The Pultec series of equalizers live in the family of prized analog gear, shrouded in mystery. Regarded as magic boxes on the stereo bus, a must-have component of the most magical vocal chains, and so on, the Pulse Technologies Pultec EQs have been on thousands of recordings and earned their place in recording history.
But what about understanding them? The concept of boosting and cutting at the same frequency can be confusing, and there are many versions. Tube, Solid State, silver face, blue face, EQH-2s, MEQ-5s, EQP-1As, Oh my!
In the latest installment of our How To Listen Series, Fab Dupont explains what makes the Pultec series of EQs unique and highly sought after and teaches you how to listen to the prized characteristics of this EQ.
Learn:
The history of the Pulse Technologies Pultec EQs
How to add weight and sparkle to tracks using the Pultec's unique curves
How to use the mid-range version of the EQ, the MEQ-5.
An invaluable technique for both boosting and cutting at the same frequency and why it works.
And see Fab demonstrate examples of these techniques on both plugin versions and hardware versions to help you print the tone of the Pultec equalizers in your head.
Learn how to use the Pultec series of EQs from Fab Dupont. Only on pureMix.net
00:00:00 Good morning children,
today we're going to
listen to some Pultecs
and that's all there is to it.
Let's go!
First, a little bit of history.
00:00:14 What's a Pultec?
It's an EQ,
it's from the 50s.
00:00:17 It's two dudes,
I forgot the name
who licensed a design
from Western Electric,
an older company than Pultec,
and
made an EQ out of it.
00:00:26 There are a lot of
misconceptions about Pultecs.
00:00:28 There's a lot of weird names,
EQP-1A, H2, A3,
SS.
00:00:33 So, it's difficult to keep track
but in essence
a Pultec is this:
It's a passive EQ circuit.
00:00:39 So the EQ is passive,
meaning, the way...
00:00:43 the signal is equalized is done
with a passive circuit
but...
00:00:47 there's a make-up
gain stage at the end.
00:00:50 For most of the Pultecs
that make-up gain
stage is tube based.
00:00:54 For some,
it's solid-state based.
00:00:57 There's another company,
called Lang,
that made a solid-state version
inspired from the
same passive circuit.
00:01:02 And those sound great
as solid-state.
00:01:04 The Pultecs really,
in my opinion,
from what I have heard personally,
shine in the tube version.
00:01:10 So if you find a really cheap Pultec
on Reverb.com
make sure it's the tube version
because you might be disappointed
if you're getting a solid-state version.
00:01:18 If you see an EQP-1
silver face,
that's probably a
solid-state version.
00:01:24 Listen to it before you buy it.
00:01:25 This one is an EQH-2,
so it's a silver face
but it's a tube EQ because
the EQH-2 were tube.
00:01:32 And it comes from Mediasound.
So there!
What we're gonna do today is
listen to what the Pultecs do
but first, a word from our sponsor.
00:01:39 I have here the 1977 Pultec catalog.
00:01:42 'Used by radio stations,
record companies
and recording studios'.
00:01:46 It's really interesting
how they separate
record companies and
recording studios.
00:01:50 'To add that final touch to the
balance of good program material
and to greatly improve the
quality of program material
previously recorded on
equipment of inferior quality
or differing characteristics'.
00:02:03 They really thought as this
device as a way to improve...
00:02:07 kind of a fairy dust thing.
00:02:09 You know?
Like kind the smiley curve stuff?
Before the Pultecs
inserting an EQ inline
would result in loss of signal
because they were mostly passive
and nobody had come
up with an idea
to make sure that
if you put the EQ in
then the level doesn't drop.
00:02:25 Right now, you put a plug-in on,
you turn it on,
you don't loose 10 or 15 dB
because you just put an EQ inline.
00:02:31 At the time, you did.
00:02:33 These dudes came up
with the idea of having
a level compensation circuit
after the EQ so you didn't
loose all that signal.
00:02:40 That's why they
called it 'no loss'
and in all the literature,
everything you see online,
it's a big deal, it's a 'no loss' EQ.
00:02:47 You can put it into your signal
and you don't loose
15 dB or 16 dB of gain
which was a really
big deal at the time.
00:02:53 For us,
we don't really care
because our entire
systems are designed to be
even, 'no loss', transparent
and all that stuff.
00:03:02 But for them
it was a godsend.
So everybody loved it
and then when a product
becomes widespread
people come up with
new uses for it.
00:03:10 I guarantee you that nobody at
Pulse Technologies
thought of
boosting and cutting
in the same frequency.
