Now that we have featured fourteen EQs totally in our series of Spotlights on EQs, as well as reviewed two in conjunction with these Spotlights, I think we should wrap this baby up with sort of an “ultimate conclusion”. There are of course many more EQs out there, but we can’t run Spotlight on EQs only, we have to make room for other stuff as well.

As you know by now, good sound is relative, and while some of you might think that Neve EQs is the best sounding thing ever, I don’t think that. I’m not really a fan of analog emulations because they are almost always too limiting. If you like analog sounding EQs you should definitely look into URS, they have a whole load of EQs that emulate all different kinds. But URS is not the only player, don’t forget about McDSP! The McDSP FilterBank could actually be considered a budget choice in this field because of all the emulations it includes. I’m a fan of most McDSP products and think FilterBank is a great choice for anyone that doesn’t have a solid foundation of EQs.

On the opposite side to emulations we have the ultra flexible Roger Nichols Digital EQs. It shouldn’t come as a surprise here that I’d gladly give them the innovation award if we had something like that here at ProTooler. We don’t, however, so all they get is this special mention. The UNIQUEL-IZER really is unique, and in a way it does what should be a standard among EQs, it lets you add as many bands as possible.

Somewhere in the middle is where my personal favorites are located. Some might say that I racked down a bit on the Sonnox Oxford (the interface specifically), but it is one of my favorite sounding EQs that still has the possibilities that digital can give, like options for EQ character and such. Another one is Flux Epure, an anonymity almost it seems in the Pro Tools world, that sounds as you’d expect from Flux - clean, very clean. The third one that will get a mention here is one that almost slipped us by, the Sonalksis SV-517. With smart additions such as character knobs (think Oxford) and a spectrum analyzer, the SV-517 is something else. Add that to a lovely sound and you got perhaps one of the better EQs in the Pro Tools world.

Now go try some of them for yourself!