Sound Performance Lab (SPL), inventors of the Transient Designer, have announced that their Passeq plug‑in is now available. A new addition to their Analog Code range of software processors, Passeq is a recreation of SPL’s identically named hardware unit, a two‑channel passive equaliser.
Like that other famous passive EQ, the Pultec, it features separate cut and boost controls for each band, but the Passeq not only features more bands than the Pultec, but also more selectable frequencies per band — 12, to be precise, for a total of 36 filters per channel, each of which can be cut and boosted independently.
Additionally, the selectable frequencies that can be cut and boosted in each band don’t quite line up, so as with the hardware version (and the Pultec), cutting and boosting at the same approximate frequency produces complex EQ curves and phase shifts. Like its real‑life counterpart, the HF boost band also features a Q control, for variable bandwidth.
Being software, however, the plug‑in version has incorporated a couple of extra features that would be expensive, if not impossible, to implement in hardware. A Link button, for example, makes precise matching of left and right channel settings possible (for EQ’ing stereo sources), while a M/S switch allows you to tweak the Mid and Side components of a stereo signal independently of each other. There are four buttons labelled A, B, C and D, which allow you to quickly store and recall presets, for instant comparison of different settings. The plug‑in also comes with two different UIs, the second only showing one set of controls, for saving screen space when EQ’ing mono sources or working in Link mode.
Available now, the SPL Passeq plug‑in is authorised via iLok, and costs 149 Euros. It can be trialled for 14 days, however, without an iLok key.