00:03:18 Actually they recommend in the
manual that you don't do that.
00:03:21 They thought this was gonna be used
before the transmitter
of a radio station
or to slightly
sweeten the sound of
mono record before it gets pressed,
or something like that.
00:03:31 The way it was
intended to be used
and the way it
got used over time
is completely different
but it's really interesting to hear
what they thought of it.
00:03:39 I have here the EQH-2,
Pultec 'no loss',
'Passive', which is...
00:03:46 not necessarily true since
there's a gain stage at the end.
00:03:49 'It is usually those tones
on the extreme ends
of the musical spectrum
which lose their proper perspective
in the many steps
between the musician and
the ultimate listener.'
They thought of that in 1977,
I wonder what they would think today.
00:04:02 'The wide range of
equalization curves
in the model EQH-2'.
00:04:06 Wide range!
Four knobs, two switches,
I'll let you think about that.
00:04:11 ...'makes it possible to correct the
low and high frequency notes of the
orchestra without "muddying up"
the middle register instruments'.
00:04:17 It gives you a clue of
how they were thinking.
00:04:20 'In addition to the generous
choice of frequencies'...
00:04:22 which we are talking
about 5 on the high-end
and four in the low-end...
00:04:28 'the effectiveness
of this equalizer is
further enhanced by the
availability of 16',
a full 16 dB of boost,
'and 16 dB of attenuation on
the high frequency curves'.
00:04:37 And 13.5 of boost and
17 of attenuation on the
low frequency curves
which by the way,
they decided to label,
0 through 10, both of them.
00:04:45 'Continuously variable controls permit
changing the amount of equalization,
even on sustained tones, without
steps in levels, or clicks'.
00:04:51 What they mean is,
while it's playing you can
add bass
or add high-end without hearing
'clack, clack, clack'
like you would with the other
switch based EQs at the time.
00:05:02 This is a
catalog from 1977,
the first Pultec was early
50s, obviously
they had time to
refine their message
and time to refine their products.
00:05:11 What I propose we do now
is we listen to some real Pultec.
00:05:15 Here's my setup.
00:05:17 Pro Tools,
HD I-O, HDX.
00:05:21 Everything has been aligned perfectly.
00:05:23 I have here Insight 2,
I have a tone generator, white noise,
and as you'll see,
it's at -24 ish...
00:05:35 -24.7.
00:05:37 And then I have the Insert I-O,
mono,
like this,
and we can analyze the level of that
oscillating between -24.7 and -24.6.
00:05:51 They warmed up,
they were at -24.7 earlier,
now they are at -24.6.
00:05:57 7 ish. Se we are within
0.1 dB of same level
so that we don't get
fooled by the gain.
00:06:03 I'm gonna add the spectrum here.
00:06:08 This is the white noise
without the Insert.
00:06:19 I have Insight up
so you can see as well
as hear what's going on,
especially when we start doing
dual knob stuff because,
as we tend to listen with our eyes,
it says 20, you think,
'Oh, I'm gonna boost 20'.
But no,
I'm gonna use just the EQH-2
and I'm gonna turn it on
and I'm gonna turn the tone on
and I'm gonna raise,
boost
just the 20, touching nothing else.
00:06:57 As we can see,
frequencies all the way up to 100
are getting affected by the 20 boost.
00:07:02 Back on to nothing.
00:07:05 Back up.
00:07:06 OK, it's not just 20, it's a very
wide curve, it's a shelving EQ.
00:07:11 Sweetening,
that's what they wanted.
00:07:13 Look at 30.
00:07:17 30 has residuals all the way to 200.
00:07:20 Look at 60.
00:07:23 300 and change.
Look at 100.
00:07:27 100 is actually affected all
the way to 400. Check it out.
00:07:35 On a vocal,
you can actually select 20
and affect the very bottom
of the vocal very gently
all the way to 400.
00:07:43 And people do that.
00:07:45 Let's look at the high-end.
00:07:47 The different Pultec
EQs, different models,
had different frequencies,
that was the main difference between,
besides solid-state and tube,
was the main difference
between the different models.
00:07:56 So, an EQP-1A would
go up to 16 kHz,
EQH-2 is stuck at 12 kHz,
so let's do 12 kHz.
00:08:03 Remove the 20 Hz,
and jack up 20 kHz.
00:08:10 As you can see,
the EQH-2 is a fixed bell.
00:08:13 The EQP-1A has the bandwidth
mode so you can soften the bell
it gets less gain but
it was a gentler boost.
