Ben and others who may have the Pultec EQ. And I am referring to the Nomad Factory Pultec EQ. The UAD may behave differently.

I agree with Ben in that this is a great sounding EQ and sounds good on tracks and busses as well as a mastering situation. At first Ben I found the EQ seemed a bit fatter etc when engaged. But after reading your post I did some tests. All controls are set for zero boost and cut ie totally flat EQ setting. When the Vintage switches (both) are engaged the (Nomad) Pultec increases the whole signal by 3dB when the EQ is switched in. Even though both the Input and Output controls are at 0dB down in the bottom panel. This is easily rectified by setting the Output control to -3dB. Then there is no change between being In or OUT after doing that. (bypassed in your DAW as well not in the EQ) What is interesting is that when you put SPAN over the output there is absolutely no increase in the bottom end anywhere! Whether In or OUT. 

When the Vintage switches are out the same applies except the level change is only 1.5 dB now so the output control needs to be reset to -1.5dB. No bottom end increase or change either on the spectrum analyser.

I think I was perhaps just hearing the 3 dB boost and because the bottom end is nice it seemed like getting a bottom end boost. I do agree it sounds FAT! It works wonders in a mastering situation. I have just used it so and it worked great. But I did also use it in conjunction with the LP64EQ which partners this Pultec EQ very well. Remember too the UAD may not have the level shift. 

Also discovered a strong third harmonic being added to any fundamental going in. eg If you send a 2 Khz tone into the Pultec you a pretty strong 6 K harmonic coming out as well as the fundamental. That is interesting. Also the top end only goes up to about 17 KHz and rolls of pretty fast after than if the EQ is switched in also.   

Ringing from the "inductors".




If you want to use Span to check for low frequency response make sure you use a detailed window size and a very fast response... other wise, you may see little to no difference in Span's drawing on comparison of content that may actually have a wide variance.



all the best,
mike

timidi


I love the sound of the LP64 but, for me, it's too glitchy to use.

You should consider getting something like the T-RackS3 Linear Phase EQ - I absolutely love it on complete mixes, busses, tracks.


The word that springs to mind is 'smooth'


And glitch free when adjusting in real time 

Thanks Mike for the advice. Good points so I redid the test and really expanded out the bottom end in Span and had a very fast response and the results are still the same. No boost whatsoever when the EQ is engaged. My ears are also telling me the same thing too.

Even if I apply say a very modest boost at say 60Hz, when the EQ is switched in there is a very obvious change in the bottom end in the Span display.

The level shift is sill present and once that is taken out of the equation that EQ does nothing at all when switched IN in terms of level and bottom end although I am still inclined to agree with Ben about it putting in more slightly more bottom end. It sounds like it and it well may be doing it, Span is not going to show it perhaps. Could be more subtle things like transformer response etc..

So if you are using this EQ for mastering be careful with this as it can sound like it is adding some weight to the bass. I usually have the LP64 after this EQ to tame the bottom end in a more precise way. That is where digital EQ's come into their own. They can have some very specific slopes that analogue EQ's are just not really capable of.

There is another advantage of using different 'console' style EQ's that is often overlooked as a desirable quality.

In other words the pre-chosen bands, curves (indeed the interplay between curves gives the Pultec a particular style) and other settings can often impose on your workflow in a positive way.  So the limitations of the design can make it easier to achieve desired results with a good working knowledge or 'expertise' with a particular plug-in of this type.

There are enough choices out there for anyone to choose something that suits a particular ear and way of working.

So yes any DSP Eq is a good choice but being limited to a particular choice can impose a great workflow and personal mixing style just like it would if you had to conform to what was fitted in your hardware console's channel strip.

This is an important factor that often gets lost in technical discussions on 'Q' curves, filter types and such like.

I tend to use an Eq like this, along with HPF/LPF filters to knock a mix into shape and anything like the Sonitus for more detailed surgery if required.

I doesn't matter much which specific brand of plug-in I use but most projects I do will have those aspects of Eq'ing covered in the same way.

Yeh, to the degree I use any plugins, it's basically the Stillwell VibeEQ. It's a small three band with high pass and a fairly limited number of frequencies on each band. It just makes you think in terms of these frequency ranges and fit things into them.

Bristol_Jonesey

timidi


I love the sound of the LP64 but, for me, it's too glitchy to use.

You should consider getting something like the T-RackS3 Linear Phase EQ - I absolutely love it on complete mixes, busses, tracks.


The word that springs to mind is 'smooth'


And glitch free when adjusting in real time 

Thanks Bristol.

 Cool thread and experiment Matt, I never liked the sound or could get a workflow going with the Sonitus or Para-Q when that was my only options, I was still using the old 16 bit parametric EQ that came with Guitar Tracks. I've been warming up to the new PC EQ but mostly for carving I prefer the UAD cambridge  or Dynamic EQ  I'm not sure if it's a LP eq but it kind of works like a compressor with a threshold  and attack setting. Really cool for keeping the bass and kick tamed without losing much dynamics.

Yeah I'm really happy with the sound from the ProChan as a pretty clean neutral sounding eq. Need to do some more experiments in the cutting side of things and surgical eqing to see what my favourite is though.

But now I wish to really start studying more colorful eqs (and compressors) for a different sound. I mentioned in another thread the Antress Modern emulation of a Pultec. That's my first real experiment with an eq that adds color and I really liked it. Loved what it did to the low end on my kick drum. I tried to replicate that with the ProChan and it was literally 10 fold different. I imagine any complete non audiophile would easily hear a difference (a concept I always question when thinking about some of these supposed "amazing sounding" plugs). Still need to listen to the high end a bit more and learn it better. Looking forward to playing with that tonight :) Check it out if you have not already.