Lets talk EQ for a moment

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KissMyRobot

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I mix ITB and I don't foresee that changing any time soon (mostly a hobby although I'm mixing some tracks for a friend who is signed in the UK, and most of my investments are going towards mics right now).

But lets talk EQ plugins. Not considering really colorful, interactive EQs that cut and boost simultaneously, mostly sims of vintage stuff, what is your reason for using anything less than a full parametric eq ITB?

I rely mostly on FabFilter Pro-Q but recently picked up the plugin version of the Maag EQ4. I really, really like the EQ4 for vocals... and I think the reasons for using a more simplified EQ comes down to ease of use and just a different mindset of why I'm applying EQ. It's just fun I suppose.

Just a philosophic question, really.
 
Mmmmmm......there's no real reason to just use parametric EQs (ITB or OTB). You use whatever works best on your signal, and sometimes the simple "one-knob" EQ, and let the circuit or algorithm do whatever it's designed to do is just the ticket.

I have the origial version of the Maag....in 2-channel, hardware form, when it was called the NTI Nightpro EQ3D
 
I use ReaEQ pretty much exclusively nowadays. It does exactly what I need a filter to do. If I need distortion or anything else, I have other ways to handle that.

Likewise, I don't want a compressor to do any filtering. I use ReaComp, and will gladly put a ReaEQ on either side if I feel I need "color".
 
ashcat_lt said:
I use ReaEQ pretty much exclusively nowadays. It does exactly what I need a filter to do. If I need distortion or anything else, I have other ways to handle that.

Likewise, I don't want a compressor to do any filtering. I use ReaComp, and will gladly put a ReaEQ on either side if I feel I need "color".
Click to expand...

I'm totally in love with ReaEQ. it's on almost every track in my last couple of projects. I really like the real-time graphical display (although I don't 100% trust what it's telling me), and how non-colored it is. Great VST.

I've just started using ReaComp on vocals lately as well. it's very non-colored as well, and can do subtle or crushing compression. I just haven't figured out all of it's parameters yet. I need to spend some time with a couple tutorials so I can get out of preset-land with it.
 
Great stuff, downloaded the rea plugins pack and will tinker with them in my next project. :)

I mostly use whatever EQ I have within Cakewalk/sonar, and for intricate stuff I use the Soundforge EQ (often used as a plugin within Sonar). Have a lot of presets and such, so I'm not eager to start over, but some of the tools in the rea package look useful.
 
Sometimes I like to use a graphic eq plug-in rather than parametric just because it lessens my options, which in my case is usually a good thing because I am indecisive sometimes and continually tinker. Granted, I can still tinker a lot with a graphic eq but it's more fixed.
 
I'm only using 3rd party stuff because I don't care for the stock one in cubase.

That said I think many parametric plugin eqs are more of a workflow thing than a sound thing. You can go with something simple like waves q10 or you can get something with more bells and whistles like equality or pro q. Either way they really just need to do their job in a clean manner and stay out of the way.
 
RealEQ is so easy to use, it's graphic display (I kind of mistrust it, too) is handy.
 
Eqs with fixed frequency centers are fine when the frequencies line up exactly with what I want, which is almost never.
 
If I want to just roll the top or bottom end off a track then a low pass or high pass filter is perfect for the job.
 
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