A Designs Hammer EQ?

[ORC]

I'm curious if anyone has tried the Hammer EQ in a masterig situation. Dual mono, 3 bands per channel covering a 7 octave range, really nice looking bell curves. Clearly not for surgical Eq, but it appears that it might be really nice for broad strokes. I've heard this is a VERY sweet sounding and musical eq. I'm currently using the Crane Song Ibis, in conjunctuon with Massive Passive. I've had the massive forever. I use the unbalnced outputs to bypass the output trannys this helps this box so much. I'm really curious about the Hammer, and I wonder how it would sound in place of the Manley. Any input about this eq would be appreciated!

ORC

[finetuner]

Demo'd one about 2 years ago.

- Quite clean for a tube eq, less colored than the Massivo*
- Q very broad indeed, a bit too much for me
- Ergonomic so-so; no separate band switches or even a zero detent, so it's hard to set one or two bands neutral

Other than that a nicely built, good sounding unit.
If you don't mind broad strokes give it a shot and if you like it you may be able to add some band switches...


*I didn't compare it to the MP simultaneously and i didn't test the MP with it's cleaner sounding unbalanced connectors (unfortunately).

[ORC]

Thanks! That's kind of what i expected to hear. I've been thinking about picking one up because I've heard they sound really sweet on 2 buss stuff. This unit clearly wasn't intended for mastering purposes, but if it sounds good, it just might be nice to have for a different flavor. I'll see if I can get one in to demo.

[Virtalahde]

Haven't heard the Hammer, but I'm using a custom passive EQ with very wide and transparent bell shaped curves. It has become extremely important in my workflow.

[thermos]

I had a Hammer and used it in my mastering chain for a while. It brings a presence to the image immediately (even with all gains zeroed) which is cool, but not for everything. Strokes are broad, and to my ears it sounds less natural than a passive tube design, certain boosts proved fatiguing after a while sometimes whereas the same boosts on my current eq (Gyraf) don't seem to get in the way.

Also the pots were not super matched, I would run a tone to make sure I wasn't boosting more on 1 side than the other, as you couldn't just eyeball it. It does have a cool magic thing to it, but I'm way way way happier with the Gyraf.

[ORC]

I suppose I could run a tone through, and do the Qclone capure thing. Then use the old grease pencil to mark where zero is on each band concerning boost/cut. The non stepped frequency selctors kind of bother me a bit too, but hey, I ought to be mastering with my ears not my eyes.
I dont mind wide q's on a really nice sounding EQ. Several of the guys i master for are really good mix engineers. On these mixes I often dont need to do much if any surgical stuff. So If this EQ sounds nice, I might use it just to do some sweetening, which in a mastering situation, is probably where this unit would shine.

[SUPADUPA]

I use one for mastering ... it's very good in small amounts ... recommended ...

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by ORC

I dont mind wide q's on a really nice sounding EQ.

Can be just the thing for a musical sounding nudge on a great mix, and often all that's needed.
Do any Hammer users feel its curves could be broader still? (Going by the graphs alone, this is my first impression..). The Sontec, NSEQ-F, API 550m (at .5dB) and Massive Passive certainly all are.

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by SUPADUPA

I use one for mastering ... it's very good in small amounts ... recommended ...

Possibly because the Q tightens up at larger boosts? Purely curious.

[ORC]

Q looks nice and wide to me. Looks like it tightens up on heavy boosts and cuts. I would most likely never boost or cut more than about 3 db with this box, more like a db here and there.

[WBM]

Try the P9 more Freq control and musical tone the same .

[StephenMarsh]

Originally Posted by finetuner

Demo'd one about 2 years ago.

- Quite clean for a tube eq, less colored than the Massivo*
- Q very broad indeed, a bit too much for me
- Ergonomic so-so; no separate band switches or even a zero detent, so it's hard to set one or two bands neutral

Other than that a nicely built, good sounding unit.

I demo'd one too - and had nearly identical impressions. I also master for two of Pete's developers (Ronan Chris Murphy and Tony Sheppard) regularly and have heard a bunch of mixes with this on them as well. Very nice box, clean and musical. Drum subs, overheads, guitars, keys, stereo mix buss shaping I could hear it on - but ultimately not ideally 'set-up' for mastering.....my 2 cents......YMMV--Steph

[StephenMarsh]

That NAIL compressor he's got sounds pretty kick ass too!