# Best Mastering EQ plugin



## JEPA (Jul 21, 2018)

Sorry guys for the "best".. you know what i mean. What is your preferred EQ for mastering? Today PSPaudioware's sale is over and i am thinking of getting PSP MasterQ. What do you think? Thanks


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## Bender-offender (Jul 21, 2018)

Why not just get it? I saw you’re a fan of Neon, so why not get MasterQ while it’s on sale?

I do honestly mean this.  Because of your thread about how great Neon is, I ended up grabbing that, MasterQ, and E27. They are all wonderful EQs and have a very nice sound. Watch some YouTube vids in MasterQ - it has some unique features.


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## JEPA (Jul 21, 2018)

Bender-offender said:


> Why not just get it? I saw you’re a fan of Neon, so why not get MasterQ while it’s on sale?
> 
> I do honestly mean this.  Because of your thread about how great Neon is, I ended up grabbing that, MasterQ, and E27. They are all wonderful EQs and have a very nice sound. Watch some YouTube vids in MasterQ - it has some unique features.


I'm happy you are satisfied with the plugins. I am happy with NeonHR! But i am still deciding to buy the whole TDR bundle, which includes all Tokyo Dawn Labs plugins also Nova Gentleman's Edition and DeEdger for $134!!!! or waiting for a brainworx digital v3 sale, or deciding to stay with my ozones and neutrons...


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## sostenuto (Jul 21, 2018)

bx_ digital V3 ..... and other bx _ Mastering options; 2098 EQ, dynEQ V2, panEQ. 
So cool to have 14-day trials on all !


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jul 21, 2018)

Actually I stepped into a couple of UAD products (20 or something) and I like the Massive passive eq a lot ecspecially for boosting requencies. I don´t know whats the best, but it is a very good one.


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## JEPA (Jul 21, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Actually I stepped into a couple of UAD products (20 or something) and I like the Massive passive eq a lot ecspecially for boosting requencies. I don´t know whats the best, but it is a very good one.


yes, that is the other option, to step in into UAD, but i missed the last sales..


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jul 21, 2018)

JEPA said:


> yes, that is the other option, to step in into UAD, but i missed the last sales..


Yeah and you need at least a dsp card or something which makes the whole thing a bit pricey for some folks I guess.


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## R. Soul (Jul 21, 2018)

Pro-Q2.

I never understood what the difference between a mixing EQ and mastering EQ is though?

I can't think of a situation that Pro-Q2 wouldn't suffice. Dynamic EQ would have been nice but I've got Neutron for that, so not bothered.


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## bryla (Jul 21, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> Pro-Q2.
> 
> I never understood what the difference between a mixing EQ and mastering EQ is though?


I’m with you on Pro-Q2

In terms of hardware mastering EQs were made that had much finer and stepped knobs for frequency and gain. This allowed for accurate recall.


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## R. Soul (Jul 21, 2018)

bryla said:


> I’m with you on Pro-Q2
> 
> In terms of hardware mastering EQs were made that had much finer and stepped knobs for frequency and gain. This allowed for accurate recall.


Ah OK. 

There's a lot of past tense in that post


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## JEPA (Jul 21, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> Pro-Q2.
> 
> I never understood what the difference between a mixing EQ and mastering EQ is though?
> 
> I can't think of a situation that Pro-Q2 wouldn't suffice. Dynamic EQ would have been nice but I've got Neutron for that, so not bothered.


yes, i have think about Pro-Q2, is on my bundle list... but specific for mastering? i don't have it, i can't say nothing... are you mastering with it?


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## R. Soul (Jul 21, 2018)

JEPA said:


> yes, i have think about Pro-Q2, is on my bundle list... but specific for mastering? i don't have it, i can't say nothing... are you mastering with it?


I do very little EQ'ing when mastering, but I use Pro-Q2 for all my EQ duties. Although sometimes I just settle for Cubase's native EQ.


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## Henu (Jul 21, 2018)

Right now it's Waves REq.


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## Francis Bourre (Jul 22, 2018)

I recommend this long but great article.


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## R. Soul (Jul 22, 2018)

Francis Bourre said:


> I recommend this long but great article.


