AES 2019: Terry Audio CEQ Analog Dual Passive/Active Mastering EQ
 

Terry Audio CEQ

From Marshall Terry, the Chief Tech / R&D at Shadow Hill Industries:



More info: https://www.terryaudio.com/ceq-product-page-v2

kfhkh

Do I not see any frequency markings?
How’s that gonna work?:amaze:

I bet there is something in the manual, so you can learn how to just use your ears.

Yeah ok
I’ll use my ears and also take freq markings for recalls.

Found this at the OP's link, they're indicated on recall sheet. I'm interested in the stepped version.


https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...call+Sheet.pdf

Doesn't make sense for recall, and if you hear something off at particular frequency you can't easily select/jump to it, you'd have to scan manually. Workflow killers.

Makes complete sense that Terry works for Shadow Hills. He designs gear the way Shadow Hills designs websites.

Yeah I’m sure it sounds fab and I’d for love to hear it although last thing I wanna do with a bunch of outboard stuff on a hectic series of mix recalls is pull out an eq cheat sheet for frequency references.

That has to be the ugliest faceplate for a piece of gear I have ever seen. Wow

Quick, what's the setting for an 18Khz low pass and a 30Hz high pass? You have 5 seconds.

Does it have settings for an 18Khz low pass and 30Hz high pass?

Time's up.

Faceplate looks like children sketchbook.

Or a 1980 kids waterpark.

I get being creative in terms of wanting to stand out, but at this level—and especially for mastering—form over function is completely backwards.

I thought this was the best looking gear I saw this year.

haha, yes the new groundbreaking kids water park design. I really can't see this unit getting sold but it should win an award for the crappiest look ever. Too avant gard for me though. Terry, You need to redisgn the faceplate. How could things go from the amazing look of shadow hills to this piece????

Yeah the, "I'm so creative, just use your ears" gear designer crowd thinks a bit too highly of themselves.

I remember when Kush pulled this crap with the clariphonic. One time I was at Michael Brauer's when he was at Electric Lady and noticed he had written every frequency in white china pencil above every word on his clariphonic.

Eye-catching front-panel design which I like a lot for it's lack of detail; I'm not recalling settings. The functionality is what really interested me.

Aside from the issue of frequency markings, I have to say that I'm on the other end... I'm one of those who really like the faceplate!

It does look like the front of a wardrobe in a little girls room with funky little hooks and the name of her pet cat "Terry".

But yeah I guess some might think It looks kinda "cute" ..... personally I fall into the "OMG what we're they thinking" camp.

But, but, but,

If it sounds amazing .... who cares!

The comment above! yes it reminds me of a little child that scribbled the markings for the faceplate. At first when I saw the thumbnail of the video I thought it was a spoof piece. I suggest that Terry brings out a variation of the faceplate for adults please ;) Im sure it sounds amazing !

At my age, position takes precedence over number. I guess I could write the numbers on using marker pens...or crayons. Maybe even a cat-sticker.

Classic Pultec and Neumann PEV circuits and 'black-box' tech; Marshall Terry is saying that the design replaces 2 or 3 units in series in one box.

I guess it depends how you work. When I’m mixing or mastering, I will instantly hear for example “this needs a couple dB boost at 12khz and a dip at 400 hz.” To then look at this panel and have to decipher where I might be able to make those adjustments would complicate my workflow.

It would seem that a big reason why the frequencies are not indicated on the faceplate is that there are not that many.

If this was a 430 then, yeah, you need the frequencies there.

not sure how many of you work on old desks where the frequencies are rubbed off the modules? Thats somewhat common and is never really an issue when working quickly.

Or a pultec for example? Everyone knows what the frequencies are and I assume if you owned Terry's unit, the same would happen.

probably not the best eq for a commercial room with a lot of outside guys coming thru but thats kinda the case with most gear.

Ok, let's look at this from another angle. I'm fine with no frequencies, I just find the 4 year old art skills extremely distracting to look at and very counterintuitive to getting anything done. When I look at the faceplate, my eyes kinda cross and I have no idea where even to start twisting first.

I get it - adulting is hard. I'm actually a huge kid away from the studio. But when people and labels are actually paying me a nice amount of money to get sh!t done, "C'mon gais! We can be kidz forever!" doesn't go over well.

I'd rather replace the faceplate with a blank piece of aluminum and some dymo labels and hang this one on my fridge like a kid's drawing. It'd look better there.

Resonant mind "I think it's completely disingenuous and sort of an a$$hole remark to attribute this to a childs level of design just because it isn't your taste. Extremely narrow minded thought process, I wouldn't hire any of you."

No it is not an a$$hole remark to state an opinion on a aesthetic, Frankly this design is exactly that!! it is mimicking what a child would draw up with crayons. Therefore and logically it is a childs visual design. It has nothing to do with narrow mindedness but preference. We all have limits including you. You wouldn't hire any of us? Well we would probably not want to work with you by your comments.

Terry can design exactly how he wants, If I bought this unit I would just have a custom faceplate made to make it manly and appealing

:facepalm:
C'mon guys, please.

If you don't like the faceplate, just go make your own. It's 2019 and we have all the options available.
(Did the same with my Kush Electra 500's.)

Which is what i stated I would do, one thing to think about is that a forum is a good place to read feedback on products for the likes and dislikes of a unit. This would be valuable info for a designer. Uli from behringer really seems to be on top of that aspect.

Sounds great, but with no markings surely it needs a linked channel mode? The gain isn't stepped, having to match both sides would be awkward (especially if the unit wasn't placed front and center, or not perpendicular to your line of sight).

It has nothing to do with unleashing your inner child, it's about usability. Even the most sterile looking gear can make you feel like an 8 year old on Christmas morning if it sounds great.

An easy workaround would be to supply circular stickers with the unit than can be applied if desired. Everyone wins.

The design of the circuits looks really appealing. I looked at the manual and the frequency choices are great. Some Q control is given. With the fully stepped version I don’t thing it would take me long to learn the major frequency points. For me, barring aesthetics, it would be about whether it sounded better and/or had more control than the other passive Pultec-ish or broad stroke tools that are already out there. I do tend to like more traditional faceplates, but it’s obvious he’s making a play on the magic marker work he himself probably does when designing and building gear. He probably has the faceplate marked up with a marker so he knows what knobs are where. But usually a traditional faceplate is built. But obviously he wanted to do something different. If it sounded amazing, I could learn it and get over the faceplate. But would it replace a Soma, a pair of Pulse Tech mastering pultecs, a Michaelangelo, a Bettermaker Pultec, or a Massive Passive. I guess time will tell.

Well I guess it makes it easy to screen print the front panel with all those different colours - no real precision is required to line them up with the knobs!

But my question to the designer, why did you call it the "CEQ" and not some more artistic name to match the overall design concept?

Good luck with it! jkthtyrt
Tim.

Is that from your own body of work when you were a child, or did you knock that out earlier when everyone didn't agree chicken-scratch in crayon is super-fun and freeing? Put. The knife. Down.