Tracking and Mixing Console Equalizer
Software Review
Love or hate it…
EQ and filter units often have a tendency to divide people into groups. In the case of the PSP Datamix A567 from Polish software developers PSP Audioware, this is especially true. The developers have even gone so far as to warn users in advance: “You’ll either love this plug-in or you’ll really hate it.” No wonder I was really curious.
Eddie Kramer…
Eddie Kramer, or Edwin H. Kramer as he is actually called, is currently based in Canada, but he originally hails from South Africa. He has made a name for himself as a recording engineer and producer, and as such he has worked with artists such as Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the Kinks, Kiss, John Mellencamp as well as Carlos Santana. He has also contributed his expertise to the recording of soundtracks for films such as Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight, Jimi Plays Monterey, Live at the Fillmore East, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Rainbow Bridge, The Song Remains the Same and Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack, plus many more.
Eddie Kramer moved to London at the age of 19 after his parents moved there from Cape Town a few months earlier, largely because they could not stand the Apartheid regime in South Africa. In his homeland, Eddie had studied piano from the age of four and he had also taken both violin and cello lessons. In London, he quickly became involved in the music scene and already in 1962 he got his first job at a recording studio. Soon he had worked as a technician on recordings with both the Kinks, the Searchers and Sammy David Jr. He also had the honor of recording two tracks with the Beatles: ”All You Need Is Love” and ”Baby You’re a Rich Man”. Both of these tracks were recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, and there he later found the opportunity to record both the Rolling Stones, Small Faces, Traffic and Jimi Hendrix.
Electric Lady Studios
With Hendrix, Kramer recorded no less than four albums, the last one at The Record Plant in New York, where he moved in 1968. He was also very involved in the construction of Hendrix’s studio Electric Lady Studios. A construction that cost, at the time a somewhat unimaginable 1 million dollars, and where we also found one of the very few mixing desks from Datamix. Initially, two Datamix desks had been ordered, but only one of them was completed – and barely – before the company behind the mixing desks went bankrupt. With the help of technicians at Electric Lady, the first desk was saved and eventually the second Datamix desk was also built, but this took several months.
Sadly enough, Hendrix passed away only a couple of weeks before the studio could be inaugurated, but during the last four weeks of his life, he and Kramer were able to record some new songs, overdub existing material and mix the album The Cry Of Love, which was then released posthumously after Hendrix’s death.
Eddie Kramer has been active as a technician and producer well into the 21st century, and he is also a renowned photographer with exhibitions where he has shown pictures of both Hendrix and a number of other top-class artists. And of course, he is one of those who really loves the PSP Datamix A567. He even contributes with some of his own presets.
He says this about his experiences:
”In today’s market, it’s great having the Datamix mic pre and equalizer available to use on contemporary Pop/Rock, R&B, Hip Hop, Metal – where every producer/engineer is looking for something different. This is the weapon of choice!”
PSP Datamix A567
But back to today’s topic…
The PSP Datamix A567 is a software-modeled version of the preamp and EQ unit from the first generation Datamix mixing console. PSP Audioware has used no less than eight different filter modules from the original console that was sitting in the Record Plant studio. This is thanks to a certain Adam Piskorz, who was willing to lend them the modules. I’ve read about other single filter units from these consoles being out and about, but to be able to lay their hands on eight units of these classics must have been a gift from above.
Well, one of PSP’s founders, Antoni Ożyński, is known to have admitted that he didn’t know much about Datamix consoles. It was only when Adam Piskorz told him about the amazing preamp and filter units and how they had helped shape the sound of many of the classic records from the late 60’s that the PSP people really got going.
I have to admit that I also knew very little about Datamix when I started looking into this plug-in. If you search Google for the name, you actually get hits advertising wet feeding systems for pigs, so it’s perhaps not surprising that some of us have lived in blissful ignorance about these interesting electronic modules.
One of the two consoles from Electric Lady is now said to be at the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, and some of the other surviving mixing consoles have been taken apart and “looted” at high prices, mainly for the very special filter parts. No complete example of the Datamix consoles have survived today, so if you want to access the special Datamix sound, there is now really only the PSP Datamix A567 as a way out for those who have not managed to get hold of a module from one of the original consoles.
The eight units that PSP used come from the console at Record Plant studios, and a great deal of care has been put into making the software so that it really does the classic hardware full justice.
Hard work lies behind…
PSP Audioware has previously collaborated with Avedis Audio Electronics, the company behind Datamix. That time it was a different EQ plug: PSP E27 Avedis. This time the developers at PSP Audioware have really worked hard to emulate how the mic pre and filter section of the Datamix units affects an audio signal down to the smallest component. One of the special features of the filters in the original consoles was that the three filter-bands behaved differently depending on which frequencies you chose to affect, whether you wanted to cut or boost a certain frequency, and so on.