Once you are used to clicking on the frequency graph to pick a frequency of choice and pull down for gain reduction, scroll the wheel for Q, it's hard to go back to an EQ that only provides dials - which is most of those.

A cheap EQ i recommend, which wasn't mentioned, is DDMF iiEQ Pro. It lacks advanced features but often those are not needed.


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## jamwerks (Jul 22, 2018)

99% sure all standard digital eq's sound exactly the same. Modeled eq's are a slightly different story.


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## Francis Bourre (Jul 22, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> it's hard to go back to an EQ that only provides dials - which is most of those.


If that's your unique workflow, imho you miss lot of opportunities to add colors and approaches to your palette. It's great to use transparent surgical EQs for removing unwanted frequencies, but on the other side it's great as well to have a set of musical EQs to shape your sound. Some of them are established names in the market till a long time for good reasons, and can be your best friends when used in the right context (Pultec, Bax, Manley Passive, Maselec...). Dials design and its limitations added to the sound (of the tranformers for some of them) are part of the full approach: When you dial a Pultec to get some beautiful lows on a mix, you're used to play with the boost and the attenuation at the same time to get this typical beefy round resonant bump. It's one example from many.


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## R. Soul (Jul 22, 2018)

Francis Bourre said:


> If that's your unique workflow, imho you miss lot of opportunities to add colors and approaches to your palette.


I think the colour you are referring to is adding ivory to the white paper, where I'm more of a orange, purple and turquoise kind of guy. This is achieved through bit crushing, saturation, distortion, stuttering, gating, dub delays etc.
I can see that colour can be good for Rock or similar acoustic styles, but I mainly do electronic or 'hyper realistic' so the need for a bit more rounded bottom end on the Guitar, for example, is not a priority.


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## Francis Bourre (Jul 22, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> I think the colour you are referring to is adding ivory to the white paper,


Nope. Why would it be? They are still EQs. Just try a Manley Passive or and NSeq-2, and you will see that they are even more subtle than standard EQs. Btw, you can be subtle with a EQP-1A the same way, it's still an EQ that you can dial, and you can be totally artless with a Pro-Q2 if you make sharp high-boosts...



R. Soul said:


> but I mainly do electronic


These EQs are used in all music genres by every audio engineer. I wonder what let you think they could be used only for Rock.  If you do electronic music, I recommend to you even more to explore this territory, because I assume you compose and mix ITB, and if you stay ITB you could have better advantages to add musical EQs to your toolset. They will help you to reshape the coldness of the digital. One example, some time ago, just by starting to play with Neve EQs (31102 and 1081) on my individual channels opened my ears to the power and the vast possibilities of using EQs "with personality". I recommend to anyone 

There's no truth in audio-engineering, and no good or bad, but using two different EQS, a surgical one that you're used to (Pro-Q2 is definitely a great one) and set a second EQ stage (after compression) with a musical one of your choice (depending on the context) is a common pattern. It works on individual channels, but as you can guess, on busses as well.

These musical EQs have unique sound and capabilities, but they got a unique workflow as well that pushes you forward to think and listen differently with each of them. Some of them can be very disconcerting (ie: Trident). Imho, ignoring them would be like to choose to play piano with one arm.



R. Soul said:


> so the need for a bit more rounded bottom end on the Guitar, for example, is not a priority


EQP-1A was not designed for guitars... I mean not specifically. Try it to sculpt the bottom-end of a gran cassa, a synth bass, or a strings ensemble... There's grand chance that you will enjoy this moment.


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## Francis Bourre (Jul 22, 2018)

Francis Bourre said:


> Imho, ignoring them would be like to choose to play piano with one arm.


I just noticed that you avatar was playing keyboards with one hand, ahah maybe the start of an explanation. XD Joking!


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## Henu (Jul 22, 2018)

On topic, I still can't get a decent mid boost out of the Waves Puigtecs. It gives so much harmonic distortion so quickly to the upper mids that I always feel I need to replace it with a bit more cleaner sound at the end. :/


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## R. Soul (Jul 22, 2018)

Francis Bourre said:


> Nope. Why would it be? They are still EQs. Just try a Manley Passive or and NSeq-2, and you will see that they are even more subtle than standard EQs. Btw, you can be subtle with a EQP-1A the same way, it's still an EQ that you can dial, and you can be totally artless with a Pro-Q2 if you make sharp high-boosts...


