A-designs EM-EQ2

Do you know the feeling, if you recieve a package, open it, plug it in and have an instant smile. That happend to me lately.. No it was not an erotic fun toy. It was the new EM-EQ2 from Peter Montessi/A-Designs.

Installation
You can’t do much wrong on 2 ins and 2 outs plus electricity-plug. Even I survived this and provided the right XLRs, powercabling.

Function
The unit features 3 bands on the left and right channel, not stepped potentiometers for gain adjustments and stepped ones for choosing the frequency. You switch between 20 to 100 Hz with Q then again from 2kHz to 5khHz with Q and the last control goes from 5khz to 20khz (3 steps)

Sound
Well, the marketing material says, it’s a Pultec inspired eq. Well exept that it might have similar controlls and maybe functions, it’s not this 3D big “take no prisoners” thing that happens. It’s more like the sound is packed into a wonderful soundcloud the EM-EQ2 provides, when signal passing its curcuits.

In Use
Hello sunshine. On the 2 bus, it did fantastic work on the lowend and midrange. You can make stuff louder, fatter, no compromise. It’s tight… really tight. Roll off some lowend with a digital eq and dial in some 60Hz… booom. Compared to some other eq’s in it’s price range, it does a better job down there. The mids are great too. The guitars start to jump out of the speakers. Love it. The only thing I am still not sure is the topend. If you increas some highend, it can get a tad harsh. To be honest, I tried it only on 2 projects.. this opinion could get adjusted soon.. or not.

On the guitar-bus it provided great faaaaat on the shred parts, was able to make the guitars attack quite impressive “TSCHAKA TSCHAKA”. This happend only once to me, with the API 5500. The API 5500 sounds more direct, in your face. With the EM-EQ2, the grit on the guitars is usually packed into the already mentioned “cloud”. No, the EM-EQ2 is not smeary.. it just let you make the stuff sound a littlebit better.

Conclusion
My experience for 19″ Rack – EQs is from Manley Massive Passive (non mastering version), to the classics like Trident/British EQs, Pultec EQP1s (original ones), Retro Instruments EQ and others.

The EM-EQ2 is the right choice for people who want something that is flexible, makes the stuff it processes sound better, are fed up with their EQ plugins (yes I am) and want to introduce something unique to their clients for mixing and mastering. You will survive the Audio-mp3-Apocalypse with this piece of gear. It delivers. It makes you mix faster.

I love it. Thank you Peter Montessi… and you dear reader, go out and buy one.. two.. tree.