User Manual

Passive-Active Pack

 

Passive Equalizer

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Intro
Knobs
Buying Recommendations
Extended Features
Credits

 

Active Equalizer

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Intro
User Interface
Knobs
Buying Recommendations
Extended Features
Credits

 

Focusing Equalizer

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Intro
Work Flow
Knobs
Meters
Differences Between Passive and Active
Finally, a Note on Modeling
Extended Features
Credits

Intro

The Passive Equalizer, modeled from a Neumann PEV 930 console equalizer, has a very wide sound with a warm low end and a sparkling top. Excellent for adding that extra sparkle a track or a mix might need. The Mid set at 700Hz will give you a fat 70’s sounding snare drum. Technically speaking, the High and Low filters are more of a shelving type than a bell filter, and the Mid filter is widest at low frequency settings, while getting more sharp for higher frequencies. Since this is a passive circuit, all knobs will interfere with each other and changing something in the treble might do something in the bass or mid as well.

 

Knobs

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1. Low gain
2. Mid boost
3. Mid frequency
4. High gain
5. Output volume

Low Cut/Boost: This knob will either cut or boost the low frequencies. The original unit is labeled as if it boosts or cuts with 3dB steps at 60 Hz, but in reality it changes the frequency of a shelving filter so that the attenuation/ gain at 60 Hz will change. It would be more correct to label it with a fixed gain and a variable frequency, but we decided to leave it as it was on the original unit. And due to the non-ideal components in the unit, it does more things than that but that’s too technical to put in a user’s guide...

Presence (Gain Control): Use this to set the gain of the presence circuit in 2 dB steps (from 0 to +8 dB)

Presence (Frequency Selector): Set the center frequency of the presence circuit (0.7, 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4 and 5.6 kHz). The center frequency and gain have a tendency to move if you increase the High knob...

High Cut/Boost: Boost or cut the high frequencies. Just like the Low knob, this is more of a shelving type filter than a bell type. Boosting the High will change the character of the Presence.

Output: Output volume. Goes from nothing to +12 dB. At the 12 o’clock position, it’s set at 0 dB, and going clock wise will increase the output volume by +2 dB for each mark.

 

Buying Recommendations

If you like the sound of the Passive Equalizer and would like to get your hands on the real stuff (which is an excellently built and beautifully crafted unit), you should look for a Neumann PEV 930-00 console equalizer. It’s a fantastic sounding unit.

ALL PRODUCT NAMES USED ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS, AND IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES AN ASSOCIATION OR AFFILIATION WITH SOFTUBE. THE NEUMANN AND PEV TRADEMARKS ARE SOLELY USED TO IDENTIFY THE PRODUCTS WHOSE SOUND WAS STUDIED DURING THE SOUND MODELING DEVELOPMENT OF THE PASSIVE-ACTIVE PACK. NEUMANN® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF GEORG NEUMANN GMBH.

 

Extended Features

A whole range of added control can be accessed with Extended Features. Please see the separate "Extended Features" manual for more information.

 

Credits

Niklas Odelholm – Modeling and graphics design
Torsten Gatu – Concept
Oscar Öberg – Framework programming
Arvid Rosén – Framework programming
Ulf Ekelöf – Graphics rendering
Thanks to Stefan Fandén and the crew at Deluxe Music for letting us borrow the gear!

 

Intro

The Active Equalizer is modeled from a Swiss console equalizer, a Filtek Labo mk.5, with three adjustable bands, a low cut, and a high cut. It is a very solid construction and is very different from the Passive Equalizer. Where the knobs of the Passive Equalizer all influence each other (much like the tonestack of a guitar amp), the Filtek was built to minimize such effects. For instance, if you set the frequencies of the Low and Mid-filters so that they overlap, and cut both bands at –16dB, you won’t get a doubled effect (–32dB) – you will still just have a cut at around 16dB. This is very different from how other (especially digital) equalizers usually work. And it is of course a big part of its sound.

For more info about this product, please see the chapter about the Focusing Equalizer.

