hi guys, how are you?? i need your help and your experience here.

UI have an hackitosh so i could run LPX and enjoy his plugin. really quality stuff. Now i'm back a bit in Windows and before starting creating a new track i was looking for the best and more natural eq plugin.

I make mainly Progressive House and EDM and one of the most important part of the game is highpass and lowpass almost everything (my last project was 150 tracks).
I need an eq with the most natural Highpass and Lowpass, i'm really in love with LPX's Channel eq but i'm in windows so no Channel eq. I like a little bit also Ableton EQ8 wich for me sound pleasant when highpass leads,chords etc.

The main problem is that i don't like at FabFilter PRO-Q for me isn't so pleasent sounding, probably the worst eq i've ever had but it's flexible and do a great job for eqing reverbs and delays sends.
Not a big fan of the Studio One's Pro EQ lowpass really sounds like shit.

The best eq plugin that i have heard comes from Reaktor FX (high quality stuff) but too much Cpu hungry for running atleast 80 instances. And i usually don't bounce steams before mixing just songwrintin, producing, freezing here and there, mixing, and freezing again.

So my question is wich is the for you the best and more natural eq?? thanks guys

 

All depends on Cashflow I guess! Don't think there is a 'Best'

Personally I'd always go hardware i.e Maag Audio Eq4 about 700GBP, expensive but worth it really. Can use it as a plugin also so that cool!

Options are endless outside that maybe SSL E-series EQ. API 550b/5500 Good for EDM & good value

Hardware wise for warmth maybe something tube based ie TL Audio EQ-2 2-Channel Tube Equalizer will sound pretty fat & natural

If u got loads of cash & don't mind hardware route maybe Avalon AD2055 Dual Mono EQ bargain at £2,700

Plugin wise probably options are like Pultec EQP-1A Classic EQ, Sonnox Oxford EQ, DMG Audio EQuality, Brainworx bx_digital V2 pretty good also worth a mention is the Electra by Kush Audio all their stuff way cool!

Download a few demos if availble I guess & see what suits your needs best.

Good Luck

 

Really no cash for outboard gear, maybe one day...

i find Sonnox OXford Eq good sounding but a little bit limitated since highpass max is 400 hz and lowpass 1000 hz wich could be ok with most of genre but i want more flexibility

Never tried DMG Audio EQuality, i'll give it a shot for sure thanks for the tips

 

I swear by DMG Audio's Equilibrium.

 

FF Pro-Q2 is different from Pro-Q.
If you didn't try both, you should.

DMG make great products.
CPU hogs, though... but if your machine have the right specs, go full on.

If by natural you mean transparent, it doesn't get better than that.

Elysia and Brainworx are worth to check too, but it's more a niche market.

Cheers.

 

The most natural/analogue sounding in-the-box EQ would be DMG Audio Equality or Equilibrium in analogue mode. I use the former a lot because Equilibrium is not so fast and practical to use, and the GUI is huge. Equilibrium is more suitable for mastering, but Equality shines for mastering, too.

If there was no DMG Audio Equality, or I wanted something more classic and console like sounding, I use DDMF 6144 which is Neve Portico EQ inspired.

As for hardware EQs, Clandestine pretty much nailed it, in my opinion. I can only add not so expensive Allen&Heath Zed R16 console with a great British console EQ per channel to the EQuation, pun utterly intended. Two parametric mids, HPF is unfortunately fixed at 100Hz and there's no LPF, but the analogue console takes care of high frequencies anyway, so it's not necessary.

Cheers!

 

FabFilter Pro-Q is Worst?

"I feel like FabFilter Pro-Q 2 made me a better producer and, probably, a better human being spiritually."
—Madeon

I'm not trying to defend but this is the first time, I'm hearing bad about Fabfilter Pro-Q2

Maybe the Studio one's DAW providing you a flat sound, that's what makes you think it's sounding bad. Try to EQ (FF ProQ2) an instrument and play it in Mac, You'll see the difference.

Mac's core audio always sounds so superior, I think it sounds colored (Not sure). The thing is you get a bright tone when you play in Mac. Whereas Windows default audio driver sounds so dull after you get used to mac's.

 

On Windows, I still use Electri-Q.
It's now discontinued but I really like its fantastically neutral sound. It just always does what I want.
And it's a CPU friend!

Watch out and you'll find ;)

 

DMGAudio EQuilibrium (ver 1.50 or higher) has many times better sound engine than DMGAudio EQuality/EQuick have, but EQuilibrium has a lot of settings, adjustments, more advanced.
FabFilter PRO-Q2 (ver. 2.03) is many times better than PRO-Q1
PSPaudioware NEON HR2
Plugin Alliance brainworx stuff
HOFA IQ-Eq
Voxengo CurveEQ/HarmoniEQ/GlissEQ....
Sonnox Oxford EQ
try also Nugen SEQ-S, Acon Equalize 1.1, Flux Epure eq, MeldaProduction (a lot of different eqs), apQualizr

there a lot of not bad eqs, maybe you also like iZotope Ozone 5/6 eq or some by WAVES

they all have disadvantages and advantages

also you should know that there are a lot of another ways to work with frequencies - multiband compression, dynamiq equalizers, exciters/enhancers...

 

My fault i said Fabfilter Pro-Q but i was thinking both v1 and v2

 

i know some pros use Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 like Fedde le Grand, but i always tend to trust my ears instead of the web. SOme pros always said that Logic sounds better than Ableton wich is false. Everyone has his own opinion

I should have S1 also on the mac part and also Fabfilter stuff i'll make some comparison. But if you use a good soundcard the sound coming from Windows and OSX should be exactly the same.

 

i know some pros use Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 like Fedde le Grand, but i always tend to trust my ears instead of the web. SOme pros always said that Logic sounds better than Ableton wich is false. Everyone has his own opinion

I should have S1 also on the mac part and also Fabfilter stuff i'll make some comparison. But if you use a good soundcard the sound coming from Windows and OSX should be exactly the same.

 

lot of suggestions, thanks!

 

thank you guys for all the suggestion, i'll try them all and see what sounds better

 

I was looking for a go-to eq a couple years ago, tried a bunch, all were cpu hogs, I ended up using Pro-Q (and then V2). I originally passed on DMG because the workflow didnt suit me.

Last night after seeing this thread I went back to DMG, really went through all their settings and found that you can set it up for the ultimate work flow. It also uses a hair less cpu than Pro-q2

I will be using Equality for tracks (that dont need M/S), Equick or Equilibrium for busses and Equilibrium for mastering.

Also my favourite EQ for boosting is the AOM TranQuilzr, it really is the most transparent EQ ever made - But its uses 2-3 times as much CPU as DMG, and the Linear phase mode will eat up a huge ass chunk of cpu. So I manly use it for vocals

 

+1 on Electri-Q
A lot of algos to choose from.
Colored or neutral.
Different phase handling.
Unlimited settings : you can even draw your own EQ curve.
...

If you want a cheap (free posihfopit version) and workflow killer, try it.
Too bad it stopped. It was years ahead of the competition...

About Pro-Q, there are some much settings ppl don't even know they exist

 

Studio one pro eq huh ?

 

ApQualizr

 

try TDR VoS SlickEQ as well