About 9 or 10 years ago I paid an arm and a leg for a mix and master job which was released on a respectable label and still absolutely love the sound of that record, so now I would like to try to capture some of that essence in some new songs that are of a similar vibe. I have tried Ableton stock plugins, spectrum, EQ8 and also FF ProQ, but that one was a while ago (I think it was v3?) and I deleted it from my plugins because I found it just so so. Is there anything out today that is easy to use, accurate and sounds great? Or maybe something old that I haven't tried yet.

 

Hm, maybe: Ik Multimedia Master match, iZotope match eq. You can also try to capture the curve through iZotope Audio Lens, and then use it in iZotope Ozone 11, but disable additional modules if you do not need them. This is the first option that came to mind. But there are some other plugins, but I can't remember yet.

 

The easiest one currently is Melda MFreeFormEqualizer (or pretty much any eq from Melda). You can even export the result to an IR wav file. Eq matching (or capturing) bliss.

They even released a new plugin called MMatcher , but I haven't tested it yet.
I don't remember why but it's harder with iZotope and FabFilter eqs. I think FabFilter only allows doing it by sidechaining, for instance.

 

Many people are often disappointed by the results of EQ Matching when using them from a completed track to their completed track. The results tend to be far more subtle than they expect.

But there is nothing "so-so" about Fabfilter Pro-Q4 (or Pro-Q3). That plugin is considered the "gold standard" by many, and at least a studio staple of digital eq's for most others. There are few others worth mentioning in the same discussion.

For a "better" Match, try DMG Equilibrium. When you first launch it after installing, it asks a few setup preferences questions. Pick the Usage option Master at the bottom of the list. "Single Instances, Highest Quality in the Universe, fully featured". Do all the work manually, and then return to Fabfilter or other with auto options. (or Logic's Match EQ, in my case).

 

Ozone 5 (older versions have only Lin-Phase matching). V5 is best from Ozone's.
TBT Cabinetron
Ayaic COS PRO.

Period.