Nomad Factory Retro Film-Tone Equalizer

The Nomad Factory Retro Film-Tone Equalizer is one of two plug-ins that makes up the Motown Studio EQ's bundle. Also in the bundle is the Retro Music-Tone Equalizer. The two plug-ins really go together as they each have fixed frequencies that differ from the other, so stacking the two of them together is almost always going to be beneficial. I don't own this bundle as I've just used it a bit at the studio where I work, where it's installed on most of the systems here. Users will definitely be quick to learn how to use the plug-in, as it really doesn't get any easier. The interface is simply made up of seven bands of EQ, each with their own preset fixed frequency. On here they give you frequencies of 50 Hz, 200 Hz, 500 Hz, 1250 Hz, 3200 Hz, 8000 Hz, and 16000 Hz to choose from. The other plug-in in the bundle, the Music-Tone EQ, has frequencies in between each of these, with no direct overlap. The plug-in also gives you control over your output level and has a button for phase reverse as well. I can't see anyone needing the help of a manual with this one...

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The studio I work at is currently running the Nomad Factory Retro Film-Tone Equalizer plug-in and the full bundle on all of our systems, which are all Pro Tools HD. Our main room has a MacPro desktop computer that has dual 2.66 Ghz Intel Xeon processors and 10 GB of RAM. To give you an idea, our next room is an Apple G5 Power PC that has 8.5 GB of RAM and a 3.2 Ghz processor. This is really just to say that we're more than equipped with the ability to run this plug-in without issues.

OVERALL OPINION

While it can be useful, in general I'm not a huge fan of the Nomad Factory Retro Film-Tone Equalizer. I understand that it's to be used with the other plug-in in the bundle, the Music-Tone Equalizer, but even so I'm not that impressed. URS has basically what is the same bundle - EQ's modeled after the Motown EQ's - but I prefer their incarnation of it much more. Nomad Factory's Motown Studio EQ's bundle sounds decent, but not great and doesn't add nearly as much color as you'd expect with something like this. If you're thinking about purchasing this bundle, I'd highly encourage you to check out the URS MotorCity EQ bundle before doing so.