So I finally have had enought time with these to not think they sound good on everything....hehehe
I recently purchased a pair of Quad Eight EQ 712 panel eqs. Ive seen them called cinema eqs and motown eqs and magic umpa lumpa eqs but Ill stick with inductor based graphic eqs. They are supposedly from the Warner Bros board used by Frank Jones Jr. who now owns castle oaks recording (and sold them to the gentleman I purchased them from). The interesting thing to me is they have the high EQ marked 6400 (voice setting) vs the 8200 (music setting)- though this pair was modified for the music setting at 8200. All of the other pairs Ive seen are marked 8200. Since these sound ESPECIALLY good in the mids and on vox, I wonder if theres a correlation or if the ONLY difference is the one band. Plus there is NO marking on the panel for quad eight or electrodyne. The only place you see quad eight is on the circuit board and it looks like it was written with solder... Mine are gold and NOT the orange color you often see- I wonder how many colors these came in! Also one is marked 1 and one is marked 10- I know the seller originally had more than one pair... Did they have 10 of these monsters on a single board at Warner Bros?
The specifics-
Eq- graphic inductor based
712- 7 bands with +/- 12 db
EQ points-
65 160 400 1000 2200 4500 6400/8200
The sound- wierd. Amazing but wierd. I say wierd because of the way things sound if the eq is active but zero'ed. It does the coolest smooth emphasis thing to the mids and upper mids while tightening up the bottom. I love it on vox and drum OH/bus, but then again I have a thing about quad eight and drums. Actually I love it on anything with need for mid emphasis. The top is nice but a little smooth- great for flavor but not much else, but thats a good thing for the upper mids. The bottom is solid and tight and awesome for a dip at 65 to clear things out. But its all about the mids for me.
As for stereo- Ive been using it on the drum bus, acoustic guitar bus ( its awesome on those when you actually need a bus for that)and the mastering bus (not the master bus for mix). I master as I am asked but I am not a mastering engineer. If I put it on the master bus I prefer it zero'ed, inline followed by a GML 8200 for actual correction. Its just flavor at that point but I really like it and its replaced my MM61s for bus flavor 90% of the time. On drum OH and acoustic its all about cutting below 1000 and plus 2-3 dbs on 1000 and above- you can push it pretty hard without it getting too squeely/ringy- easily 6 to 9 dbs. And the GML can be a little hard but after the EQ 712 its just brilliant.
Overall Im very impressed with its sound. Its extremely usefull in the way it sculpts the sound the minute its in line. I can't wait for my next VO! I bet these will sound AWESOME on VO- its those damn mids!
Initially, I over eq'ed everything to hear the eq's signature as much as possible. I did eventually find my happy zone in the +/-3db range but easily have pushed to 6 db and love it. Of course after pushing everything I decided to try cutting and its of course even better... I like to push eveything hot then drop all the points down relatively, some cut and some boost, which sounds great- and way smoother as expected. Its also a great glue for any bus!
I wouldn't track anything but drum OH with this eq and even then it would be zero'ed- maybe a slight push in the highs. This EQ has been on the drum bus constantly but Ive come to get more picky about that. Sometimes its just too wide. I had an acoustic guitar track thats bothered me for 2 years ( never ending project from hell ) and it cured the issue completely. Think about it- smooth top and mid emphasis without mud on the bottom- hell that IS an acoustic guitar! Or a nice sounding one anyway! And the last thing is on vox- I love it on vox. LA2A to EQ 712 to 1176 is just awesome. The LA2A gives a big signal to cut away at with the EQ then 1176 for peaks and balance- perfect.
Of course its not perfect everytime but it does fill a wonderful slot in my studio and is the antithesis of the GML. It has transformer I/O (UTCs) and its definitely a color piece but in a very usefull way. Between the EQ 712, the GML and MDW in PT I am done with eqs- I'd love more but I don't need more. Of course there always the 1073s and the MM61 as well but they are always linked to the preamp! (eqs listed for relativity)
Sorry for the long babble but Im lovin these EQs! I posted this mainly because I couldn't find a damn thing about these on the interweb! I would LOVE to hear from anyone else who has used these specific models before- not the edyne/Q8 712 pre/eqs. And feel free to say they suck! Any info especially from the old schoolers when this stuff was new!
I just bought an RCA 44bx and I can't WAIT to hear the eq 712 carving that RCA meat! Its been a good couple months for the studio! Now if the f'ing stock market would just let go of my balls...