A year or 2 ago I fell in love with the sound and the GUI of this EQ. There are so many filter types, and the sound is so open and clear. I use it as my main EQ now for Music. Film and TV work. Of course in music I will use 1073 and other vibey plugs and hardware, but for surgical, or basic EQ, this is my main go to.

Cramping happens as you approach Nyquist . The right side of the bell will start to deform and not be symmetrical anymore. Much different from aliasing where you actually have harmonic distortion folding back into the audible range. It is possible to design a filter that is “decramped”, so that the frequency response matches what you’d expect if the nyquist limit was a wall that the filter just slides behind, rather than is squished by it.

Some software engineering skills here. I think SSL is probably oversampling the high frequency range in real time (or emulating the results of having done so) while staying very attentive to keeping the cpu load as low as possible. Also, this plugin is on sale today for 34.99 USD, down from 300 USD.

pro-q also has the gain-Q interaction thing

"I'll decide that for myself" damn you got my vote man!

seriously inspiring! To see you a) being honest about a gap in your knowledge and b) learning new stuff 'live' and sharing your learning with us. Very encouraging to me as a student of audio processing. Many thanks (ps I watched Dan's video on Cramping just prior to watching this one. You both make a great team :))

They do $39/$49 deals here and there which is awesome. I've got the X EQ 2, Channel Strip 2 and Bus Comp 2 all for $88 total through their sales.

I've been using SSL plugins since their "Duende" days. When I installed their console plugins, it was the first time my "in-the-box" mixes sounded like an outboard, analogue mix, to me.

Hey Whitesea! THANK YOU for this fabulous video. I was trying to figure out how to use this SSL EQ, and your teaching about phase & eq was really insightful. Thanks man, keep up the good work!

Always refreshing to hear you be honest when you don't know something or haven't heard of a particular term. I'm going to give this a demo and see how it compares on my own productions.

That’s a neat GUI design, they took “direct manipulation” by heart. Any software developer / UI designer please take note of it.

Thanks I was looking for a upgrade from my f6 today and was considering fabfilter but with that 179 price tag is steep for a home studio guy like me but this one looks like it fits me best! Thanks for the honest reviews! Appreciate you big bro!✌🏼

Thanks for reviewing this!

I had this EQ for over a year…opened it today for a mix and my mind was BLOWN!!!!

In Fabfilter's Q3 atleast, you can hold Shift for extra sensitivity. Hold Shift + Alt for "locking" horizontal/vertical movements while adjusting.

Here's a tip you don't mention in the video but may have already noticed. The EQ dials are speed sensitive relative to the mouse/trackball movement. Move it slowly and the values change quicker. Move it faster and the values change more slowly. Hold down Command on the Mac (I don't know the Windows version equivalent) while moving and the values change even slower (finer control).

I bought this after seeing this vid and that it was on sale, and I use it on nearly every single track of every mix. Surgical and musical; you don’t have to be afraid of doing large boosts, they sound awesome-especially in the high end. It’s fantastic, and being able to automate the a and b is super useful for creative applications.

Thought exactly the same about the GUI, and it doesn't actually surprise me SSL decided to take that approach. Their controllers show they're at least thinking about continuing to innovated in the digital realm.

I get cramping every night in my leg and/or feet in bed, should I plug myself into this? Then my gf cramps my style when we go out in the evening. My flat is so small I'm cramped. If this solves all my crampation/crampness I will buy it.

I Have This EQ For A Few Months And Love The Way Sounds At The Top End

thank you for the video. ive recently started using the SSL channel strip v2 which also using anti-cramping and i've really noticed how much it helps keeps the top end clear when implements many instances. I will use that channel strip on all of my stem outputs going to my analog summing. there's something to it. multiple instances sum much nicer than UAD or plug-in alliance channel strips. I didn't buy the EQ that you're reviewing because I have so many plug-ins I don't use, but now I'm thinking I should pick it up lol.

Thanks for the good video. The Geek Stuff was very helpful as well as the plugin introduction.🙏

What I've always liked about the SSL plugins (not the accompanying ones with the new dedicated controller, which have the controller to fit the plugins looks) is they're all computer relevant, instead of trying to look like hardware... this EQ is so great on top on it all... For the first year, I will be going with subscriptions to figure out what I need... the SSL collection is one of the more confident collections... I get the issue with subscriptions as an overall thing... but budgets are often causing great costs over time... having more money to invest can save you money... and this is the business world that is always helping already rich ones

I just bought this on special, I did own a piece of SSL, an X-patch, it's just excellent gear. Now I am truly impressed with what this plugin EQ does :).