00:08:19 So if I go down to 10 kHz.
00:08:22 And I go down to 8 kHz.
00:08:25 5 kHz.
00:08:29 And 3 kHz.
00:08:30 See how wide the 3 kHz is.
00:08:32 Alright, let's go back to 12 kHz.
00:08:35 So we see that
the bottom is more of a shelf
and the top is more of a bell.
00:08:41 13.5 dB of gain,
16 dB of gain.
00:08:45 So none of it is really kind of
modernly aligned
and consistent, it's all about listening,
so let's do that.
00:08:54 We're gonna go to a drum loop.
00:08:56 And I chose a drum loop
because you can really
easily hear the difference
since it's electronic
and very repetitive.
00:09:03 And I'm gonna turn
the EQP-1A on and off.
00:09:06 So the first thing we wanna
do is zero everything
to show you
one of the most interesting
characteristics of the EQP-1A.
00:09:12 Remember we just
aligned levels, right?
Levels are the same.
00:09:18 0.1 dB maybe depending on
how warm they are.
00:09:21 If we listen to the
drums without the Pultec,
meaning, with the Insert
inactive, right here,
this is what it sounds like.
00:09:42 Did you hear it?
There's no EQ, it's just on,
and yes,
it's level matched, remember?
We level matched.
00:09:48 And I wanna turn it
on while it's playing,
there will be a little glitch
because Pro Tool inserts
are not bypassed,
they're actually inactive
so it takes a second
for the engine to do it.
00:10:12 It's fatter with the Pultec on, right?
Thicker, fatter,
bouncier.
00:10:17 But there's no EQ applied.
00:10:18 That means
that the
gain stage
that they invented to
compensate for the loss of gain
for the passive EQ has its own tone
and we like the tone.
00:10:28 And I think that people like
the tone from the beginning
which is why these
things were so prized
and why they're still around
and cost a fortune to buy
for the vintage ones.
00:10:36 Because they have a tone
and they have a really fat, thick,
mellow, beautiful tone that
people liked.
00:10:41 This is just no EQ,
what happens when you
start pushing the EQ?
I'm gonna start at 20 Hz.
00:10:55 Even thicker, and then,
I wanna try at 30, 60 and 100 so
you can hear what it sounds like.
00:11:17 Obviously it gets louder because
there's more and more energy
as you saw in the
curve with the Insight.
00:11:22 The higher you go with the frequency
the more energy gets pushed so
the whole thing gets louder.
00:11:27 A more fair comparison we would
have to lower the boost
as you raise the cycles.
00:11:33 But that's not the point of a Pultec,
the point of a Pultec
is to guesstimate the frequency,
say, OK, I'm listening to this loop
flat.
00:11:45 I like a little 'ohmph'
to come under the point,
let's try 60.
00:11:51 3 point,
which is I don't know how many dB.
00:11:54 Four, something like that.
00:12:00 I dig, let's see one
above and one below.
00:12:02 So I'm gonna go from 60 to 100.
00:12:04 Back to 60 then to 30.
00:12:15 60 was a good guess.
00:12:17 So I like the 60 on this.
00:12:19 And then maybe we can
open the super high-end.
00:12:21 Say, 10 kHz,
I don't know why I feel like 10 kHz.
00:12:23 I'm gonna jack it up to four.
00:12:31 It's a bit much, let's go higher.
00:12:42 This is where we started.
00:12:51 Just like the catalog said.
00:12:53 It sweetens stuff.
00:12:53 There's nothing crazy about this,
it's really really simple.
Now if you think about it,
the fact that these are
so prized and so craved after
in a world where
we have now FabFilter ProQ 3
that has dynamic EQ per band,
unlimited amount of bands,
a pre and post analyzer,
it's a fantastic plug-in,
it's really great,
I use it all the time.
00:13:16 But people go after this
because you turn it on,
it sounds good, it helps you.
00:13:20 And then
you have four options
on both sides and that's it.
00:13:25 And there's value there.
00:13:26 Also, there's no graph,
there's nothing, you have to listen.
00:13:29 The big elephant in the room
is the two knob technique.
00:13:32 As I said earlier,
Pulse Technologies
expressively stated in their manual,
'Do not attempt to boost and
cut at the same frequency'.
00:13:41 Alright, let's do that.
00:13:43 So I'm gonna remove
the 12 kHz here.
00:13:45 Some smarty pants
found out that
the boost and cut are not the
exactly the same frequency
and don't have the
exact same curve.
00:13:53 So that allows you
to do cool things.