At first glance, the filters do look fairly simple. Three bands – Low, Mid and High – with a switch for each band, a large knob where you choose how much you want to affect the frequency band, and outside this another knob – with stepped positions where you choose which frequency you want to affect. Below the knobs you can read the frequencies that were in the originals – 240, 120, 60, and 30 Hz for the bass register; 0.5, 0.8, 1.3 and 2 kHz for the mid-range register and finally 4, 8 or 10 kHz for the High register. Here, however, PSP has chosen to add a few more frequencies between those given from the original modules. When you select these intermediate positions, the frequencies are still shown with blue numbers, so that you know where you are.
Below these knobs you find a row of buttons. Eight of them represent the eight different filter modules that PSP analyzed. They all sound slightly different, just like in real life. A button with a µ indicates an average value from all the modules, whereas with the button marked with # you get an ideal value instead, which gives exactly the values that all the numbers indicate.
The Variation fader allows you to adjust differences between the left and right channels of the filters. Alt Q gives you the ability to boost or cut given frequencies without affecting the Q value of the filters. In the originals – and with the usual settings in this plug-in – the bandwidth/Q value of the filters becomes narrower at more extreme filter adjustments. The last button, Sharp, can give different emphasized resonances, especially in the upper frequency range.
Tracking and Mixing Console Equalizer
The original consoles were equipped with transformers, and this has also been simulated in the software. A Drive control on the input can give a good portion of analog “preamp saturation” in the sound, and at full throttle (+30 dB) we do get a lot of really fat distortion, for those situations where you need it. With the Output knob you can simulate how a transformer might affect the sound, but you can of course also compensate for any level differences that may arise in the signal chain.
And then there was the matter of how the filters affect the audio signal… All three filters have a so-called “peaking bell” curve when “boosted”. When cutting frequencies, the Low filter has a peaking curve down to 85 Hz; below this frequency it becomes a shelving filter instead. The Mid filter on the other hand gives a notch curve when cutting, and the High filter acts as shelving at all frequencies. Together with all the other inherent functions of the datamix 567, this means that you have really incredible possibilities to affect the sound, and – above all – give it a really nice analog feel.
This sounds very interesting
The PSP Datamix A567 is designed so that the filter section almost never sounds completely neutral. That was not the intention of the Datamix consoles’ EQ section either.
If you look at a frequency curve, you see that even if you don’t use any of the three band filters, the sound is affected solely by the plug being connected to the signal chain – this is also said to be a characteristic from the original consoles.
The developers themselves say that you either love this sound or you hate it. Personally, I find it extremely difficult to understand how anyone could hate software that sounds so wonderfully and imprudently fat, warm and analog!
To top it all off, PSP Datamix A567 offers over a hundred presets created by a variety of heavyweights in the audio industry, including some really useful settings from Eddie Kramer himself. As we have previously pointed out, he has expressed his strong approval of this plug-in.
Summary
The PSP Datamix A567 is somewhat of an odd bird in the audio world. Where there are now a lot of EQ plugins that can be used for recording, mastering, and God-knows-what, PSP Audioware instead niches itself much more strictly with the Datamix plugin. It is supposed to exactly mimic the sound of the preamp stages and the filter section of another odd bird, this time from the late 60´s, the Datamix console. This is a mixing console that was designed by Bill Stoddard and only a few copies were produced before the company behind the console was forced to go bankrupt. Thankfully, Adam Piskorz managed to get hold of eight (!) of these strips and he kindly enough offered to lend them to Antoni Ożyński and the other technicians at PSP Audioware.
The developers have done a fantastic job of emulating these devices down to the smallest component, and they have also added some features that were not available on the Datamix console itself.
The PSP Datamix A567 does not claim to sound neutral – quite the opposite! As soon as you connect the plugin, you hear how the sound takes on a different, and in my opinion much more pleasant, character. Then you start twiddling all the available knobs and buttons, and this time it is more or less a heaven for all lovers of analog warmth, or whatever you want to call it.
As the developers themselves say: “You either love or hate this plugin.” At least I know which side I am on. I absolutely looove the PSP Datamix A567! Try this plugin! You have 30 days to decide, and there is definitely no need for a week of regret.
Here is a short video showing what you can achieve with the PSP Datamix A567:
System Requirements
An iLok account is required for both the trial and the full version; 3 licenses can be freely distributed between different computers or iLok dongles (2nd generation or newer)
PC
VST, VST3 and AAX
Windows 7 – Windows 11 (64-bit support only)
macOS Intel or macOS Silicon
AudioUnit, VST, VST3 and AAX
macOSX 10.14 Mojave – macOS 15 Sequoia (64-bit support only)
All DAW-apps
The latest version of iLok License Manager
DEVELOPERS PSP Audioware
INFO www.pspaudioware.com
PRICE 149 US dollars; there’s a 30-day trial version available
