British EQ

bkshepard · Post by **bkshepard** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:46 pm

Hey Gang,

You see and hear a lot in promo materials about a device or plugin having a "British EQ" or "British Sound." I know it's mostly marketing hype and supposedly attempts to sound like the old mixing consoles that came out of England in the 60s and 70s, but just what the heck is "British" EQ really? Does it refer to certain bandwidths, Q widths, cut/boost ranges or what?

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:03 pm

Try this Thread. Our Shooshmeister is talking about the particularity of mwEQ with a little illustration
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... weq#102659

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:57 am

"British EQ" really does refer to the character of EQ's found on a lot of British consoles. To put it simply, "British EQ" is very musical, robust and obvious - when you turn a knob, you get a pronounced result.

An example of "non-British EQ" would be the EQ found on Japanese consoles like Yamaha and Tascam products. While the EQ's on these products are clean and transparent, they're also somewhat sterile sounding.
Sort of a plastic quality to them.

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 6:17 pm

I believe when "most" manufacturers claim to sound like "British EQs", they are pretty much talking about the EQs from Neve consoles in the early 70s - like 1073s, 1081s, etc. SSL is of course British as well, but I don't think that is generally what these claims refer to (generally).

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 2:12 am

Dwetmaster wrote:Try this Thread. Our Shooshmeister is talking about the particularity of mwEQ with a little illustration
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... weq#102659

That's funny; I had totally forgotten about that! Thanks for reminding me.

Shooshie

bkshepard · Post by **bkshepard** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:50 am

I understand that "British" is referring to mixers like the Neve and SSL consoles of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, but my question is, what is the actual difference in sound? I realize it's a bit of a subjective/nebulous question, but I don't have the luxury of trying out one of those consoles and I'm curious about what made them so "golden" sounding. I find it similar to the discussions you see about digital devices and plugins that sound "analog." I've at least had the opportunity to work with analog gear and can, thus, subjectively understand what that means even though I often wonder if an "analog sounding digital device" isn't somewhat of an oxymoron.

markwayne · Post by **markwayne** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 12:48 pm

I first encountered the term "British EQ" when my band purchased a very nice Allen & Heath board for touring around 1980. That board had two parametric mids on each channel (unheard of at the time) and that (combined with the high and low shelving EQ's . . . uh . . . well . . . Q) is what qualified it as a "British EQ" according to the marketing literature we were fed at the time. I think the term was and is of market-speak for any number of qualities that people found pleasant in the great, British consoles of the time.

My take on the "British" sound is that the mids are smoother and you can use much more drastic tweaks and still sound musical instead of becoming harsh. My memory is also that there was a bit of dirt at extreme settings that added a nice character to whatever you ran through it and helped it stand out. Again, this is all from distant memory. I'm sure there are others here with a more definitive answer.

Wayne

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:43 pm

That's actually a great answer. Pretty much nails it.

djandrelucero · Post by **djandrelucero** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:02 am

I thought it just meant it goes to 11