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
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 ideally-suited to the studio environment
The 642B is one of the later Orban equalisers and differs in construction & control layout to earlier models like the 621 and 622B. The 642B has a dedicated circuit board for each band. It’s a simpler unit to service & maintain but draws on the experience gained with the earlier models
Each channel has separate controls and there’s a Cascade switch to turn the unit into an 8-band mono equaliser. Each EQ band and filter has a separate bypass switch and there’s a per-channel EQ bypass. These bypass switches make with / without EQ comparisons quick & easy and it’s a feature that is hard to live without once you’ve used it
The 642B has coarse & fine frequency pots for each band. This is a neat idea, one I’ve not come across before. Each band has a wide frequency range so the ability to fine-tune the centre frequency is most welcome. They have a wide range of filter bandwidth or Q, from extremely broad sweeps to a notch filter response so, with the ability to fine-tune the frequency and up to 40 dB of cut, it’s possible to notch out a whistle or boost a narrow frequency band
Controls for channel A (repeat for channel B)
- Input level control
- Overload LED
- Master EQ in / out switch
- Low pass filter in / out switch
- Low pass filter cut-off frequency
- High pass frequency in / out switch
- High pass filter cut-off frequency
- Band 1 coarse frequency control
- Band 1 fine frequency control
- Band 1 Q control
- Band 1 boost & cut control
- Band 1 in / out switch
(repeat for bands 2-4)
A few tech details:
- Each band tunes over a 20:1 frequency range and bands overlap significantly
- Q is variable from 0.29 to 5.0 approx
- Low pass filter is 12 db / octave and high pass, 18 db / octave
- Maximum boost is 16 dB, max cut is 40 dB
- Noise & distortion figures significantly better than 16-Bit digital
Quotes from Gearslutz:
“Had a black-faced 642B for some time… Wish I still had it. Not an “everyday” unit by any stretch, but wonderful when you needed it”
“I have one and I like it a lot. Decent filters, cascade function, pretty tight bottom”
“i have a 642b which i love… its got some great color on it. and easy to dial in for sure”
“I currently have a 642b that is fun and useful”
