Legendary console manufacturers SSL have released a stereo EQ for their modular signal-processing system, the X-Rack. The Stereo EQ Module, to give it its full name, is a four-band affair, with two fully parametric mid bands and a high and low band, the latter two being switchable between bell and semi-parametric types.
The mid bands’ frequencies can be set anywhere between 600Hz and 7kHz, and 200Hz and 2kHz, for the high and low mids respectively, while the HF section adjusts frequencies between 1.5kHz and 22kHz, and the LF does so between 40Hz and 600Hz. All bands have a gain range of ±20dB.
The EQ circuitry is apparently the same as the XL 9000K Channel Equaliser, which can be found on SSL’s Duality, AWS and E- and G-series consoles. By default, the EQ curves are the same as those of E-series desks, but two switches on the front panel allow you to switch the HF and LF, and/or the HMF and LMF, to G-series operation: this endows the two shelves with steeper slopes, and makes the bandwidths of the HMF and LMF sections variable, so that at high gains the peaks and notches will be narrow (ie. high Q), and at lower gains they will be wide (low Q).
Other controls include an In switch (for engaging or bypassing the EQ), and a button labelled ‘Sel’, which readies the module for use with SSL’s Total Recall system. The only other switch on the module is found on the rear, by the XLR inputs and outputs, and this sets the EQ’s nominal operating level to either -10dBV or +4dBu.
Available to buy now, the SSL Stereo EQ Module costs £821 including VAT.
