Cranborne Audio has announced the debut of the Carnaby Harmonic EQ 500, an analog EQ for the 500 Series modular format that uses harmonic saturation to boost and cut frequency content to enhance sources, stems and mixes with harmonic saturation combined with the control of an equalizer.
“Our Carnaby 500 is a tonal beast that boldly enhances, complements, and shapes your sound, whether you’re tracking, mixing, or even mastering your audio sources,” says Cranborne Audio managing director Sean Karpowicz. “Equalizing a signal using analogue harmonic saturation is something that no other analog EQ nor DSP EQ can do, and we’re very proud of this innovation.”
Carnaby 500 provides three interactive bands of Harmonic EQ, with each band having 10 dB of boost/cut and its own sweepable and overlapping frequency controls. Each band of has a unique blend of harmonic content suited to its frequency band.
The HI band has a frequency range from 5 kHz to 25 kHz and uses smooth saturation to naturally extend high frequencies beyond the audio band for added “air” and “breath” on vocals and acoustic instruments. The LO band has a frequency range of 420 Hz down to 20 Hz and uses hard-clipping saturation to extend sub-harmonic frequencies into the audible low-end for subtle warming or sub-harmonic saturation. The MID band is a peaking filter with a fixed Q and a wide sweepable frequency range from 200 Hz up to 6.2 kHz. It uses saturation to add harmonic emphasis to the source anywhere in the frequency range.
Carnaby 500 has a dynamic response and increases in total boost/cut and harmonics as the circuits are driven harder. An input and output level control on each band allows for ±20 dB of level adjustment to drive it harder with the input control for more saturation and distortion effects or back it off for a cleaner EQ when needed. Every control has a custom 41-way detented pots as well as automatic calibration of all analog saturation paths.
The proprietary EQ circuit also offers a stereo-linking feature called OPTOSYNC, enabling two Carnaby 500 units to work as a stereo pair for mixes and stereo sources. Using OPTOSYNC, all controls are synchronized from the left unit to the right without cables or internal fixings. Switch OPTOSYNC for all slave units to “on” and their control’s all synchronize to the master unit wirelessly using LED and optical communication. OPTOSYNC can also be used to link together multiple units for applying the same sonic footprint across entire summing mixers or multi-channel surround mixes.
