Original subtitles

you have probably seen this EQ before

have a listen to how it sounds like on

the mix bus

[Music]

this is the legendary Paul Tech AQ it

has been around since the 50s it's been

in several commercial Studios it has

been emulated by several plug-in

companies and after reading all of your

requests on making a video on the pultec

EQ I decided to make this video and by

watching the full video you'll have full

control on how to work with a pultec EQ

in your mixes

now the fulltech type EQ is a passive

type EQ and its makeup gain stage is 2

based for most of them but there's also

solid state versions but most of

emulation plugins are based on the tube

version and the way it reacts is

actually very different than a regular

type EQ that we have in rdaws so you can

do things like the two knob technique

which I'm going to share with you in

just a moment that is actually very

colorful which makes this EQ quite

unique and the way this EQ is designed

it has a tone of its own even without a

boosting or attenuating frequencies so

let's go back to our mix bus and listen

to the plugin on its own without

boosting any frequencies

won't you take me

[Music]

so it's very subtle so that's why you

need a very good pair of headphones or

studio monitors to listen to this video

but you can hear how the mix opens up a

bit a bit more presence a bit more low

end also and this is the type of tone

that we get right out of the box so you

can easily use this plugin just to get

the tone right away without even adding

and boosting frequencies now there's

several variations of the poltek EQ but

the one that I'm going to work on today

is the EQ p1a which is the most common

one and I'm using the uad version I'm

going to leave the link down below if

you wanna check it out it's actually one

of the best poll Tech emulation out

there so if we take a closer look we

have three main parameters we have

frequency selection cut and boost and

the bandwidth that's it so we have the

low frequency boost and attenuation and

the frequency selection for low

frequencies so these three parameters

will work together and I'm actually

going to show you how these will react

by having an instance of plugging doctor

on the left so we can have a visual of

the frequencies that are boosted or

attenuated by the poltek EQ so if I

boost the low frequencies

at 30 Hertz for example I can see that

I'm getting a shelving type of boost

same for the attenuation if I attenuate

I'm getting a shelving type of

attenuation

so I can bring that up to 100 Hertz and

even if I have 100 Hertz selected you

can see that the Boost will go wider

it's not gonna be very precise it's

going to be pretty wide as far as the

bandwidth goes and same for the

attenuation and what's special is the

actual curve that we get when

attenuating and boosting which makes the

poltek EQ quite unique so if you were to

boost

at let's say 60 hertz and attenuate at

the same time it's not going to cancel

itself out just because of those curves

that will react differently by boosting

and attenuating and this is what we get

if we have lots of boosts and then we

attenuate

at the same frequency Point look at what

happens now I have a dip in the

mid-range and this is the tune up

technique that I was referring to which

will add a bit more control and

tightness to the sound which is a pretty

good trick that works well on base on

kick drums on the drum bus for example

and we're actually going to try this out

on the base in just a moment so let's

bring that down to 30 Hertz now we're

cutting out some low mids at around 250

Hertz and a bit below 200 Hertz when we

have that set up to 20 Hertz okay now if

we go and look at the Boost section now

we have these three knobs that will work

together so we have the Boost The High

Frequency selection and also the

bandwidth now the bandwidth will

determine how wide you want the Boost to

affect the frequencies basically a bit

like a Q factor on a regular EQ and

we'll see directly on the doctor how

that looks like visually so I'm going to

boost a bit of uh let's go to 5K for

example let me boost a bit of 5K and I

can pair around with the bandwidth and

notice how that reacts you know so the

narrow the bandwidth

the more boost I'm gonna get and the

more wide I effective frequencies I'm

getting a bit less boost okay but more

frequencies are affected by the Boost

and again these three knobs will work

together so the bandwidth will not

affect the low frequencies and also the

attenuation okay it will only affect the

Boost The High Frequency boost very

important to know that okay let's go and

look at the attenuation and this time

around we have three frequency selection

5K 10K and 20K and if we uh if we

attenuate we can see it's going to do

the opposite as the low frequency

attenuation it will react a bit like a

high shelf cut and if we blend both

together for the same two knob technique

let's boost a bit of 8K for example with

a wider bandwidth and overdo it of

course and then add some attenuation and

look at what happens if we overdo things

that we have a bit of cut again more on

the high midpoint by also cutting the

top end of the signal you know according

to the attenuation frequency selection

so 20K this is what we get at 5K we have

a very nice mid-range cut okay but this

is you know when you overdo it and even

if you don't overdo it you still have

that effect going on in a more subtle

way and we're going to try this out on a

vocal in just a moment but now let's

listen to a bass a guitar

good

[Music]

that sounds pretty nice

[Music]

let me bring down the output level

to level match

[Music]

awesome listen to this

[Music]

so fat

no I'm adding a lot but just to give you

an idea

if I bring down the attenuation

listen to the difference

[Music]

a bit more control

a bit more tight also of the bass sound

let's add a bit of a mid-range if I

bring that the high frequency to 3K I'm

going to get a bit more grit out of the

base so so this will add a bit of top

end to the base you know let's face it

top end on the bass guitar will be in

the mid-range basically

[Music]

nice

[Music]

I kind of like that

this is just to show you how fat and

controlled you can get a bass guitar

sound like by using the poltek EQ so

it's a great plugin to work with when

mixing bass guitar now if we listen to

this vocal uh what I did here on this

one is I boosted a bit of 12K with a

wider bandwidth and I also attenuated a

bit at 20K to get a bit more control

getting rid of the Sparkles you know

that we can get when boosting high

frequencies so now I'm gonna get way

more definition more air out of this

vocal I'm gonna keep that vocal sound

smooth also and transparent you know so

this is the beauty of working with the

poltek EQ to add a bit more presence to

a vocal so let's have a listen

how to find you

I need to find a place to run to

and even if I take a lifetime Okay let's

listen to it in the context of the mix

[Music]

if I take a lifetime there you go

foreign

[Music]

to add a very nice smooth top end to any

vocals and the Baltic AQ works very well

on a mix bus of course like we've heard

before I actually use a passive type EQ

that is part of my Tegra cam which is my

main two bus compressor that I have on

my mixbus and I'm actually using the

passive EQ to boost the low frequencies

and also the high frequencies and it's a

poltic type passive EQ that I have on

this tegular cam so on this one what I

did I bypassed my tegucam and I replaced

the EQ part with the poltek EQ by adding

the same type of of boost that I

originally have on my hardware and this

is how it sounds like

[Music]

okay

please run two even if I take a lifetime

on the next bus I mainly use the low and

high frequency boost I don't attenuate

on the mix bus okay so only the Boost

just to open the mix up a bit uh and on

my side I do mix into it okay so I add

this up at the beginning of my mix like

I do with my mix bus compressor and I

just mix right into it and if you want

to know more about my whole mix bus

process when it comes to adding plugins

on the mix bus you can actually watch

this video where I share with you my

whole strategy when it comes to mixbus

processing so I hope this was helpful

leave your questions and comments down

below and enjoy working with the pawtek

EQ in your mixes