Hi,

I am looking into opening a mastering room. What is the best
mulit-detent EQ????
I know GML is great.... Although I have been hearing everything Prism
makes is amazing!! Avalon seems to have become the most popular of
all gear(judging by how it is everywhere), and even though it is new,
Cranesong is always great. So I ask you, which one do you use???
Which have you tried, and what is the most surgicial of them all????
Thanks-Kris

Kris Singh wrote:

I am looking into opening a mastering room. What is the best
mulit-detent EQ????
I know GML is great.... Although I have been hearing everything Prism
makes is amazing!! Avalon seems to have become the most popular of
all gear(judging by how it is everywhere), and even though it is new,
Cranesong is always great. So I ask you, which one do you use???

I have an ancient Sontec and one of the Millennia Media boxes.

I have also used the GML and the older Orban mastering version.
For a long time I had a Cello.

Right now I like the Millennia NSEQ-2 best; the dual signal path
has turned out to be handy occasionally although I almost always
prefer the solid-state make-up gain stage. The steps are kind of
large and I cannot get as tight a Q with it as I occasionally want,
but it can be amazingly transparent when it needs to be.

I don't think you'll go wrong with the Millennia OR the GML. The
Sontecs can be cleaned up to be more transparent than they were
stock, but they are almost unmaintainable today now that Burgess
doesn't want to touch them.

I haven't used the Prism, but I really love their converters.
The one time I played with the Avalon, it didn't seem as clean
as some of the other stuff but I don't really have enough experience
with it to say.

All of these manufacturers will let you borrow gear and try it
out so you can get a feel for yourself. (Okay, Orban and Cello
won't loan you their discontinued gear, but everyone else will
loan you current production stuff).
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Kris Singh wrote:

Hi,

I am looking into opening a mastering room. What is the best
mulit-detent EQ????

So far you've gotten two responses that were pushing the NSEQ-2... which
doesn't have detents, so it really doesn't fit a response to your
question.

FWIW, the GML-9500 is the most flexible, largest sounding equalizer I
have ever used. A couple of people I know, Dave Collins and Joe Lambert
have picked the Prism over the GML... why, I dunno, but they did. I'm
not a mastering engineer by a long shot... but on the off occasion when
I'm the poor ******* that has to try to attempt it for someone with no
money and a bad attitude... I generally reach for the GML 9500... the
IBIS is very cool, and highly flexible, but as far as "pure" equalizers
go, I've not found anything I have preferred to the 9500

Best of luck with your search.
--
Fletcher
Mercenary Audio
TEL: 508-543-0069
FAX: 508-543-9670
http://www.mercenary.com
"this is not a problem"

Fletcher wrote:
Kris Singh wrote:

Hi,

I am looking into opening a mastering room. What is the best
mulit-detent EQ????

So far you've gotten two responses that were pushing the NSEQ-2... which
doesn't have detents, so it really doesn't fit a response to your
question.

It has detents on the cut and boost controls. It does not have detents on
the Q or frequency controls, which can be kind of annoying at times when you
are trying to match channels, but which can also be very nice when you are
doing very sharp notches because you can move them right on the center.
I think it's sort of the best of both worlds.

The Orban also had detented cut and boost controls while the Q and frequency
were infinitely adjustable.

FWIW, the GML-9500 is the most flexible, largest sounding equalizer I
have ever used. A couple of people I know, Dave Collins and Joe Lambert
have picked the Prism over the GML... why, I dunno, but they did. I'm
not a mastering engineer by a long shot... but on the off occasion when
I'm the poor ******* that has to try to attempt it for someone with no
money and a bad attitude... I generally reach for the GML 9500... the
IBIS is very cool, and highly flexible, but as far as "pure" equalizers
go, I've not found anything I have preferred to the 9500

I don't think you'd go wrong with any of these boxes. The GML is a great
sounding box too.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I prefer the Ibis, but then, I'm a little biased...
-----------------
Brad Blackwood
www.euphonicmasters.com

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Right now I like the Millennia NSEQ-2 best; the dual signal path
has turned out to be handy occasionally although I almost always
prefer the solid-state make-up gain stage. The steps are kind of
large and I cannot get as tight a Q with it as I occasionally want,
but it can be amazingly transparent when it needs to be.

