Am I crazy? UAD Eq emu's

[matucha]

That's because it has built in gain of roughly +1.5dB (can't remember exactly how much). Louder=better. It is tricky plug to use when you're used to check bypass everytime you add new process. I use it very little or not at all because of this.

[AllBread]

First off, the Ren EQ and Comp are on par with the highest quality plugins so no shame there.

I was just eqing a piano track with a bit too much honk and was using the UAD Massive Passive. Couldn't get the sound I wanted so I switched it for the UAD Trident EQ and boom! had the sound I wanted in about 12 seconds.

Don't know if this is a plug for UAD or just a plug for diversity but I've found that, especially in the plugin world, having a good half dozen solid eq's to choose from comes in extremely handy.

You have me curious, though, so out comes the renaissance!

[icecubeman]

Originally Posted by 4damind

Most of this UAD EQs (the older like Neve, Helios, Harrison, Pultec...) are normal digital EQs. No converters, tube etc. are modelled. So, yes... You will not hear a difference! The EQs can be matched with every other digital EQ. The difference is only how the response are mapped to the settings, how the Q will change with different gains and such stuff.
So it's the handling and how quick you get the desired results.

So I buy all those UAD plugins and then spend half a year to emulate it into some kind of standard EQ so I dont need them anymore, right? Bear in mind that for example Harrison doesnt have Q parameter settings and it depends and changes with freq/gain changes. How long does it take for me to emulate every possible option of this four band EQ? Maybe years?

[u b k]

Originally Posted by Diegel

One thing I find lacking with 99% of every eq plugin is that they all seem to keep the sound behind this invisible digital wall.

Analog got the phase love! It's what analog does best imho, smear the phase in pleasing ways that widen/deepen sound.

Don't ask me why!


Gregory Scott - ubk

[jrod9900]

Sweet, problem solved. Now I just need a $50k analog console and $100k worth of outboard gear! Lol.

Jrod

[kingofswing]

My 2 pence worth:

I enjoy using both software EQ and some hardware EQ. I am a UAD fan, and have used and enjoyed Waves plugins in the past. The Renaissance EQ has always impressed me...

But for me, some of the UAD EQ's have been a joy to use and allow me to just get on with things inside the box. For example, the Pultec EQP-1A produces a bottom end that my Logic Channel EQ simply can't do, nor does it sound the same. The UAD Neve 1073 EQ gives me a 12khz sizzle that I sometimes like, and other plug-ins don't give me the same vibe...bla bla bla.

Simply put, the UAD EQ's have a great vibe, they do something different from one another, and they are not matched by any basic DAW EQ's.

[miscend]

Originally Posted by natpub

The best carpenters I know endlessly discusses and procure gear, Craftsman or better high quality tools, often esoteric brands or vintage tools that I never heard of or realized existed. My point being they seem like gearslutz to me...

I think those are the worst. A good crafts men never blames his tools.

[jrod9900]

Originally Posted by kingofswing

My 2 pence worth:
Simply put, the UAD EQ's have a great vibe, they do something different from one another, and they are not matched by any basic DAW EQ's.

I concur, and that's a great way to word it. To me the UAD plugs just have a vibe to them that others don't. Maybe it's just me, and I know now more than ever that its not the tools, its how you use them. But for me, the UAD plugs just give me what I'm wanting. The Ampex and Studer plugs are on every mix I do. Amazing plugs.

To be fair to Waves, I don't have many of their plugins. I do have all the McDSP plugs, and I haven't used them much at all. Come to think of it, I think I may start using those more.

Jrod

[Driveby Studios]

So I guess the UAD Massive Passive still just a digital eq??
I was gonna buy it, but I might rethink it! I got the UAD Cambridge.

I guess one benefit of the modelled gear is people who are familiar with the hardware, will be familiar with the sonic signatures (or eq shapes) of the hardware in the digital realm.

[FLYINGJAY]

Originally Posted by jrod9900

I concur, and that's a great way to word it. To me the UAD plugs just have a vibe to them that others don't. Maybe it's just me, and I know now more than ever that its not the tools, its how you use them. But for me, the UAD plugs just give me what I'm wanting. The Ampex and Studer plugs are on every mix I do. Amazing plugs.

