Holger Lagerfeldt Posted November 4, 2023 Share Posted November 4, 2023 (edited)  Does the world really need another software EQ? Sure 😄 https://relabdevelopment.com/mea-2/ Hardware Equalizer The ReLab MEA-2 is based on the $9,000 (Prism Sound) Maselec MEA-2 equalizer designed by Leif Mases (Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck). It's mainly used for mastering and is one of the most precise and best stereo-matched equalizers in existance. I happen to own and love the hardware equalizer, so I was interested in checking out the new software emu by Danish company ReLab. Testing Just a simple test where I pushed the low shelf and high shelf and a (upper) mid band. Software will never null with hardware, but this one is damn close. The shelves are quite smooth in the hardware MEA-2 compared to standard shelves. The software emulates the curve(s) perfectly. I was able to match the curves in the software to my hardware within ±0.1 dB. Pretty crazy, also considering this is through a DA/AD. In terms of general fidelity the software will null with the hardware down to around -50 dB (RMS) with my rev. 7 MEA-2, which is also pretty wild. The main reason for such fidelity is probably that the hardware is transformerless so there's little saturation to emulate. There are some differences in the transient response to my ears, but it's still very close. I feel (partly confirmation bias perhaps) that the hardware sounds slightly smoother overall, but regardless it's interesting you can get something so close to the hardware for a fraction of the price. There's an Audio Animals comparison on YouTube, but in that "test" the difference is bigger to my ears. I think (just a guess) that he's running his hardware MEA-2 through something else that colors the sound a bit too much for a test, like a Burl DA/AD. I used a Lynx HiLo in my test. The GUI is nice and responsive. No heavy CPU load. Good job. Extra features Stereo linking, solo per band and (not shown on the screenshot) M/S per band. The latter is interesting because you don't need to set up an M/S matrix or you don't have to dedicate the two sides to M/S, respectively. - I'm not affiliated with ReLab, no strings attached - just wanted to share my thoughts.   Edited November 4, 2023 by Holger Lagerfeldt 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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