Gregory Scott of Kush Audio seems to come up to with those (thinking out of the box) products that work well and lead you to say I wish I had this 10 years ago. The Electra (short for Electified Transient Equalizer) is another one of those pieces that even if you're not sure how it works you know that it adds that magical texture that you seek. I definitely want to demo this product and I'm quite sure I wont be disappointed. It's offered in a single channel 500 series ($599) and the dual channel 19" rack style will be available soon.
"The Electra, or Electrified Transient Equalizer, is a 4-band, multi-topology eq designed to precisely and musically redefine how the transients and harmonic energy of a sound interrelate, opening up completely new creative possibilities for how sounds interlock, move air, and impact the emotions. The tone of this box is quite literally electric, with a crackling but incredibly smooth and detailed midrange, tightly defined low end, and unmistakably analog high frequencies.
The heart of the Electra is two fully sweepable Proportional-Q bands tailored to allow for extreme pushes without sounding stressed or unnatural. The more you boost or cut, the narrower these filters get, which makes them gentle at low gain and powerful at high gain. Their adaptively musical shape allows you to add a tight 'thwack' to snares, brighten a vocal without sacrificing warmth, or even completely rebalance the elements within a drum loop as if you had faders for the various elements.
Rounding out the bottom is a fixed low shelf which pairs beautifully with the the continuously variable (25-400Hz) 12db/octave HPF. The HPF has just a touch of bite on the corner which makes it rewarding to clean up the mud; the shelf and HPF combined allow you to reshape, de-clutter, and tighten up even the most unruly low end.
Topping it all off is a sparkling, fully sweepable (3.4-20k) high shelf reminiscent of the coveted vintage mastering EQ’s of yore; it'll give life to the darkest, murkiest sound, and adds a smooth top end that plugins simply cannot replicate. Ribbons, overheads, vocals... anything that needs shimmer will love the treatment this filter gives.
The Electra is analog at its finest, and represents Kush's ongoing commitment to pushing the envelope and creating processors that fuel the creative and artistic aspects of mix engineering and music production."
SPECIFICATIONS:
• 500 Series: Single Channel Eq
• 19" Rack: Dual Channel Eq
• 4 bands per channel + Hi Pass Filter
• Hi Shelf: Sweepable 3.8kHz - 20kHz
• Hi Mid: Proportional Q, Sweepable 250Hz - 5.4kHz
• Lo Mid: Proportional Q, Sweepable 30Hz - 730Hz
• Lo Shelf: Fixed 90Hz
• Hi Pass: 12dB/Octave Butterworth
• Class A amplifiers
• DC Coupled signal path
• 500 series: "Fader Mode", converts Low Shelf to Fader for channel strip operation
Kush Audio (whose UBK-1 I use a great deal) also announced the Clariphonic DSP plugin. It is the software version of their Clariphonic Parallel Equalizer hardware. It will be available on Nov. 9th for $149.
Here's a quick video of the hardware in use:
"The Clariphonic DSP, like its analog cousin, blends custom-tuned, silky smooth high frequency filters with the full range audio to lift open the midrange and top end with an effortlessness that is unrivalled by any other device in existence. It’s effectiveness is matched only by its elegant simplicity, with toggles to select the filters and a knob to turn them in one direction: up.
With two high-shelves running in parallel on each channel, and your choice of 6 unusual and carefully selected corner frequencies covering everything from the mids to the supersonics, there is no limit to the types of sweet high end the Clariphonic can produce. The internal parallel signal paths produce a form of additive-only high frequency equalization that is at once holographic, transparent, and virtually phaseless. You get effortless, natural high end for days.
Bottom line: every frequency sounds amazing, and expensive. Drums, vocals, acoustic guitars, entire mixes... almost any sound can be made more present, more detailed, and more alive with this remarkably creative, forward-thinking equalizer."
SPECIFICATIONS:
• Mono/Stereo High Frequency Equalizer Plugin
• Two shelving bands
• Six unique corner frequencies from 800hz to 39k
• Parallel signal paths for each band
• Incredible clarity, minimal distortion and phase artifacts
• Independent muting and solo’ing of each band
• Effortless, foolproof operation, expensive results
• 32-bit AU, VST, & RTAS (Mac)
• 32-bit VST (Win)
• iLok 1 or 2 required
