Calling theEQ52from Ingram Engineering a plain old âEQâ is like calling a rocketship a paper airplane â not correct. You canât just insert this module into your 500 Series rack, twiddle a few knobs, call yourself a genius, and go home early on your first try. This EQ is one of those pieces of gear thatâs not like any other piece of gear. Youâll need to read the instructions, then maybe reread them before you start goofing around with the IngramEQ52, which is a high-pass/low-pass/see-saw filter. Iâll wait a moment for you to collect your thoughts.
Before we go any further, it should be understood that this EQ is a tone shaper, not a tone maker â no transformers. Though itâs certainly musical and boosts are pleasing to the ear at modest amounts, itâs more corrective than colorful. TheEQ52is differential throughout input and output stages, with a high current active output buffer with constant gain for balanced or unbalanced operation.
If youâre still trying to visualize what a see-saw filter actually is, Iâll provide my interpretation. First, we start with a pivot frequency (effectively 120 Hz to 26 kHz on this EQ). The selected pivot point is the center frequency upon which the see-saw filter balances. The see-saw simultaneously boosts one frequency band while at the same time cutting another. Clockwise boosts highs and cuts lows, and counterclockwise swings the other way â boosting lows and cutting highs.
But weâre jumping ahead. At the top of the faceplate is a necessary hardwire bypass EQ IN button. A/Bâing your moves on theEQ52is essential, and though taking notes about the choices you make will be helpful in the beginning, eventually youâll get the swing of it, and theEQ52will feel right at home under your fingers. The Low Cut button provides unusually smooth high-pass filtering from 50 Hz to 5 kHz. This filter soundssonatural that I found myself regularly patching theEQ52in for that purpose alone â they feel like the best high-pass filters in my rack right now! Next down is the see-saw/pivot section, with ranges from 120 Hz to 26 kHz. The simultaneous boost/cut really swings fast! You can easily push 8 dB on an EQ swing, so be sure to watch your gain-staging and make sure youâre going into theEQ52at 0 dB or less. I initially found that subtlety is the way to go with the see-saw filter, but there have been instances (when correcting bad recordings) that some extreme pushes/pulls have proven immensely useful. Iâd been yanking my hair out recently trying to smooth out a shrill-sounding electric guitar track, and spent a few hours with some trick plug-ins to make the sound palatable. But with theEQ52,I dialed in a pivot point at about 3 kHz, set the high-pass to about 100 Hz, then pushed the lows / pulled the highs on the see-saw at 1.5 dB, and â boom! In less than two minutes, I had a tone that worked! For electric bass, I simply set my high cut, boosted the see-saw lows / pulled the highs a few dBs, then swept for an ideal frequency pivot⊠which took the bass tone from Jaco to Jamerson nearly instantly. I think Iâm getting the hang of this thing! Pivot at 8 kHz on the drum bus please. Can theEQ52help with the proximity build-up of a large diaphragm condenser on an acoustic guitar? With a few knob twists! The corrective (and enhancing) applications are pretty much endless with this EQ. Did I mention smoothing out the 2-bus on a mix?
Youâre getting where Iâm going with this, I think? One: Itâs not as hard to use theEQ52as it looks. Two: I will be reaching for theEQ52before I instantiate a corrective plug-in to fix problematic timbres, bad micâing techniques, or just plain shitty sounds. Some other things to note: TheEQ52is quiet as hell with tons of headroom. Itâs also ideal for sidechaining with a compressor.
Though theEQ52works well in stereo applications (mixing or mastering), there is no way to link filter controls between two units. A step-by-step matching procedure accompanies the Ownerâs Manual. Itâs entirely likely that youâve never heard of theEQ52. Still, if youâre looking for unique tools to improve results for your clients, youâll probably need to have at least one of these analog magic fixer/enhancer modules in your 500 Series rack immediately.
($375 MSRP;ingramengineering.net) -SM