Passive EQ shoot out...

[sabian]

Thought I copy this here in the dead old giant....

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Hi Sabian,
hope all is well with you.
Sorry to bother you, I'll be brief. I wanted to quickly ask you if you kept the Knif Etip and SPL PQ in the end and if so what do you feel are their strenghts and weaknesses now that you have lived with them for a while.
Cheers
Riccardo

Hi Riccardo,
yes, I kept them both and this is all I need most of the time, along with EAR822s when beefing up is needed.
When Buzz finally arrived in the UK I was not even interested in hearing it any more - not like me at all. BTW, a friend of mine has bought a Pure Mu from Jonte (Knif) which I also tried, his stuff is awesome, very high quality... We both put AM-core Lundahls in
which I would def. recommend. Told Jonte he should make it standard.
ETIP - almost always in M+S, broad strokes, usually midrange boost (CLEAN and TIGHT), except maybe 33hz (narrow bell) cut or so, especially on the sides. I use filters a lot, especially LPF, often 20k sides, 25k mid... VERY clean but not hard or sterile, almost unlike valve, unless you turn the gain up to +3... I kept EAR valves in there, it changes the character quite a bit so room for playing. Gain steps a bit coarse sometimes for me (app 0.4db with wide q), but that's why I kept the ....
PQ - amazing amount of control with all continuous pots, I love it. Finally I don't need to spoil my tone with plugs any more! Precision is the word, low mid cuts, sweeping through bass freqs and hearing the harmonics change, I could only dream of this before.
I always found 0.5db gain steps on most mastering eqs too restrictive, not to mention the freqs and q ...
Obviously recall suffers but I can deal with that. The PQ has two sounds - in Prop. Q mode very smooth, clean and tight, in Con. Q it's warmer and "juicier", reminds me of my Neumanns a bit... So you can warm the bass / mids up with Con Q., while keeping highs clean and sparkly with Prop. Q, or give them some silk with Con. - you get the picure... it can almost be more a "character piece" than ETIP, nothing "solid state" about it in a clinical way ... Honestly, I'm in love with it, I could probably do any job with just the PQ (well maybe two of them!), can't imagine going back to S-curves and such, using 3 bands just to get exactly what I want, instead of zooming in with 1 band on PQ... I only wish it didn't reset the Con/Prop switches on power down, had to get used to making notes ... One thing, which by now I accepted, every box seems to change the tonal balance once inserted in the chain. PQ has a slight bass boost (in a nice warm way) and widens the soundstage by a little dip around 1.5k or so. So it sounds bigger and wider but less in your face, not dissimilar to EAR825 but obviously different. By boosting around 1.5 - 1.8k a touch you're pretty much back to flat. I remember trying to get Maselec flat and it took 3 out of 4 available bands...

BTW, how are those massive gain steps on your Fairman to live with? I'm sure it sounds awesome...

Regards

Sabian

[Riccardo]

Excellent! Cheers thumbsup

[Ben F]

The SPL looks so nice to use!

I really like the Knif design and philosophy, would like to try the Pure-mu and Etip Eq one day, maybe next time I'm in Europe.

[Lindell]

No SPL Passeq yet?

[24-96 Mastering]

I tried a DIY passive EQ built by a GS user yesterday. It was a very limited Pultec mid EQ type feature set, not really applicable to mastering, but it sounded amazing. Very clean yet not at all boring. Integrity, substance, fullness are terms that come to mind.
Curiously, it didn't use a tube gain stage but LAWO line amps instead. Maybe that was part of what made the sound (or lack thereof).

[Lindell]

I'm borrowing the Passeq next week. I can run some stuff thru. And while I'm at it, thru:
Fairman TMEQ
Massive Passive
Lang PEQ2

And just for fun:
ADT W796
Focusrite Blue
Brainworx BX_digital plugin

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by Lindell

I'm borrowing the Passeq next week. I can run some stuff thru. And while I'm at it, thru:
Fairman TMEQ
Massive Passive
Lang PEQ2

And just for fun:
ADT W796
Focusrite Blue
Brainworx BX_digital plugin

[macc]

I was lucky enough to hear the PQ in action at Sabian's gaff a while ago.

'Gorgeous' is the best word I can think of to describe it, which is both a technical and emotional description.

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by macc

I was lucky enough to hear the PQ in action at Sabian's gaff a while ago.

'Gorgeous' is the best word I can think of to describe it, which is both a technical and emotional description.

Thanks Macc, for completing the picture. It would appear most love it with the only con being the channel tracking in the motorised version as opposed to the non motorised one and the cost not being exactly affordable ......