 

User Interface

The Active Equalizer has three full parametric bands, a low frequency band (50-500 Hz), a mid band (380-3800 Hz) and a high frequency band (1.8-18 kHz) all controlled with a gain control (-16 to 16 dB), a frequency selector and a width/bypass switch. You also get two cut filters (18 dB/oct) and an output volume control.

1. Low band

2. Mid band

3. High band

4. Output

5. Gain control

6. Frequency select

7. Width/Bypass select

8. Low cut

9. High cut

 

Knobs

The three bands are equal, apart from their frequency ranges, and they all contain a gain control (labeled “+ dB –“), a frequency control (labeled “Hz” for the Low and Mid band, and “kHz” for the High band), and a width and bypass control (the switch beneath the knobs).

Gain Control: Boost or cut in 2 dB steps (from –16 to +16 dB). Please note that all knobs are placed as if they are up side down. It isn’t our fault – the original looked that way!

Frequency Select: Use this to set the center frequency of the bands. Unlike most of our stuff, where we model a real unit with all its quirks and the labels never match reality, this sturdy unit actually does what it say it does!

Width/Bypass Select: The switch lets you select between a sharp curve (leftmost position), BYPASS (middle position) and a blunt curve (rightmost position).

Low Cut: An 18dB/octave filter with selectable bypass, ranging from BYPASS, 80 Hz, 180, 240, 320 to 500 Hz.

High Cut: An 18dB/octave filter with selectable bypass, ranging from 5 kHz, 8, 10, 12, 15 kHz and finally BYPASS in the 3 o’clock position.

Output: Output volume. Goes from nothing to +12 dB. At the 12 o’clock position, it’s set at 0 dB, and going clock wise will increase the output volume by +2dB for each mark.

Please note that all gain controls range from –16 to +16dB, which is a quite big range, so please take it easy with the gain controls. In many cases, 6 or 9dB is the maximum gain you’ll need.

 

Buying Recommendations

If you like the sound of the Active Equalizer and would like to get your hands on it, you should look for the Filtek Labo mk.5 console equalizer. It’s a remarkably small and versatile equalizer with a very distinct sound.

ALL PRODUCT NAMES USED ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS, AND IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES AN ASSOCIATION OR AFFILIATION WITH SOFTUBE. FILTEK AND LABO TRADEMARKS ARE SOLELY USED TO IDENTIFY THE PRODUCT WHOSE SOUND WAS STUDIED DURING THE SOUND MODELING DEVELOPMENT OF THE PASSIVE-ACTIVE PACK.

 

Extended Features

A whole range of added control can be accessed with Extended Features. Please see the separate "Extended Features" manual for more information.

 

Credits

Oscar Öberg – Modeling
Arvid Rosén – Modeling
Niklas Odelholm – Graphics design
Torsten Gatu – Concept
Ulf Ekelöf – Graphics rendering
Thanks to Stefan Fandén and the crew at Deluxe Music for letting us borrow the gear!

 

Intro

There are many equalizers out there. Some are extremely advanced with built-in spectrum analyzers and intelligent super modes. Others are simple and nothing more than your average digital equalizer. While some claim to possess super powers, the differences are usually just in the user interfaces, and not always in the sound. Others claim that there is only one way to make a digital equalizer, and therefore every digital equalizer sounds the same. That’s not true. Modeling a three band parametric equalizer is more than taking the three separate bands and putting them together. The real electronics interact with each other so that the sum becomes more than its parts, and this sum isn’t possible to re-create by stacking up a bunch of standard digital equalizers.

We set out to model two vintage equalizers as exactly as possible.The result are the PASSIVE and ACTIVE equalizer that are probably installed on your computer right now. The ACTIVE is the most traditional of the two. Use it as a standard equalizer and feel comfortable about it sounding the way the real gear does. The PASSIVE is a bit more quirky but just fantastic sounding. An excellent help when you need that glimmering high-end or warm low bottom or je ne sais quoi...

If you combine these two, you’ll get what we call the FOCUSING EQUALIZER. It is designed to be a fast and efficient work horse that immediately produces the desired results. The combination of three bands that automatically follows the High and Low cuts and a compressor-saturator-distortion-mojomaker-tool makes it great tool to tidy up and fix your tracks.

