Founded
Eugene Shenk and Ollie Summerlin open Pulse Techniques in Teaneck, New Jersey. Engineering, sales and production: two people.
Pulse Techniques — program equalizers
Built by hand since 1952. Unchanged for a reason.
Every unit is built to the original design specification, by hand, to order. These are not Pultec-style EQs.
Not All Outboard EQs are created equal..
Pultec is not a style. It is the company.
The name gets used as an adjective. Pulse Techniques is a company — founded in 1952, building the same circuit to the same specification, by hand, to order. These are the engineers running the real ones.
Warren Huart
Vance Powell
Tom Dumont
Stuart Hallerman
Ross Hogarth
Rafa Sardina
Peter Cobbin & Kirsty Whalley
Kim Rosen
Kathleen Wirt & Sejo Navajas
John Rzeznik & Chris Szczech
Jeffrey Norman
Jason Mraz
Jason Livermore
Jack Douglas
J.J. Blair
Greg Wells
Glenn Rosenstein & Rodney Hall, FAME Studio B
Geoff Gray
Eddie Kramer
Devin Powers
David Glasser
Dave Cobb
Clay Blair
Chris Lord-Alge
Brett Allen
Bob Clearmountain
Barry Rudolph
Allen Sides
Since 1952
The full history →The EQP-1A
The 3U program equalizer goes into production. Passive filter network, custom-wound transformers, tube makeup stage.
The EQP-1A3
Rearranged into 2U for crowded racks. The brochure put it plainly: same parts, same specs.
Production ends
After twenty-nine years, the bench goes quiet.
Reconstruction
Steve Jackson begins characterising the original circuit component by component, with Shenk's guidance. The work takes ten years.
TECnology Hall of Fame
The EQP-1 is inducted, alongside the microphone and the multitrack recorder.
Scroll
The Pultec trick
Boost and cut the same frequency. On purpose.
The boost is a shelf. The attenuator is also a shelf, but its corner sits higher up. Set both at 100 CPS and they do not cancel — the boost wins underneath, the attenuator is still pulling where the boost has run out, and the two combine into a lift below 400 cycles with a dip centred a decade above it. The low end gets bigger and tighter in the same move.
The same argument runs at the top. On its own the 5 KCS boost is a broad hump nearly four octaves wide. Bring the high shelf attenuator in against it and the hump is pared back to a narrow peak, with a shallow dip beneath and a hard roll-off above. Same boost, far more selective — which is why engineers reach for the attenuator when the top needs air rather than noise.
- Low shelf, boost and atten
- 20 · 30 · 60 · 100 CPS
- High peak boost
- 3 · 4 · 5 · 8 · 10 · 12 · 16 KCS
- High shelf atten
- 5 · 10 · 20 KCS
High shelf attenuator
Traced from Pulse Techniques' own Audio Precision measurements of an EQP-1A3.
From the bench
An occasional letter on what we are building
Production runs, circuit revisions, service notes, and the odd page from the archive. Written when there is something worth saying, which is not weekly.
No discounts, because there are none. Unsubscribe whenever you like.