Over the last year or so I have noticed that I'm using tilt EQs in the majority of my mixes.  Tilt EQs are great for quickly adjusting the tone of an instrument or voice without having to dig into conventional EQ processing.

How I Like To Use Tilt EQ

I love using tilt EQs on things like drum room microphone tracks as the tilt lets me easily discover how dark or bright I want the tone of the room to be perceived.  Using a tilt EQ on a lead vocal makes me feel as though I have regained some of the control back over the microphone placement.  The tilt lets me gently emphasise the highs whilst at the same time attenuating the lows.  It is this action of turning a dial that makes me feel as though I'm instructing a vocalist to move intro or back off the mic in the tracking stage.

I like to think of tilt EQs in the same way as I think of transient designers.  Transient designers are a form of dynamic process but transient designers achieve different results to compression.  Tilt EQs are clearly a form of EQ but in my opinion Tilt EQs feel better to use as to me they strip away the need to think frequencies thus encouraging ear decisions.

Tilt EQs are a fast and easy way of placing anything in a mix.  In this article I have listed two dedicated tilt EQ plug-ins that I use all the time.  The other two plug-ins are EQ plug-ins that offer the Tilt feature.

Tonelux Tilt By Softube

Tonelux Tilt by Softube is a plug-in emulation that offers a small amount of analog vibe to the results.  High an low cut filters are included to help shape the tone further.  Tonelux Tilt has two shapes to the tilt.  The first being a "smiley face / sad face" curve that can be dialled to taste with the TILT knob.  The other tilt shape is like a "seesaw" that brightens the top end whilst reducing the lows or vice versa.

Personal Stand out feature

This is an AAX DSP plug-in.  I use many Tonelux Tilt instances in my HDX system both in tracking and mixing

Cost: $99

T-Bone By Boz Digital

I have been using a lot of the products by Boz Digital Labs and I must say that the T-Bone is an exceptional plug-in.  It's slightly more feature rich than the Tonelux Tilt by Softube but in no ways more difficult to use.  A complex tilt EQ would, in my opinion, defeat the point of a tilt EQ as tilt EQ plug-ins need to be quick and easy to use.

The T-Bone includes high and low cut filters, stereo & mid/side processing and a very useful mix blend control.  The HPF RES and LPF RES enables us to put a notch boost at the point where the filter starts to fall away.  This helps preserve the body of the tone when using low cuts.  The design of the GUI is absolutely stunning.  I love how the curve display is set into the control area.  This to me is the ultimate example of an old meets new in GUI design.  You can watch the video review of T-Bone here

Personal Stand out feature

The layout and feel of the GUI

Cost: $49

Pro-Q2 By FabFilter

Pro-Q2 by FabFilter is in my opinion the ultimate swiss army knife EQ.  It has so many amazing features that it's ability to tilt is often over shadowed.  Pro-Q2 lets us select the steepness of the tilt curve and the point at which it starts to pivot.  I produced a video review of Pro-Q2 that can be viewed here.

Personal Stand out feature

Having the ability to select the steepness of the tilt and the pivot point

Cost: $179

EQIII

Now this being Pro Tools Expert it would not be right for me to not include a free Pro Tools alternative.  The EQIII has the basic functionality of tilting as well.  Pro Tools Expert team member Julian Rodgers posted a quick tip article found here - Pro Tools Quick Tips - EQIII As A Tilt EQ

Personal Stand out feature

Settings are transferable to any other Pro Tools System as EQIII is included for free with every version of Pro Tools

Cost: Included free with Pro Tools

What's Your Thoughts On Tilt EQ?

• Do you use Tilt EQ?
• If so what plug-ins are you using?