Three of the inhabitants of SPL's hardware RackPack system get the software modelling treatment. It's time to talk tone!Graphic EQs are a rarity in the studio. They're something you associate more with PA tuning or car hi-fis than precision tone-shaping in the control room. However, SPL (Sound Performance Labs) have been successful with the EQ Ranger hardware series by designing a graphic equaliser from a musical standpoint, rather than a technical one. Traditional graphic EQs have equal octave or third octave bands that don't bear any relationship to the subject material, but the concept of the Ranger series is to devise bands that relate to the character of the sound in question. Now, they've translated them to native plug-in formats under the guise of their new Analog Code software range.
Lone rangers
The Vox Ranger is an eight-band passive-style EQ model, with most of the bands centred around the presence and midrange frequencies between 22OHz and 4kHz, giving 15dB of cut and boost on each band. The great thing about graphics is that you can very quickly try each band to hear its effect. For vocals, where the tonal nuance is everything, the smallest tweak can have a profound effect. In all cases, the bandwidth of each control feels good in that it's not too narrow to create an ugly notch, but not so wide that you lose precision. There aren't the bands available to help with extreme top-end air or rolling off rumble, but the idea is that this module is used in conjunction with the Full Ranger to cover all bases. It's not just useful for vocals either and is equally valuable on any mid-range instrument - see the boxout.
The Bass Ranger is also an eight-band passive graphic, with all bands below 2kHz and five at or below 500Hz. The key bands are 65Hz for trouser-flapping tones, 95 and 170Hz for tight bottomend and 23OHz for clearing out low-mid cloudiness. An even lower band at 30Hz is there to sort out excessive sub energy. Again, the bandwidths are sensible, but a tighter notch can often be useful for characteristic bass sounds.
The Full Ranger is, as you may have predicted, another eight-band passive, covering the entire audible range from a subby 40Hz right up to 16kHz at the top. The bands aren't entirely equidistant harmonically (40,90,150, 500Hz, and 1.8,4.7,10,16kHz) as they're tuned to frequencies that are tailored to complement the other two more specialised Rangers.
All the units sound excellent and the Vox Ranger is particularly useful, with very musical results. However, they could all benefit from having an input level control - to avoid distortion with a hot recording. The four settings buttons, which let you quickly try out different shapes, could be more useful if they enabled you to copy and paste between them for comparisons. Being able to bypass individual bands would also help the setup. Nevertheless, this would make an excellent addition to your tonal armoury and it's much quicker than the conventional parametric approach.
Contact: info@audiopros.eu
Web: www.soundperformancelab.com
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Try using it on...
The Full Ranger is suited to a wide range of applications, but the other two are suited to more uses than their names might imply.
The Vocal Ranger is made especially for vocals, from adding presence and sheen to shaping the body and dialling in warmth. Obvious vocal uses aside, when mixing guitar, for example, you could use the 1.6 or 2.8kHz bands to add bite, and 560 and 800Hz for fullness. As for piano, you can control the brightness of the percussive attack with the 2.8kHz band and sort out any woodiness with the 42OHz control.
Aside from sorting your low-end out, the Bass Ranger comes in handy on kick drums, with the 65Hz band ideal for weight and 95Hz slider bringing in chest-thumping tones. For guitars, it could be useful in gluing the low-end of distorted numbers to the bass and kick drum. It's also good for mastering, where precise shaping of the lower bands could help your mix.
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System requirements
(MAC) G4/ Intel Core Duo CPU, OS X 10.4,
256MB RAM, RTAS/AU/VST host
(PC) 1GHz CPU, Windows 2000/XP/Vista,
256MB RAM, RTAS/VST host
Test system
(MAC) G5 2.5GHZ PowerPC. 4GB RAM, Pro Tools HD3
Alternatively
Waves API Collection cm118» 9/10 » $1000
Contains the API 56010-band graphic EQ plug-in
URS M-series N/A»N/A»$200
Recreates the 7-band graphic EQ of Motown's Hit Factory studio
Verdict
FOR
- Quick and easy to use
- Musically complementarybands
- Precise low-end shaping
- Natural sounding
AGAINST
- No input level control
- No individual band bypass
- Can't copy and paste variations
This is a solid effort from SPL. and the tone is right on the money, although a few tweaks could make the pack more usable
MARK: 8/10
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