pro tools op

I know that everyone is supposed to hate the pre-packaged plugin bundle - after all, they are sort of like the lowest common denominator of plugins. Yet there is something different about that EQ III, a simple little parametric EQ that comes with every Digi product you can buy. This is a great little plugin.

I have the Massenburg DesignWorks Hi-Res Parametric EQ 2.0 and I have the Diamond Bundle, the URS N Series , the URS A Series, the Oxford EQ etc. etc. and they are all wonderful, amazing sounding plugins. They should be, they cost a fortune to research and build, and a small fortune to purchase. The EQ III, on the other hand, comes bundled “free” with your purchase of and Digidesign Hardware, and as the old adage goes - You get what you pay for. Or do you?

I have a secret obsession with this little plugin. I love it’s ease of use, it’s little colorful interface, and most of all the way that it sounds on Rack Toms and Floor Toms. I don’t know why, but I can’t get enough! I’ve used a hundred different plugins on rack and floor toms, but EQ III, for me, takes the cake.

The EQ III has an impressive ability to manage low end - it corrals and focuses the low end with ease, managing that incessant ringing on your lowest floor tom. The high end isn’t brilliant - in fact you really have to pump it if you want a ton of sizzle, but the high end responds beautifully to transients. Each thwack on the tom, with a little boost on the EQ III, has an extra crack and smack that sings TOM TOM ! to me. The ease of swapping the phase is another added benefit - I yearn for the days that every session that I get and work on has every drum mic in phase with one another - but until that day comes, thank Digi for that phase flipper, it sure is helpful. And can anyone say colors? Who doesn’t love a nice colored parametric EQ to display that +8db boost that you made? Sure is pretty!

The EQ III has become my impulse reach for EQ when I’m working on the toms in my drum mix. If that tom is just not sounding right, I pop on an EQ III, put on a high pass filter around 80hz, pump the low end around 160-180hz, cut out the lower mids around 400-600hz and do a peak boost at around 3 or 4khz. Of course, it really varies from mix to mix and tom to tom, but this is my default go to, and I find that 99% of the time this gets me within range off the sound and tone that I was looking for. From these basic settings I nudge boost and cut to get that tom sounding exactly the way that I want, and then move on to finish that drum mix.

When all is said and done I find that I use the EQ III on about %90 of my drum mixes. That’s what I call a reliable plugin. Although I don’t venture outside of Tom Tom land much with the EQ III I am confident that it is more than able to hold it’s own in the world of EQ. If you’ve been avoiding this EQ because everyone’s got it and you think that free = cheap, then I highly suggest that you take another look, try it out and see how it can fit your needs. This is one little plugin that will go a lot further than you think in your mix.