Ask an engineer for a shortlist of EQs that make their eyes and ears sparkle, and they’ll probably mention an inductor-based design with a nautical name that conjures up images of the god Poseidon. The EQ section of this rare and legendary console made the sound of records you might have grown up with: Queen, The Beatles, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones… Let’s just say it’s “tried and tested”.
Present in very few studios, this console is renowned for being highly musical. One key component behind its mojo is its unique band interactions – pushing the gain of one band can lead to EQ curves that would need three or four bands on a parametric EQ.
With such an idiosyncratic EQ, there’s a learning curve. The interactions between its bands are so unique that we’ve never seen a digital reproduction that makes them simple to use. So we decided to nail it ourselves with an on-screen EQ curve that reacts faithfully to the quirks of the original hardware, making Pulsar Poseidon easy to master.
With all its additional features (Mid/Side bands, Gain Scale, Auto-Gain, multiple saturation colors), this plugin (VST/VST3/AU/AAX) faithfully resurrects the rare and iconic qualities of this console EQ into the digital realm.
EXTENDED RANGES FOR MODERN NEEDS While the original machine is highly appreciated for its carefully chosen discrete frequencies, we made the frequency knobs continuous and extended their ranges to match modern needs. Back then, a peaking EQ down to 100Hz would have required fist-sized inductors.
Complete Control with CURVE EDITING Understand how each band or filter shapes the sound with a complete on-screen curve editor and spectrum analyzer. This best-of-both-world approach will give you an interesting insight into what you’re doing with a better workflow.
Enhanced Versatility As usual, we’ve added Mid-Side processing for more control on your stereo image, a Gain-Scale knob to help you reach the sweet spot on your EQ intensity, and an Auto-Gain feature to keep the output level consistent with the input.
Several saturation COLORS Add rich analog distortion to your sources with multiple saturation circuits, including that of the original unit, which is well-known for the tonal color of its preamps. In addition, we’ve introduced two output transformer emulations to add low-end harmonics.
PRECISE MODELING OF BAND INTERACTIONS We have faithfully recreated the interaction between the bands of the original unit. The shape of one filter depends on the settings of the others, so you get asymmetrical bells and exotic curves. In Pulsar Poseidon, these creative EQ shapes are finally visible and easy to use.
