So another "big shot" endorsement, that comes with the BF sales (130€ for now, twice as much later).
Not fan of those, but El Rey was great so maybe this one will be too, and it's co-made with DMI studio who have already done one of my favorite EQ (Diamond EQ). Even the design looks a bit alike.

Anyway here are the details.

ACQUA - Pensado EQ
Acustica Audio and Studio DMI have joined forces with Grammy®-winning mix engineer Dave Pensado (Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé) to create a brand new, powerful EQ plug-in for the contemporary mixing engineer. The 'Pensado EQ' is the first VST/AU/AAX plug-in ever released carrying the signature of Dave Pensado, who is not only one of the biggest names in the music industry but also co-hosts the most successful weekly show focusing on everything audio and music production, 'Pensado's Place'.



Dave's experience at your fingertips
The Pensado EQ is the result of a scrupulous - almost obsessive - analysis of all those fine details that characterise Dave's unique workflow and approach to mixing. It sports four strategically selected frequency bands, LP/HP filters and two selectable preamplifiers for extended analogue flavour.

Each frequency band emulates different hardware machines that Dave has used over the years and have contributed to crafting his sonic trademark. It took months of hard work, but we finally managed to condense Dave's long-established experience into a single processor.




The perfect tool for modern productions
Thanks to its intelligent layout, the Pensado EQ is designed to be your primary digital mixing tool, letting you quickly dial in the proper settings for any track. Plus, thanks to Dave's own carefully programmed presets, you always have a solid starting point to start mixing your songs.

The Pensado EQ is exceptionally versatile. While it is perfectly capable of vintage-style mojo, its real focus is the sought-after sound of modern Hip-Hop, Pop and Electronic productions. Now you can give punch to your kicks, weight to your bass, sheen to your vocals and body to your instruments with a few simple moves.




Pensado EQ plugin GUI

https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/products/pensadoeq

 

Giancarlo gave a few more details on GS about how it was done :

"That's all I can say on the subject:
- We've sampled a lot of new hardware outboards.
- we have experimented and tested as many software solutions as the hardware ones, trying to understand the strengths and weaknesses.
- each frequency you see in the equalizer (I refer to every possible position of the equalizers) corresponds to a different simulation, to a different sampling. The difficult thing was to make them coexist.
- The final samples were heavily edited. We reduced the roll-off, solved the problem in the infrasonic range. The main problem was to bring all the interventions to a similar range of interventions, also taking into account the intermediate positions.
- In some cases, Dave's tricks have made some frequencies unique (especially when taking into account the initial phase, which comes from sampling).
- in any case, the hardware we have sampled corresponds to new gear that we have never sampled. I personally have gone a long way in this direction, to avoid creating duplication of software of something that we already had in the catalog. This was also Dave's main fear (the fear of repeating something we had already released). We sampled so many new outboards that we could create at least 4 new products


In the face of all this, it is very difficult to talk about "emulations", or specific machines. In some cases we have evaluated many alternatives for the same frequency range, looking for the combination that would make the plugin coherent.
To achieve this
- we have received a very large number of inputs from Dave
- we have often had to work hard to translate some ideas into a product. Luca himself (Pretolesi, Studio DMI) has worked hard because Dave in some cases had in mind a sound or a specific machine, but then in the product did not give the desired result or had characteristics too similar to another frequency. This is a typical case that happened in the high frequencies.
- Stedal (Stefano Dall'Ora) worked incessantly for a few months, trying to arrange the samples at each subsequent review, to take into account new ideas or solve problems. Stefano's work has also been decisive
- in some cases, Stefano had to build specific hardware objects to realize some ideas
- in some cases, we had to heavily edit the samples to make each individual band approaching and unique.

I suggest you read the manual, we have published all the graphs. The manual is particularly nice, it even worked as a cartoonist and we worked together to build what for us could be a small work of art. We put a lot of love into this product, into every step of the process, into every detail. It really behaves like 24 different plugins.
The product is also very light, and fast."

 

blah, blah, blah. Yet another cpu hog from Acustica. This will do nothing for anyone who buys it.

 

Sure. You can lead a donkey to water but you can't make him drink it.

 

I love Acustica plugins, def. going to give this a try.

 

It looks like the stops on a Novachord.

I mean OK, the great smell of lard, but this looks like Toys R Us. One day I'll try it. No rush.

 

5:21 "It doesn't take a lot of CPU". D.Pensado.

 

Last edited: Nov 29, 2019

sure, it depends on what cpu/ram power you´ve got

 

Computer config absolutely comes into play indeed, the daw used also. Even the acqua we're talking about is important. Things like Taupe, the reverb (Ebony) or Crimson (distortion/saturation unit), all the fxs in fact, are hard on the cpu no matter what. The full strips usually are, some way more than others (any that have complex routing system included usually are). Individual units (indiv eqs, comps or pres) are all usually alright.
Some are particularly CPU friendly - well that's considering we're talking about Acustica tech, IRs, etc - and it's the case with the studio DMI ones (Diamond, Lift and now Pensado EQ), which are the more cpu efficient of every acquas. It's because of their designs, always very simple, that's how L.Petrolesi likes his tools, very intuitive and simple.

 

What is the size of this plugin? AA plugins are usually large.

 

Seriously, wtf is this. All of the crap that they are saying and talking about in the video... wtf does that have ANYTHING to do with an EQ plugin? It's like they are just throwing around buzzwords and cult of personality BS. I used to really like Acustica but it is becoming more and more approaching Emperor's New Clothes levels of ridiculousness.

 

Around 500mb I believe

 

I pulled a wallet muscle on the other items on the AA BF sale so my mix will be Pens-less for a bit. Now to divert some funds to getting a computer that can actually run this stuff..

 

Ill buy it simply to support Pensando, Dudes dished out Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of education through all his videos.
Least i can do.
Plus.. might actually de dope. Pensando is pretty well looked up to in the community, Id hope he wouldnt put his name on crap..
although he does endorse alot LOL

 

use reaper

 

I wish I could afford that kind of thinking!
My thoughts are if I buy it, it will simply be to use it & help support myself.

 

Seems like a more versatile version of the diamond eq and probably also more refined sounding. No M/S option? Or are there several modules included for M/S?

 

Just got Diamond EQ3 on last sale for like 30€. Not buying this one for the time being!

 

Bought this one and Brigton compressor. This is my whole Black Friday