The Pulsar W495, is an accurate emulation of Neumann’s w495 three-band EQ but with extra modern features. And it’s free through October.
Pulsar Audio, known for their faithful emulations, has unveiled its latest offering, the W495 equalizer plugin, maintaining its tradition of preserving the original’s musical features through a ‘component-accurate’ model.
And the company is giving it away for free until the end of October.
Pulsar Audio aims to retain the qualities that made the original hardware popular. The wide bands maintain musicality even with extreme boost settings, adding character to individual tracks and full mixes.
Like the original, the W495 is equipped with low and high bands featuring shelf filters that offer a a generous ±15dB gain adjustment. Users can select from three frequencies in the low shelf (40Hz, 60Hz, or 100Hz) and three in the high shelf (7kHz, 10kHz, or 14kHz). The mid band offers ±10dB of gain across eleven frequencies, ranging from 175Hz to 5.6kHz, and offers three Q options for precise control.
Furthemore, the plugin offers both authentic stepped controls and continuous mode for fine-tuning. Each band has independent mid-side processing options for focused stereo signal manipulation on a per-band basis.
Modern features include a built-in spectrum analyzer for real-time and long-term signal visualization, with an on-screen EQ curve that can be edited directly with the mouse. Peak and RMS metering is included, along with an Auto switch for automatic gain compensation when changing EQ settings.
Efficiency is a priority, with minimal CPU usage optimization. Oversampling options are available up to 384kHz for high-performance systems, and there’s an export setting for applying higher oversampling rates during export while keeping a lower setting for playback.
Find out more on Pulsars website.