I'm looking for a very "transparent" eq for mastering.

I would like to try several Eqs and compare them.
Which ones do you recommend ?

I do not use UAD or Acustica.

Thanks

 

Don't miss Acon Digital Equalize, you might find you have everything you need with this, and (also importantly) nothing you don't to distract and annoy you. Capable of going from linear phase to minumum phase, to anything inbetween continuously, so you decide what flavor you want with what you're working on. It also does those weird "new tech" curves where you can manually tweak the falloff shape on each side of your bell, which are surprisingly useful for surgical bass area adjustments and other things in mastering.

 

Wouldn't they all (vst equalizers) work exceptionally, as far as acoustic quality goes?

 

When I want simple clear compression Waves R Comp, but for eq I always use something else. Probably an equalizer.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 5, 2020

^ :
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/spl_passeq.html

 

Fabfilter EQ and Steinberg Frequency

 

Op is asking for EQ...

 

Are you *that* confident in your mixes?
I'd recommend TDR SlickEQ M. It can be as transparent as you want, but then it also can subtly excite the material and thus be actually useful in a realistic mastering situation. Notice that excitement is completely optional. It's also deceptively cheap. Should've cost ten times its actual price feature- and quality-wise.

Also I'm surprised there's no MAATheads in the thread. Guess the EQs of their dreams weren't quite the beasts they imagined.
But what's even more surprising is Pro-Q 3 not being the first answer and a *complete* absence of iZotope. That's what really puzzles me. Maybe people went to bed or something.

 

any recent digital eq does its job!
for me the best are those that allow me, thanks to their features, to get the result quickly and easily. FabFilter pro q3 is perfect, it has an excellent spectrum analyzer, infinite filter options, mid side, all phase options, the auto gain switch that I turned on by default! big and clear interface, and since they added the dynamic eq I have stopped using other eqs with that function. It simply has no flaws

 

my GML 8200

 

UAD AMS NEVE channel strip. BX digital V3. massenberg. Equivocate

 

For mastering, or when I need to keep the sonic signature sound as faithful as possible, but needs a bit of correction to say fit the other songs on the album I use one of these: DMG EQuality in linear phase mode, Voxengo CurveEQ, or Fabfilter Pro-Q2 in linear phase mode. I prefer one of the first two.

Other options you might like? PSP Neon HR, PSP MasterQ2, TDR SlickEQ Mastering.

I don't care what it looks like and marketing mambo-jumbo, just what it sounds like and what the specs and VST analyser tells me. For transparent mastering, the EQ should be linear phase, with oversampling and proper both analogue frequency AND phase curves. In this case phase should be completely linear, of course. No cheating there.

Cheers!

 

The native EQs from Reaper, Logic, Cubase etc. are usually very transparent! I use Reapers ReaEQ 90% of the time and the rest Fabfilters Pro Q-3. I guess MAATs thEQorange and thEQred should be the most transparent but the difference is probably not noticeable by human ears and in my experience they are just CPU hogs and are prone to crashing DAWs for different reasons.

 

Brilliant hardware EQ, but not transparent. He was asking for a transparent EQ. Software is unbeatable for that.

However, I'd use your GML probably at anytime, for anything.

 

Fabfilter.

 

What do you guys think of the Sie-Q by Soundtoys ? is this a "transparent" or "coloring" eq,according to your opinion ?
Thank you in advance & have a great day everyone ^^^^^

 

it is an excellent eq, but absolutely not transparent. its harmonic distortion is great anyway!

 

Opinion, huh? It's right in the description on their site, you know.

It saturates by design, what's the point of asking?

 

^

^ this :
The stand out feature of Sie-Q, like the original, is its amazing high end. It adds space and air, and feels perfect on any track, no matter how much you boost. Turn up the High knob to breathe life into vocals, or pull it back on bright acoustic guitars and cymbals to create a silky sheen.
^ does this statement sound "transparent" or "coloring" ?

 

Oh, I think I get where you're going. Lots of people indeed call something "transparent" simply if they like the sound.
This is especially evident when there's a talk about different EQ's high ends. There are almost always a bunch of people who call Acustica Audio's EQs "the most transparent high-end on the market", when in fact they actively excite their whole spectrum.

Spoiler

And bashing Pro-Q 3 for "introducing artifacts", when in fact their own high end isn't mixed properly and all Pro-Q does is simply making their mistakes louder.

That being said, transparent means "does nothing to harmonics". So Sie-Q a coloring EQ. It is as far from transparent EQ as it could be without being a saturator, I'd say.