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2. Familiarisation

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The EQP-1A may be an extremely famous processor, but like a lot of early hardware, it has its own operational quirks, and not all plugin versions are quite the same. Before we move onto practical applications, let’s first run through what the knobs and switches actually do on IK’s version. 2

T-RackS EQP-1A Vintage Program Equalizer is a 3-band equaliser with a handful of presets. The three bands are a Low Frequency shelf, a High Frequency peak and a high frequency shelf (Atten). Rather confusingly, none of these bands offer typical boost and cut and each operate differently. Let’s clarify what they do. 3

The Low Frequency section is on the left and comprises two knobs and one selector. You get four frequency options (20, 30, 60 and 100Hz) combined with separate Boost and Atten. The original hardware units suggested not to use the boost and cut together, but this is perfectly possible and can have beneficial outcomes, as we’ll discover later. 4

The High Frequency section is in the middle and uses two knobs and one selector. It includes boost only at seven frequencies (3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 16kHz) and includes a continuous Bandwidth control that adjusts the peak width between sharp (0) and broad (10). 5

The Attenuation section uses the two controls on the top right – Atten and Atten Sel – and provides shelving-shaped cuts at three specific frequencies (5, 10 and 20kHz). It’s probably the least useful of the three bands but offers a gentle way to curtail higher frequencies. 6

T-RackS EQP-1A includes some software additions, and the most obvious is the Output trim. Meanwhile, over on the left, you have a Reset button, which recalls the 0dB default preset. A stereo instance of the plugin has a channel matrix including independent and stereo linked processing in M/S and L/R.