Recording - July 2014 - 45

The xfilter is essentially a 4-band parametric EQ that, while stylistically similar to many
other equalizers on the market, also packs a few cool extras under its hood. It starts on
the left with a Low shelving EQ that boosts or cuts by up to 16 dB with a corner frequency settable from 20 Hz up to 900 Hz. The first of the "Wait, there's more" treats is
that this shelving band can be switched to a lowcut/highpass filter, with a resonant peak
at the corner frequency that increases up to about 7 dB the more drastically you cut.
Next up is the Low Mid band, up to 13 dB boost/cut at a frequency settable from
45 Hz to 1200 Hz. While you can switch between wide and narrow Q settings, the
actual Q is proportional and gets narrower the more the gain is boosted or cut.
The High Mid band covers 300 Hz to 16 kHz and is otherwise similar to the low
mid band in function and features. The last band is the High shelf; it starts at 700 Hz
and goes all the way up to 28 kHz and is functionally identical to the Low shelf, except
of course that when switched into filter mode the filter is highcut/lowpass.
Hit It and then get a Massage
There are two additional buttons on the xfilter. The first one is labeled Hit It! and is a
simple hardwired bypass that takes the xfilter out of the audio chain when disengaged.
The other is the most unique feature on the xfilter and quite possibly the star of the show;
it's labeled Passive Massage, and when engaged it adds a passive lowcut filter.
Unlike the highcut/lowpass filter option on the High shelf, the Passive Massage is
set permanently at about 12 kHz and gently and widely peaks about 2-3 dB before
leveling off at 17 kHz. Internally this is a completely independent circuit with its own
passive capacitor and coil for both the left and right channels. It adds a gentle controlled and almost vintage high boost to any sound.
In use
The xfilter is great on any stereo bus that needs some fixing up or sweetening, from
keyboards and guitars to drums and especially the master or 2-bus. It sounds great on
mono sources like bass and vocals as well.
Despite its Class A design, which I expected to put it in similar territory with sterile and
surgical eqs, the xfilter is neither. Yes, it's ultra-clean, but it does have a slight sweet sheen
to it, especially when the Passive Massage is engaged. Also, while its bands can get narrow, this is more of a general sonic massage device than a surgical repair EQ.
This is one of those equalizers where little nips and tucks will yield big results. I found
myself rarely needing more than 3-6 dB in either direction. If you are looking for a
specific list of sources on which it excels, you will be disappointed; I found the xfilter
to be a highly capable and adjustable eq that can and will work on any source.
I will say that my favorite use was on a stereo guitar bus for gelling together all the
guitar tracks in a song. It also rides the drum bus well, and on the 2-bus the Passive
Massage is dangerously addictive. I add the word "dangerous" only to suggest that
rather than plopping it on top of a finished mix and going crazy with it, you should
engage it early in your mix building and allow it to become part of the sound of your
mix from the get-go.
That's the xfilter. Now let's push the nvelope...
nvelope
The elysia nvelope is an impulse shaper, and I mentioned above that it has its own
unique history... just not with elysia. The designer of the nvelope is also the designer
of the SPL Transient Designer, the first beast of its kind. In the past it was easy to call
any device that did impulse shaping a "transient designer" because, well, there was
only one Transient Designer on the market. Nowadays, with a number of products on
the market that do this, we will refer to what both units do as impulse shaping.

http://www.zoom-na.com http://www.zoom-na.com

Recording - July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2014