I suppose we will have to save up for quite some time.......
Back to beans on toast!

[streetbeats]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Back to beans on toast!

Think of the positive, it helps flush the system

[macc]

Maybe wait til the clients have left though *trump*

[sabian]

Just when I thought I was happily married, here she comes.... Her name is Lisa. I suspect she possibly has some undisclosed links to Mr. Expounder.
Anyone dated her?

Tomo Audiolabs | LISA | Information

[macc]

Why did I open this thread?

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by sabian

Just when I thought I was happily married, here she comes.... Her name is Lisa. I suspect she possibly has some undisclosed links to Mr. Expounder.
Anyone dated her?

Tomo Audiolabs | LISA | Information

If I am not mistaken it is the guy behind the "modded esoteric" Fairman version, Dirk Jambor. Here is the link
TRUE TRACK RECORDING, FAIRMAN, Mastering, Lavry, Engineering, Germany, Deutschland, AD122-96MKIII,AD 122-96 MK III, Lavry Blue, 4496, Black, DA-10, Jambor, Audio
Hope this helps ..... or maybe not ...... GAS sindrome? Macc?

[Dubai]

Originally Posted by MattGray

Ok, Thanks to Ben Williams we have some links available to the samples... As mentioned there is the full 24bit-96kHz samples or the 16bit-44.1k samples for the sake of reducing bandwidth. The Q-Clone Frequency Plots are also available to download here for those that are interested in comparing the differences in the frequency shape between each unit.

Please take the time to read this first before downloading & listening to the samples.

Hope you find them useful for comparison & please share your listening thoughts here so it's useful for everyone.

Hi, can someone re-upload the files...
in megaupload...

thanks.

[Ben F]

That is one of the coolest mastering studios I've ever seen:

Mastering, Audio Postproduction & Musicproduction - Skyline Tonfabrik

[Dubai]

Originally Posted by Dubai

Hi, can someone re-upload the files...
in megaupload...

thanks.

[William Bowden]

I seem to have come late to this thread, but I'll echo Sabian's props for the EAR 822Q, it's probably complete heresy but I prefer them to the Pultecs I just sold - now admittedly they were the API variant EQP1A3 but there's something so smooth about the EARS that the pultec never seemed to have, I actually think they're less retro in the mid area too.

Anyway, back to work

The King

[Ben F]

Bump to an awesome thread thumbsup

[achaiss]

Originally Posted by Studio 13

Finally used the Pullet for mastering and it works well with the Earlybird.

Just used the top lift and some attitude from the fat bustard and it sounded cleaner/clear.

the EQ and spread section on this unit kicks ass!
And what about the attitude knob...!

The fat bustard is not just a summing box but a real great mastering gear, a benediction.

I love working with the top and the bass lift and their respective cut filters. (varislope EQ)

[achaiss]

Originally Posted by sabian

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".

So in that case, a MEA2 vers.7 could be a good friend for a Massive Passive in a mastering chain?
The MEA2 for low working and better "3D" effect and the massivo for MIDS and HI.
With a DIY box to switch with or without the massivo transformer.

All that with a fat bustard summing box in first (2 varislope eq, bass and hi, a spread and an attitude knob) and a API 2500 a the end ...

Am I wrong?

[MattGray]

Getting requests for these files again so I'm uploading them to my dropbox account.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3481388/EQ_S...bit_441kHz.zip

Link will be active in a few hours...

[Herbeck]

thumbsup

[livingstone]

for those who might be interested there's a KNIF ETIP Tube Mastering MS eq for sale here

this one features:
- amorphous core in & out
- custom HPF with 30hz & 200hz 6db/oct to use as elyptic eq on the side
- custom extra knob that control the feedback in the output amp to add some second hamonics
- NOS Philips tubes in it
- set of extra spare NOS tubes purveyed by Jonte Knif

and at last have a look at Jonte's Philosophy when it comes to Building Quality

come and get it !

[sabian]

Hey, this is a great opportunity for somebody! Having said that, those who had a chance to try one have probably got it now, the others don't know what they're missing.... I might know somebody interested who had a chance to try mine and wanted to order but Jonte stopped making them... will pass the word.
Soma looks great - if it wasn't for the SPL PQ in my rack I'd be ordering it now.
Good luck, keep us posted on Soma.

[Tube World]

I have the UAD Massive Passive which offers a rounder passive tone. When I want an EQ that offers a fuller low end instead of round, and a little more up front top end, the Langevin Mini Massive with the Bell 2 and transformer off when mastering.