Overheads:

Henry Olonga AIR EQ /Kush Clariphonic

– TLDR Notes:

Presence, Sheen, Shimmer or Silk. Magical sounding high frequency EQ sampled by Olonga.

– Review:

A strong contender for the best sounding and feeling dedicated “air EQ” out there.

It was sampled from a Kush Audio’s Clariphonic, a parallel high‑frequency analog equalizer by Nebula icon Henry Olonga.

The original hardware unit came with “Focus” and “Clarity” knobs, but here we get “Trim Gain” and “Harmonics” instead.

I usually don’t go nuts with its “Harmonics”, but tend to focus on either Presence, Sheen or Shimmer for overheads.

Moving right takes us up the frequency spectrum with Shimmer being the higher freq boost out of those three, and if you need just a boost in the highest of super high freqs you can go with Silk.

Regardless, it all sounds great. Try it on overheads or hi-hats.

Henry Olonga sampled a ton of gear for Nebula from vintage microphones to EQs, preamps and much more, and his huge “All You Can Eat” collection contains some real gems. This AIR EQ ranks near the top of the list of gems in my book.

Back when these were sampled, Nebula tech was in its infancy, and libraries usually suffered from some wobble issues in the low end, resulting in a response that was a little more weak that in should have been, thus not fully capturing the original hardware.

Some may notice it, others may not.

However, this AIR EQ bypasses that issue completely because it just deals with high frequencies, and along with Azzimovs improvements where he “modded the kern length and removed the kern-fade option as well, to achieve better frequency and harmonic response” we have a winner.

It does require Nebula from Acustica.

Once you have that it’s available as part of Olonga’s free, huge All You Can Eat collection:

http://www.nebulapresets.com/?page_id=6602

Or here on its own with a must-have skin and some improvements from Azzimov:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/h-olonga-air-eq-37616695

CraveEQ (Crave DSP)

– TLDR Notes:

EQ in linear mode to avoid phase shift and to get the most transparent equalization. Important: Keep the q-factor below 1 on both the high shelf and the lowcut to prevent pre-ringing issues.

– Review:

I like linear phase EQ for overheads due to the transparancy, the lack of phase smearing present in minimum phase EQ, the precicion and the ability to maintain the phase of the original signal.

They are often used in mastering, by why not on OH, where you want to retain the phase and get a non smeary top end boost?

Crave EQ offers some great modes in addition to linear phase : “Analog”, “Digital” and “Transparant”.

“Transparant” is a favorite for all-around mixing duties, but for overheads the linear phase mode with a broad curve, and not too excessive is a quick way go for great results without the downside of linear phase EQ, pre-ringing.

Once in linear mode (top), go with a q-factor below 1 and when doing boosts try to keep it below 5 dB to avoid obvious pre-ringing artifacts.

https://cravedsp.com/crave-eq


If you want a dedicated classic Linear Phase EQ that is often on sale, you might wanna check out the Waves Linear Phase EQ.