My second analogue EQ

[Jonathan Race]

nice

[erikdrink]

Yep, very nice!
Looking forward to see how thing progress...

[Sonicologico]

This is a great idea

[Tube World]

With all the great EQ's out there already............if you come out with something new and different, I will buy you a beer at the local pub.

[Joe_caithness]

He we're working on it!

Some interesting adaptations of the DIY nite/air design essentially, it's an experimental one, but should go great with my fixed stereo design other EQ as it opens up LR and MS and some shelf points I couldn't previously reach!

[aleatoric]

Nice! Looks really cool Joe! Is it being built by the same guy who designed your other EQ? I love the frequency selections for the HPF. What kind of switchable transformers in the input and output stages will you be using?

[Joe_caithness]

Originally Posted by aleatoric

Nice! Looks really cool Joe! Is it being built by the same guy who designed your other EQ? I love the frequency selections for the HPF. What kind of switchable transformers in the input and output stages will you be using?

Yeah it is, we spent many a phone call looking into designs and discussing the limitations of my current set up.

The HPF is designed so that you can use to it also shape the shelf boost a little, but also use it cut any useless sub freqs pre-compression.

The trannies are Lundhals, not sure of the models, waiting to find out.

It's the Nite EQ DIY design but redesigned from the ground up from the original documents, the PCB is self etched.

Front panel is completely Mark Watson's design and the M/S matrix is built from the ground up also.

[Ruairi]

Lundahls are great transformers, some of the best. That said I wouldn't bother making them switchable, they are as good as invisible. if you are adding a switchable transformer option add something with real colour.

I'm speaking from experience on this one.

[SeriousPancakes]

this device can make a grown man cry

[Ben F]

Originally Posted by Ruairi

Lundahls are great transformers, some of the best. That said I wouldn't bother making them switchable, they are as good as invisible. if you are adding a switchable transformer option add something with real colour.

I'm speaking from experience on this one.

That is true.

Look forward to seeing the completed project!

[Joe_caithness]

Oh something I neglected to mention, all the dials are switches

[Tim Farrant]

I assume the bands are bell shape, what Q or bandwidth will they be? Fixed bandwith is a bit limiting in a mastering EQ, from what I know.

[dcollins]

Originally Posted by Tim Farrant

I assume the bands are bell shape, what Q or bandwidth will they be? Fixed bandwith is a bit limiting in a mastering EQ, from what I know.

It appears to be a clone of the Night Technologies EQ's. It has the same odd frequency choices, and I believe it's broad-band peaking save for the 2k5, sub, and 'air' bands, the latter of which has selectable frequencies from 2k5 to 40kHz.

The original designer was Cliff Maag, and they still make eq's.

Maag Audio | EQ4 - 500 Series

DC

[Cellotron]

An NTI EQ3 clone is one of the many projects over at Prodigy Pro / Group DIY - 3D "AIR" EQ - "Night EQ" PCB's Complete!

This group is the originator for some other common diy clone projects, such as take offs on the Sontec MEP250 series and SSL 4000 comps.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[dcollins]

Originally Posted by Cellotron

An NTI EQ3 clone is one of the many projects over at Prodigy Pro / Group DIY - 3D "AIR" EQ - "Night EQ" PCB's Complete!

This group is the originator for some other common diy clone projects, such as take offs on the Sontec MEP250 series and SSL 4000 comps.

Yes, I'm familiar with it. I have read every post by that PRR guy, what a great resource.


DC

[Joe_caithness]

Originally Posted by Tim Farrant

I assume the bands are bell shape, what Q or bandwidth will they be? Fixed bandwith is a bit limiting in a mastering EQ, from what I know.

They all are bar the AIR shelf, and yeah the freqs are fixed, it's not an unknown concept, it's just a graphic EQ essentially but with just a few big wide overlapping freqs.

It's really the AIR shelf which is the selling factor for this design, I was basically on the lookout for a design which allowed me to use my MEP250 style DIY build to do lower reaching top end tilts and do more extreme "add some sparkle" shelving at the same time, after some research this Nightpro design appeared to be the one to go for in that respect. The other bands are really a bonus, but I cans see some situations where the sub boost might come in useful in a similar situation at the other end.

The addition of the M/S matrix will come in very useful also as my MEP250 clone is a ganged stereo design, meaning any little "the side just needs a whisper more top end" type applications cannot be done, apart from in digital, and I would much rather dial it in before capture right after/before the MEP250 clone.

I didn't realise MAAG made a 500 series version of the original design now, that's really cute, if I am feeling good about the sound of this stereo device, I will be suggesting my tracking/mixing engineer friends look into that for vocal channels etc. Apparently one of Whitney Houstons engineers loved that Air band?

