※This article is a review written on July 21, 2021 after being selected for the FX Collection 2 experience group run by ‘Samick’ and receiving product support for a certain period of time. I only received support for the product and wrote the rest myself.
EQ Sitral-295
The Sitral-295 plug-in is a clone plug-in of the Siemens Sitral W295 EQ.
Siemens Sitral W295 EQ is an EQ module included in the Sitral console produced by Siemens, and was produced in West Germany in the 60s and 70s.
Siemens is the parent company of the former Telefunken company and is now a multinational conglomerate, so it would be a good idea to take a look if you are interested in the history of equipment.
This Sitral-295 plug-in consists of a total of 3 modules and is composed of Discrete Class A. Surfing the web, I heard that you can think of German-style Pultec or Neve. There is also a story behind the fact that many of Neve’s devices originated from the Sitral console’s schematics.
Some say that it seems that Rupert Neve copied the Sitral console’s U273 limiter circuit diagram and created the Neve 2254.
The Signal Flow of the Sitral-295 plugin is as shown in the photo above.
Excluding the three switches, Range, Charakter (German), and Auto Gain, you can think of it as simply moving from the left to the right of the plug-in. Each function will be explained in the description of the module below.
- Visualizer
A Visualizer is literally just an analyzer. It shows the EQ curve adjusted by LR or MS, and shows the audio frequency currently being played.
Analog device clone EQ plug-ins often do not have this function, so it is a bit inconvenient when using them for the first time, but Arturia seems to have done a good job keeping this convenience in mind.
- Saturation
Sitral-295 is an EQ that adds saturation by default even if you select nothing. Even with all EQ and filters turned off, high cut is applied from about 14kHz and low cut is applied from 10 to 20Hz.
If you change the Charakter from Original to Alternativ, the nuance of the cut will change slightly, and the second overtone will rise slightly.
- Module 1, 2
Out of a total of 3 modules, 2 modules have the same configuration and are responsible for Left and Right respectively. These two modules consist of Filters on both sides and three EQs in the center.
The slope of the filter is not separately written, but I measured it with Plugin Doctor and it seems to be around 8~9dB/Oct. Actually, these types of double EQs are used for a saturation feeling rather than a surgical feeling, so the slope value doesn’t seem to be particularly important, but it would have been better if it had been written down..^^
For the remaining EQs, the Q value cannot be adjusted, and the low range can be adjusted to a fixed dB of 50, 100, and 300Hz, the midrange to 300~8000Hz, and the high range to a fixed dB of 5, 10, and 30kHz.
When I used it myself, it felt brighter in the mid-range than the UAD Neve 1073, and the mid-low range was somewhat similar to that of the UAD Pultec, but the mid-high range felt very different. I think you can just think of it as a new Saturation EQ.
When I just turn it on in the sibilance band by default, it sticks out with a sharp feeling that I don’t like, so it’s a bit burdensome, but I think it’ll be fine if you just organize that band well. Or, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to just set it as default to friends who lack the 3~5kHz band.
- Module 3
The third module has switches. M/S is a button that changes to Mid/Side, Auto Gain is a button that makes the amount of input gain and output gain the same, and the chain shape below is a link button that links L, R or M, S.
You can think of Range as similar to the Mix knob. At diamond shape, EQ and Filter are not applied at all, and at 1, they are applied at 100%. 0.5 applies only to 50%.
As mentioned above, Charakter is a switch that slightly changes the basic Frequency Response and Harmonic Distortion.
- EQ Sitral-295 overall review
I think the Saturation EQ leaves something to be desired in the mid to high range. Of course, you can adjust it, but in fact, it is quite annoying to adjust it..^^;;
Still, Sitral-295 definitely has character, so I think I’ll use it someday.
I created a sample track in the order of the original track – Arturia EQ Sitral-295 – UAD Neve 1073 – UAD EQP-1A, so if you are curious, you can give it a listen.
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