EQ Philosophy

Best EQ Plugins to use.

IN DEPTH MIX TUTORIALS, Music Business advice, Live Q&A, Awesome Merch

Gear In This Video

My Gear:

Microphones

Rack Gear

Monitors / Headphones

Plug-ins

Instruments / Amps

Camera Gear

[teqnotic]

Excellent suggestions. I will do spring cleaning on my plugins collection and spend time learning the plugins I use and like most 👍🏼

[DMV-SaxTv]

Let's go Colt! Thx bro ... "no right or wrong", but so many choices to season to taste.

[JayRah_Music]

Very well explained, really appreciate content like this, learning your plugins is huge! All of this was gold!

[LBJedi]

I’d love to see a video where you break down your picks for which EQs you’d use in each scenario if you don’t mind😊

[Ewoof]

My take on digital and analog EQs comes from my other take on cutting and boosting. Cutting highlights the parts you like and boosting changes the tone of the sound. So because of that I cut with digital EQs and I boost with channel strips until I find a tone I like as it forces me to listen not with my eyes but with my ears. So yeah have the Sonible Smart EQ and the SSL 9000 channel strip in every track I have.

[vadimmartynyuk]

I always choose Steinberg's Frequency EQ, it has the best dynamics and sidechaining options

[gabeatv]

Some of these videos you've been putting out lately hit real hard. Keep it up! Awesome content.

[eviloutionise]

4:35 would you say the same thing about practice in general. When you’re trying a new technique or idea are you trying that in a completely different session to practice. And if you are using it in a different sessions what happens if you’ve already half way through a mix for a client but that track might be perfect for the new technique you tried in a different session.

[NoQualmsTheArtist]

I only use digital EQs for notching and filters. For analog EQs which are what I’m really always using are, API, SSL, Neve and Pultec. I almost never ever use mid/side and rarely use dynamic EQ. Remember all the greatest mixes you grew up listening to didn’t even have these as an option and are only useful in extreme circumstances which rarely occur. But go to vocal EQ is still the trusty old Manny EQ.

[WheelieMix]

To be 100%, this is just my opinion and my conclusion after a lot of thorough testing and carefully matching :
A lot of this is brain wankery.
A lot of eq emu plugins are just curves. Or curves with a very minimal coloration. I encourage everybody to match curves with an analog phase eq plugin (Kirch, Crave, ProQ etc…) and blindtest.
Most of the time, imho, the coloration “box tone” is negligible or slightly detrimental.
But I get it, and I wasn’t trying to be snarky, it’s stimulating to use different eq for different tasks, it feels good, it validates us a bit. Which is the most important thing in the end.
But to be 100% honest, if the eq emulated doesn’t have a STRONG saturation stage post eq, it’s mostly just the same (often slightly worse) than a classic analog phase digital eq.
And surprisingly, this statement felt true even for a lot of hardware eqs.
But don’t take me words for granted, compare/match/level match and hear for yourself :).
I know this statement doesn’t ring right in an audio world where the narrative is all about buzz words (“gooey eq”…) and intent to sell products, but that’s what I think and encourage everybody to experiment with (with the most scientific approach possible, without bias).
Cheers!

[aleksamrkela]

It's not easy to make a video that explains this without getting into particular examples, because every single track demands a different solution. But you very much succeeded at it. :D

[OriginalRaveParty]

Follow up video. 10 minutes to run through 10 EQ plugins and explain what you think the differences in their sound and use cases are. Like if you would appreciate the video too 👍

[dudemcgee]

I recently got Sonible Smart EQ 4 and it's a game changer. It doesn't mix for you but it gets you way closer right off the bat and cuts time WAY down. It's a little like fabfilter but with extra features. I recently re mixed a song to see if I could beat the original mix with this plugin on every track. It beat my other mix hands down. Wasn't even close. I got there in just a couple of hours (which is unheard of for me, I'm a bit slow).

[heartstringssound-Doug]

Awesome video and deep dive on EQ Colt! You Rock!

[dinsfire]

excellent stuff. further confirmation that less is more. blessings to you

[Rollsroyce]

The best EQ is the one that works for your specific project.

Between digital EQs and Analog EQs each has a specific use depending on your project.

[DaftFader]

Love the intro ... Bit of rolling dark liquid D+B ... right up my ally!

[brandongleason]

What a cool video idea... Thanks Colt!

[M.Holland]

Depending on the job to do, I use either a Digital EQ or a plugin emulation of a 1073, a SSL or a EQP. That’s plants of choose and you could do basically anything.

[huberttorzewski]

Console 1 SSL 9K XL, Pro-Q3 and Ozone 11 Eq - I use those 99% of the time. 70% C1, 25% Pro-Q3 and 5% Ozone Eq. Sometimes I like to use Tube-Tech and Curve-Bender from Softube but I use them way less often recently. If I want a color I use a saturator or many different compressors