00:13:56 Do we need to worry about that?
Yeah, I think you do,
it's an interesting thing.
00:14:01 If only for the consciousness of
how sound works and how EQs work.
00:14:05 Reminder, we started here.
00:14:08 Now we're here.
00:14:12 Say I really dug that but I want more.
00:14:19 So now the problem is,
because it's so wide,
then it's kind of muddying
the sound a little bit, right?
Well, the smarty pant who found out
that you can do both at the same time
without Pulse Technologies
police come to kill you,
did this.
00:14:40 I wanna quickly go without and with.
00:14:42 This is without.
00:14:46 With.
00:14:48 Right?
You can tell yourself:
'We can probably have the same sound
by just having less of the boost'.
00:14:54 No you can't, let me show you.
00:14:55 So this is where we are.
00:14:58 +5 on the 60 Hz.
00:14:59 And -3.5.
00:15:04 We started here as a reminder.
00:15:13 If I remove the attenuation
and just lower the gain...
00:15:20 I can't quite get the same
amount of peak at 60 ish
It allows you to basically
change the curve a little bit.
Let me show you the curve.
00:15:37 This is flat.
00:15:38 This is with the boost.
00:15:40 Five at 60.
00:15:43 This is what happens when
I raise the attenuation.
00:15:45 Check out this area right here.
00:15:47 It's subtle on the graph but it's not
subtle on the bass drum as you just heard.
00:15:51 Check it out.
00:15:53 See that?
I'll show you again.
00:15:57 Boom.
00:15:59 Boom.
00:16:01 It goes down.
00:16:02 Using this two knob technique
you could use the
tone of the inductors,
because these are inductor EQs,
jack up 60,
get that tone, get that warmth,
but
not muddy up
this area as much.
00:16:16 Isn't it nice?
Think about these applications.
00:16:19 Think about a whole mix.
00:16:21 Say you want to have that
really yummy 20 at the bottom
which I do on most
my mixes using the
UAD Pultec Legacy,
which is a combo of
an EQP-1A and MEQ-5,
I'll show you the MEQ-5 in a minute.
00:16:36 On most of my mixes I have
a little bit of that 20
and a little of that 16 kHz or 10 kHz
depending on how bright
the project was recorded.
00:16:43 I love it.
00:16:44 Sometimes,
when I have problems in the low-mids
because of the way
the bass was recorded
or the way I mixed it,
you get to own your mistakes,
then I use a little
bit of the attenuation
to do this.
00:16:54 Let's look at the same
thing in the high-end
while we're looking at it.
00:16:57 Let's boost 20 kHz.
00:17:00 Check out what the attenuation
does at the same frequency.
00:17:04 It basically let's you keep 12 kHz
and make it more of a bell.
00:17:07 Let me show you 8.
00:17:09 Without the attenuation.
00:17:12 With the attenuation.
00:17:13 If I jack up the boost
all the way up.
00:17:17 It gets really really sharp
and the attenuation let's you
make it very sharp
and just kind of like
low-pass after that.
00:17:24 So there are useful
applications to that.
00:17:26 When there's something
like guitars, for example,
are pretty awesome here.
00:17:30 This is really nice on a electric guitar.
00:17:33 You don't have to
raise all the garbage
and you can raise the point
to the level you want.
00:17:37 And it's above 1 kHz so
it doesn't have that nose,
very useful.
00:17:41 Enough with white noise,
let's listen to some music.
00:17:43 So I have here a bass...
00:17:53 I'll turn it off here.
00:17:54 I wanna turn the insert on
and the turn the EQ on.
00:17:58 I will reset it.
00:18:05 As a reminder this was
without just the flat EQ.
00:18:19 This kind of
bass
really benefits from the 100.
Check it out.
00:18:29 But there's a bit of a mask, so...
00:18:39 That's more fun
than screwing around
with the parametric EQ
forever in the day, isn't it?
It is.
00:18:45 The high-end.
00:18:53 So, I like that stuff but
it's better with
the attenuation.
00:19:07 You get that shine but you don't
get that whole 'fssss' thing.
00:19:10 You probably won't be using
as much of that two knob trick
on the full mix
because it becomes
unpredictable and then
you don't know what it does
and you have to keep that in mind.
00:19:19 It's better to just sweeten and then
maybe use a parametric
before it or after it
to compensate for
stuff that are too much
but on individual instruments,
it's a really fast and intuitive
tone shaping tool.
00:19:31 Can a plug-in do that?
Oh yeah, the plug-in can do that.