I have yet to prefer the tube gain stage on a full mix, but I have
several times preferred it on a single source or channel when tracking
or mixing. I find it a really fun EQ. True, it doesn't go totally
surgical and sometimes when using it for FOH I'd like it tighter, but
overall it does the job nicely, especially for SR jobs where the SPL
isn't excessive and the hall decent.

--
hank alrich * secret mountain
audio recording * music production * sound reinforcement
"If laughter is the best medicine let's take a double dose"

In article ,
LeBaron & Alrich wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

Right now I like the Millennia NSEQ-2 best; the dual signal path
has turned out to be handy occasionally although I almost always
prefer the solid-state make-up gain stage. The steps are kind of
large and I cannot get as tight a Q with it as I occasionally want,
but it can be amazingly transparent when it needs to be.

I have yet to prefer the tube gain stage on a full mix, but I have
several times preferred it on a single source or channel when tracking
or mixing. I find it a really fun EQ. True, it doesn't go totally
surgical and sometimes when using it for FOH I'd like it tighter, but
overall it does the job nicely, especially for SR jobs where the SPL
isn't excessive and the hall decent.

I have liked it on a full mix when the original mix wasn't blended together
enough. It definitely does tend to smash things together, which is usually
a bad thing to my mind but can sometimes be very handy.

I don't think I'd want to use one as a FOH box, at least not without something
with much tighter filters on the mains. But that's just me. The unbalanced
output might also be an issue for SR jobs (though it isn't in the mastering
room).
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article , (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:


So far you've gotten two responses that were pushing the NSEQ-2... which
doesn't have detents, so it really doesn't fit a response to your
question.

It has detents on the cut and boost controls. It does not have detents
on the Q or frequency controls, which can be kind of annoying at times
when you are trying to match channels, but which can also be very nice
when you are doing very sharp notches because you can move them right on
the center. I think it's sort of the best of both worlds.

Two points about detents. First, there's a difference between detents
and switches. The 9500 and the expensive EQs use actual switched
controls, not just a variable pot with detents. Switches give you the
most precise and clean operation, but detents are a reasonable way to be
able to get very close for resettability and matching. It's not,
however, as perfectly matched or precise as real switches.

Second thing is that the Millennia has detented boost/cut, and John had
found some detented controls that he could, for a fee, add to the other
controls, giving you a detented EQ. Not a purely calibrated switched
box, but gets you close for a great price, and taking into account the
sound and flexibility of the box, it's definitely worthh considering. I
don't know if that upgrade is still available of generally known, and
maybe we'll have to ask John LaGrou about it.

Past that, I wouldn't throw a GML 9500, Avalon mastering EQ, or Prism
out of the room. The lower end GML and Avalon I would definitely not
pick over a Millennia, and come to think of it, I picked the Millennia
over the big guys as well, but would have been satisfied with any of
them. While I was working out of Sony for the months my room was being
built, there was a GML 9500 and Prism, and I settled on the 9500 - for
what that's worth.

--
Jay Frigoletto
Mastersuite
Los Angeles
promastering.com

In article writes:

Two points about detents. First, there's a difference between detents
and switches.

detents are a reasonable way to be
able to get very close for resettability and matching. It's not,
however, as perfectly matched or precise as real switches.

Well, let's say it's not as perfectly matched as we'd like switches to
be, and which they can be if perfectly matched. But in today's market,
I wouldn't be surprised if there are some mediocre switches out there
with unselected 1% components glued to them for the sake of looking
like they're beter than they are. Color me cynical.

Not that any of the models that we're talking about here are like
this, of course.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )