Kuassa EVE-MP5 - is it universal?

[antic604]

I'm thinking of getting the Kuassa EVE-MP5 now that it's on sale (https://www.propellerheads.com/shop/rac ... equalizer/) following the fantastic feedback here, but I was wondering if such EQs with pre-defined values on the knobs are good for ANY type of music, or were they just made for more "traditional" music styles like rock, jazz, classical, etc.?

I guess I'll give it a try later today, but I was curious about what you guys think?

[Loque]

I have it, it is good, but rarly used it. This is the same with some other "magic" EQs i have - i am probably too stupid to get the wonders out of them what they should do.

If i need to spend money and did not bought all those EQs, i just would buy 1 or max 2 very versitle allround EQs and rather spend 200 bucks for it, instead of buying 10 for 20 bucks and hoping for a wonder....But today i think the same of all those amps, saturation devices, compressors, limiters, gaters....

[QVprod]

EQs are not designed for genres of music. And targeting an extremely precise frequency range is not usually necessary when mixing.

[guitfnky]

I use the other two Kuassa EQs in that line all the time. they’re the first EQs I reach for most of the time. never bought the MP5—it sounds good (I did demo it), but the layout felt really clunky to me, and I already have the NI/Softube Pultec-equivalent VST.

anyhoo, to your question...I do mainly variations on rock music, but cover a pretty wide gamut of sounds and styles under that umbrella. in the 2+ years I’ve been using the AT-1 as my primary EQ, I’ve only had one instance where I needed more specificity than the fixed values provided, and had to swap it out for the Synapse EQ—and that was to fix a nasty resonance, which I almost never encounter, doing almost everything in the box.

but that said, I also don’t tend to do a lot of precision EQing—I prefer to keep things as natural as I can. the narrow band toggle is plenty for me on these devices, but doesn’t seem to get as narrow as something like the Synapse or MClass, if you do a lot of precise moves. also, keep in mind, these EQs (and particularly the MP5) are really meant to do more sweetening than problem-solving, so as long as you’re using them for what they’re good at, you should get good results.

[reddust]

I have it, it is good, but rarly used it. This is the same with some other "magic" EQs i have - i am probably too stupid to get the wonders out of them what they should do.

If i need to spend money and did not bought all those EQs, i just would buy 1 or max 2 very versitle allround EQs and rather spend 200 bucks for it, instead of buying 10 for 20 bucks and hoping for a wonder....But today i think the same of all those amps, saturation devices, compressors, limiters, gaters....

Same here, have it but barely used it. I think I'd rather save my money to get a more complete mixing/mastering tool that also includes a good EQ like the FabFilter or iZotope products have. At the end too many plugins feel more like a waste of money and space (on the drive and in the browser) to me.

But if you don't need such a mastering tool for your purposes I think this is a nice option, easy to use and affordable. The only con I find are the fixed frequencies.

[reggie1979]

I find that the "fixed" values are fine. Honestly though, I've go SO MANY eq's that I don't use this one anymore. Nothing wrong with it, demoed it, liked it a bunch but it's just different now with VST's being available.

I think AirEQ is my absolute favorite. I can cut and boost with what seems to be be silk with the greatest of ease. Love mixhub for drums though because my template has that for kick/snare/etc and it's just more convenient for drums........

But I digress.......

[reddust]

I find that the "fixed" values are fine.

Yes, I thought about that yesterday as I ended writing my post, depending on the purpose those fixed frequencies can even be a plus point instead of something negative

[guitfnky]

I find that the "fixed" values are fine.

Yes, I thought about that yesterday as I ended writing my post, depending on the purpose those fixed frequencies can even be a plus point instead of something negative

definitely true for me. makes EQ decisions much quicker when I'm not second guessing whether I've dialed in the exactly-perfect frequency. fixed values make it easier to A/B the options to see which setting works best, and move on. and most importantly, the sound doesn't suffer whatsoever for it, in my experience.

[reggie1979]

Knowing your frequencies is not a bad thing.

[Ostermilk]

... I was wondering if such EQs with pre-defined values on the knobs are good for ANY type of music, or were they just made for more "traditional" music styles like rock, jazz, classical, etc.?
...

The pre-defined values on this and many console style EQ's make it quicker and easier to balance out (equalise) frequencies using complementary tonal curves across several tracks. Aside from any 'magic' they may (or not) have built-in it comes down to choosing what aids your workflow in getting the tonal shape of your tracks coherently in order with as little fuss as you like. Mostly I've gotten used to Neve style EQ's for these purposes over the years, these days I mostly use the Reason SSL EQ, simply because it's already there.

Ergonomics then is the major factor whether I choose a device like this. Thank goodness for 30 day trials.

[two shoes]

i'm a big believer that learning to use old school knob array style eqs is a worthwhile endeavor that will help you understand and use all styles of eq better. the visual feedback of spectrum displays and other eye candy can be very misleading and actually make the process of learning how to use equalization effectively longer and harder than it should be.

that said, the best modern style eq on the market, fabfilter's pro-Q3, is 40% off till the end of the month and their stuff does not get discounted that much very often. i've never gotten on well with ff's creative series plugins but every one of the pro series plugins is amongst the very best available in it's category. while they aren't cheap even with a 40% discount, picking up any combination of their eq, comp, limiters, reverb, ds, and gate plugins while they're on sale would be money well spent.

another type of eq that sort of splits the difference between older knobby and modern multi-band paragraphic eqs are 10 and 31 band ISO graphic equalizers - the ones with just a long row of faders. while they are still de rigueur for live sound reinforcement work they seem to have been largely forgotten in home/project studio circles which is a shame because they're a very efficient and versatile type of eq. there are two in the RE format and while i prefer the look of the red rock one, lab one's ReQ131 is the clear winner in terms of functionality and a great value even when it's not on sale - a bit of an overlooked gem in my opinion.

[antic604]

i'm a big believer that learning to use old school knob array style eqs is a worthwhile endeavor that will help you understand and use all styles of eq better. The visual feedback of spectrum displays and other eye candy can be very misleading and actually make the process of learning how to use equalization effectively longer and harder than it should be.

I took it - the VST version - for a spin yesterday, just putting it on a master bus in several projects that I thought sounded well already and was quite surprised how much better they suddenly sounded, even just tweaking the factory presets a bit. Also attempting to dial my own settings I found it really inspiring to not being able to look at the graphs and just looking for what sounds right. I'm really tempted to buy it, now just need to consider if I want RE or the VST (there's 30-40% cross-grade discount from VST to RE, but discounts can't be combined).

that said, the best modern style eq on the market, fabfilter's pro-Q3, is 40% off till the end of the month and their stuff does not get discounted that much very often. i've never gotten on well with ff's creative series plugins but every one of the pro series plugins is amongst the very best available in it's category.

I got all the creative & pro FF stuff I already wanted in their previous sale which was also 40%, but somehow I treat their plugins - especially Pro-Q - as sound-shaping, surgical or problem-solving devices (and they're the best around for that!), rather than overall balance / character devices like EVE-MP5 turns out to be. I guess the GUI is the main factor, with FF's devices being more precise & visual one tends to focus on details or things "looking" wrong, whereas with EVE-MP5 one's paying more attention to the big picture.

[reddust]

Knowing your frequencies is not a bad thing.

Sure, but knowing them is one thing while only having a set of frequencies is another thing, I mean, if you use a FabFilter EQ you still know your frequencies

i'm a big believer that learning to use old school knob array style eqs is a worthwhile endeavor that will help you understand and use all styles of eq better. the visual feedback of spectrum displays and other eye candy can be very misleading and actually make the process of learning how to use equalization effectively longer and harder than it should be.

Agree to this, and that's exactly the point, depending on the purpose and level of the user having fixed frequencies can be a bless or a pain. Sometimes you have a very nice bass sound from some VST in your track and want to clear space for it by filtering the EQ of other tracks like maybe a kick or some synth. Having flexible eq frequency ranges with a Q control is in such cases the way to go. I like the Kuassa MP5 but I think it is an EQ you can only use under certain conditions while having an EQ like the ones by FabFilter or iZotope gives you anything you can do with Kuassa MP5 plus a lot more. Specially if they use some hints like frequency overload between tracks and such

[adfielding]

I bought the MP5 a few years ago and didn't use it a whole lot until quite recently, and I'm not sure why I left it so long tbh - especially as I tend to do a lot of my mixing in the rack. I think it sounds great, I haven't used the Softube Tube-Tech EQ so I can't really comment on how this compares, the only real problem I have is that once you dial in a decent high boost it tends to sound pretty musically satisfying... so I tend to overdo it unless I'm careful. But that's more of a personal problem than anything to do with the MP5! Kuassa's REs are always top-notch imo, and I feel daft for sitting on this for so long.

