Art DUAL TUBE EQ, User Manual

Page: 5 / 20

musical instruments. The two sweepable bands overlap them-
selves and the high and low shelving bands, providing you with
the ultimate in flexibility. The Tube EQ gives you all the control
you need to effectively alter and dial in great sounds from even
the poorest of sources.
E EQ Q TTiip pss
W Wh hyy u ussee a an n eexxtteerrn na all E EQ Q? ?
The shortest signal path is the best way to get a signal to tape.
In most cases, the shortest path is: mic to preamp to compressor
to EQ to tape deck. The signal doesn’t even go through the
mixer! This isn’t a new concept, but it has become more relevant
with the availability of affordable mixing consoles. As their name
implies, most affordable mixers excel in signal routing and mix-
ing capabilities. However, they are not necessarily your best
option for recording tracks. While their onboard EQ is nearly
always adequate for tweaking a good recorded track during
mixing, the simple truth is that the Tube EQ is a better sounding
and more flexible equalizer. Mixer manufacturers need to make
trade-offs to keep prices down while keeping performance up.
Imagine the price of your mixer if each channels’ EQ cost over
$200 (and we’re not talking about those of you who have one of
those $250,000+ consoles!)
The use of external processing (equalizers, preamps and com-
pressors) has sonic and practical benefits when you consider that
most recording is done one or two channels at a time. For those
of us on a budget, it just doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of
money on a “cadillac” console when a budget mixer and a few
pieces of external gear is more cost effective. Even those engi-
neers who regularly work on “big” consoles use external EQs
and preamps!
The goal of any recording is to get the sounds right before you
commit them to tape. The Tube EQ exists to help you get it right
so you don’t have to “fix it in the mix”.
4