Description
Bob Orban is one of the unsung heroes of recording & broadcasting. His products are in use all over the world and have been for around forty years. Orban is not as well-known in the UK as in the USA but, in the 80s and 90s, plenty of UK studios had an Orban De-esser, compressor or – if they were lucky – an equaliser. They’re not flashy or high-tech, but they’re flexible, accurate & sound great. They definitely have mojo!
Orban products were aimed primarily at the broadcast industry but found favour in recording studios. The things they bring from the broadcast environment – great build quality, modular construction and attention to detail – make them ideal in a studio environment
The Orban 621B predates the 622B and has an external power supply. It doesn’t have the individual EQ band in/out switches of the 622 but is otherwise very similar
The 621B is a two-channel device in a shallow 2U box. It’s a four-band parametric equaliser with bypass switch, input gain trim, overload LED and EQ controls for each channel. Each band has frequency, Q & boost / cut controls. There’s plenty of overlap between the EQ bands so it’s a very flexible tool
Controls for channel A (repeat for channel B)
- Input attenuator
- Peak LED
- Channel bypass switch
- Band 1 frequency control
- Band 1 Q control
- Band 1 boost & cut control
- Band 2 frequency control
- Band 2 Q control
- Band 2 boost & cut control
- Band 3 frequency control
- Band 3 Q control
- Band 3 boost & cut control
- Band 4 frequency control
- Band 4 Q control
- Band 4 boost & cut control
A few quotes from Gearslutz, some of which are for the 622B:
“Not really clean, they are more of a fun coloured beast. In a tracking or recording situation they can be great”
“They are full of character. These guys were designed for broadcasting, that’s where I first used one. Loved the EQ curves so much, I got one when I started mastering. It’s truly a poor mans GML”
“I had a bit of use years ago with both a 621B and 622B – certainly lots of vibe”
“I really liked their old blue faced parametric EQ’s (like the 622)…wish I still had access to them. Built to last…”
“These things are extremely underrated as EQ’s and sound great. I was a big fan of it on drums especially”
“It’s a pretty cool EQ that’s great for control over low end stuff like kick, toms, bass, tuba or bari sax etc. pretty good with anything else. I also dig that each band is bypassable”
“I still got 2 Orban 622Bs and use them mostly for peaky stuff like drums and percussion. I don’t like them too much on guitars or more RMS signals, but on drums they still kick butt. I’ll keep mine for a while. Of course now the new EQ-2NV is majorly kicking butt and mostly gets the cake over the Orbans, but the 622s are still a good EQ to have around” – M Wagener, 2004
“I would describe the sound as semi-colored and “grabby”… which I’m liking on drums”
“Those Orban are tremendously cool tools 8)”
The 621B was found in some of the best US & UK studios. A&M Studio s in Hollywood had 621B and 622B EQs in November 1997, according to Mel Lambert. Sunset Sound still has them in 2016
Sonically, the 621 is warm, like an old console channel equaliser. It reminds me of the very wonderful Klein & Hummel UE400 mastering EQ. Both are fully parametric equalisers but the K & H is bland when compared with the Orban. The Klein & Hummel is super-clean – as you’d expect from a mastering EQ – but the Orban has more character and a ton more mojo
This is an early 621B with an external power supply. The 621B was sold without power supply – presumably for radio station use where DC supplies were ubiquitous – but this one has an original Orban external PSU which fits to the back of the EQ. Internally it’s just like the power supply for the 622B (see my other auctions) and has been switched to use UK 220 Volt power
The 621B has the original pale blue front panel, grey knobs and bypass toggle switches. All parts look to be original. I have made up a set of short pigtails with Neutrik XLRs and will include them with the equaliser