Thank you for explaining phase. That's the best explanation anyone has given in my opinion.

Very informative, Thanks!

You are such an honest guy... Thanks for that!

Good presentation! The features you discovered are also available in the previous Native 6 versions with the exception of the new "Anit-Cramping" algorithm. Would suggest that you load the SSL Channel Strip across normal tracks of a mix and see how fast you can pull a mix together. One trick for the channel strip compressor is to slam the threshold and slowly increase the ratio, adding peak & fast mode as needed.

Yeah, I bought this one immediately after trying it when it came out. So good.

An interesting attempt to tackle phase mismatch especially in the bass region: Sound Radix Pi. It is a tricky and original plugin. Many times it produces unpleasant artifacts. But when it works, it is amazing how much it can fix, for example, the punchiness of a kick drum + bass + distorted guitar low growl. I recommend a thorough demoing of it if you care about phase issues.

yay! thx for the review.

I can't understand why noone remarked on how good that shaker sounded on the SSL

Loving the whole NATIVE bundle from SSL

Great Review thanks so much 👍🏽🔊

you are an amazing person, thanks for the amazing and very well made videos Thank you

Very beautiful interface, I must say.

SSL plugins are top level and this one is no exception. Thanks for this excellent video -your videos are all excellent btw. I wonder how Eventide's SplitEQ stands up when compared to FF ProQ and SSL Native X-EQ 2 :) Cheers!

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU USED DARUDE - SANDSTORM. I liked that song when I was a kid. Thank u for using that song in this video

looks good man. hope your well.

Hey, such a nice review, could you please review Acon Digital equalize 2. Please. + I have ssl bundle, do you recommend using this eq over my main acon digital equalize 2?

another nice video :D

It would be interesting to see a CPU usage comparison between the Fab Filter EQ and the X-EQ to be able to show us if the "Anti-Cramping" claims from SSL development are effective on our machines? It's a pretty slick EQ in every way. Great video thank you :)

Great vid as always sir. Could you review the SSL valve compressor please 🙂👊🏼

I got a lot of cramping while making music, but then I solved it by using a trackball.

I would seriously buy this just because of all these convenient features. Cant wait for them to implement maybe dynamic eq or linear phase then im 100% sold

Thanks for a review!

great vid! thx guy!!!!

I'd like to see you do a video on the amek 9099 by plugin alliance. Thanks for your time and effort in what you do.

If you want to increase the mouse precision of Fab Filter spot handling just press SHIFT while you move it, if you want to use X/Y axes (Freq/Gain), hold ALT, you have the same thing of that interface. With CONTROL you can handle Q if you don't have the mouse wheel, it works in combination with SHIFT if you want a precise Q. This use of SHIFT, ALT, CONTROL combination to improve mouse sensitivity and moving on grids and axes is a PC convention many audio/graphic software do.

Dan Worrall has discussed cramping in depth in several of his videos. If you're nerdy like that you would do well to watch everything he's ever done, but you can start here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/abWfidGFtJmlcmg.html

"Cramping" means the bell curve gets squeezed against the Nyquist frequency so that the curve doesn't retain its natural shape as you move up in frequency.

This EQ contains much of Algorithmix Blue, which was re-released not so long ago as 64 bit & VST3 by MAAT.

I’ve been using Pro Tools since V5, and this is the first time I’ve heard of Anti-Cramping 😅 I did abandon Avid’s EQ for FF, many years ago. Nice UI on the SSL. The price might be a lot for some, but it sounds good.

Thank you for the video! By the way - do you make your music? Would be very interesting to listen to it!

Hi from Brazil!

Have you tried Ssl native channel strips and bus compressor as well ?

A discussion of cramping behavior should probably include any impacts on phase shifting and latency to be complete. Dan Worrall talks about EQ cramping as well as these other topics in his "what's wrong with stock plugins?" videos, where he compares FabFilter's Pro Q3 with Reaper's ReaEQ and Ableton Live's EQ8.

From my understanding (can't recall where I read this), both this an the MAAT EQs use their curves/algorithms from a company called Algorhythmix.

