I have three other tilt-style EQ plug-ins that I have yet used because they don't add much to the sound apart from their EQ. Now that I have Softube's Tonelux Tilt EQ, I've got something that makes a difference immediately and I know why. First of all are the frequency choices and the specific curve shapes used and, secondly, the wonderful transformers in the original hardware unit are also fully modeled.

Tilt EQ extends its usefulness by including a switchable high and low pass filter section with fixed 6dB/octave for the LP and both 6 or 12dB/octave modes for the HP section. It's easy to modify on top of the tilt curve more precisely with the LP/HP sections. These features along with a polarity flip button make it my first choice for many jobs.

In my Pro Tools mixing, I find this plug-in great for its speed--I'll quickly set the amount of spectrum and energy a certain track takes up in the mix. A lot of the time, that is all a great sounding recording needs. For example a bright 'chicken-pickin' guitar need not take up too much of the low frequency space available or occupy too much of the super high frequencies either. A quick twist of Tonelux Tilt knob "slots" that guitar sound perfectly within the track and prevents it from interfering with the bass instrument(s) and the drums compromising the bottom end of the track.

For live sound use on Digidesign's Venue console, there is a second version of the plug-in called Tilt Live that is especially good for monitor mixing. The Output Gain control changes into a Boost Ceiling control that varies its curve appropriately when using either wedge speakers or in-ear monitoring. Tilt Live prevents feedback by never boosting--it adjusts the total spectral content without changing maximum gain.