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Empress ParaEQ MKII released!

#21
How about the most readily available control of any eq pedal….

Source Audio stuff is great but I don’t want to spend hours on a laptop trying to figure out how to control my pedals. The C4 is brilliant but overwhelming. You also need space to connect the digital cable or remove the pedal. Way too much work for me when I can old school it and probably sound better.
 
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#24
the-goop said:
How about the most readily available control of any eq pedal….

Source Audio stuff is great but I don’t want to spend hours on a laptop trying to figure out how to control my pedals. The C4 is brilliant but overwhelming. You also need space to connect the digital cable or remove the pedal. Way too much work for me when I can old school it and probably sound better.
Click to expand...
Top jacks for the win!
 
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#26
The standard version is "just" a really good 3 band parametric EQ (essentially a mk1/boost in a smaller enclosure it seems ?), which is already great for most usages; the Deluxe however really speaks to me as a all-in-one tone shaper.
It seems to be the perfect unit as the front-end for a clean power amp (to tune the stage rig to the room, drive the amp a bit harder, tame annoying frequencies via high Q cut or HPF, boost mids for better self-monitoring, ...). Judging by the feature set it's a better preamp than many preamps !
The continuously adjustable Q is what was missing for me on the mk1, however I understand how the switches would be easier and sufficient for most people.
Well done Empress :thumbsup:
 
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#27
XLunacy said:
The standard version is "just" a really good 3 band parametric EQ (essentially a mk1/boost in a smaller enclosure it seems ?), which is already great for most usages; the Deluxe however really speaks to me as a all-in-one tone shaper.
It seems to be the perfect unit as the front-end for a clean power amp (to tune the stage rig to the room, drive the amp a bit harder, tame annoying frequencies via high Q cut or HPF, boost mids for better self-monitoring, ...). Judging by the feature set it's a better preamp than many preamps !
The continuously adjustable Q is what was missing for me on the mk1, however I understand how the switches would be easier and sufficient for most people.
Well done Empress :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

That's it. It's worth at least three different units in one enclosure. As others have stated, one or two more types of outputs would have turned it into a top-tier full-fledged preamp.
 
#29
fretless Bob said:
I can’t wait to get my hands on this, the bass comp has made me retire my big box Cali 76s and now this, the possibilities are endless of what you could do with this.
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Can’t wait to see those two pedals side by side on peoples’ boards.
In fact, and entire empress board would be amazing.

Bass comp, Para EQ Mk2 Deluxe, Zoia, and one or two of their dirt pedals? Whooo wee.
 
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#33
Love my Mk I version, also love my SA EQ2 on my 6 string board (MIDI presets are fantastic if you are willing to invest the time to program). The EQ2 is also stereo & can be used as dual mono at different points in your signal chain, which I love. The immediacy of the Empress is great when tweaking live, two different very powerful tools. Below is pre-release review of the Empress Mkii that has some additional demo videos embedded.

Empress Effects shrinks and enhances its pro studio level fully transparent ParaEQ + Boost Parametric EQ which now comes in both Standard and evolved Deluxe Editions
 
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#34
I fell in love with Empress when I bought their compressor….later replaced with their bass compressor. I also have a Boss GT-1000 and I just couldn’t dial in the tone I wanted with the EQs in it. I found out about the Empress ParaEQ about 6 weeks ago and got one. Wow! It was just what I was looking for. Of course now…. I just had to order the MK2 version…. Maybe the best (pedal) EQ available? We shall see. I love the size too. Between my Empress Comp, Boss and new EQ, I’ll cover a lot of ground with a relatively tiny rig!

I can’t wait to get my new EQ……Merry Christmas to me!
 
#37
A few years ago I would have lept at this. But now, I have a couple Source Audio EQ2's on my boards - as what I use differs from bass to bass, the presets that the Source Audio unit offers make the Empress a curiosity, but....not something I want anymore. Some things, I like the ability to tweak on the fly, some things I want locked down. EQ is a locked down thing for me, so....nice, but not for me.
 
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#38
Between the ParaEQ 2 and the EQ2, obviously one major difference is immediacy vs presets/programmability.

Are there other differences? Can either one do any tone-shaping that the other can’t? And, I wonder if there is any audible difference between the analog empress and the digital SA?

The tonal difference *could* be real - for instance I understand that digital eq can be linear phase and analog can’t. But analog eq can have greater frequency bandwidth. Or maybe it’s a non-issue.

Maybe nobody can answer those questions (yet), but I thought I’d throw it out there.
 
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#39
smeet said:
Between the ParaEQ 2 and the EQ2, obviously one major difference is immediacy vs presets/programmability.

Are there other differences? Can either one do any tone-shaping that the other can’t? And, I wonder if there is any audible difference between the analog empress and the digital SA?

The tonal difference *could* be real - for instance I understand that digital eq can be linear phase and analog can’t. But analog eq can have greater frequency bandwidth. Or maybe it’s a non-issue.

Maybe nobody can answer those questions (yet), but I thought I’d throw it out there.
Click to expand...
The EQ2 can do lots of tricks, especially if you add in an expression pedal (design your own Wah, use it as a volume pedal, morph between two different EQ shapes, etc.). It also has noise suppression available and a quite capable tuner. Plus the stereo functions, not to mention, unlike other SA effects, most everything can be accessed and tweaked from the pedal itself.
 
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