CARL SAFF: My name is Carl Saff. I run a business called Saff Mastering here in Chicago. I’ve been doing mastering on and off for the past eight years since about 2000, and I’ve been full time doing mastering for the past 18 months. The business started out as a part-time venture that I did in my spare time and has evolved into a full-time business, and I’m now happy to say I’m booking several weeks in advance. So, the business has really taken off in the last couple of years, and I’m excited to be doing the work.

The Millenia NSEQ-2 is a popular equalizer with mastering engineers although it was never intended to be a mastering EQ or at least it was designed with tracking and mixing in mind. And so it lacks some of the features that mastering EQs typically have liked switched frequency selection and you know, it’s not exactly an ideal tool when it comes time to log settings because it’s not precision in that regard, unlike say the Massive Passive where every frequency is switched and there’s no real question what frequency you’re boosting and cutting.

The frequency selection on the NSEQ-2 is a little bit -- it’s just -- it is just stepped and that means that you have to kind of guess what frequency you’re selecting and you have to really use your ears and make sure you’re selecting the right frequency because there’s really not a lot to tell you what you’re boosting or cutting.

But the nice thing about this particular unit is that it’s been modified by the original designer, who is Fred Forssell, and he -- The original NSEQ-2 is actually what they call a twin topology unit, which means that it has a solid state side, and it has with active circuitry, an then it’s got a tube side, a tube-powered side, so you get two different tones with the unit, switchable, which is great for tracking a mix in because you got a lot of colors to work with. But mastering engineers have grown to love the non-tube side of the unit much more than the tube side, and the tube side is generally considered to be not particularly useful for mastering engineers. And Fred Forssell is aware of that, and so he decided that what he would do is redesign the guts of the unit so that it was an even better solid state unit and just take the tube side out altogether.

So, he replaced the entire main board with a much better sounding transistor board, and so the tubes are out of this particular unit but the sound the unit is a notch above a standard NSEQ-2, and it’s an incredibly affordable upgrade considering the sonic benefits of the upgrade, so anyone that has an NSEQ-2 who’s using it for mastering should really get in touch with Fred and consider getting the upgrade because I don't know how much longer he’s going to be doing it, and I think it’s worth every penny.

And yeah it’s just a very, very nice sounding EQ especially in the extreme frequencies. I really like it for air band boosting at 20k or above, and I also like it in the 100 and then sub range into like 56 and the 30s and the 20s. It sounds really good in those ranges. Not often a lot going on up there, and not a lot of big boosts or cuts but it does those ranges particularly well. It does them all very well but I particularly like it for those ranges and I use it often as an air band EQ to just add that little bit of opening up or sheen on the very top end on something that’s a little bit on the dull side. And it sounds good in the stock unit in those frequencies but it sounds even better in the modification, and it’s worth, as I say, every penny to get that modification.