Review: Poseidon EQ plugin by Pulsar Audio

NoiseQuest’s Josh Turvey is back with a review of Pulsar Audio’s most recent plugin modeled after a rare and mythic console: Poseidon.

Summary

‘Poseidon’ is an exceptional recreation of the iconic ‘Trident A Range’ console’s EQ section. It successfully pays homage to the original unit by capturing its essence, whilst updating it with features that are essential for modern workflows.

Pros:

Incredible analog EQ emulation.
Well-designed interface with excellent visual feedback to suit modern sensibilities.
Excellent implementation of thoughtful features that provide deep control for the user.
Independent control for the mid/side routing, saturation amount, and oversampling.
In-built tips provide useful information to help new users get acquainted with the plugin.

Cons:

Given the quality of the presets and the two saturation algorithms, more options in both categories would be a welcome addition.

Intro

‘Trident’. There are few names in professional audio that better capture the spirit of British Rock’s golden-age. Standing alongside Neve and Helios, these three, legendary innovators helped shape the sound of an iconic era, stamping an influence on the music industry that has reverberated through to the present day. Originally launched as a recording studio in 1967, Trident built a strong reputation by crafting albums for artists such as: The Beatles, Marc Bolan, Queen, David Bowie and Elton John, thus leading to the studio becoming a household name in London’s music scene.

Under the guidance of Malcom Toft, the studio developed the ‘Trident A Range’ console in the early 1970s to accommodate the then, newly created 24-track recording machine. Famed for its incredible preamps and its colourful EQ that could be pushed into saturation, the console quickly garnered strong interest within the music industry. Despite growing demand, Trident only ever built thirteen more units, its rarity adding to the mystique of its growing reputation.

Throughout its illustrious history, the console’s exclusivity and impeccable craftsmanship has attracted an elite alumni of artistic talent, thus leading to the creation of the many iconic albums that have solidified its now legendary status.

With the release of ‘Poseidon’, Pulsar Audio are contributing to this heritage, faithfully capturing the sonic traits of the ‘Trident A Range’, whilst also making some thoughtful additions that update the plugin for modern sensibilities. The result is a meticulous and feature-rich recreation that sets ‘Poseidon’ apart from its peers.

Design & Features

Users familiar with the ‘Trident A Range’ console and its emulations will immediately notice that Pulsar Audio have swapped the iconic, plum finish of the original design for an ocean blue; mostly likely to better suit the name ‘Poseidon’ – the ancient Greek god of seas and storms, who has been depicted carrying a trident throughout history.

Colour changes aside, the most striking addition to ‘Poseidon’s’ design is undoubtedly the visual display of the EQ section (see image above). Occupying the majority of the plugin’s real estate, this panel provides visual feedback of the EQ curve, offering valuable insight into the ‘Trident A Range’s’ famously quirky curves, which can interact in surprising ways when combined together. This is a fresh approach to emulating vintage gear, and it’s a standout feature seen across Pulsar Audio’s product range, offering a glimpse behind the curtain of the original console and demystifying the esoteric, inner-workings of the EQ section. Bolstered by the useful addition of the spectrum analysis and metering tools, this panel is both functional and informative.

In addition to its musical filters, the ‘Trident A Range’ is famous for its ability to distort incoming signals – provided that the original audio is loud enough, and that the relevant bands (see image below) are sufficiently boosted. ‘Poseidon’ offers the user greater control over this feature through the addition of a ‘Drive’ control (see image above). Two different saturation algorithms are provided for timbral variety; the first is based on the original design and provides a softer saturation, whilst the second has been created by Pulsar Audio to add more aggression. The ‘Dive’ function works in conjunction with the ‘Output Transformers’ (last image below), and it is also possible to saturate incoming audio without boosting the EQ bands at all, allowing the user to deploy ‘Poseidon’ purely as a tone box, which can sound excellent on a variety of sources.

The EQ section shown above, is straightforward and easy to understand – especially with the aid of the EQ curve analyser discussed at the beginning of this section. The High and Low Pass filters are placed at the left and right extremities of the panel, with the four main bands positioned in the centre of the interface. Users can select the relevant frequency with the potentiometers and boost or cut the gain with the corresponding slider.

Pulsar Audio have added Mid/Side functionality (located above the gain sliders), allowing for the independent routing of each band. This greatly expands upon the original’s capability, updating it for modern use-cases by allowing the user to EQ the Mids and Sides separately. This is particularly useful for focussing the low end and enhancing the stereo width of the original signal. As a final note on this section; ‘Poseidon’ uses ‘Smooth’ interpolation to move between the different frequency, gain and filter values. Should the user want to mimic the behaviour of the original unit, ‘Stepped’ interpolation can be turned on in the settings menu for a more authentic experience.

