This month, we take a look at the 500-Series EQ from BAE, the G10. Should you install one in your studio space? Find out below…
PROS: works flawlessly, adds great tone-shaping capabilities to your recording setup.
CONS: maybe a little pricey.
PRICE: $850
OK, we’re officially on the 500-series bandwagon. Took us long enough, but now that we drank the Kool Aid, we can fully appreciate things like the BAE G10 graphic eq. For those unfamiliar with the 500 (or lunchbox) format, it basically enables you to mix and match small modules that each do one specific task. Which, in turn, enables you to customize a recording rig with cool gear taken from much more expensive boards and channel strips, at a much lower cost and footprint.
The BAE G10 offers up the ability to shape your sound during mixing and mastering with a transformer-based signal path and a 2520 style op-amp (just like us Americans love!) The 10 bands are all musical, which we totally dig. Cut here, boost there, and see what works for your particular mix. Each time we moved a fader, smiles lit up all around because of smooth nature of what we could instantly hear being sculpted. With 12 dB of boost or cut for each notch, you really have a wonderful amount of control over each frequency range with just a small nudge of the slider. (and for the tech heads keeping score at home, those boosts/cuts occur at 31 Hz, 63 Hz,125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 4 kHz, 8 kHz, and 16 kHz).
You’ve even got switchable hi and low pass filters (80 Hz and 12 kHz, in case you’re curious), for even greater control over what you want (or don’t want) entering your mix. These are accessible on the front panel with small pushbuttons. We like that, because we’ve seen a number of switches and buttons located on rear panels, which is really annoying in a dark studio, or when space is cramped and you can’t physically turn an installed unit around to access the back panel.
Build quality is fantastic (much like the other BAE gear we’ve tested hands-on in the past), so we’re really hard pressed to come up with any complaints. Yeah, it’s a tad pricey, but considering all it has to offer, if you’re really planning to invest in a 500-series rig for your studio, this is one module to seriously consider adding to your arsenal.