As a mixing and mastering engineer who works 100% in-the-box, I am a sucker for a great EQ. It is a fundamental tool that, as engineers of sound, we must master. Whether it is surgical EQ, where we may notch out a troublesome frequency, or boosting the low end on a kick, or attenuating that muddy area we all fear and dread or giving a vocal some air, we have an array of EQs to choose from. No EQ is created equal in my opinion, some are definitely better than others, some are great for a specific job and some just make your audio sound worse, no matter what you seem to boost or cut.
In my capacity as a mastering engineer I tend to think of EQs as having two jobs. Surgical and colour. Precise or broad strokes if you prefer. I have some EQs that I will reach for when I need to do either of these jobs, and they may be specifically for that job at hand, but the new Knif Soma EQ is bucking that trend for me. Completely!
Firstly, it is a passive EQ, so I would expect it to be a "broad strokes" and a general "shaping tool", but the difference is, the Soma has "real Q adjustment". Without going into too much detail here, it means I have way more control on how I apply the frequency boosts or cuts that I choose. Not only that, I have all the regular Plugin Alliance additions of TMT, Monomaker, Stereo Width and a wonderfully colourful Headroom knob that gives me a little extra grit if I need it. This makes it way more than a mastering EQ in my opinion. Yes, I will be using it on masters, but I am also having a ton of great results using it on mixes on individual instruments and busses in stereo and mono.
So before I get into some examples, let's just quickly go over what the mastering grade Soma EQ is offering us:
- 4 EQ Bands with individual on/off switches, gain, Q control and frequency
- Auto Listen switch
- EQ on/off Switches as well as mute and trim
- HP Filter with slope options
- LP Filter
- L/R or M/S mode, linked or unlinked
- And then of course the usual Plugin Alliance software extras (TMT, Monomaker, Stereo Width, Headroom)
On the Master
I chose a rather busy EDM track that I am mastering for a client so I could really test the Soma and utilize the broad stroke curves and the more narrow Q settings. Set to L/R, I wanted to mono the low end a little just to tighten things up and then add a little stereo width to the track. I added some low end with a shelf at 68hz which created a lovely thick but clean low end. I had spotted some issues at around 700hz in my pre-assessment and decided to boost with a narrower Q at 680hz. I then pushed for a bit of clarity at 5600hz and a nice shelf at 8200hz. Everything was very subtile, but added weight and cream overall. It just made the track shine and sound "like a record" as they say, and this was with no compression, clipping, limiting, and all the other processes I would normally use in mastering. Beautiful.
Master Before
Master After
Master Mix Settings
The Drum Buss in stereo
I then moved onto using the Soma as my overall EQ on a drum buss. I have to admit I have a go-to EQ for this purpose, but to push myself out of my comfort zone, I thought I would try the Soma. I wanted to try out the Headroom function on some drums and push them into some harmonic distortion. The Soma did not let me down. Again in L/R, I turned the EQ section completely off and just reduced the headroom to break up the signal really nicely, adding some overall weight and creamy harmonics. I then added some broad EQ moves across the buss. I pushed 56hz a little to give me some beautiful rounded low end and scooped a little bit of 180hz out to clean up some mud. I then added a quite broad boost at 1800hz to really lift the mid range and then a shelf at 6800hz to give me a posh sheen in the highs. What I love is the way the EQ behaves when you have the headroom at a point where it is breaking up your signal. The boost in the filters react so well with the harmonics that have been created with the headroom function.
Drum Buss Before
Drum Buss After
Drum Buss Settings
On a kick in mono
If you open the plugin on a mono track, you get a mono instance. Perfect. I wanted to give the kick some girthy low end and really dirty things up. Again before even touching the EQ I reduced the headroom in such a way that I added some sweet harmonic saturation to the kick. Now for some EQ. I added the classic 56hz and then balanced it against the headroom so it wasn't too crunchy. I then scooped out a little in the 180hz range with a relatively narrow Q and then added some punchy click at 4700hz constantly rebalancing the headroom to create just enough saturation. For want of a better word "Booooom" (with crunch).
Kick Mono Before
Kick Mono After
Mono Kick Settings
On a snare in mono
Finally I really wanted to thicken up a live snare. They have a tendency to be a little thin sometimes and again I wanted to utilize the headroom function by adding some body with some low end saturation. The Soma continued to excel here. I really hit the mono plugin hard with the snare, again with the EQ turned completely off and it just filled out the snare in such a wonderfully analog way. It increased the perceivable loudness at a quite obvious reduction in actual output level. Adding some very simple EQ moves by high passing at 50hz, boosting a little at 150hz and 2700hz just finished things off nicely and turned a rather mundane snare into a beefy girth monster snare. I have to admit to having a massive smile on my face.
Snare Mono Before
Snare Mono After
Mono Snare Settings
I have to conclude, that despite the impression that the Soma is considered a mastering EQ, Plugin Alliance have pushed the boundaries and produced a very plausible multi-purpose EQ. It is not only at home in a mastering environment with it's clean and broad EQ options, but equally at home in a mix on individual instruments and busses. Don't be afraid to really push this EQ. It reacts in a very analog way and breaks up beautifully. It is, in my subjective opinion, quite simply the least digital sounding EQ I have used in the box and I welcome it to my arsenal.
Conan's Mixing and Mastering Reviews