An EQ That Changes Texture, Not Just Balance

There's a line in Eric Valentine's MPEQ-1 deep dive that sums up the whole design:

"It doesn't just change the balance of frequencies. That's really what an equalizer does when it's just an equalizer. This thing changes the frequency balance, and it can change the texture."

Here's what that means in practice, using the snare from the demo session.

The setup: clean preamps on purpose

Every drum mic went through Undertone preamps run clean: lots of headroom, no transformers in or out, conservative levels.

"I wasn't going to use a bunch of funky old tube preamps or something that have a lot of color in them, so you will really be hearing the sound of the EQ doing all the color instead of the preamps."

The 2k crunch

The snare chain starts conventionally: a low band fattening the fundamental, a mid band for "aggressive knock." Then the band around 2 kHz, with drive engaged.

"This is all of that really cool aggressive 2k crunch on the snare drum, and this is a huge part of it, this distortion. If I bypass the distortion on this band, that's what you get. And this adds all of these overtones above this range that helps blend this EQ move in so it's not just sticking out."

Why it gets louder (on purpose)

A detail most people miss: when you add drive on an MPEQ-1 band, the fundamental boost doesn't move. The gain compensation is built so only the overtones are added.

"If you do a literal gain compensation in the part of the code that is adding this distortion, then you end up losing level on the fundamental. I didn't want that. So we adjusted for that, and that's why it does sound like it gets louder, because this stays the same and you're adding harmonics on top of it."

The result is a change in the texture of the high mids rather than just a boost.

The 8.6k band and the Orban model

Higher up, a more pointed boost at 8.6 kHz with drive on. Both of these snare moves use the Solid State model, a neural network model of Eric's Orban parametric EQ.

"One of my favorite snare drum EQs ever. Take off the distortion, it sounds more like a regular EQ move. You add this and it just adds this thickness up in this frequency range. It actually makes the sound feel more dense instead of just this sort of pointed EQ move. It spreads it out up here."

Three distortion flavors

Each band's drive can run one of three models:

• Smooth: an algorithmic saturation, light on CPU
• Solid State: neural network model of the Orban parametric EQ
• Tube: neural network model of the RCA BC-2B tube console

Neural models cost more CPU than Smooth, so use them where they matter and leave bands you aren't driving switched off.

Try it

1. Make an EQ boost you like but that sounds "pointed" or sticks out.
2. Turn on drive for that band. Start with Solid State on snare and guitars.
3. A/B the band's distortion bypass, not the whole plugin. Listen for density above the boost, not just level.

Watch the full deep dive · Start the MPEQ-1 trial