Description
Bob Orban is one of the unsung heroes of recording & broadcasting. For more than forty years his products have been in use in studios around the world and the company is still active and developing new gear
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 622B equaliser is a two-channel device in a compact, heavy 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 plus an in / out switch so individual bands can be switched in or out for comparison purposes. There’s plenty of overlap between bands so it’s a very flexible EQ
Channel A controls (repeat for channel B)
- Input attenuator
- Peak LED
- Channel bypass switch
- Band 1 bypass switch
- Band 1 frequency control
- Band 1 Q control
- Band 1 boost & cut control
- Band 2 bypass switch
- Band 2 frequency control
- Band 2 Q control
- Band 2 boost & cut control
- Band 3 bypass switch
- Band 3 frequency control
- Band 3 Q control
- Band 3 boost & cut control
- Band 4 bypass switch
- Band 4 frequency control
- Band 4 Q control
- Band 4 boost & cut control
Sonically, the 622 is warm, like an old console channel equaliser, but with more flexibility. It reminds me of the very wonderful Klein & Hummel UE400 mastering EQ – both are fully parametric equalisers and both have in / out switches for each band – but the K & H is bland next to the Orban. The K & H is super-clean, as you’d expect from a mastering EQ, whereas the 622B has more character and a ton more mojo
Many describe the 622 as “The Poor Man’s GML 8200”. Turn it around, and call the GML the rich man’s 622B, and I think you have a fairer description
A few quotes from Gearslutz:
“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 personally prefer the 622. It has more character. I find that its great for electric guitars”
“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
“Mine has the output transformers (do all “B” models have output transformers?), and I would describe the sound as semi-colored and “grabby”… which I’m liking on drums”
“The thing I like about the 622 is that each band is bypassable. You can really hear what each band is doing, or only use one band if you please”
“622b is very colorful (in a nice way) and it has been a workhorse here on my studio, specially on kick, bass and smoothing out problematic singers”
This is an early 622B from the 1970s with the original pale blue front panel, grey knobs, bypass switches with white plastic sleeves and a white plastic toggle power switch. All parts look to be original
An input / output loom with Mogami mic cable and Neutrik XLR connectors is available as an option
