A Session with the Regular John Recording BAX Stereo Mastering EQ

The Regular John Recording BAX Stereo Mastering EQ quite the nice tool for getting a total mix sounding right. There were some surprises with this EQ, that culminated into a very pleasant experience. One of the first things you notice about the unit (and shockingly so), is just how light it is. But then again, it’s not like a BAX EQ is all that complicated and requires a ton of transformers or other heavy components. The second thing is how straight forward the unit is.

The Regular John Recording BAX Stereo Mastering EQ offers three bands (Low, Mid, High), a Low Cut, and Bypass. The toggle switches for the left and right channel Bypasses are very solid. I like good chunky clicks – and you don’t just get that in the toggles, that is in the rotary pots as well! All three bands offer 6dB of cut and boost in half dB steps, and six selectable frequencies within each band. You have a big red LED upfront to let you know the unit is powered on, and XLR inputs and outputs on the back.

So now we get down to how it performs. Quite well in my opinion. It sounds just like it’s straight forward “no frills” design. It is clean. There is no character to the sound. Yet it is musical. There is a natural, but slightly smooth sound to it. You can boost the high end frequencies all the way up, and they still sound great. No harshness, distortion, or anything nasty. You can add thickness or reduce mud. You can smooth out the top, or add clarity and air. And, you can add punch or remove woofiness. With the settings I used on a groovy driven metal song, I found that it opened up the song quite nicely. The 2.5dB boost to 800Hz added meat to the guitars, while the 1.5dB boost to 60Hz gave a little definition to the foundation. The 3dB boost to 16kHz added air, and the overall Low Cut at 20Hz let the clarity through. Nothing here was about changing the sound, or creating a new sound. It was all about balancing, and opening things up. It was about making the song sound right. In that regard, the Regular John Recording BAX Stereo Mastering EQ did a fine job.