The Legendary Audio Masterpiece blew me away. I know it's been around for a while but I guess this was a new version with a price of about $12-14K.
The thing I really like about it is the band splitting (and I hate.... read 'fucking hate' multi band) The implementation of this was just stellar and totally usable.
I could see myself getting one.
From the website:
One of the important features of the MASTERPIECE is the 3 band INPUT FILTER system that is used everywhere except, of course, on the Equalizer sections themselves.
A choice of High Pass, Band Pass and Low pass filters is available for insertion into the path of MASTERPIECE Processing blocks: TAPE TEXTURE, AUX SEND, VARI-PHASE, CLASSIC, and COMPRESSOR.
When all three INPUT FILTER Push-Buttons are pressed, the mixed outputs of the filters are combined and mixed to the signal return path.
The filter slope is 12 dB/Octave and the crossover frequencies are defined at - 3dB.
High Pass and Low Pass Filters produce opposite phase polarities. In order to obtain a flat frequency response over the whole audio band when they are mixed, it is necessary to invert the phase of the mid or Band Pass section. (Similar to the problem in loudspeaker crossover networks). So a Phase Invert Push-Button is provided for the Band Pass filter.
The effect of doing this can be heard on some program material - depends on whether the signal content tends towards a sine wave, as with a soprano voice or whether there is large harmonic content that spreads into adjacent frequently bands.
This phase reversal over a limited range of frequencies can produce some interesting spatial effects particularly when the IMAGING features are used.
A choice of two crossover frequencies is provided. The complementary LP and HP crossover filter frequencies are both shifted to produce an overall flat response regardless of the crossover frequency chosen.