We hope that you’ll enjoy this set of equalizers and that you will find that they are excellent additions to your toolkit that will help you make great sounding music!

The Trio (“Passive-Active Pack”)

The FOCUSING EQUALIZER is a part of a trio together with the PASSIVE EQUALIZER and the ACTIVE EQUALIZER. The PASSIVE and ACTIVE have very different sounds, while this unit combines these two into a new type of equalizer with a classic sound. We can assure you that there are no other equalizer plug-ins that sound like these.

At a first glance, you will notice that these three units don’t look like your average equalizer, and at a closer inspection you’ll see that the knobs behave in a peculiar way. This is because we have chosen to keep the way the original units worked, and while it feels quirky in the beginning you will get used to it pretty fast.

The Story

The FOCUSING EQUALIZER was actually the main goal of this project. We have had the idea for a long time, and we developed prototype after prototype to try the concept. It sounded good, but we had a hard time getting the right character. While showing it to one of our main dealers in Stockholm he asked us what kind of filters we used and why we didn’t model a great sounding passive equalizer and put that inside the FOCUSING EQUALIZER instead of the off-the-shelf EQ algorithm we used in the prototype. At the store he had tons of equalizers and we listened to almost all of them, not really satisfied with what we heard. At the end of the visit he brings this Neumann and says, “Oh, I almost forgot this one. We had it here for some reparations, but the customer won’t notice if you borrow it for a while!” We fell instantly in love with the sound, and when we put it inside the FOCUSING EQUALIZER we immediately got what we had been looking for. One drawback with the Neumann is that is isn't very sharp, and sometimes difficult to use to really control and shape the sound. One of the runner-up equalizers we tried was the Filtek, but we didn't really want to model it because of the extreme complexity. Eventually (and with some persuasion from our testers) we realized that the Filtek was exactly the counterpart to the Neumann that was needed for the FOCUSING EQUALIZER and the PASSIVE-ACTIVE PACK.

What Is Unique About the Focusing Equalizer?

The combination of three bands that automatically follows the high and low cuts. So if you set your low cut at 2 kHz, the low band will automatically get a center frequency at or above 2 kHz. The mid band will have its center frequency somewhere between the high and low cut. Sounds easy enough?

The graph below shows two settings, using the active filter type. Low and High Bands are on full boost, and Mid Band on full cut. The difference between red and green graph is the settings of the Low and High Cuts, 50 Hz-12 kHz (green) and 200 Hz-10kHz (red), respectively. As you can see, the mid dip follows the settings of the cuts.

 

Work Flow

First of all, you should disregard the Saturation controls and only focus on the Low and High Cut faders. Try to set these so that you filter out all the unwanted parts of the signal. For most instruments other than bass and bass drum, you can go pretty high up with the Low Cut without really changing the sound. By setting the Equalizer Type to PASSIVE you will get a smooth and musical cut, while on the ACTIVE setting you get a more brutal filtering, more like a standard parametric equalizer.

Work Flow at a Glance

1. Set the frequency range with High and Low Cut. This will automatically change the frequencies of the Low, Mid and High bands).
2. Choose Equalizer Type (tip: start with Active)
3. Adjust the equalization (Low, Mid, and High Gain)
4. Toggle Equalizer Type to hear how the sound changes
5. Add some Saturation if needed.

Step 1: Frequency Range Adjust (Low and High Cut) and Equalization

After adjusting the High and Low Cut faders, the next step is to use the Low, Mid, and High Gain to shape the signal. These equalizer bands have been automatically set to natural frequencies within the selected frequency band. In practice, this means that the Low, Mid and High will always make sense.

Step 2: Set Equalizer Type

When you have set the right character of your track, you can toggle between the ACTIVE and PASSIVE Equalizer Type, to see what character you prefer. In general, the ACTIVE is most suitable for narrow, focused sounds, while the PASSIVE is more suitable for wider sounds. The PASSIVE has (in our ears) an acoustic feel with a typical 60’s glow, while the ACTIVE typically gives you a controlled 70’s hard hitting sound.

