Analog Obsession is creating some beautiful free plug-ins. And for all the various analog EQ emulations out there, here’s a unique take – combine them into a single set of easy-access “best” bands.
Okay, “best” is in quotes because I’m not sure you can objectively characterize frequencies, let alone particular EQ bands on particular devices. (In my role, at least, I need to pretend to be diplomatic. Dear digital frequencies, I love all of you equally … erm, even as I slowly lose touch with the higher-pitched among you as I age.)
But the idea is clever, it’s in a cute package, and it’s got some robust platform support. (You get VST, VST3, and on Mac AU, for macOS 10.9+ and Windows 7+.) Plus the price is right – it’s a free direct download from Patreon.
Version 2, released at the start of this month, is the one worth talking about as it added proper oversampling and added more modules, plus even added a custom line amp.
I suppose I should be scientific here and talk about consistency, but to be honest, I don’t mind occasionally swapping something like an EQ just to force myself to listen differently.
Features – each with bands from the Helios, Pultec, API, and Neve (hence the letters there)As:
– H-Type Low Cut @50Hz
– P-Type Boost/Atten @60Hz
– A-Type Mid Band @1.6kHz
– N-Type High Shelf @12kHz
– P-Type High Atten @20kHz
– Custom Line Amp with compensated gain
– Oversampling (ANALOG OBSESSION label)
The V2 update added redesigned circuit and DSP improvements throughout, reduced CPU usage, added gain-compensated line amp, 4X oversampling, and came up with this eye-popping GUI with full Retina/HiDPI support and readouts on the knobs. Nice.
Grab it here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/65955720
Analog Obsession has an interesting model generally. So any plug-in you can grab without jumping through any hoops whatsoever. From $5+ a month, you can throw in support to the developer in the hopes they keep doing this. And there’s a ton of stuff in there, covering a range of compressors, EQs, consoles, and other analog essentials. It’s all the project of developer Rıdvan Küçük (Tunca). It’s amazing seeing what independent devs can do, even as (cough) bigger vendors give us complex subscription schemes and whatnot.
FRANK is a nice play to start.
Big hat tip to UK production institute dBs, who are doing a regular “Free Software Friday” series.
https://insider.dbsinstitute.ac.uk/free-software-friday-analog-obsession-frank-v2
As dBs writes:
Analog Obsession is one of the best developers of hardware emulations and mash-ups such as FRANK and none of their plugins come with a price tag. However, we encourage anyone who can donates through their Patreon to help them continue their stellar work.
You know, I miss having editors. They would add some cheesy pun, like… HOT FRANK. Or FRANKLY, darling, I do give… a damn… about EQ. See, I can barely do it.