Several companies stand out when we think about vintage recording studio consoles made in the 1970s and 1980s – SSL, Neve, and API. Many of these vintage consoles are still in use, while others have been scavenged for their prized components – channel strips, preamps, equalizers, and compressors. In fact, there’s a profitable market in re-issued, modern versions of these vintage modules made by those same companies, as well as other hardware developers. There’s an even larger market for software plugins that sonically and visually emulate these units.
One of the most popular icons of this era is the Neve 1073 preamp and equalizer. It might not be as prolific as SSL 4000E channel strips; but nevertheless, there are plenty of software emulations of the 1073 and subsequent Neve variations. I have several of them, including the Logic Pro Vintage Console EQ, which is Apple’s “no label” version of the 1073. So when I recently learned about NoiseAsh Audio Tools and their NEED 73 EQ, I was curious to check it out and see what new features it brought to the table.
More than just an EQ
First of all, NoiseAsh markets this as an EQ, but it’s actually a console channel strip. In most standard analog recording consoles each strip includes a preamp (mic or line input), equalizer controls to boost or attenuate specific frequencies, filters, and fader control for output level. NEED EQ features all of those. So it offers more functions than some of the other emulations. According to NoiseAsh, this plugin was designed using circuit emulation, rather than impulse responses and so is less taxing on your DAW and computer. That’s never been a big issue for me with the others, so I have to take this at face value.
NoiseAsh has done several things in the NEED 73 EQ to emulate analog circuitry (more on that in a moment). One function is the Nuance Deviation System (NDS), which is similar to Brainworx’s Tolerance Modeling Technology (TMT). The concept for both processes is to mimic variances in specs between different hardware channels of an analog console. In other words, a signal traveling through channel one will sound ever so slightly different than that same signal run through another channel. This is true throughout the entire console and of all analog consoles.
In the case of NoiseAsh’s NDS, they have modeled 40 channel variations. You can either leave the NDS setting at the default of 1, toggle through other channel numbers (1-40), or click RND (random) to let the plugin make a selection for you. If you have applied multiple instances of the NEED 73 EQ onto adjacent tracks, then switching to different NDS numbers on each will add some extra analog-style variation to the mix.
Preamp and EQ sections
Preamps and EQ are the business end of a plugin like this. You’re not going to record through it as you would in an actual console. Therefore, the preamp lets you adjust level and add drive/saturation. Below it there’s a high-pass filter and then an EQ on/off switch. However, the signal is always being processed, even with this switch set to Off. This layout is similar to other 1073-style plugins, but it’s worth noting the the Drive switch is basically an auto-gain switch. With Drive enabled, the output level stays the same as you crank up the gain. Of course, it does become more gritty and saturated when you do this.
The EQ panel is where you first see the biggest design difference from other 1073-style plugins. There are high and low shelf controls along with midrange controls at “musical” stepped values. However, NoiseAsh has opted to add two midrange band control knobs instead of the typical single control knob. This way you could boost or attenuate at different midrange frequencies – like both 1.6K and 4.8K – within the same plugin.
If you’ve used EQs before, you’ll notice that 1073 variations don’t include a Q control for the width around the selected frequency. NEED 73 EQ is no exception. The 1073 design uses a fixed Q width that’s proportional. As you boost or attenuate a specific frequency, the width at the baseline stays the same; but the slope of the EQ curve becomes steeper/narrower towards the peak. Therefore, the EQ becomes more surgical at large dB changes without broadly impacting a swath of the frequencies around it.
Mid/side modes
The right half of the plugin interface includes meters, output faders, and mode selection (plus the NDS switching). If you work in mono or stereo, then the defaults are pretty straightforward. Stereo left/right channels are usually linked, but can be unlinked if you need to tweak the balance. Less common is the mid/side mode. Some emulations have it, some don’t. With mid/side enabled you can adjust levels separately for the middle portion (more mono) of the signal as opposed to the outer side (more stereo) portion. Meters and faders can be switched accordingly.
Whether in stereo or mid/side mode, you can unlink the channels and EQ each side differently. When you click the View switch to one side or the other, the shading of the EQ panel changes slightly. This cues you to know that you are adjusting the knobs for the left (or mid) or right (or side) signal. The design approach prevents cluttering up the GUI with two rows of EQ knobs.
At the bottom of the GUI panel is a Width control that goes from 0 to 200 with a default at 100 (normal stereo). You can use this to turn a stereo signal to mono (0) or make a normal stereo signal sound even wider (100-200). Be careful with this, because adjusting any width or imaging control messes with the phase. I typically apply plugins like the NEED 73 EQ onto buses (instrument groups). A width control is handy to make a stereo group of background singers sound wider within the stereo field. However, you should adjust width while monitoring overall phase. It’s a function that should only be used selectively and certainly not on every bus. Otherwise, the overall mix will get smeared.
Testing
Channeling my inner Dan Worrall, I decided to do some null testing. I compared a track using several different 1073 plugins against each other. If any two plugins used the exact same processing – or really weren’t adding any analog “mojo” – then inverting one track’s phase (plugins at default settings) should result in silence. The two signals should cancel each other out as they do with true digital plugins.
This is not the case with quality emulations, because mimicking analog circuitry introduces harmonics. As expected, none of these 1073 variations nulled against each other nor against the track without any plugin. On a side note, one of the other plugins was the Logic Pro Vintage Console EQ. Its default setting is not truly a default with everything at a zero point. You have to make sure Drive is set to 0 and the output model is set to Off.
Next, I cranked the 1.6K midrange frequency to +10db. Again no null (good), but also they sounded very similar. In a real world application they all yielded a useful result. However, I do consider a few of these, like the KIT N73 plugin, to be very faithful representations of the 1073 sound. The NEED 73 EQ sounded quite similar. Hence, if you want the 1073 sound, then NoiseAsh is delivering a well-designed emulation.
My last bit of testing was the NEED 73 EQ against itself to test NDS. The first test was with both instances of NDS set to 1-1. These both nulled as I would expect them to. The next was to switch one of them to RND (random). This null test yielded a slight bit of audible music. This tells me that there is indeed a slight deviation being added, as claimed.
The one item where I could never hear any difference was the Analog On/Off control. This is supposed to add additional analog hum and hiss inherent with analog circuitry. In my tests it always nulled with no audio, regardless of how loud I cranked levels. So, at least for me, the Analog switch didn’t seem to be doing anything.
Final thoughts
I really like what NoiseAsh has done with the NEED 73 EQ. It’s easy to install and license, comes in the main 64-bit plugin formats (including AAX for Avid systems), and performed well on my iMac.
I also like the GUI design. It’s a pleasant skeuomorphic appearance without the added faux scratches and rust that some developers use in their designs. The only oddity I encountered was that the meters will occasionally “stick” and jitter when you stop playback. It’s minor, but unexpected with such a polished product.
Overall, the NoiseAsh NEED 73 EQ sounds good and is easy to use, which are the most important elements of any plugin. It’s a modern take on a studio classic and I definitely intend to use it on more mixes.
©2024 Oliver Peters
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