I think the discrepancy with the Q factor has brought up something I've been thinking about lately. Am I correct in that classic console EQs have their sound because EQ moves have a particular curve to them along with the preamp drive creating saturation? If so, could you not get 80-90% of the way there using something like Pro-Q3 and its ability to have plenty of filters to create that same EQ behavior? Or would all the extra filters to recreate 1 curve cause too much phase shifting or something? For example, the Pultec thing winds up being a boost to the low end with a small dip right above the boost to clean up some of mud in the low mids which tightens things up (again, correct me if I'm wrong). Could you not get close to a null by applying 2 filters in a digital EQ to recreate that same curve behavior and then applying some kind of "aNaLoG" saturation plugin before or after to get the same effect? I guess my point is that do you really need console emulation plugins if you can recreate the EQ curves manually? Obviously if you can afford them, it's easier to throw one on and not have to dial in multiple filters to achieve the same effect, but if money is an issue and/or time isn't an issue then you should be able to get the same with a free digital parametric EQ

I'm not a math-dsp expert but I think anti-cramping is just how they called the way they deal with digital distortion (ghost mirrored harmonics and q-factor deviations) when equing frequencies near Nyquist.... without relying on oversampling.

I am just an intrested sound liking guy and video post person but even I really like your nerdy trips thaugh you really describes them so good. I am using the Izotope RX7 and Ozon and more but dont have any Daw for theire really good filters as Dialogue Match and others I have seen on your chanell. The ProoTools is to expensive and by far not complicated in my flield. Can you recomend any use friendly Daw for average use with on purhase where you can impliment most of 3 parts filters ? ex for this eq wich I also really, realy liked.

Is it possible to time adjust the tracks in your DAW, (have audio events begin a few msec later or earlier) in order to "blend" tracks better? Could this be used as a technique?

The phase response statement is why EQing in solo can be incredibly problematic.

In FabFilter Q3, the little cog icon next to the Q dial essentially does the same thing to the Q as is happening in the SSL, where the peak gets narrower as the gain increases (or decreases). It's per-instance rather than per-band though.

Time to check out SSL UC1 - it's the first plugin controller in my studio that improves my overall mix quality and stops me using my mouse. Go for it... do a "Is SSL UC1 SNAKE OIL?"

ssl channel strip 2 also uses anti cramping check it and the bus compressor 2 also very worth it

Would a BBE sonic phase corrector after the EQ process sole the miss phasing ? That's what I have and it does seem to smooth the sound.

As someone who came from the Analog world to then having $10k of plugins. I am plugin-ed-out. How much different do they all sound? Still in 2021 no one has been able to digitally reproduce a Valve or Transformer with any realism. But I digress, think I may buy another plugin.

SSL does have the vintage EQ cause I have it. I with they would of combined this with that. But this is nice and what I really want. 💯💣👍 I have the Reverb from SSL and it's really dope. and SSL supports offline computers.

Phaseshift doesn't automatically mean frequency cancellation, that you are presuming @ ~ 16:00 . Phase cancellation is more likely to be occuring between multi mic/channel recordings of the same signal (e.g drums or bass with di and amp signals etc..) But linear eq settings sometimes come with a pre-ringing effect, so you never know, what the bigger problem is, untill you're actually running into it... I generally don't care unless something unexpected/audible happens.

wow, sounds good

This ssl native eq2 is More Build it in the way of the Software-eq‘s in the Bigger live & broadcast consoles from ssl like systemT s500/s300 or l550 ... and they are really Good!!!

If you guys are recommending Dan Worrall's eq cramping video to Wytse, he obviously watched it in preparation for this video. Have you ever seen him null two eq's by adjusting the q before? That's Dan's methodology! But, I hadn't seen Dan's video before so I'm glad that you guys recommended it to ME. Thanks!

check out dan worral's eq testing videos, he talks about cramping quite a bit. i think the fabfilter was one of the first eq's that prevented cramping from happening, but most newer revisions of stock eq plugins have it now built in too. when i remember correctly, what they do is to combine the deformed peak-eq curve with a shelving filter when the nyquist limit is approached. but for a true (meaning analog equivalent) phase response, there is no way around oversampling.

Mr, how do you manage sending merch to Mexico City?

i did learn a lot

I wondered with saturation if it would be possible with DSP to calculate what aliasing the input signal would generate and then deduct that from the output signal. But for all I know that may end up using more CPU than just oversampling.

