HDX - go to tracking EQs and Comps

[Marsdy]

Horribly unfashionable and old but my favourite EQ of all time is the McDSP 4020 Retro EQ. Not great for precise corrective work but otherwise my #1 character EQ, (and I have most of the UAD ones!) The top end is beautifully smooth and you seem to be able to boost a lot more between 1K and 3K without it sounding harsh and honky than with other EQ's. It's stupidly cheap at the moment, HD version - $59 = no-brainer.

I've found my EQ preferences have changed depending on what monitors I've had over the years but maybe I'm just odd. The McDSP 4020 Retro EQ is the only one I've always loved whatever the monitor.

+1 On the Brainworx stuff especially the Opticom XLA-3, bx_opto and SPL Transient Designer Plus. (Lovely but not quite up to the best UAD comps IMHO.)

Also +1 on Softube's Summit Audio TLA-100A and Tube-Tech CL 1B but again, both are not quite up to UAD standard.

I rarely use any of Sonnox's plug-ins but there's nothing wrong with them! Same with MH and Avid Channel Strip.

It's all so subjective though so IMO it's best to try stuff although it's useful to ask and filter things down to a shortlist.

[Stereo Missile]

Best AAX-DSP EQ for me by a country mile is DMG Equality. It's super clean and beautiful sounding, kind of like the Massenburg. Fantastic built in spectrum analyser, multiple filters and bands, maps to S6. Brilliant EQ which is clean in a good way, not a sterile crappy way.

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by Stereo Missile

Best AAX-DSP EQ for me by a country mile is DMG Equality. It's super clean and beautiful sounding, kind of like the Massenburg. Fantastic built in spectrum analyser, multiple filters and bands, maps to S6. Brilliant EQ which is clean in a good way, not a sterile crappy way.

That's one I keep meaning to try. Thanks for the reminder.

There's also one I can't remember that has a piano graphic inlcuded in the EQ curve display so you can see the pitch on the built in analyser as well as frequency. Anyone know what that might be?

EDIT: It's Surfer EQ and it's not DSP damnit.
https://www.soundradix.com/products/surfer-eq/

[Extreme Mixing]

I think all of the DMG EQs have that. I know for sure that the Equilibrium has the piano keyboard.

Steve

[TOM@METRO]

Waves "H EQ" Has the piano graphic as well.

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by TOM@METRO

Waves "H EQ" Has the piano graphic as well.

Yeah it sounds pretty pretty good too but no DSP version and a little CPU greedy.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Yeah it sounds pretty pretty good too but no DSP version and a little CPU greedy.

I am also waiting for Waves to fulfill their promise of supporting "every major platform", which I count Avid AAX-DSP one of them.

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I am also waiting for Waves to fulfill their promise of supporting "every major platform", which I count Avid AAX-DSP one of them.

Unfortunately they didn't say "every major platform including new ones". Fortunately I'm not reliant on Waves anymore and could live without almost all of them. If Waves had charged $50 per plug-in like Sonnox did for DSP ports I'd have bought a few but they didn't.

And anyways there were other agendas. The was clearly a conflict of interest because at the same time HDX rolled out they were working on their own DSP platform. I didn't buy that, (did anyone?) and I don't buy their plugins anymore with the exception of some new VIs recently which were mediocre at best.

[natenajar]

Yeah equality is the dsp eq to use. I really wish dmg would do a dsp of compassion because it's the best plugin compressor I've ever used. It responds like you expect a compressor to so it's really easy to dial in a good and desired sound, yet it's deep enough to do just about anything you can think of.

[Will Russell]

For channel strip style emulation/flavor consider Channel-G by McDSP. They have a option for the flavor of SSL, API and "brit".

I mostly use MDW-EQ, Sonnox, McDSP, Softube and Avid stuff. They cover most of the bases for me.