Update:

• I posted images of the frequency responses of each of the plugins here.
• I also uploaded uncompressed wav files to soundcloud (as well as Zippyshare) with no reverb and posted screenshots of the plugins with the the settings applied here.

I was making some Vocaloid covers for fun recently and was looking for a good equalizer to give the rather stale vocals some life so decided to try out all the vintage hardware plug-ins I could find. This thread includes pretty much every SSL emulation in existence.

Processing
I used the “Tonio” Vocaloid library and the resulting vocals ended up having some annoying high frequency hiss so I couldn't really boost anything over 7 kHz. As a result I cut a lot of the low mids that was making the vocal sound muffled and boosted quite a bit in the high mids around 4-5 kHz. I used “VST Plugin Analyser” to try and match all the frequency curves between the plug-ins as closely as I could then applied those settings in Pro Tools.

Additional Processing
I de-essed the vocal and compressed the peaks slightly before equalization using FabFilter plugins. I then added a short 1.7 second reverb using Altiverb 7. I also put a FabFilter Pro-L limiter on the master bus and removed a decibel or so bringing the final signal up to -1.0 dBfs.



Thoughts
The only one that really jumps out at me is the McDSP Channel G with the subtle distortion it seems to apply to the audio. Waves has a nice crispiness to it and Duende is probably the smoothest of the tests. Native Instruments, T-Racks, and the two Nebula libraries by AlexB sound pleasant as well. I probably wouldn't use Slate, eaReckon, or URS though. For my purposes I will probably look further into Neve, Pultec, or API emulations to get something with a bit more character than a SSL equalizer. Please share your favorites of the above EQs.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2017

It would be interesting if you also throw sand in there from acoustica audio...You can demo it just for the occasion .
Thanks for the work I'll have a listen and vote.

 

For a character EQ you might want to try DDMF 6144 - Neve Portico emu. Even though the new GUI makes me want to puke. I prefer the old GUI:



New GUI [fucken hell, he probably lost his eyesight or something?...] and demo at the DDMF page: http://ddmf.eu/6144-equalizer-plugin/ But the plugin sounds absolutely the same, both old and new versions, of course.
Interesting shootout.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2017

Nice test. But i still have my beloved Console 1 SSL 40000 as my go to SSL.

 

1) Lol at the Vocaloid, for doing comparisons on a "vocal".
2) I have a real SSL G4000+ in the studio, so I can do some real comparison. But the whole "Vocaloid + Soundcloud 128kbps shit mp3" ruins the whole thing.

If you had a good lossless vocal recording (with good mic, pre, converters, etc), I could quickly do a real SSL EQ export...and you could redo the plugin rundown. And then upload lossless wav, for everyone to take part of.

 

I appreciate the sentiments and your testing efforts, but i 100% agree with @Baxter , you need to test it on organic material that has proper dynamics and transitions (breathing etc).

 

Using eq to smooth everything out defeats the whole test for me as now I have no idea of the true character of the units. How each pass signal is what we are supposed to judge, and now it is all but impossible. It is all about those sexy curves. The even playing field should just be the same exact settings with no compensation except for possibly matching output levels. The same holds true with adding the reverb to entirely comprimise the entire exercise. The eq of the reverbs trump the signal passing through. Wav files are important also. We have no basis from which to acccuritely judge the units.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 24, 2017

Yes...like @Baxter said, only comparison would be real vs emulation otherwise who could give you correct reply apart from personal preference.

 

You should add Acustica Audio's Sand to the list.

 

I could export them all as wav files without reverb if you all want. The same exact pre and post eq signal chain was used for all of the files though.

Here are images of the frequency curves for each of the plugins.