Currently on sale 80% off!!

dmg audio equilibrium BEST!

Waves Phase can do some helping with the tone phasing adjustments........helps a lot....plus, it could be bypassed for certain parts only and turn off when no needed in automation.......

When there is one plugin suite, that is 100% not snake oil, then it’s SSL Native. They’re all equally amazing.

According to Dan Worrall, oversampling kind of tackles cramping since nyquist moves up one octave, but iirc overall regular digital eqs should not need oversampling at all and instead be programmed in a way to tackle cramping.

Pro Q-3 sounds quite different In “Linear Phase-Medium” mode. Was noticing comparisons early on with Pro Q set to “zero latency”. That will indeed sound very different from the X-EQ2

Cool i have the v1 version but never use it very much bcs there's fabfilter lol. The v2 looks and sounds much better. Can't wait for the big discount before they release the v3 version lol

This eq sounds really good ... It's right up there with Sonnox

Haha: "Im geeking, I think..." Too funny. Dont worry, we are all geeking right along with ya.

Preferred the Fab filter sound TBH. Interesting EQ Protools tip : hold CTRL + SHIFT while selecting an EQ band in the GUI . Cool as phuq. ( works on PT eq and some other 3rd party plugs}

The type of Q control you are talking about is called "asymmetrical". It was made popular by early Studer Consoles and later by API Consoles. Every Brand has their own Q factor style so a Q of 1.0 will not be the same. This is why the lines on the background of these EQ's is consistent across professional EQ plugins, it allows you to match the EQs based on the logarithmic frequency scale. Most parametric EQ's have this option. Even REA-EQ, Pro-Q, SSL & others. It's from old school graphical analyzers. Back then there were 2 types the Logarithmic scale with the lines which became the default way, and Bar Graph analyzers which didn't catch on in Pro Audio but were popular in consumer stereos.

There's a video on KZfaq called "don't cramp my eq" or something. That explains it all. I found this video - this video here as a recommendation after watching that one

Very interesting. Could you do a test of TC Electronics MD 4 Native?

What are the problems linear phase filtering is creating?

A Review of MD4 would be very interesting. Maybe in comparison to the Fab Pro MB.

I have heard the ringing before. I did "cramp" my style and mix

Man, if only the X-EQ2 had dynamic compression like FabFilter does...

There doesn't seem to be a way to zoom the DB scale or make the plugin full screen. This results in very little working area if you're trying to be very precise without resorting to typing or moving the scrollers around one pixel at a time. This seems to be something alot of graphic eq plugin makers get wrong. The best way is to allow mouse wheel scrolling on the DB scale to give any zoom level you want. the worse way is set multiple choices, and what stops me from buying fabfilter pro-q or kirchhoff. The two problems with multiple choice zoom levels, like 3db, 6, 12 etc is that's for fine mastering, 2 db or less is what I'm doing most of the time to well mixed material. I want as much screen space to work as I possible. Why should I take up an extra 1 db of range at top and bottom for no reason? The other problem is still what if I want alot of screen range between say 4 and 6 db? The biggest zoom gets me only 0-3db, to see 4-6 I have to go smaller. The two EQs I know the get it right with the non-interval mousewheel vertical zoom are Izotope Ozone which is my go to, but also Kilohearts Slice. Slice gets it even better than Ozone because Slice lets you zoom to a db scale of 1.3db +/- where Ozone is only about 2.2. Still the Gui of Ozone is better, with it's color coding, and easy to spot band parameter display/entry available at the bottom. I was checking out X-EQ 2 based on owning Flexverb. I'm absolutely floored by how good flexverb sounds and how easy it is to control. X-EQ 2 seems to give less than 1/2 inch of screen resolution for 1 db. The space for 6db is about 1 inch. That's pretty rediculous for this kind of EQ, unless I'm wrong about how it works. I mean really, if you're boosting/cutting 6db often, you either don't know what you're doing or probably have terrible material you're working on.

Have you tried out the new SSL UC1 yet...?

A phase response is a derivative of the eq curve function. :D

more of this

Hey Wytse, please check out Dan Worral's video on stock EQs vs FF Pro-Q. He explains cramping very nicely there.

Was it me or did the SSL EQ sounded a bit smoother than the Pro-Q 3?