Audio equalization first came in to play in the 1920’s for radio broadcasting through the form of large chunky units with set frequency bands that could be adjusted to the broadcaster’s liking. At the time, the RCA 8B equalizer was the standard, which ended up being utilised by mixing engineers and music producers in the following couple decades.
In 1955, the Pultec EQP-1A was released, a unit that offered a similar effect, though with an increased amount of flexibility and a unique tone and subtle distortion that came from the amplifier in the system. This piece of equipment is still used today for its warm, musical sound and has been emulated my many plugin companies such as Waves and UAD (The UAD Pultec emulations are some of my most frequently used plugins, in fact).
Over the period of the 50s to the 70’s, it started to become common practice for equalizers to be built in to mixing desks, marking the start of an entirely new workflow that is still dominant in studio settings today. This ushered in the era of Neve and SSL equalizers that are also commonly sought after today for their unique tones and characteristics.
The next big leap in EQ technology was in the 70’s, when parametric EQ’s came in to fashion. These equalizers allowed for the ability to adjust the frequency bands with a precision previously unfathomable, allowing for precise, surgical corrective and creative usage. This is still an extremely common form of equalization for the flexibility it provides.
In the 1980’s, digital equalization became a new form of technology in the studio that was both more accessible to a wider audience as well as more flexible and clean than its predecessors. In the current day, digital EQ is the most common form of equalization due to its accessibility only increasing over time, as well as its capacity to recreate many different styles of EQ.
That being said, the older forms of equalization never died out, as each era and unit have their own unique characteristics that make them sought after to this day, with most mixing engineers either paying incredible amounts for older gear or using VST emulations of them in the DAW.
I feel that having an understanding of the history of EQ and what made each era and unit special has helped me to cater the types of EQ that I use for the type of sound I want for a song. For example, using the Pultec EQ on low end gives me a tone that I love when compared to a less characteristic digital EQ such as Fabfilter’s Pro-Q 3, however, if I were looking to attenuate a specific frequency that was poking out, the Pro-Q 3 would always be my go to due to its capacity for surgical equalization.
Sources:
https://blackroosteraudio.com/en/blogreader/a-brief-history-of-equalization
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