[EdGrip]

Don't overlook Tokyo Dawn's Slick EQ. All their stuff is serious.

[adfielding]

Don't overlook Tokyo Dawn's Slick EQ. All their stuff is serious.

Ooh, thanks for the reminder - I went on a Tokyo Dawn album binge a few years back and then sort of forgot they had a plug-in outlet (mainly because Reason didn't have VST support at the time!). I definitely need to check out their offerings!

[sonicbyte]

I use it for mastering

[antic604]

I'm really tempted to buy it, now just need to consider if I want RE or the VST (there's 30-40% cross-grade discount from VST to RE, but discounts can't be combined).

I decided to go for the RE, because it's more compact and somehow also controls better.

[ShawnG]

I don’t own this plug, but from the knob array, It looks like it can perform the “Pultec trick” of boosting and attenuating at the same time, which can beef up the low end a whole bunch, as long as the eq is programmed to do it properly (i.e. the frequncies of boost and cut are slightly different, which gives it a unique eq curve) So, I guess if you don’t already have a pultec type eq, and assuming this will do that slightly magical voodoo properly, that may be a reason to go for this one.

[Loque]

I don’t own this plug, but from the knob array, It looks like it can perform the “Pultec trick” of boosting and attenuating at the same time, which can beef up the low end a whole bunch, as long as the eq is programmed to do it properly (i.e. the frequncies of boost and cut are slightly different, which gives it a unique eq curve) So, I guess if you don’t already have a pultec type eq, and assuming this will do that slightly magical voodoo properly, that may be a reason to go for this one.

Nothing voodoo about the "PultecTrick". It is a low boost with a dip after it. Ofc, they have a special "curve", but you get can quite close with any EQ and maybe a bit saturation to simulate the analog stuff.

[guitfnky]

AFAIR, it is modeled off the Pultec. and of course you can get close by chaining other EQs, and maybe tossing in a bit of saturation, but that’s hardly the point.

[mcatalao]

Hi.
I use kuassa for a long time, and when i bought it i tested it against softube TubeTech.

Kuassa is modelled after 2 pultec Eq's, the Program Eq (EQP 1 a) and the Mid eq (MEq-5). These EQ's have been around like forever, they were in production from the 50's to the 70's.

The thing with these EQ's was that the frequency placement and relations between the boosts and the cuts, made their operation very musical.
So, what i mean by this is that, while one may think that these frequencies are static, they are in fact particularly placed and at the bass band, the attenuation is related to the selected frequency.

Another thing you can notice in this EQ's is that you only have a Q (Bandwidth) control at the high boost on the program eq, while all other bandwidths are static. These 2 equalizers together allow you to work all the frequency spectrum and the "fixed" frequencies make you think the bands as more regional set of bands.

There is no magic in this, you could take a 10 band parametric eq, and do exactly the same as the EVE MP5 or the Softubes (except the saturation section that you probably won't have on other EQ's), but using these is imho faster, and sets you on a different mindset.

I like to use MP5 on my master bus or on my mastering projects and since you can control where is the Bass and other bands center, imho they can work with any kind of music Genre. I usually just add something that can control the limits of the frequency range a little more aggressively so i usually add something that allows me to have a HPF and LPF.

PS.: Softube tubetechs are modeled after the TubeTech devices. These are hardware eq's and comps, that were inspired on the Pultec design and appeared around the 80's, because the Pultec company stopped making them (and i think it eventually went out of business but in the 2000's the brand was revived and now there are new pultechs around).
Anyway, the TubeThechs are not exactly the same design of the Pultech and there is a little functional difference between the design of both Re's (there's a different in the selectable frequencies of the Mid Range eq).

Still no matter what you choose (Softube Tubethech's or Kuassa MP5) they both work well in pretty much everything you throw at them!

[EdGrip]

Ooh, thanks for the reminder - I went on a Tokyo Dawn album binge a few years back and then sort of forgot they had a plug-in outlet (mainly because Reason didn't have VST support at the time!). I definitely need to check out their offerings!

The more you read about them (product manuals, posts by the creators on forums) the more you realise TDR plugins are up there with the best. The fact that they're free is wonderful.

Just a general thread FYI - the Boz Bark Of Dog 2 plugin is free, and features a Pultec bass trick mode. It's just a simple little bass enhancer, but it's good.