00:19:34 If what you're
looking for is a true
A-B-X super scientific comparison
of Pultecs golden
units and all the different plug-ins
and decide who wins,
you're in the wrong spot,
that's not what I'm
interested in doing.
00:19:47 What I'm interested in doing is
extracting
the best of what the unit can do
and what plug-ins can do
and also
printing in our minds
what the tone is so next time we
hear something lacking like this bass
we can think: 'Oh, if I did that
on a Pultec it would work!'
That's the key of this video,
for the other stuff there's the internet.
00:20:05 That's the one with the email.
00:20:07 Let's put an EQP-1A by
our good friends at UA.
00:20:11 Acustica Audio makes a very good one,
Waves makes a very good one.
00:20:14 There's a whole bunch of other people
who make good ones.
00:20:16 Does the plug-in do the whole like
thicker, without the EQ, thing?
Let's find out.
00:20:21 Maybe we should find
out on the Drums,
I wanna turn the
plug-in on all the Drums
There, make it flat,
make it totally flat.
00:20:29 Let's listen.
00:20:45 It totally does
but I suspect
that the golden unit
that my good friend at UA
used to make their plug-in
was not exactly one-to-one.
00:20:56 Let's see.
00:20:58 This is the tone again.
00:20:59 Let's look at levels.
00:21:01 -23.9 with the EQ on totally flat.
00:21:05 And...
00:21:06 Bypassing the EQ.
00:21:08 -24.7 so there's a 0.4 dB difference.
00:21:11 The Pultec Legacy
does the same thing.
00:21:14 Since
their idea is that it's exactly the unit
and they hired somebody to
listen to all those units
and they listened to
them themselves and
picked the one that
sounds the best
and then modeled it exactly
so they will not correct for
a slight level difference.
00:21:29 The sound is great though.
00:21:31 So what we could do is we could
try and
offset here,
24.7...
00:21:39 That's about right.
00:21:40 OK, so, I wanna copy this setting
and paste it here on my Drum one.
00:21:46 So now we have
close to perfect level.
00:21:49 The Pultec Legacy does not do that.
00:21:51 Which is a pain in my butt
but I'm used to it now.
00:21:53 So here's level matched,
to 0.1 dB.
00:21:57 Flat.
00:21:58 Is it gonna do the thing?
It does the thing, remember?
This is the thing.
00:22:13 Without.
00:22:25 Plug-in.
00:22:30 It does the thing, slightly different.
00:22:33 I don't think I can
call it better or worse
it's slightly different because
they modeled a different unit.
00:22:38 I was using mine.
00:22:39 And mine is an EQH-2 and
they measured an EQP-1A.
00:22:43 Let's just get back
to our settings,
like 60,
it was +5 ish, 3 and change,
and a little bit of the high-end
at 10 kHz.
Let's hear that.
00:23:05 It's 4.5,
and 5 at 60.
00:23:09 Bypass this.
00:23:10 4.5 and 5 at 60
and 5 and 4 at 12 kHz.
00:23:18 And I'm keeping the bandwidth at 0
on the EQP-1A because this
is an EQP-H2 and it's fixed.
00:23:23 I don't know if it's exactly the same bell
but we're about to find out.
00:23:26 So, this...
00:23:27 is a hardware.
00:23:37 Plug-in.
00:23:47 Since we know
that the model
of the no gain
is basically perfect and great
we now know that
the gain stage of
an EQP-1A and an
EQH-2 are different.
00:23:59 Let me see if I can match.
00:24:06 This EQP-1A
and my EQH-2 are different.
00:24:35 I kind of like the
plug-in better,
it's a little fatter.
00:24:37 I would actually pick
that over this right now.
00:24:40 For my personal taste,
your taste will vary
and the taste of all the YouTube
people will vary greatly.
00:24:50 Remember, this...
00:25:00 And this...
00:25:11 It sounds great too.
00:25:12 They all sound great.
00:25:13 So, now you know
a few things.
00:25:15 Or you've seen a few things and
you'll decide if you know them.
00:25:18 Number one.
00:25:20 A venerable 60s
hardware, or early 70s hardware
unit sounds bananas.
00:25:28 A 2019 plug-in sounds bananas.
00:25:32 Both of them are very useful,
they're slightly different.
00:25:35 I could bring up the Waves one,
I could bring the Acustica one,
I could bring up whatever
one just came out last week
because it seems that every week
somebody is doing
a Pultec emulation.
