Pulsar Audio just released a new Neumann w495 vinyl cutting/mastering EQ emulation, and they are giving it away for free until October 31st, 2023.

https://pulsar.audio/w495/

It's iLok'd, so some of you might want to wait to install it until it's available on the sister site.

 

Video offers absolutely no useful information about what the plugin offers or, how it reacts to audio material.

Will wait to see if it gets posted to avoid iLok hoop jumping.

 

Same here! I still "bought" it just so I have it on my account

 

downloaded ok with a bs email address, installed fine on High Sierra. "ilok hoops" took about 30 seconds. tested shortly, sounds nice but probably nothing that will be groundbreaking to anybody.

On a ilok comedy note, when installed in Logic it shows up in a new Menu Item just called "Pulsar", not "Pulsar Modular"; so for about 10 seconds I thought it might have wiped out the other plugins.

Looks like it took the witches about as long to deal with ilok.

 

Last edited: Sep 15, 2023

Overloud has this EQ. I don't think it's really useful for anything, but has a nice saturation

 

its already on the SS.... and damn it was fast

 

I like Overloud version, it's transparent and smooth for smiley EQ. Pulsar version seems to be the same but even more transparent (no noise floor simulation). The high shelf has nice dip on the highest end. Luca Pretolesi is a fan of this EQ on Masterbus, and said the same thing about its smooth the high end. He also mentioned the dip in one of his video. I think it's the FaderPro one, watched it last century can't remember much.

I believe, it has to do with the effective bandwidth the EQ covers, since it's an old one. GML & Sontec EQ were among the first one that covers up higher bandwidth and this 495 was way before that era. I think Neve EQs effective bandwidth is only up to 16kHz and it rolls off after but never shows this behaviour on its high shelf.

Both EQs, +6db @ 14kHz. Pulsar W495 seems to be doing it more. The center frequency of the shelf is likely way above the Nyquist but both showing similar dip. It's unique to this EQ and I never seen anything like this on other EQ.




One weird thing about the Pulsar W495, it has some weird low bump at 4Hz that seems not to change when you apply higher OS on the plugin. When you increase the OS on PD, simulating higher working sample rate on DAW, it decreases and eventually become a shelf like curve at 16x.

Flat setting, 0 OS on Plugin Doctor + 2x OS on plugin :


Flat settings,16x OS on Plugin Doctor + 2x OS on plugin :


Overloud version seems more consistent and the only thing that changes when you increase the oversampling is the curves become wider and smoother. They even discourage the usage of OS on the EQ, which I never turn on because the trust I have in them lol

 

Last edited: Sep 15, 2023

Pardon my asking, but what is the SS please?

 

Sister Site..?

 

Since it's by Pulsar Audio this would've been a surprise anyways.

 

There's a PD screen shot in its manual - down to 20Hz. Guess why.

 

Those bumps are usually caused by transformer saturation modelling, and this is why you can't use the linear analysis tab to show what is actually happening. Most EQs that have transformer saturation modelled have those "bumps" when you look at them through the linear analysis tab. You need to view it in the Hammerstein tab to see what is happening. Looking at non-linear plugins in the linear analysis tab will only give you a false representation of what is happening.

The reason for this seems to be that when you don't use oversampling (@48khz), the resonant peaks for the transformer saturation are centered around 25-35Hz.




When you set it to 8x OS, on the other hand, those peaks shift down in frequency to presumably around 4-5Hz (PD can't show it properly):


They shouldn't shift down in frequency when using a different sample rate, so I'm thinking that this might be a bug. Even so, the "low end bumps" you were seeing in the linear analysis aren't actually there as they are just artifacts caused by the saturation. If you want too see the actual frequency response of a non-linear plugin, you have to go to the Hammerstein tab and look at the purple line (G1) that represents the 1st order/base harmonic.

 

that was my whole point.

 

I've seen that saturation plugins often have DC offset issues in the very low end. Is this a similar issue here?

 

Tested from sister site post. Not impressed at all. Seems no better than a good stock EQ imho.

Edit:
Just came across this video comparing hardware to software. Hardware has a richer/fuller tone than the plugin to my ears.

 

Last edited: Sep 16, 2023

I don't want to start a discussion (again) about those bumps on analog emulations, but yes, Pulsar nailed this one I hope more devs can actually see this to improve the accuracy of the circuitry on the digital domain

EDIT: it changes with the SR? Oh fuck

 

The only pulsar product I own is the Echo, it's really good. I will try this when I get in

 

Too bad I got this error:
Error 503 Backend fetch failed

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 15, 2023

But the real question is: How does it compare to Pulsar Modular P440?

 

Last edited: Sep 15, 2023

It's because of asymmetric distortion (e.g "tube" or "transformer" distortion). If they don't use a DC filter to fix it it can cause DC offset. All of Pulsar's plugins that are non-linear use a DC filter tho, so there's no DC offset.