[inlinenl]

great stuff/work Joe ... fantastic ... I envy your tech_skills ..
enjoy ..

[Joe_caithness]

Originally Posted by inlinenl

great stuff/work Joe ... fantastic ... I envy your tech_skills ..
enjoy ..

Important to point out I only "RND'd" this! I'm not building it, I'm not there yet

[da goose]

nice!
I also have a DIY nite EQ in my rack and i like the airband quite a lot. Can sometimes really open up the sound.
I must confess that i haven't used mine for quite some time now but now that this topic comes up i might give it a try soon again
Mine has potmeters right now but i'm also still thinking of doing another one with stepped switches but getting the right values can be a bit tricky.

Here you can see a part of my EQ, the 1u with the orange knobs and labeling.

[Joe_caithness]

Yes Dagoose, thanks, I know Mark took a lot of inspiration from your building diary for this.

Cute VUs on the compressor above, what is it?

[da goose]

Originally Posted by Joe_caithness

Yes Dagoose, thanks, I know Mark took a lot of inspiration from your building diary for this.

Cute VUs on the compressor above, what is it?

wow! I'm an inspirer!

The compressor is a vari mu poorman 670. Nice tubecompressor that with a lot of patience, matched tubes and mods can sound really nice. In the beginning i didn't like it at all and after i build it i didn't use it once but now that i modded it and replaced all tubes with handmatched (did it myself) tubes i like it quite a lot.

Keep us up to date about the progress and thanks for inspiring me to try the niteEQ again.

[Joe_caithness]

No problems, won't be long before it's in the rack now, expect to hear my opinions, good or bad a few days after receiving as I'll be locking myself and my ears away!

[Ruairi]

Originally Posted by dcollins

Yes, I'm familiar with it. I have read every post by that PRR guy, what a great resource.

Every single post of his is pure gold. I've spent evenings just searching through his posts.

[maagaudio]

Originally Posted by dcollins

It appears to be a clone of the Night Technologies EQ's. It has the same odd frequency choices, and I believe it's broad-band peaking save for the 2k5, sub, and 'air' bands, the latter of which has selectable frequencies from 2k5 to 40kHz.

The original designer was Cliff Maag, and they still make eq's.

Maag Audio | EQ4 - 500 Series

DC

Thanks for the plug DC! The AIR BAND is still kicking.

Maag Audio has a new preamp (PREQ4) and EQ4 plugin as well as the EQ4. You can actually try the EQ4 for free by setting up a free account with Plugin Alliance! Here's a link about the plugin if you want to take a peak and listen: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/product-alerts-older-than-2-months/698988-maag-eq4-plugin-out-get-some-air-band.html#post7555168

Best
Cliff Maag

www.maagaudio.com

[Joe_caithness]

Originally Posted by maagaudio

Thanks for the plug DC! The AIR BAND is still kicking.

Maag Audio has a new preamp (PREQ4) and EQ4 plugin as well as the EQ4. You can actually try the EQ4 for free by setting up a free account with Plugin Alliance! Here's a link about the plugin if you want to take a peak and listen: Maag EQ4 plugin out. - GET SOME AIR BAND. - Gearslutz.com

Best
Cliff Maag

M

Oh, I am totally going to go find this plug-in now and see if I can get it to work, tonnes of accapellas come thru in my own music projects without any real top end and I still haven't found a way to tickle it out.

[Joe_caithness]

Well, if this EQ sounds half as good as this plug-in I'll be over the moon, the air and sub band = wow!

[Joe_caithness]

Spent the last two weeks demo-ing the plug-in EQ4.

Absolutely love it! Very clever design, I know people dislike the fixed points, but you have to understand this isn't a parametric EQ by design, it's hard to describe but because it's more like a tilting EQ for 5 blocks of audio, plus a great unique shelf on top. The lower freqs are notches but you wouldn't know it because it's so wide and it goes down so low. The sub shelf is a life saver when there is hardly anything down low but you've already used your best shelf to make the mix in general have weight, really good as an extender.

I found using combos of little boosts and cuts across the board allowed me to do some incredibly transparent shifting of focus, you can use the frequency up from where your boosting to calm the width of the Q down by cutting a little when you've done a bigger boost on knob down, things like +1.5dB of 40Hz and -0.5dB at 160Hz for example are coming in useful.

Can't wait to get my hands on my analogue EQ3D based version, really getting used to using this demo plugin!

[Joe_caithness]

nearly there

[Red Mastering]

nice!
is it M. Watson's job ?
looks very clean and pro