Spoiler: Waves SSL G Channel

Spoiler: Waves SSL Channel

Spoiler: URS S Series EQ

Spoiler: URS S Mix EQ

Spoiler: T-RackS CS White Channel

Spoiler: T-RackS CS British Channel

Spoiler: SSL Duende Native SSL Channel

Spoiler: Slate Digital VMR FG-S

Spoiler: Native Instruments Solid EQ G

Spoiler: Native Instruments Solid EQ E

Spoiler: McDSP Channel G

Spoiler: Eareckon ANALOG87 PR-EQUA 87

Spoiler: AlexB Modern Logic eQ

Spoiler: AlexB Classic Logic eQ

@Baxter "Lol at the Vocaloid, for doing comparisons on a "vocal"."

I was going to put "shitty vocal" in the heading but even a shitty vocal is a vocal. I was looking for a character equalizer to make the vocal a little less shitty though. I didn't know soundcloud converted everything to 128kbps though. I exported as 320kbps to try to get the most resolution in these files but I guess uncompressed wav files would have been better.​

@superliquidsunshine "Using eq to smooth everything out defeats the whole test for me as now I have no idea of the true character of the units."

I didn't use any post eq on the audio what I did was tweak the knobs on the individual plugins until the resulting frequency spectrum was pretty much the same. This lead to vastly different settings on all the plugins as they each behaved a little differently.​

@WillTheWeirdo "You should add Acustica Audio's Sand to the list."

Acustica Audio's Sand is probably the exact same as AlexB's Modern or Classic Logic eQ just with a shinny user friendly interface thrown on top of it; I believe AlexB's libraries have been used for most of the Acustica Audio plugins.​

As for the "real vs plugin" debate, that wasn't really the intention of this test as hardware will almost always sound better. If anything the Nebula libraries should be almost 100% identical to the hardware for equalizers due to their unique sampling process. I was really just looking for the most musical of the plugins available.

Listening to the examples with fresh ears today I might have thinned the vocal out a bit too much, I would probably reduce the cuts and boosts by 10-20% for the final production.

I will do another round of audio without the reverb later today and upload the wav files to Zippyshare for those of you who are truly curious.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2017

Here are screenshots of the various plugins with the settings I applied with them.

Spoiler: Waves SSL G Channel

Spoiler: Waves SSL Channel

Spoiler: URS S Series EQ

Spoiler: URS S Mix EQ

Spoiler: T-RackS CS White Channel

Spoiler: T-RackS CS British Channel

Spoiler: SSL Duende Native SSL Channel

Spoiler: Slate Digital VMR FG-S

Spoiler: Native Instruments Solid EQ G

Spoiler: Native Instruments Solid EQ E

Spoiler: McDSP Channel G

Spoiler: Eareckon ANALOG87 PR-EQUA 87

Spoiler: AlexB Modern Logic eQ

MLeQ LFs nd, 453.7 Hz, -1.67 dB
MLeQ MM nd, 794.0 Hz, -5.67 dB, 1.65 Q
MLeQ HM full, 5156 Hz, +9.25 dB, 2.5 Q
MLeQ HFb nd, 10526 Hz, -6.27 dB
MLeQ HPF nd, 80.93 Hz

Spoiler: AlexB Classic Logic eQ

CLeQ LFs nd, 450.0 Hz, -2.46 dB
CLeQ MM nd, 0.60 kHz, -4.93 dB, 1.44 Q
CLeQ HM full, 4.16 kHz, +8.51 dB, 1.92 Q
CLeQ HFb nd, 9.29 kHz, -3.36 dB
CLeQ HPF nd, 80.97 Hz

I also uploaded wav files to soundcloud and disabled the reverb so you can hear more of the dry signal.

You can download the wav files from Zippyshare here:

Code:

http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/tjleWtNB/file.html
http://www64.zippyshare.com/v/93k0HOek/file.html

 

Thank's for all the hard work. I really think your's is a great and useful undertaking, and I applaud you for listening to and acting on the feedback that came your way.

 

It really isn't ! You should test it and put it in the list. I will be voting but only if Sand gets included. I'm sorry to reiterate, that's why I suggested you tested it in the first place, there is obviously something missing here. It is my favorite ssl recreation, and I also have AlexB one's. They can't be the same. Sand uses the latest acustica techs, AlexB's ones were made for Nebula3 with its limitations, diffrent persons made them from different unit.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2017