00:25:43 What matters
is that you pick
the one that you own
or that you can afford, or whatever
and that you learn it
and that you understand
the principles of it
and that you memorize and
internalize the feeling of using it
so that you can recall
that feeling before
you need it, meaning,
you listen to that bass
and you have the
urge to use that
because you have the
sound in your head,
which is, again,
what this video is for.
00:26:08 Let me show you the MEQ-5.
00:26:10 The MEQ-5
was sold to us,
back in 70s
as 'Pultec Model
MEQ-5 will effectively
add body and presence
to music already thought
to be well balanced.
00:26:22 Highlight or subdue a vocalist,
where the vocal is already
mixed with the orchestra.
00:26:27 Round out the vocal group,
or make it stand out.
00:26:31 Improve the basic quality
of voices or instruments
by altering their fundamental
and overtone relationships.
00:26:36 Equalize Dialogue'
You get the vibe of
what they were thinking.
00:26:39 Since they have made the sweetener
then they made the mid-range thing
so that they could act into
these things that they just described,
and also so that you
have a full all-around EQ
between the bottom and
top and the middle.
00:26:52 'The MEQ-5 provides exacting control'.
00:26:55 If you use one,
it doesn't.
00:26:58 'of the power region in program material'.
00:27:00 Again, they think of this,
for full program material.
00:27:03 'from about 300 Hz to about 5000 Hz'.
00:27:05 That's correct, actually it goes way
above 5 kHz but that's a different story.
00:27:09 ...'which is
where most of the sound
energy is concentrated'.
00:27:14 Back to Pro Tools and I'm gonna use
a vocal lead
and turn on the Insert,
I'm gonna bypass
the EQH-2 and turn on
MEQ-5. I'll make sure
everything is at 0.
00:27:40 That is a typical sound for a vocal stem
that I would get.
00:27:45 Let's see what this can do.
00:28:00 It's nice!
This 200 here
is magical.
It's magical here,
it's also magical here, check this out.
00:28:14 On the bass we need less
because there was
more 200 Hz there,
but it's awesome.
00:28:23 Here, you can actually select
the frequency, so the middle,
we have peak at the bottom,
between 200 and 1 kHz.
00:28:32 Peak at the top,
between 1.5 kHz and 5 kHz.
00:28:35 And then we have a dip
that you can use to
dip all that mid crap
that we spend so much time dipping at mix.
Check it out.
00:28:42 So, now I'm adding
8 point at 200 on the bass.
00:28:51 And now I'm cutting
7 points at 200.
00:28:57 As a reminder we started here.
00:29:05 Very useful, I use that 200
on the Pultec Legacy
UA plug-in all the time.
00:29:11 And when I track vocals,
if I'm in the right
room and it's there,
I use this and I add a
couple clicks of that
and that allows me to gain
this much from the vocalist
without them complaining.
It's nice!
As a reminder, without the attenuation.
00:29:39 It's awesome.
00:29:40 Something I've seen a lot
of seasoned engineers,
our forefathers,
the people before use, do
is use Pultecs to carve
out 500 on bass drums.
00:29:50 But I found it also works on
808s, 909s
and 1010s, 2020s, whatever.
00:29:55 The top of the bass drum actually
can get in the way
of a vocal or even a bass.
00:30:01 Then actually, I've seen them
just pull out 3 or 4 clicks at 500.
00:30:07 It's usually an inside
microphone, usually D12 or D112,
and then a 47 on the outside.
00:30:13 And that creates a little of the
cardboard thing. Check it out.
00:30:15 Without.
00:30:16 It's bypassed here.
00:30:17 Just listen to the top of the bass drum.
00:30:27 This is off
so that means
that everything is off, the only thing is
happening is I'm removing some 500
and it makes the bass drum feel fatter.
Check it out.
00:30:43 It does that on a single bass drum too.
00:30:45 Good trick with the MEQ-5
or ProQ-2 with a notch at 500.
00:30:51 But this is nice and you have
the extra warmth of tubes
and you have the curve ready-made
and you can do it in one go.
00:30:56 Go back to the vocal.
00:31:01 So we said that
some 200 was cool.
00:31:10 I love
the 5 kHz band on the Pultecs,
I just love it.
00:31:15 And it sounds amazing
on the UA one too.
00:31:20 I'll remove the bottom so
you can hear what it does.
00:31:30 It's like fairy dust, it does that
'hahhh hahhh' thing.
00:31:41 It's awesome.
00:31:42 And then plus the bottom.
00:31:44 Here, well, the low-mids really.
00:31:46 With the cut so
it's not too thick.
