I've just done ABC comparison on 3x EQ's

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One was Cubase 7.5s built in
One was Equality by Dmg Audio
One was SV-517Mk2 By Sonalksis

Long story short it was was for my own research as I've been looking for a EQ to largely replace cubase built in one on the sounds that matter in my productions and I'd narrowed it down to the two 3rd parties above.

Then after much reading of subjective opinions around the web on these two EQ's (amongst others) I questioned myself whether laying down near £100 on either EQ would be justified enough to replace Cubase own EQ, so I setup a complex pad chord, 2 bars, filter open, some excellent reverb and delay and ABC'd all 3 with as close settings I could get spectrum and dial value wise.

Whilst I appreciate to everyone else this is yet another subjective opinion (essentially meaningless) I'd like to share my thoughts none the less after experimenting for around 2 hours over the past two nights. (Least I can now show something tangible for that time wasted :) )

Results were;

--DMG Audio Equality - sophisticated and very smooth sounding
--Sonalksis - Just that O so bit harsher on the top end but had an unbelievably almost sweet musical character to it.
--Cubase - Good on it's own with no comparison but compared to the above two it's flaws were readily apparent, brittle, slightly harsh and almost giving a bit reduction type sound in comparison.

Equality sounded the most professional in terms of polish and silky smoothness.
Sonalksis had a musical sheen that was just very very pleasing to the ear.

I'm going for the Sonalksis. Price vs sound it's a no brainer.

I understand modelling differences etc so tear this apart if you want/need to - but this is what I heard.

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try VST plugin analyzer. chances are the curves aren't that much different.
I don't know what to write here that won't be censored, as I can only speak in profanity.

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Can you use terms that make sense? What is a "musical sheen"? How does it compare to a non-mueical sheen? I would like to know how to correctly identify sheen types in the context of a plug.

Can you be more specific about what you are hearing?

Have you tried SlickEq GE, Nova 67-p or the new Overtone AF2? SlickEq GE sends my ears into to a happy place with some of settings from the preset thread. Maybe Nova 67-p followed by SlickEq for character only, has unrestricted full banswith polyphonic musical sheen?

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The Sonalksis and EQuality are both Dave's code, obviously we far prefer EQuality. Why not try EQuick? Best of both worlds and cheaper! The Sonalksis has no linear phase, so it's a poor choice for EQ'ing anything you need to keep phase aligned (drums, usually), plus it's GUI gives you very little information. Obviously the Sonalksis has less bands and filter types too. Over time the improvements Dave made to the high and low frequency response in these EQ's becomes really apparent (I used the 517Mk.II for 3 years and beta tested it) and I've replaced the 517 on dozens of tracks with EQuality and compared the results.

You're going to pick the algorithm where he nearly had it right, or the one where he got it right! Just saying. :)

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Coxy wrote:
yet another subjective opinion (essentially meaningless)
Priceless!
No really, without a username like "fukk me ded im an uber stoopitt armbowl" this is only funny out of context. :love:

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And thanx for the spark onto my current gas. When I get bored this weekend I'll do a fresh eq abx test to make me fall out of my shoes because the new shiny eqs don't only look sooooo much better than my old (t)rusty goto eq. Yes, some do look so sexy.... I won't hold my breath but would love to shout it out to the kvr if it would be true according to my abx check. :phones:

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Krzysztof Oktalski wrote:The Sonalksis and EQuality are both Dave's code...
He didn't do the Sonalksis EQ

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:popcorn:

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I don't believe in any plugin comparative test anymore, unless it's a completely blind test measured with unbiased tools like vst analyzer, mostly because different UIs and workflows have an absurd, almost paranormal influence over our perception of sound.

Mixing engineers and musicians are insane...Most of them have at least two dozens of plugins which do exactly the same thing with exactly the same quality...All because of eye candy.

But I digress...I can only talk about equality, which is, in essence, excellent. I just wish it had a bigger GUI option, like equilibrium and equick.
Last edited by RafaelMorgan on Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Placebo is one helluva drug.

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You should test DMG Equilibrium first it smokes them all.

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todd_r wrote:
Krzysztof Oktalski wrote:The Sonalksis and EQuality are both Dave's code...
He didn't do the Sonalksis EQ
Mk1 no, Mk2 yes.

Dave.
[ DMGAudio ] | [ DMGAudio Blog ] | dave AT dmgaudio DOT com

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RafaelMorgan wrote:I don't believe in any plugin comparative test anymore, unless it's a completely blind test measured with unbiased tools like vst analyzer, mostly because different UIs and workflows have an absurd, almost paranormal influence over our perception of sound.
Whilst there was no VST analyzer, it was a blind test - all 3 output to separate wav file renamed each so many times with arbitrary numerical file names until I forgot what was what (best I could do with no helper) then listened, continuously until I made my judgements.

I understand peoples natural sentiment to want to defend the choices (purchases) they have made, it's obvious from posts alone who has which EQ, but lets not get angry and insulting about it because lets consider I said no "best" I simply offered an opinion on what I heard and believe.

I had £100 stashed to go out and buy an EQ, after my testing I purchased Sonalksis EQ last night, because to me it sounded sweeter, I had absolutely no interest in defending my purchase at the time of post as at that time I had purchased NEITHER of them. But on the back of what I heard I went and purchased Sonalksis EQ last night, yet I was very concious and dubious about laying money down on a plugin that is YEARS old with a company that is seemingly out of the plugin business now, technology, programming and understanding progresses but after hearing what I heard I then paid for something which I came to a conclusion on using my ears in a blind test.

Don't like my opinion ? Good it's your right to post a reply and state your opinion, I appreciate everyone's want to respond with their own views and it's what makes life critical and interesting and I genuinely enjoy reading it. But some of you are actually trying to offend/personally ridicule, why?

Cheers

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Coxy wrote:
RafaelMorgan wrote:I had £100 stashed to go out and buy an EQ, after my testing I purchased Sonalksis EQ last night, because to me it sounded sweeter, ...
after hearing what I heard I then paid for something which I came to a conclusion on using my ears in a blind test.

Don't like my opinion ? Good it's your right to post a reply and state your opinion, I appreciate everyone's want to respond with their own views and it's what makes life critical and interesting and I genuinely enjoy reading it. But some of you are actually trying to offend/personally ridicule, why?

Cheers
Cool! Sorry for my not so polite first 2 postings. They weren't meant as such, had a hard week, hard day, pain in my knee because of an accident yesterday, etc, blabla.
I didn't read in your first post that you really did a blind test. Cool, the best way to make a REAL listening decision. As others stated, too: GUIs are the real show stoppers because they make our eyes lie to our ears.
I'm all in for a true subjective decision with a strong background. This is why I wrote my first statement. I value your subjective decision highly.

Enjoy your new tool. :band:

P.S. I really will make another ABX EQ shootout. (Because I WANT one of those nice new GUIs with all those cool features. And some new filter types. And... ) :lol: 8)

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Within human ear accuracy, all digital filters sound the same if you setup the curves equally. No need to buy any EQ except for feature or GUI reasons.

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