ADSR Sounds offers the NEED73 channel equalizer plugin as a free add-on with any purchase in September.
September has arrived, so queue up your Earth, Wind, and Fire playlists when the time is right. In other news, that means the monthly freebies have rolled out, and ADSR has a great one.
NEED73 from NoiseAsh is this month’s freebie and, incidentally, a personal favorite of mine.
If you are unfamiliar with NEED73, it is a character EQ and preamp emulation of the Neve 1073. This isn’t a precision work EQ, like Pro-Q or EQuilibrium, but it is quite fun to use.
NEED73’s interface is divided into several sections, each with its specific function.
The preamp section is first up, offering a gain pad of -20 dB, drive, phase flipping, and a simple on/off switch. The saturation is sweet and can quickly get into clipping when pushed. I use this quite a bit.
There’s a simple high-pass filter below the preamp section. You can leave it off or sweep out frequencies up to 300Hz. It is stepped, so you don’t have a ton of options, but it works well enough.
There is a simple EQ section with a pair of shelves and a pair of filters. The low shelf goes from 35 to 220Hz, and the high shelf has a fixed value.
The filters sound grand, and I love using them to shape electric bass and vocal signals.
You have a pair of faders to the immediate right below a set of VU meters. These faders control the left/right or mid/side stereo signals. You can also mute these individually to see how they affect the signal.
The controls are topped off with M/S mode, a view toggle for the VU meters, and the analog switch.
NEED73 has a similar feature to the PA channel strips and its patented TMT mode. However, this is legally distinct, at least as far as I can tell. This adds a little subtle variation between channels, and you can randomize the channels as you’d like.
I love NEED73. It ranks alongside Heritage Pro as my favorite character EQ. You can snag it for yourself for until the end of September with a qualifying purchase over at ADSR.
NEED73 is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST3, AU, and AAX.
It does support Apple Silicon, although I don’t know if that currently extends to AAX plugins.
Check out the deal: NEED73 (FREE with any purchase at ADSR Sounds)
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Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by Tomislav Zlatic.