00:32:03 Then we can add some 100 here
and a little bit of 12 kHz here.
00:32:10 Too muddy so I'm gonna
use the two knob technique.
00:32:17 Without.
00:32:30 So it's still too muddy so
maybe we should go down to 60
and keep the gains where they were.
00:32:37 It doesn't work so
let's go back to 100.
00:32:43 Without the EQH-2.
00:32:47 Useful, with.
00:32:52 With nothing.
00:32:57 Let's do this with the plug-ins
because you're dying
for that to happen.
00:33:01 So again I have and MEQ-5 here
and I have EQP-1A here.
00:33:04 And we have here
7 clicks, so there's no telling
that the gain staging with these
units are gonna be the same,
but we're gonna see.
00:33:12 The 5 kHz band on the MEQ-5
doesn't seem to have as much
gain as the other bands.
00:33:18 But in the end is great because
it prevents you from
using too much of it.
00:33:22 Because it's easy to
overdo that stuff.
00:33:24 Let's see what this does.
00:33:30 We need more gain at the bottom.
00:33:37 The 5 kHz is too much here.
00:33:42 We're starting from here.
00:33:46 The plug-ins.
00:33:51 And, the hardware.
00:34:01 I'll remove a little bit of this.
00:34:07 Hardware.
00:34:11 It is nice!
One more thing I'd like
to show you for the route
on the Mix Bus.
00:34:15 So let's take this mix right here
and I'll put...
00:34:18 I don't have a stereo pair of Pultecs
because they're obnoxiously expensive
and I'd rather buy a red wine.
00:34:23 Here's the mix.
00:34:38 I find it a little light.
00:34:40 So, if I were
starting a mix
and I were using
the Pultecs on the Mix Bus,
I would probably set them
up by default like this.
00:34:49 20, a couple clicks for entertainment.
00:34:51 And start at 16,
a couple clicks,
and then with the full
bandwidth, broad,
and then over the
course of the mix,
depending o the material,
I would either stay at 16,
go down to 12 or 10
to bring that lift the way I want.
00:35:04 Then I would have some 5 kHz
to shine those vocals
just like you heard
and use a 200
to thicken whatever
needs to be thickened.
00:35:12 When I listen to this mix right
now, I know for a fact
that the bottom is weak
and I'm gonna
fatten it using whichever
one of those the frequencies
are gonna do the best.
00:35:22 My good feeling is 60.
00:35:23 We'll see.
00:35:40 It does the trick,
it also needs a little more
of that cardboard thing.
00:35:44 Check it out.
00:35:56 So, we started here.
00:36:05 It's a little
little much, so maybe less of this.
00:36:14 Let me go one click under.
00:36:20 I don't like that, 60 was better.
00:36:35 Two clicks, it's really simple,
it feels good,
it's fast, and you can
learn this really quickly
and you can internalize
that sound so fast
and make it part of your
bag of tricks.
00:36:45 Let's cut a little bit of that 500.
00:36:47 I know it's a full mix
but this may help.
00:37:03 So the problem is, of course,
you can't just cut
this and leave this on,
it's all or nothing.
00:37:08 This is a really really vintage plug-in
This sounds more like music
and I feel that it could
use from a little bit of
fairy dust on the very top.
00:37:56 There you have it.
00:37:57 It sounds great,
very easy,
basically impossible to screw up
if you're paying attention.
00:38:03 So, I strongly urge
you to demo or buy
a version of a Pultec from your
favorite plug-in manufacturer
or hardware manufacturer
and then learn it.
00:38:13 And get the intuition for it.
00:38:14 It's an amazing trick to have
and a very important
trick to have in your bag,
just like using an
LA-2A or an 1176
if you're gonna make
records for a living
or for fun,
which is not necessarily
the same thing.
00:38:26 Et Voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has received many accolades around the world, including wins at the Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards, US independent music awards. He also has received Latin Grammy nominations and has worked on many Latin Grammy and Grammy-nominated albums.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
Love Fab's approach to communicating what he's hearing and thinking about using his gear and working his craft. Always informative. (Thanks, Fab!)
Richard Leclerc
2020 Jul 17
This is an amazing video. I purchased a Pultec eqp-1a, but i returned because I wasn't happy with the performance after I compared it with the Waves plugin. After I watched this video, I understood my decision. You are great teacher. Thank you so much for this video, peace
funkygh
2020 Jul 14
Supersnoid sh*t, but cool. The plugin does do "the thing" when you engage with no boost or cut - even slightly more to my ears than the hardware box. I like your hardware box on the low end of the drum loop better - it's more gluey. Nice one boss.
funkygh
2020 Jul 14
Supersnoid sh*t, but cool. The plugin does do "the thing" when you engage with no boost or cut - even slightly more to my ears than the hardware box. Nice one boss.
