost never sounded "juicy" for example and any boost some 2k upwards just sounded too harsh for me. Very good in notching pretty much anywhere though. Ver 7: EQ flat: still mids forward but not as much, more 3D top and overall balance better retained. For some reason we both preferred the "tone" of the ver 6 though....
Having said that, the "tone" is really where it overall fails for me. Looking at it as a musician, I don't care how playable an instrument is if the tone isn't there. Which is why I own EQs with "tone" but not enough control at the mo and why that Buzz unit is really interesting. Apart from of course my most recent "love" - the PQ. More about that one later, but let's just say I had a smile on my face while working as opposed to frowning with MEA-2 while trying to work around it's "edgy" properties and occasionally grinning a bit when sort of succeeding in doing so. Not sure weather Macc was hearing the above as well but we both seemed to be happy when MEA-2 was unplugged (not just bypassed, there IS a difference).
Although I really liked the Gyraf I don't think I have the need for it with my EARs welded to my rack. So far, TONE + CONTROL = PQ. Period. BTW, I plugged in my Great River before taking MEA-2 back to compare and will really try to keep it. It's nowhere near as controllable as MEA-2 but still very very useful , especially the HPF. Sonically I really like it ( especially unbalanced), smooth, wide, 3D yet tight and controlled. Nothing "nasty" about it. Which can't be said for the GML 9500 for example... another time if anyone's interested.
Out of interest, what would you be doing Macc ? ("But then, I can hear the allure of the SPL. I know what I'd be doing though...")
It might be interesting for some to hear your impressions of MEA-2 as well ... especially if that's what "you'd be doing".