So you need a UAD for Manley passive, which I don't have and NSeq-2 is $299 which is way more than I'd pay for an additional EQ. 

If you want to check out some innovative EQ's, I'd recommend Sonible Frei:raum and Sound Theory Gullfoss - those are truly forward thinking. They are most definitely not standard EQ's though. But they can do things far beyond any hardware.
Neutron's masking feature is also pretty neat used in combination with the dynamic EQ.

Oh, and I've never even tried a keytar btw. 
Beard is gone now, so it's not exactly a carbon copy of me. Still, I like the avatar.


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## aaronventure (Jul 22, 2018)

Pro-Q2 (accurate, clean, very easy and fun to use), Ozone Dynamic EQ, Eiosis AirEQ (love the Fire-Water controls). Sometimes Slate's Shimmer or Custom Series Lift.

Each of these have some unique features that I use. If you could put all that into one plugin, that'd be the EQ to end all EQs :D


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## JEPA (Jul 22, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> Sonible Frei:raum


this was on sale for short,.. it seems i got my money too late after all sales...!


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## nik (Jul 22, 2018)

hi,
for mastering u should be using a linear phase eq imo. linear phase eq are more subtle since their is no variety, the phasing is consistent. normal eqs phasing is frequency-specific so there will be more colouring. for mastering purposes take a look at waves linear eq or cambridge eq.


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## JEPA (Jul 22, 2018)

nik said:


> waves linear eq or cambridge eq


sonnox oxford eq also?


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## nik (Jul 22, 2018)

JEPA said:


> sonnox oxford eq also?


didnt check that one out,u surely can rrread about that in their discription. 
if u use uad then go for cambridge since it will outsource much to the interface.


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## JEPA (Jul 22, 2018)

nik said:


> didnt check that one out,u surely can rrread about that in their discription.
> if u use uad then go for cambridge since it will outsource much to the interface.


not using UAD already..


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## ceemusic (Jul 22, 2018)

I tried PSP's MasterQ but didn't care for it.
ATM it's typically DMG's Equilibrium with one or a combo of Nebula/ Acusticas:
*Azure: *Knif Soma Mastering EQ
*Ruby*: Officially licensed D. W. Fearn VT-4 and VT-5 equalizers.
*Ivory *- Maselec MEA-2 equalizer (IAE2, year 2017 model), Maselec MLA-4 (Mac-3, multiband compressor/limiter), COMP 1B is a single band derivative of the MLA-4, DynEQ is a dynamic eq derived from MEA-2 & Comp 1B and DynEQ Stereo is a dynamic eq derived from IVORY3 STEREO and Comp 1B.
*Surge EQ *by Tim Pertherick for Nebula: GML 8200
*Bronze *by DiBiQuadro for Nebula: NSEQ-2


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## KarlHeinz (Jul 22, 2018)

JEPA: Sonible stuff IS actually on sale till August:

https://www.sonible.com/blog/summer-sale-2018/

I am looking for a nice EQ too (but more for the mix then for mastering to just tame all unwanted frequencies before they ruin the whole track....) and have my eyes on the smart:EQ (more enough for me) but wondering if that "automatic" recognition will really help, with that Izotope stuff (like Neutron Elements) I was not really lucky.....


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## R. Soul (Jul 22, 2018)

KarlHeinz said:


> JEPA: Sonible stuff IS actually on sale till August:
> 
> https://www.sonible.com/blog/summer-sale-2018/
> 
> I am looking for a nice EQ too (but more for the mix then for mastering to just tame all unwanted frequencies before they ruin the whole track....) and have my eyes on the smart:EQ (more enough for me) but wondering if that "automatic" recognition will really help, with that Izotope stuff (like Neutron Elements) I was not really lucky.....


I think smart EQ is amazing, but it shouldn't be your only EQ. I've found it can get rid of some resonant peaks that a normal EQ can't. 
Neutron is also superb. Unfortunately the element version is too cut down and doesn't provide you with enough tools to be useful for EQing.


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## Henu (Jul 22, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> I've found it can get rid of some resonant peaks that a normal EQ can't.



