My favorite analog one that is in my rack right now is my Medici. I actually think this is one of Neve's most under rated design. Probably between people being shy about the Amek name, that most knobs aren't detented (and instead sides are matched by using kind of an eccentric but cool design - there's a pink noise generator that you can switch on so that you can find the exact null point for each band by making tiny sweeps to one of the sides), the fact that there are few IC's lurking on the insides, and maybe more importantly that there just weren't that many of them made has kept this as a "sleeper" unit - only other ME I know of that has it in their rack is Howie Weinberg (and I really don't know how much he uses his).
The thing I love about it is that you can go ape doo-doo with midrange boosts and things will still sound totally smooth - "creamy" even. That - and it offers a lot of versatility - it's possible to be subtle or surgical with it and it has a nice variety of colors that you can switch in with it's "warm" and "sheen" buttons.
Only thing lacking on it for me is that the bottom end is more "roundish" or "pillowy" so if I want to get a nice hard edge to make things like kick drums on a hip-hop track really thump I usually turn to my Neumann's or Filtek's.
Definitely have interest at this point in checking out the Lil FreQ as it seems to offer a lot of features for a price point that I could actually fit into our studios budget, and seems to be getting really nice reviews. Only way to find out though is to hear one.
If cash was no object I'd probably add both an SPL PQ (as the motorized recalls would actually be a plus feature for me since with vinyl mastering snap shot automation is the way to go) and a Massive Passive.
My fantasy eq would be 6 channels analog (either using for 4 channels for vinyl transfer or the 6 for surround), with 2 shelving filters, LPF, HPF and 5 parametric bands completely software controlled and snap shot automateable. Again - in vinyl mastering for quickest work flow all processing is done on load out and usually a per track snap shot automation keyed in real time is how it's handled - but this kind of limits you mainly to digital eq's. Having this handled in the analog realm easily with the same flexibility as the digital stuff would be awesome for me. I kind of imagine something like the Gamble DCX foh console -
http://www.gambleboards.com - except with the signal path made mastering caliber.
Favorite digital eq currently is the JMS Audioware Hi-Res -
http://www.jms-audioware.com/eq_saw.htmHey - here's another test for the gear snobs - this plug goes for $75. The important point for me in using this is that the SAWStudio version is 100% easily automateable, but the fact that it processes at 64bit double precision float doesn't hurt either. Not something I ever use for big boosts or cuts - more of for minor tweaks per section or phrase just prior to load out when I need to get this done quickly. I'm currently beta testing a new SAWStudio native eq from Sonoris that seems to have a lot of promise. Based on testimonials I definitely want to check out the Algorithmix EQ - although to me over a g is a lot to spend on a plug with no automation - so I don't know whether I would bite or not.
Best regards,
Steve Berson
