I was brought up on EQ like this, in the analogue domain, where to a certain extent I still work. All this sounds pretty straightforward, but I should point out that in the world of plug-ins this is not my usual experience. Likewise, the mid-range controls did what I expected. Adding a shelving high-frequency boost lifts the top in a pleasant, musical way, while rolling a bit of low end off tightens the sound nicely. I felt at home straight away, and it responded exactly how I expected. It is by turns warm, bright, musical and forgiving and a pleasure to use. It was apparent from the first time I inserted the Scheps 73 plug-in on a channel that the EQ section is great. Of course you will be boosting or attenuating over an increasingly wide band so they will overlap at extremes, but I never feel I am missing any options. Likewise, I like the fact that the low and mid-range bands don't overlap, with the mid-band starting at 360Hz. Rather than agonising over frequency points and watching graphic representations of your sound, you just turn the knobs and listen. In fact, I find that having your options limited in this way frees you up to make decisions elsewhere. My flying time on a 1073-equipped console comprises hours rather than days, but the EQ in my own Amek console is a Neve design, and I do have expectations of what it can and should achieve! I expect that some engineers will be appalled by the apparent lack of flexibility: how can you expect to get good results on everything when you have no choice as to where the high-frequency shelf kicks in, no bandwidth controls, and only a handful of fixed frequency choices for the other bands? Well, that was what Rupert Neve came up with, and I have rarely found it a problem for 95 percent of all tasks. These have been tweaked by Mr Scheps and contribute greatly to the authentic character of this plug in. Waves have also modelled the original Marinair transformer and its unique sonic characteristics, so you can overdrive the preamp to introduce harmonic distortion and saturation tones. When the Scheps 73 plug-in is used on a stereo source, you have the option of applying different EQ settings to the left and right channels, and there's also an M/S matrix which lets you treat the Mid and Sides stereo content differently. However, Waves' plug-in also introduces a 10kHz mid-range band that was apparently featured on the original schematics but did not make it into production models until the development of the later 1078 channel strip.
Like the original, the plug-in has a fixed 12kHz high-frequency shelving EQ band plus low-frequency shelving and mid-range 'bell' bands with switchable centre frequencies, as well as an 18dB-per-octave high-pass filter. The plug-in is thus modelled on Scheps's own Neve 1073, and is said to precisely emulate its behaviour. They have followed their now-familiar route of personalising the plug-in by involving a top engineer, in this case world-class mixer Andrew Scheps (Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay-Z). There are many emulations of the classic Neve 1073 preamplifier and equaliser, and with the new Scheps 73 plug-in, Waves are the latest company to throw a hat into this particular ring.
Waves' take on the immortal Neve 1073 design sees them teaming up once again with a leading mix engineer.