Ok, you got me interested. What is your definition of normal EQ and which kind of peaks are we talking about?


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## JEPA (Jul 22, 2018)

somebody could give some insight about Flux plugins?
https://fluxhome.com/project/epure/


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## R. Soul (Jul 22, 2018)

Henu said:


> Ok, you got me interested. What is your definition of normal EQ and which kind of peaks are we talking about?


For example, I removed a lot of lower mids on a piano recently with Smart EQ without destroying the sound. Pro-Q2 and Cubase's EQ failed miserably at doing that.
I'll see if I can post an example tonight when I'm back on the PC.


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## jcrosby (Jul 22, 2018)

JEPA said:


> somebody could give some insight about Flux plugins?
> https://fluxhome.com/project/epure/



Flux is great but Pro-Q2 is more flexible...



ceemusic said:


> ATM it's typically DMG's Equilibrium with one or a combo of Nebula/ Acusticas



Use a similar chain. Acustica and Pro-q2 and/or Ozone EQ.

My favorite Acustica EQs are:
*Scarlett
Ivory
Magenta*, (Magenta 3's in development :D)
*Diamond *(Diamond's more of a broad strokes tone control but the preamp adds some nice midrange and high band is really really nice.)

Azure looks really nice, hear it's brutal on CPU though...


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## Henu (Jul 22, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> For example, I removed a lot of lower mids on a piano recently with Smart EQ without destroying the sound. Pro-Q2 and Cubase's EQ failed miserably at doing that.
> I'll see if I can post an example tonight when I'm back on the PC.



If you have time, it would be cool to hear the before- after versions!


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## jamwerks (Jul 23, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> For example, I removed a lot of lower mids on a piano recently with Smart EQ without destroying the sound. Pro-Q2 and Cubase's EQ failed miserably at doing that.
> I'll see if I can post an example tonight when I'm back on the PC.


Unless something unrelated is going wrong, those 3 plugins should sound exactly the same.


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## Erick - BVA (Jul 23, 2018)

Check these guys out. https://www.toneboosters.com/plugins.html
They are very affordable. They have time-unlimited demos as well (with no save allowed). I used some of them without saving for a while until I could afford what I wanted lol. Just had to remember the settings I liked. Good stuff. I know it's not the topic of the thread, but their Reverb_V4 is one of my favorites. Haven't used their EQ a lot...seems really transparent and smooth though from the few times I have used it.


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## R. Soul (Jul 23, 2018)

jamwerks said:


> Unless something unrelated is going wrong, those 3 plugins should sound exactly the same.


That's because you assume Smart EQ is a standard EQ. It's more like a spectral enhancer of some sort. 

@Henu - check out this video. Not mine, but shows it off pretty well.


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## Rapollo (Jul 23, 2018)

I've had my best resulting tracks/masters using TDR Slick EQ M. Used to use Pro-Q 2 and the Eiosis Air EQ, but I find the simplist workflow in the TDR mastering EQ wins nowadays  No analyser, just using the knobs and ears. The options are there if in doubt.


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## OleJoergensen (Jul 23, 2018)

Elysia E.Q is also good....


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## JEPA (Jul 23, 2018)

this has me convinced!... and Tokyo Dawn Lab is now on sale with the bundle + DeEdger!


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## ceemusic (Jul 23, 2018)

nik said:


> hi,
> for mastering u should be using a linear phase eq imo. linear phase eq are more subtle since their is no variety, the phasing is consistent. normal eqs phasing is frequency-specific so there will be more colouring. for mastering purposes take a look at waves linear eq or cambridge eq.



If I'm using any filters & a 44kHz file I'll use min. phase instead of linear to avoid pre-ringing in the low end, especially using higher Q's.


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## Will Blackburn (Jul 29, 2018)

Surge EQ and Massive Passive for Nebula.


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## axb312 (Jul 30, 2018)

I demoed the following on my master bus:
1. PA Bax EQ
2. TDR Slick EQ M
3. Acustica Audio Ivory
4. Acustica Audio Diamond
5. Balance mastering Magpha
6. Fabfilter Pro Q2
7. Kazrog Valve EQ
8. Vertigo Sound VSE-2

I reached the conclusion that PA BAX EQ is the best mastering EQ for me. Seemed to solidify the bass and give beautiful top end sheen like no other.