Musiqueprod
2020 Jun 28
Très intéressant! I'm all pumped up in using the midrange version a little more often.
julián.ri
2020 Jun 11
¡Genial!
joshuabparkin
2020 May 29
Please do more How To Listen videos with other hardware, this was such an informative watch/listen for me!! Would love one for the dbx160 or the Fairchild 670!
GERONIMAU
2020 May 24
Voilà la VF. Merci. Explication limpide en partant du mode d'emploi d'origine. C'est trop bien tout ça. Merci Monsieur Fab.
GERONIMAU
2020 Apr 27
j'attend la version française s'il vous plaît. Mais en attendant bravo, bravo pour votre super site.. cool, efficace.. sympatoche et très pro. C'est un pur mix, mais aussi un pur plaisir...
Tamko
2020 Apr 17
"How to listen" is my favorite series. Thank you, Fab!
piotrbal
2020 Apr 03
I was not quite sure how to use the Pultec in the past... but now I know, thanks to Fab, and I intend to use it.
tyleewestcoast
2020 Mar 31
Not sure if it's just me, but i'm not sure if the tone generator is coming through audio-wise. everytime Fab unmutes the tone, i hear nothing... please check, I really enjoy this tutorial
sirthought
2020 Mar 17
I really enjoyed the explanations and walkthrough with the spectrum analyzer. The examples with drums, vocal, and mix bus were great. I wish there would have been some more examples of coaxing different sounds out for effect, say with the bass guitar, or perhaps swinging between vintage to modern horns. That's style more than substance, I suppose, but seeing those examples really help to learn where to start. Cheers
Stormwarner
2020 Mar 12
Bananas
Forrher
2020 Mar 06
Thank you so much Fab! This series is fantastic! Like all your videos! Can't wait for the next! Hungry to learn! :)
RaZL
2020 Mar 01
When I grow up, I want to be FAB …
jaycarlinmusic
2020 Mar 01
Is it typical to run the signal through the MEQ5 first followed by the EQP1A? Or are there instances you would switch them up?
I was surprised because I would have thought the low end would get treated first since that "Smile" EQ seems to be a broader stroke, so it seems like you would do the broad strokes first and follow with the mid.
I know what sounds right IS right, but... Thoughts?
dsarnat
2020 Feb 28
Fab is a FAB teacher. I know the Pultec well but thought I would watch it anyway just in case there was something I could learn more ... and Fab definitely did that. Well done video and highly recommend even for those that have used the Pultecs for decades.
jordanne
2020 Feb 28
@acabanillas00@gmail.com
Man chill, take it like a opportunity, on Puremix you grow like mixer but also in your life because with time you will learn and be confident with a different language, I speak to you with experience, I had the same problem but the knowledge on Puremix is too important to me and I can't go with the excuse of I don't speak the language...
Today I understand everything
Thanks Puremix
jonpaulr123
2020 Feb 28
Great video. Wow, that song...is...so terrible
L Pass
2020 Feb 27
I loved seeing the graph. Wow. You're such a great teacher. Thanks, Fab.
Rookie39
2020 Feb 27
I noticed on your lower silver pultec, it has Media Sound etched on it. What a great piece of history. If only that thing could talk huh? I have a AKG 414 from 1979 that has almost the exact same etching on it. "Media Sound 1979". I will never give it up. Priceless in my opinion.....
andymae
2020 Feb 27
Great video. Thanks!!!!
acabanillas00@gmail.com
2020 Feb 27
Add Spanish translation to your videos, otherwise, I will have to cancel the subscription, feeling it a lot. Thanks.
mataran
2020 Feb 26
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing. I'm already using the UAD Pultec plugins. I will do the curves test just for the fun. Cheers!
FairAirMusic
2020 Feb 26
Now this is an education. I wish this platform was available when I was getting a degree. Would have saved so much time and money. These are the important things that schools leave out (or at least mine did). Thanks so much for all of these incredible videos!
cyborgssc
2020 Feb 26
This was fantastic - thank you for sharing this. Goes again to mixing without fear - if it sounds good, it is good. Who cares if they told you not to boost and cut at the same time? :)
It would have been nice to see the shapes of the curves for the MEQ-5 in Insight, but no problem - gives me an excuse to test it on my own!
