User Manual
Summit Audio EQF-100 Full Range Equalizer
Intro
Applications
Mono and Stereo Operation
Extended Features
Credits
It’s always difficult to describe how an equalizer sounds, but everyone we’ve asked has described the EQF-100 in the almost the same way, with rich, creamy, and smooth being the most common adjectives. And there is definitely some sort of magic in this equalizer.
With a wide bandwidth setting you’ll experience an open sound that will breathe life into your tracks, while a narrower bandwidth gives you a no compromise solution for precision tone shaping.
The four full bands of equalization plus the low and high cut gives you plenty of flexibility for any track or style.
Add a tube stage amplification to perfect the rich tone that comes from the passive EQ design and you’ll get a warm and fat distortion when the output VU meter hits the red.
Added Functionality
To make an already sexy equalizer even sexier, we decided to add two beautiful VU meters to the unit. We also added the Output Volume, so that you easily can level match the equalizer.
A Note on Distortion
As usual we have included all the distortion that the original unit has, with most of the distortion occuring at the output of the EQ. We’ve calibrated the distortion so that it will start to saturate when the output VU meter goes up above 0 into the red area. If you do a lot of boosting with the EQ bands and get too much distortion, you can always lower the output volume in order to lower the distortion. The distortion will kick in at around -3 to 0 dBFS.
The sound of the distortion in this unit is very thick and woody, as opposed to thin and metallic, which in technical terms means that it contains a strong 2nd order harmonic. For example, the distortion in the TLA-100 compressor has a different character, with more edge than the EQF-100.
The user interface consists of four separate bands of equalization (low, low mid, high mid, and high), two cut filters (high and low), the meter section and the Output Volume.
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- VU meter and output volume
- High mid band
- Low band
- Low mid band
- High band
- Low and high cut
- Hz, kHz frequency selector
- Bandwidth
- Gain
- Boost/Cut
- Type Shelving/Bell
Frequency Bands
Each of the four frequency bands consists of seven fixed frequencies with fully adjustable bandwidth (Q) and gain. All bands can be bypassed separately. The lowest and highest bands can also be set to shelving mode.
Hz, kHz Frequency selector: Selects one of seven frequencies on which the band boost/attenuate and bandwidth controls operate.
Bandwidth: Determines how much of the frequency spectrum is affected by the boost or cut operation. 0 is a narrow bandwidth and 10 is a wide bandwidth.
Gain: Determines the amount of boost or cut that takes place.
Boost/Cut: This switch sets the section for boost or cut; the center position turns the sections off.
Type Shelving/Bell: Changes the high or low band between a shelf or peak type of response curve.
This switch is only available for the highest and lowest bands!
Low and High Cut
Each cut filters consists of three set frequencies and bypass.
Filter - Hz Low Cut: Determines the low frequency cut off.
Filter - Hz High Cut: Determines the high frequency cut off.
Output Section
Output Volume: Adjusts the output volume (before the output distortion) from -30 to +10 dB.
If you want more distortion, just increase the Output Volume until the output VU meter hits the red area!
The following paragraphs are from the original hardware manual, but are of course just as valid for the plug-in as for the hardware. (Well, except for all that stuff about hooking up XLR cables.)
Basic setup
Plug the EQF-100 directly into the insert jack on the mixing console. Put the insert send into the XLR input, and the XLR output back into the insert return of the desired channel. If outboard preamps are being used, try sending the output of the preamp into the EQF-100. This EQ is also perfect before or after a compressor, and for side chain effects such as de-essing.
Boosting a frequency
Select which frequency you want to boost, put the Boost/Cut/Bypass switch to plus and increase the gain. Use the bandwidth control to affect more or less of the surrounding frequencies. A lower number on the bandwidth knob means a narrower bandwidth. If the frequency you want to boost is on the high or low band, set the Shelving/Resonant switch to resonant.
Setting up a low or high filter
Set all four Boost/Cut/Bypass switches to Out. Adjust the two filter settings to the desired frequencies.
Notch filtering
Find the approximate frequency to be attenuated (low, mid-low, mid- high, high). Set the bandwidth to wide (ten), the Boost/Cut/Bypass switch to Cut (minus), and the filter type to resonant (high and low bands only). Turn the gain all the way up (for the highest amount of cut) and start narrowing the bandwidth. Use the frequency select and bandwidth to narrow in on the frequency to be attenuated. Decrease the gain knob (decreasing the amount of cut) until the frequency is cut with the least effect on the surrounding frequencies.
Low or high shelving
Set the low or high EQ sections to shelving filter. Select the frequency where roll-off or boosting is to begin. Select plus or minus on the Boost/Cut/Bypass switch and turn up the gain knob to cut or boost above the high frequency selected or below the selected low frequency.
The Summit Audio EQF-100 plug-in can operate in both stereo and mono modes. In stereo both channels are linked, but processed individually. How the different modes (stereo, mono and mono-to-stereo) are selected depends on your host software.
A whole range of added control can be accessed with Extended Features. Please see the separate "Extended Features" manual for more information.
Arvid Rosén – Modeling
Niklas Odelholm – Extra features and modeling
Mattias Danielsson – Testing
Torsten Gatu – Framework programming
Oscar Öberg – Framework programming
Ulf Ekelöf – 3D rendering