The Pultec EQ Mystique

I just want to say hats off and a big thanks to David B for his Soundbytes article on the Pultec EQP-1A and its frequent companion, the Pultec MEQ-5 from March of last year. I bookmarked it when I saw it and just now got to it.
 
http://soundbytesmag.net/theplutecmystique/ 
 
I finally got a mix together which doesn't need a whole lot, but I wanted to try my Nomad on it. Problem was, I really didn't know where or what to do. Your article cleared it all up. We should be out of our annual GHD blizzard tomorrow and once the wife and I are all shoveled out (700' driveway), I can confidently sit down and finish up my mix and now I'm going to have fun with it, instead of filled with trepidation, like what am I going to screw up now :)
 
This is the kind of articles which are really informative and useful and I, for one am so appreciative. You wizards demystify it all for people like me who are just trying to make our best run at it. So once again David, thanks so much!
 
 

I guess the only Pultec style EQ's I have are the Native Instruments "Enhanced EQ" (which seems to be a sort of simplified Pultec EQ) and Nomad's Blue Tubes PEQ2B. Have you compared the PEQ2B (which came packaged with Sonar) against the Pulse-Tec? If so, how do you think they compare? 

"So, am I saying there’s no such thing as vintage fairy dust?  Absolutely not.  But as to whether or not we find this in the Pultec emulations, I’m less certain.  However, I’m not asserting that it’s not there.  If you believe it’s there, that’s just fine.  If you don’t believe but want to, then maybe you could just clap your hands and it will be."
 
An excellent summation!!  It makes me wonder how much of the magic gear we own is really placebo?

I like this post. Go DMBaer. It was a great article. I hadn't read it before today.
 
Curious, I re-did his loudness test and got pretty much the same result...
 
With the clipper switch on I get -3.5 calibrated for -14 so... really -17.5.
 
Clipper switch off I get -5.1 so really -19.1
 
With the pre-amp off I get -5.4 so really -19.4
 
This is a loudness boost of only 0.3 dB when the clipper switch is off.
 
Also, I did notice a 2-3 dB cut between 18.7 and 20K, but it wasn't as severe as the article suggested. Perhaps I didn't test the same way.
 
As an aside, check out the slope on the Cakewalk Spectral Analyzer. What's up with that? It's pink noise generated by Audacity. Everything showed it fairly flat except the flyout EQ in Cakewalk.
 


 

 

@jeff evans:
You piqued my curiosity.  Don't Crack has these for a meager $49, and there's even a demo.  I'm taking it for a spin . . .

One thing I noticed in the article was that it said that you could only attenuate what had been added. This was not my experience. When I turned up only attenuation, I got suppression in the pink noise.

@Jeff, thanks for your comments on the clip switch.I'm not sure this was talked about much in the article. I was actually wondering if you might just turn the pre off. I think I will be adding this plug to my latest mix and playing with it.

Geoff  you  can  boost and attenuate in the same area and sometimes they don't completely cancel out though. They add to create an overall curve.  I tend not to do that though.  I prefer to select one approach and use it eg attenuation or boost.
 
Karyn,  well yes and no. I bet if you do a frequency response on it while set completely flat, it will be flat but when you switch it in and out over a track or a mix you can hear the difference. (as per the real thing)  It is a bit like the testing I did many years ago on power amps.  eg a transisor amp vs a valve class A amp.  Both will test flat as a ruler but one can sound dull and the other will have beautiful top end.  Hard to explain why.
 
It does not fit every single application though.  Remember it is adding distortion!  I have found in some situations a much more modern great sounding EQ plugin can sound better.  Where it does excel I think is when you want to bring the mid range forward it can do a lovely job of that and also getting rid of the 200-300Hz build-up in a mix it is excellent for that.  It has a nice top end boost thing going on too. Sometimes I just use it one area of the spectrum only as well.  (Switch off the other bands in the Nomad Pultec if you don't need them)
 
I did not mean to diss  David's  use of the word Mystique either.  From an electronics engineers perspective it is just a passive EQ that uses reactive components followed by a gain stage.  It certainaly does have a reputation and from that perspective I guess it has plenty of mystique as to why it sounds the way it does.  (like the class A valve poweramp thing)  I enjoyed David's article and it explains many aspects of it well.

olemon
What a fascinating hobby this is.

 
Boy you got that right!

The WARM is a real nice non-emulation.

Great article.  Makes me want to get some fairy dust of my own.  Hello wallet....

Mosvalve
I like the Waves Puigtec verson. I found it to be the best eq I have. It makes you use your ears. It isn't an eq for surgical eq'ing for sure.

I agree with that (use your ears) approach totally, on my last project with last year's new plugins, I abandoned the graphs and hoopla and rather, twirled my dials and listened. I don't know if I did better or worse, but it is way more enjoyable, less intimidating and therein lies my course of mixing in the future.

tlw
One big advantage the "visual" eqs like Sonar's pro-channel one have is the ability to use very narrow cuts for surgically removing problems like toms ringing on a drum track or unwanted resonances. Another is low and high bandpassing with variable eq slopes. Sonar's hardware eq emulation is pretty good as well.

Good point, thankfully, I don't have to mix too much unfamiliar sounds. I mostly record acoustic guitars and vocals (singer / songwriter) these days and over the years I've come to know these sounds pretty well so I am content to use Sonitus for all my surgical strikes long before really sitting to mix with the fun stuff.
 
333! My favorite number, no more posting for me, ain't gonna do it :)

I like the full version of the Nomad Pultec EQ.  It has both the high and low end section plus all the mid range section.  The thing I like about it actually is in fact there are no visual cues at all.  It is a real ears thing.  If you know roughly where in the spectrum you want to make changes then you can jump right to the actual controls and provide either the boost or cut in that area.  And even if you don't you will soon find out.  Because turning those controls in the wrong area will give a bad or a no result and in the right area a very satisfying result.
 
I have used it in mastering too.  It is great for clearing out the clug around 300 Hz or providing a little mid range bite too if its lacking.  The top end of the Pultec sounds sweet too.  Never seems to get that harshness that some EQ's can do.
 
If you do have it I do recommend running some pink noise into it and observing what you see on a spectrum analyser.  Especially around the low end areas where you can boost and cut at the same time.  They don't completely cancel out but rather create an interesting shape around that area.
 
One thing too is don't use too much boost in an area for example.  At first it can sound like nothing much has happened and you can tend to over do the boost only to realise later there is a lot of boost there instead.  It is like the boost sneaks up on you a bit.  Use a little eg +3dB etc and listen to the mix or the track for a while.  After a while you realise a lot has changed there!