The ‘Output Transformer’ (see image above) works in tandem with the ‘Drive’ control, subtly warming low frequencies. Once again, two algorithms are available to choose from. The EQ ‘Scale’ feature is a fantastic addition that controls the overall depth of the EQ’s gain sliders. Its inclusion is an excellent failsafe for users who deploy aggressive EQ boosts and cuts, allowing them to simply dial back the influence of the EQ if it’s too pronounced. Notably, this is also a brilliant control to automate for creative applications. ‘Auto Gain’ is another welcome update to the original design. When engaged, this maintains a consistent output level so that the user isn’t fooled by the loudness deception when making adjustments to the EQ bands and the saturation amount.

In addition to some of the standout features discussed above, ‘Poseidon’ contains multiple, workhorse functions that can greatly improve the user experience, some of which are briefly discussed below:

Oversampling: This can be set by the user and is extremely useful when applying saturation.
Alternatives: A/B testing is essential for comparing different plugin settings on the same source material, allowing the user to compare ideas.
Parameter Locking: Each parameter can be locked, preventing it from changing when scrolling through different presets. This can be useful when experimenting with different settings.
Info Text: When engaged, useful info is provided when hovering the cursor on each parameter.
GUI Resizing: The plugin can be seamlessly resized to fit any screen.
Undo/Redo: Users can make changes with confidence, knowing that they can easily recall them.
Layout Options: The plugin provides multiple views so that users can interact with it however they choose.

In Use

‘Poseidon’ is a highly accessible plugin that can be used to EQ a wide range of audio sources, such as: Drums, Bass, Guitars, Synths and Vocals. Though its limited number of EQ bands restrict it from excelling at precise and detailed corrective work, it is highly adept as a character EQ, especially when using the ‘Drive’ control to add colour and texture to the source audio. Additionally, the smooth nature of its EQ bands makes it an excellent choice for broad, wholesale changes, which is particularly true when placing ’Poseidon’ on Group Busses or across the whole mix. Here, the independent Mid/Side functionality of each band maximises its potential, allowing the user to shape the audio in ways not possible with the original hardware.

To help myself get better acquainted with ‘Poseidon’, I used the following top-down approach outlined below:

Insert ‘Poseidon’ on the Master Bus of the project.
As a starting point, choose a preset designed for the master channel (e.g. Master – Mixbus Opener).
Enable ‘Auto Gain’ and crank up the ‘Drive’ control to change the character of the signal. Experiment with the different saturation algorithms in the drive and output transformer sections, listening to the timbral variations.
Study the EQ bands on the EQ Curve display and on the EQ panel. Sweep the frequencies around and experiment with different combinations of boosts and cuts using the gain slider. Pay attention to the unique interactions between the filters and EQ bands. This behaviour is a standout characteristic of the original ‘Trident A Range’ console.
Explore the Mid/Side capability of each band by changing their routing, which can be done directly on the EQ Curve display or on the EQ panel.
Use the EQ ‘Scaling’ control to dial back the overall effect of the EQ. This is a quick method to hear the impact of the changes you’ve made.
Copy the current plugin settings to the second alternative using the ‘A/B’ switch. This ensures that you can compare differences without losing any settings.
If you want to explore other presets, right-click any parameters that you want to preserve and select ‘Lock Parameter’. This allows you to cycle through different presets whilst maintaining your favourite settings.
Once you’re happy with the settings on your Master Bus, start the above process again, this time applying the steps to the Group Busses, and gradually working your way down to the individual channels.

Conclusion

By capturing the sonic character associated with the ‘Trident A Range’ console and augmenting it with essential modern features, ‘Poseidon’ leans into the strengths of both the analog and digital domains with purpose and intent. Its blend of classic-meets-reimagined features represents the benchmark of what analog emulations can strive to be, thereby adding another exceptional plugin to Pulsar Audio’s growing catalogue of vintage recreations.

Whether you’re new to the ‘Trident A Range’ (and/or the various emulations), or an experienced user, ‘Poseidon’ is designed in such a way that makes it easy to integrate with your existing workflow. This accessibility, combined with its exceptional audio quality, naturally suits a wide range of musical genres and production tasks, thus making it an excellent addition to the arsenal of any producer searching for an exceptionally smooth EQ with attitude and character.

Technical Info

Simple download and installation process. Important to note that activation of the licence is achieved by adding the licence to your free iLok account. No iLok dongle is necessary.
Mac & PC are both supported, with options for VST, VST3, AU and AAX.
Excellent manual. Features all the technical information, as well as a brief history about the original hardware.
CPU usage varies depending on the the number of instances used throughout the project. Moderate to heavy when using Oversampling.

Alternatives

Pre TridA (Arturia)
Trident A-Range (Softube)
Trident A-Range Classic Console EQ (UAD)

Poseidon is available to purchase for $99 USD at Pulsar Audio and from distributor Plugin Boutique, and a free 14-day full-feature trial version is available to download to demo the plugin.

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