Do you use outboard eq?

Absolutepower

New member
Just wondering if you guys have any high quality eqs where you can actually do some pretty extreme stuff without it sounding bad, and which eqs exactly are you using? I guess if you have a really good plugin that works well, let us know too.
What kind of stuff do you use it for, any great results worth noting? Like making a pretty bad vocal sound good or something like that?

I just recently got into using eq but only in a subtractive manner on acoustic and electric guitars. Mainly cutting out too much low end, or muddy garbage in the midrange. I find that with guitars, sometimes that's just the nature of the beast, especially if you want to use a certain pickup. I've also had success removing high end harshness from soft synths.
 
I pretty much only used the same Reaper EQ. Stillwell makes a cool one called VibeEQ. But, no, I never use outboard. From what I've seen, to get one that is worth the DA/AD trip out, and sound any better than the built in plugins, you have to shell out a lot of cash and it's not worth it to me.

I've never saved a horrible track. I have made a few slightly better, but I've also made more ok tracks worse too.
 
Interesting thanks for the responses. It would be cool to have a nice one to experiment with. Hopefully someone will chime in who has a view on that.
 
To be any better than the standard plugins on any decent DAW, you'd have to spend a LOT of money on outboard EQ. I'm talking things like Klark Tecknic with prices in the thousands rather than hundreds of dollars. Even then, you need the rest of your system to be top notch to hear the difference.
 
Klark Tecknic EQs are all I own, both Graphic and parametric, and I have to say they work GREAT both live and in the studio.
 
Yeah. I use KT for live work (in addition to the in built EQ in the various digital mixers I use) ad think they're excellent. However, the rest of the system has to be equally good to do them justice.

I suppose I could patch them into my DAW if I really wanted--but, considering the potential issues of extra D-A, A-D conversions, latency (at least causing phase issues) etc. etc., I find the ITB stuff good enough.

(And I'm more prone to be using parametrics than graphics for most things--the graphics are my "last line of defence, grab in an emergency" EQs for live work.
 
I was lucky enough to have a friend from Canada sell me 8 Klarks Graphics for 200. each to add to my arsenal. I now have more than I know what to do with!!
 
When my console's eq isn't cutting it, I'll go outboard to something that will. Speck ASC's are my go to units these days.
 
I was lucky enough to have a friend from Canada sell me 8 Klarks Graphics for 200. each to add to my arsenal. I now have more than I know what to do with!!

I really, really need a friend like that!

(Though I can't complain...I got my 5 AKG 451EBs and 2 AKG 391s (with extension tubes, knuckles, etc.) for £50 from a guy who was given the job of selling them from a TV studio that was closing down. (Hint to employers: never put a guy who's been given his redundancy notice the job of selling assets for his last two weeks....worked great for me though!)
 
I really, really need a friend like that!

(Though I can't complain...I got my 5 AKG 451EBs and 2 AKG 391s (with extension tubes, knuckles, etc.) for £50 from a guy who was given the job of selling them from a TV studio that was closing down. (Hint to employers: never put a guy who's been given his redundancy notice the job of selling assets for his last two weeks....worked great for me though!)



That's a great story Bob. I'm going to keep an eye out for those kind of opportunities!
 
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