To be fair to Waves, I don't have many of their plugins. I do have all the McDSP plugs, and I haven't used them much at all. Come to think of it, I think I may start using those more.

Jrod

My uad Plugins sound a little forward to me.now that my room is treated I can compare mixes and Plugins much better!

Truth is uad give you a look older engineers can relate to.but I'm loving waves complete these days!

As a matter of fact I'm loving newer plugins,PSP old timer,vertigo vcs,PSP Nigel,native instrument new emulations.

They respond like real hardware imho.

Sent from my PC36100 using Gearslutz App

[tomat]

With a "good" digital EQ, you can emulate by yourself pretty much every analog EQ available !

My definition of "good" digital EQ is :
- multiple fully parametric bands (at least 5)
- filters with large choices of slopes
- multiple EQ algo choices (decrampted, linear or analog phase shifting)
DMG Equality is the best at this game IMHO !

However, the fact that you can emulate every EQ does not mean it is easy to do it ! With emulations GUI, gain-Q interaction, frequencies, slopes, amount of gain are fixed or limited, so it can be sometimes really straightforward to achieve what you want !

[jrod9900]

Originally Posted by Driveby Studios

So I guess the UAD Massive Passive still just a digital eq??
I was gonna buy it, but I might rethink it! I got the UAD Cambridge.

I guess one benefit of the modelled gear is people who are familiar with the hardware, will be familiar with the sonic signatures (or eq shapes) of the hardware in the digital realm.

The UAD Massive Passive is pretty sweet. I use it a lot on vocals or a 2bus. It takes a lot of power, so I never run more than 1 or 2 instances. It does let you add or subtract a lot of EQ without sounding weird. I normally don't like to go too crazy on boosts particularly, but you can with this plug.

Jrod

[Henchman]

I know that the quality of my dialog has improved after getting rid of all the Waves plugins, in my dialog chain. q10 being the worst sounding of the bunch.

[Empire Prod]

Originally Posted by tomat

With a "good" digital EQ, you can emulate by yourself pretty much every analog EQ available !

You should hear me emulate Stevie Wonder in the shower

[jrod9900]

I emulated into a sock one time...

JROD

[u b k]

Originally Posted by Henchman

I know that the quality of my dialog has improved after getting rid of all the Waves plugins, in my dialog chain. q10 being the worst sounding of the bunch.

The Fabfilter eq is fairly kind to the voice; voices and acoustic guitars seem to be the most sensitive to dsp of any kind, something about the 4k-8k zone on those elements is especially fragile and easily damaged, and they show up any kind of phase smear and ringing pretty handily.


Gregory Scott - ubk

[Ollie]

I have been quite pleased with the UAD Harrison eq. Gets me to where I want to get fast. That is what matters to me.
The tape emu is quite nice as well as the lex verb is great

[jrod9900]

I want to get the Harrison, Trident, and Fatso plugs. I heard they are some of the best emulations out there, specifically the Fatso. Some are great. I find myself using more and more of the Cambridge. So surgical, sounds great.

JROD

[Aiyn Zahav]

Originally Posted by mattyc

yeah i have seen them a while back. it was the the phase plots i found the most interesting actually, a factor that doesnt seem to enter these kinds of discussions very often
thanks for the link though.

so heres a link to the phase plots from his blog with plots for some UAD, SSL Duende, Nomad Factory, Sonalksis, Flux, and PSP EQs

Example EQ Phase Plots

for anyone whos interested, they are all quite different !

Ah finally. I knew there was more to the story of analog eq emulations. I knew that they affected phase differently but then again you don't really know unless you can see tests like this.

For the first half, mostly normal eq's, I've tried a few and have the sonalksis and there was nothing "magical" as the article says. Then the Brainworx stands out as a little different and it is one EQ that I always thought was meant to be transparent yet seemed to just be pleasant somehow.

I've got the free Nebula and I think it is unlike any plug-in. I can understand the comment about it being able to really open up a mix, not just make it brighter. But I need to test more.