Step 3: Use the Saturation and Saturation Type

The Saturation knob is a very effective way of boosting the energy of the signal. You can use the small saturation meter in the top-left corner of the frequency range window to see how hard it is working. It is not necessary to use the saturation at all, but it is a very useful feature.

 

Knobs

1. Saturation
2. Low cut
3. High cut
4. Output volume
5. Saturation type
6. Low gain
7. Mid gain
8. High gain
9. Equalizer type

 

Saturation: Sets the amount of saturation. The saturation circuit is completely bypassed if the knob is set in the minimum position.

Saturation Type: With KEEP LOW you will be able to distort the track without getting a farty bass sound. KEEP HIGH will do the same, but for high frequency material. Neutral will not do anything special with either the high or low frequencies.

Low and High Cut: 6dB/octave (PASSIVE mode) or 18dB/octave filters (ACTIVE mode).

Low, Mid and High: Adjust the gain of the filters. The Low and High Gain will only boost the low and high frequencies. If you need to cut, you will have to use the Low and High Cut faders.

Equalizer Type: Choose between the PASSIVE type or an ACTIVE type equalizer. Affects all equalizer controls, but not the saturation circuit. You can also bypass the entire EQ circuit (and just use the saturation circuit) by setting this in the off position.

Output: Output volume. Goes from nothing to +12 dB. At the 12 o’clock position, it’s set at 0dB, and going clock wise will increase the output volume by +2 dB for each mark.

 

Meters

1. Saturation meter
2. Remote control indicator
3. Stereo indicator
4. Output Peak meter
5. Frequency range guides

 

The Focusing Equalizers have the following meters and status indicators.

Saturation Meter: This meter lights up whenever the saturation circuit is active and is adding saturation to the signal. Use this more as a visual indication than an absolute measurement of the amount of saturation.

Frequency Range Guides: These “tuner looking” guides help you see your selected frequency range.

Stereo Indicator: Lights up if the plug-in has been activated in stereo mode.

Remote Control Indicator (Pro Tools only): Whenever automation is used, or if and external control surface is connected, the Remote status indicator will light up and the (remotely controlled or automated) knobs will get a thin colored frame.

Output Peak Meter: The output peak meter is a fast peak meter with hold values. If you use the plug-in in mono mode the left and right meter will show the same mono signal on both meters.

 

Differences Between Passive and Active

This table highlights some of the differences between the three equalizers. Please note that there are a lot of other differences that make up for the characteristic sounds, and not many of these are easy to put in a table like this.

1. The Passive EQ doesn’t have any cutting bell filters.
2. “Constant Q” wasn’t defined at the time that the Filtek was built, but it shows many properties of a “Constant Q” equalizer.
3. The cut filters are shelving in the Passive Equalizer (due to parasitic resistance in the inductor) while this (unwanted?) property have been removed in the Focusing Equalizer.

 

 

Finally, a Note on Modeling

There are lots of buzzwords when it comes to recreating old gear in the digital domain. Many are those who claim they “model” stuff, few are those who actually do it. The advantage of real, component-based, physical/ mathematical modeling is that you capture the entire behavior of a unit in one big sweep. The disadvantage is that the math can get very complicated, even for circuits that doesn’t look complicated at all. Even a simple thing like a bypass (such as in the Filtek) is complicated and causes problems when modeled, and it would be easy for us to take a short cut and mimic stuff when the modeling gets tough. But we don’t do that at Softube, because we believe that you can hear the difference. So we do real modeling, for good and for worse.

 

Extended Features

A whole range of added control can be accessed with Extended Features. Please see the separate "Extended Features" manual for more information.

 

Credits

Niklas Odelholm – Modeling and graphics design
Torsten Gatu – Concept
Oscar Öberg – Framework programming
Arvid Rosén – Framework programming
Ulf Ekelöf – Graphics rendering
Thanks to Stefan Fandén and the crew at Deluxe Music for letting us borrow the gear