6 minute read
Malcolm Toft Equate
Eight-channel Equaliser
Ditched your console but still have a thirst for analogue EQ? Maybe the Equate can quench it...
by NEIL ROGERS
Well known for the highly respected Trident consoles of the ’70s and ’80s, Malcolm Toft is still designing gear, most recently releasing a range of niche products under his own name. I really enjoyed his 500-series Punishr analogue distortion (which I reviewed in SOS June 2023: https://sosm.ag/malcolm-toft-punishr) so was keen to check out his latest creation, which sees him return to territory for which he is perhaps best known: equalisation.
Design & Performance
The Equate is a convenient solution for engineers who still like to use several channels of analogue EQ but don’t have or want a full console. A 3U rackmount device, it resembles a loaded 500-series rack but this is not a modular system. There are eight identical channels of EQ, along with an internal power supply and, conveniently, both TRS jack and DB25 D-Sub input and output connections.
Unsurprisingly, the Equate leans on the heritage of the Toft’s Trident 80B EQ design, each channel featuring two sweepable ‘peaking’ midrange bands as well as high- and low-frequency shelves. Unlike the 80B console EQ, the Equate sports sweepable high- and low-pass filters, to give us six bands in total.
I received the Equate during a busy period of tracking and mixing and, after a little rummaging around in my cable boxes, patched it in to sit as inserts on the first eight channels of my Audient ASP8024 console. Given Malcolm’s background in large-format mixers, it wasn’t a surprise to find that it seemed completely at home in that setting!
In busy recording sessions, I’m largely looking for an easy-to-use EQ that can give me a helping hand in shaping sources on the way in, so that they’ll need less work come mixing time. The two midrange ‘peaking’ style bands on the Equate EQ are superb for this, and the low-mid band was probably the control I found myself using the most, especially to remove ugly low-midrange build-up or resonances. With its range extending from 100Hz up to 1.5kHz it was also handy for boosting audibility from 800Hz upwards on bass guitars or synths. The upper mid band also covers lots of ground (1-15 kHz) and, generally, I was impressed with how smooth and forgiving it sounded when boosting for presence and clarity. There’s no Q control with this style of EQ, but the bandwidth sharpens/relaxes according to the amount of cut or boost applied, so it’s pretty forgiving.
The low and high shelves of my console are often the most used section for gentle shaping while recording, and the equivalent options on the Equate performed the same role with aplomb. Centred at 80Hz, the low band can be used to dial in plenty of weight on bass guitars and kick drums, and it soon became a favourite technique to add a generous amount of heft with the low shelf whilst using the high-pass filter to keep things contained. Centred around 8kHz, the high-shelf was similarly useful: great for easing off the top end of drum room mics or opening up the highs of an acoustic guitar or piano recording.
I’ve touched on how I liked to use the high-pass filter section, but it was great to have a variable low-pass filter here too. It allows you to ‘bracket’ a sound to tuck it into the mix, but rolling off the high end can also make things sound warmer (I think this is one of the things about tape emulation products that makes them so appealing!), or push them ‘back’ in the mix.
Verdict
There are plenty of engineers who still like to record with multiple analogue EQs but who don’t necessarily need or have space for a console, and for anyone running such a ‘hybrid’ setup, the Equate could be a great option, perhaps sitting below a rack of 500-series preamps or one of the many multi-channel preamps now available. It might even prompt some who still mix on an analogue console to weigh up the pros and cons of keeping their desk. The bottom line is that the Equate is a great-sounding, all-round tracking EQ, with more than enough flexibility and creative options for most situations — and it’s better value for money than eight channels of 500-series EQ too.
Summary
The Equate features eight channels of great‑sounding, flexible, console style EQ in a convenient 500‑series sized rack.
£ £1699 including VAT.
T KMR Audio +44 (0)20 8445 2446
McDSP APB Tape
Tape Emulation Plug-in For APB
McDSP’s analogue plug-in platform can now replicate the complex dynamic behaviour of tape.
McDSP’s Analog Processing Box is perhaps the ultimate hybrid device. It processes audio in the analogue domain, but its processing is presented within your DAW in exactly the same way as conventional digital plug-ins are. The upshot is that you get true analogue processing with full recall, automation and the other ergonomic pluses of software.
Most of the APB’s capabilities centre on dynamics processing, and the initial suite of plug-ins included several compressors and limiters. Since launch McDSP have added such treats as a valve-style mixer, a multiband compressor, a mastering EQ and a dedicated saturation processor, all of which are free to APB owners. The latest addition to the range is a tape emulator.
Talking Tape
Some of the sonic artefacts of tape recording were undesirable, such as wow and flutter, high-end loss and hiss, but others are remembered more fondly. Most of these relate to the complex dynamic changes introduced by saturating the medium, and there have been many previous attempts to replicate these in the analogue domain as well as in digital plug-ins. However, if the tape emulation plug-ins in my folder are anything to go by, no-one can quite agree what the good qualities of tape actually were!
“If the tape emulation plug-ins in my folder are anything to go by, no-one can quite agree what the good qualities of tape actually were!”
APB Tape adds another colour to the palette. It doesn’t introduce noise, pitch instability or other unwanted side-effects of tape recording, and unless pushed hard, it doesn’t drastically alter the timbre of the source. With the input gain backed off, in fact, it rivals Softube’s Tape in the “is it actually on?” levels of subtlety. As you raise the input level, though, you’ll encounter a wide range of variations on the ‘mix glue’ theme; and the hotter things get, the more the differences between the two emulated tape formulations become apparent. GP9 is, for want of a better word, quite ‘stiff’. As you pile on the signal, the upper midrange fills out nicely and
