Aurora Audio GT4-8

8 channels of pure Class A "type 1081" 4 band Eqalizer

Features

8 channels of pure Class A 4-band EQ
High Pass Filter: 22hz, 47hz, 82hz, 150hz, 270hz
Low Pass Filter: 18khz, 12khz, 8.2khz, 5.6khz, 3.8khz
Low Shelf: 33hz, 55hz, 100hz, 180hz, 330hz
switchable +/- 8dB or +/- 18db
Low Mids: 100hz, 140hz, 200hz, 300hz, 400hz, 500hz, 530hz, 800hz, 1khz, 1.4khz, off.
bell types: narrow, mid, wide
High Mids: 2khz, 2.5khz, 3.2khz, 4khz, 5khz, 6.3khz, 7khz, 8khz, 10khz, 12khz, off.
bell types: narrow, mid, wide
High Shelf: 3.3khz, 4.7khz, 6.8khz, 10khz, 15khz
switchable +/- 8dB or +/- 18db
Bypass Switch per channel

€ 9750,00

Price excl. VAT
excl. shipping

General

We regard the Aurora GT4 to be one of the most outstanding stereo EQ’s on the market.
As with most Aurora designs it’s truly unique features won’t catch the eye on first glimpse.
It offers 4 bands with a total of 30 different frequencies to chose from, ranging from 33Hz to 15kHz. So far so good.
The two outer bands are shelfs, the two mid bands are bells with selectable width. Pretty common.
And this is were commonness ends:
It’s the GT4 raw and and incredible power that sets it apart from its competitors.
Try boosting low end on bass drum or bass – you won’t believe your ears. (watch out you speakers, btw…)
Until hearing the GT4 you would have never thought it possible to add so much buttom end – and at the same time retaining such a tight low end.
Use the high shelf to breath life into a weak and dull recording – you will be reminded of the “presence knob” of a well kept vintage Marshall guitar amp rather than an ordinairy line level EQ.
For extreme effects set the switch on the shelfs to gain position +/-18 dB and just turn that pot till the deadest duck beomes a monstruous biest.
Yes, the GT4 can also perform surgical work. But most EQ’s can do that, for better or worse.
But the GT4 is the unit you will insert when there’s real work to be done, when no plugin and no other hardware will suffice.
That’s why you will unvariably patch your GT4 first and foremost once you have one in your rack.

Links:

http://auroraaudio.net/products/outboard/gt4-8trs

History

When Geoff Tanner set out to design the Auroa GT4 EQ some things were clear from the start.
Not only had Geoff been one of the head designers at the Neve plant in it’s golden 70s heydays,
had overseen the development of the 1073 Preamp and EQ and had designed the timelessly popular Neve 33609 bus compressor, he had also had his decisive hand in the birth of yet another timeless legend of audio:
The Neve 1081 Preamp and EQ.
Yet when Geoff – some 30 years later – decided to design a new EQ for his newly founded company he didnt go about to just copying the 1081. He could have easily done it – we dare say nobody on the planet knows its insides better than Geoff.
Not even did he try to develop something “in the style of” the 1081.
He merely used the 1081 as the benchmark he was going to surpass.
Hence some of the frequencies that Geoff decided on for his new design seem familiar.
Also the general sonic feel of the device, as well as the philosophy to use input and output transformers to get that typically British raw sound may be reminiscent of that most classic of all British channel EQ’s.
What Geoff finally came up with – to our taste – is possibly the most powerful EQ of the day, and do take that “power-full” literally.
The GT4 is not a pocket knife.
If anything it’s a sledgehammer.

dB says

I have two GT4-2′s in my rack.
Obviously they are my goto tools for recording elemental stuff like BD and SN, or anything else that needs raw power, or weight or some razorblade shine.
My advice is not to be subtle here. Patch the GT4 on the mics that REALLY want treatment.
And dont go easy with that bass shelf.Twist it all the way you like. The unit will never ever produce the tiniest bit of overload artefacts, no matter how much level you send in and how much gain you might add with the bands.
Just make sure you dont blow your speakers as you fiddle about with that low end!!!
There’s not too much too worry there when tracking, cause whichever frequency you pull up something nice will happen.
You might find yourself boosting frequencies that you would usually be prone to taking out – but when it sounds good it’s right.
Best not to think about it too much. It’s particularly the mid frequencies, anywhere between 140hz and 1k that I find myself boosting frequently with this EQ. I will usually patch the GT4-2 onto the signals that need bigtime eq’ing, lesser for the cosmetic stuff.
I’m not worried about cosmetics these days when tracking. Actually there’s a ton of plugins that do the necessary cosmetics fairly nice and accurate. What you want for recording is something that can give you that “extra push over the cliff”, that no plugin can do just yet.

Mixing of course is a different story:
More often than not I will use one GT4-2 on Bass (that is D.I. and mic’d amp) and my second GT4-2 on the L-R chorus distortion guitars.
The GT4-2 is my very first choice for bass cause I cant think of any other EQ that handles the instrument so well.
The high pass frequencies are carefully selected, so in combination with the low shelf I can do that old trick of boosting bass and low-cutting at the same time to perfection – better and tighter than any Pultec would do. The result is also gonna be clearer and tighter, and add more grip than with a Pultec, original or fake.
Also I can use the low mid band for adding a “honk” around 800hz to better hear that bass, or give it more tone around 400 or more weight around 200 and under, depending on the arrangement of course and the available space in the spectrum.
The high mid band will be the one to bring out the distortion, or the pick, whichever, finally the high shelf will take care of the overall presence of the entire instrument.
That’s right: The high shelf is not quite what the name suggests. Well, in theory it is I guess but the effect is very different than from most shelf EQ’s.
The GT4-2 high shelf sounds – and acts – like a magnifying glass, like a presence knob. I have caught myself using that pot to placing an instrument further back or more up front in a mix, like finding it’s perfect position in a track. I think this is more effective than doing it with the actual volume fader cause it will create way more 3D-imaging that way.
When EQ’ing distortion guitars you will sure find that one high mid frequency that cuts through the track, at the same time you might counterbalance this effect with some low mids as well as defining the low end with a similar trick than with bass, just with higher frequencies.
And there we go again: When I’m happy with that guitar sound I will probably use the high shelf to find the final position of these guitars in my mix.
No other EQ that I have worked with offers me this admittedly rather peculiar feature.

PS: Dont forget to print your keys and pads through the GT4, the more so when they were done ITB.
With a tad of luck they will sound like the real analogue shit after the treat.