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## JohnG (Jul 30, 2018)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Actually I stepped into a couple of UAD products (20 or something) and I like the Massive passive eq a lot ecspecially for boosting requencies. I don´t know whats the best, but it is a very good one.



same. Don't know what's "best" either but this thing works well on orchestral music and hybrid.


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## bryla (Jul 31, 2018)

JohnG said:


> same. Don't know what's "best" either but this thing works well on orchestral music and hybrid.


Have you compared it to the Passive EQ in Komplete?


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## jcrosby (Jul 31, 2018)

I just downloaded Acustica Audio's Magenta 4. It's absolutely gorgeous sounding. Not only is it the nicest sounding Massive Passive emulation I've heard, it's most of the Manley classics... Massive Passive, Vari-MU, Voxbox, possibly the Slam as well, and best of all it's fully sampled... Highly encourage Passive EQ fans to give it a spin...


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## RichiCarter (Jul 31, 2018)

Izotope Ozone 8 all the way for me!


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## JohnG (Jul 31, 2018)

bryla said:


> Have you compared it to the Passive EQ in Komplete?



No, @bryla . I do all my mixing on my Pro Tools computer, and I've never installed Komplete on that. I have a pretty old version of Komplete and have never thoroughly explored NI effects.

I take it from your post that it's good?


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## ceemusic (Jul 31, 2018)

jcrosby said:


> I just downloaded Acustica Audio's Magenta 4. It's absolutely gorgeous sounding. Not only is it the nicest sounding Massive Passive emulation I've heard, it's most of the Manley classics... Massive Passive, Vari-MU, Voxbox, possibly the Slam as well, and best of all it's fully sampled... Highly encourage Passive EQ fans to give it a spin...



I'm liking it too.
I'm switched out my usual Diamond & Lift on my 2 bus & did a few mixes with this yesterday. (along with Alex B's MFC console) sounds really good. I then mastered them all using only Azure & a b/w limiter.
I bought the original Magenta 4 years ago, it's great to get all these new & improved modules for free. Plus I have most of their plugins so I get an additional 45% off for any product (unless specified like Ruby because of Fearn's involvement)


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## jcrosby (Jul 31, 2018)

ceemusic said:


> I'm liking it too.
> I'm switched out my usual Diamond & Lift on my 2 bus & did a few mixes with this yesterday. (along with Alex B's MFC console) sounds really good. I then mastered them all using only Azure & a b/w limiter.
> I bought the original Magenta 4 years ago, it's great to get all these new & improved modules for free. Plus I have most of their plugins so I get an additional 45% off for any product (unless specified like Ruby because of Fearn's involvement)


Very cool. I'll have to give Azure a spin. Hear great things about it.... I'm almost there, I get the 35% discount... At the rate I've been going I'm sure I'll hit 45 at some point 

I really hope they update BlueEQ at some point, that's may favorite all around analog EQ... Works really well on just about anything you throw at it, and has a really dense low end...


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## JEPA (Jul 31, 2018)

I ended buying the Tokyo Dawn Labs TDR Bundle + DeEdger... so far I am liking everything! From PSP the NeonHQ is very very very good inclusive for mastering. I was taming low end very nice with it. Sharing from the other thread:

*PSP NeonHQ*




RichiCarter said:


> Izotope Ozone 8 all the way for me!


i have these also, but now in combination with TDR bundle + Sonnox Elite + I want to buy Flux Studio Session Pack I think I am done for the mastering set...


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## JEPA (Jul 31, 2018)

JEPA said:


> I want to buy Flux Studio Session Pack I think I am done for the mastering set...


or instead of this, is Equilibrium the way?... ok, I'll stop asking...  should just work with what I have.


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## S.M Hassani (Jul 31, 2018)

Good call on buying the TDR bundle. It's a fantastic value for money. Some of the Included tools are unique and sometimes irreplaceable.

FYI The SlickEQ M will be updated soon with a new harmonics component. (Bigger GUI is coming for all of them)

DMG's Equilibrium is top of its class. I took an afternoon to learn it and customize it properly. It's my main "Digital" EQ.


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