JDK R24 review

JDK R24 review

Let me start by saying this. I admit I had low expectations for the R24. With the majority of stereo EQ’s costing $2000-$2500 just how good could a $1000 stereo EQ be? So why did I purchase one? Glad you asked. There are only three stereo EQ’s on the market for $1000, Black Lion audio AM/CHA1, TL audio 5013, and the JDK R24. Why more companies haven’t tapped into the $1000 stereo EQ price point is a mystery to me. The AM/CHA1 has some frequencies missing I like to use, and the lack of customer support from tl audio knocked them out of the running. Sure I could contact dealers about the product but I like to know that if I have a question I can talk to the people who made the gear rather then the people who sell the gear. My emails to JDK were returned no later than 24 hours and were very helpful. Its always nice to know you will have good support for a product.

I went to Sweetwater’s Gearfest this year with the JDK R24 on the top of my wish list. When I arrived at JDK’s booth I was greeted by Jordan from API. They had the R20, R22, and R24 on display with a demo song running through them. I immediately grabbed the headphones and began turning knobs. My good friend Darius Lyles, owner of Heat Factory Studios in Memphis, made the trip with me and listened while I turned knobs on a second pair of headphones. In my opinion, the demo song was not doing the gear justice. I remember walking away telling Darius I wasn’t going to get it. He told me to sleep on it and come back day 2 and try it again. So that’s what I did. Day 2 of Gearfest I must of visited the API booth 6 times. In fact, I visited so many times Jordan ended up giving me a JDK T-shirt. He told me a lot about the EQ and the Sweetwater reps were bragging on it as well. The fact that it was on sale plus the background information I received from Jordan ( like pointing out the R24 uses the same transformer output as the API eq’s) I went ahead and purchased it. The ties to API didn’t hurt either. Who has ever said anything bad about an API eq?

I honestly thought I would be sending the R24 back. Being the gadget geek I am I wasn’t thrilled about the old school vintage design. I like shiny things with lights, but the look of the R24 really grew on me. For fun I called up Blackbird studios and rented one of the $2500 EQ’s I’d been hearing a lot about to do a shootout. Now the fun begins! Darius and I did not think the JDK stood a chance. We matched the EQ settings on both units and a/b’d them. The JDK sounded more polished and exciting, the other EQ sounded dark and dull. Round One to JDK. The same thing was repeated for 2 more mixes with the same results. JDK now up 3-0. For the final test we set both eq’s flat just to hear the tone of each unit. Same results, the JDK added a slight punch and presence, the other EQ was dull and dark. We even brought my wife in the studio who knew nothing about these EQ’s or their prices and a/b’d the mix for her.

She also chose the JDK. 4-0 unanimous victory for the R24! I kept the name of the other EQ anonymous because I did not want it to seem like I was tarnishing their brand or trying to down them. The sparkle you get from the high end of the R24 is very pleasing. The 4 bands ranging from 20hz to 20k make this a very versatile EQ. The controls are continuously variable not stepped.

So what don’t you get with the R24? There is no input or output trim, no shelf switch, Q control, and no individual band bypass. Are these deal breakers? For me absolutely not. If I need to trim the input or output, I do it before it hits the R24. As far as shelving I have not missed not having it. The R24 Q is wide, but the more you boost or cut the more narrow the Q becomes. This has not been a problem for me. Individual bypass is nice to have but even most of the $2500 EQ’s don’t have this feature. Not a big deal to me, I just move the knob back to zero if I want to hear that band flat. One feature the R24 has that is mostly found on a lot of high end gear is a hard bypass. This means you can pass audio through it with the unit powered off. To take advantage of the analog circuitry though you will need to power it on. Since purchasing the R24 it has lived on my mix buss and I have been extremely pleased with the results. It really polishes my mixes and gives them a more finished sound. Comparing the R24 to all my plugin eq’s (waves, softube, McDsp) the JDK just sounds better to my ears. Now no mix leaves my studio without running through the R24 first. For the price this EQ is a absolute steal. I emailed my Sweetwater rep the next day after we did the shootout and told him he would not be getting this EQ back. For my first outboard EQ the JDK R24 is excellent and I’m in love with it as you can tell. I look forward to more products from JDK and as well the possibility of the R22 as my next compressor.

For more info please visit www.jdkaudio.com

My Top 3 Affordable Plugin Bundles

Good plugins can greatly enhance your mixes. Of course not every one can afford some of the high price plugin bundles out today. So I’m going to share with you my top 3 affordable plugin bundles. While these bundles are affordable ($350 and less) plugin companies like Waves and McDsp run sales ALL the time, so you can end up getting them for less. I have never paid full price for a plugin bundle. I patiently wait for it go on sale. I strongly recommend going to these companies’ websites and signing up for their newsletters. This way you are always in the loop of when a sale occurs. It’s a good idea to follow them on Twitter and Facebook as well. Now to the bundles.

From affordable plugin bundles

1. McDsp Classic Pack
a. price $350
b. plugins 4
c. tweaky, versatile plugins
d. www.McDsp.com 


The McDSP Classic Pack gives you a compressor, eq, multiband compresspor and an analog console emulator plugin in analog channel. Technically this bundle gets you four plugins, but if you break it down you really get 3 versions of compressor bank, 3 versions of filter bank, 3 versions of the multiband compressor, and 2 versions of analog channel. So when you look at it that way you really get 11 plugins total. Though the Classic Pack is the most expensive of the three, I feel its the most versatile. You really get a lot for your money. Compressor Bank is the most versatile compressor plugin out there IMO. You can literally use it on anything. Filter Bank, like Compressor Bank, is very versatile and with three versions you can really do a lot. Analog Channel emulates tape machines and analog consoles. All the plugins in the bundle are extremely “tweaky”, very versatile and if your into presets you get a ton of them here. Again, $350 is more than the other two bundles I listed but Colin runs sales ALL the time. Be patient if you have your eye on a particular thing. I picked mine up this year when McDSP had a $199 sale going on. If I had no other plugins for my DAW and had to choose between these 3 bundles I would take this one for its versatility.

From affordable plugin bundles

2. Softube Mix Bundle
 a. price $300
 b. plugins 5
 c. battling UA for top analog modeling plugins on the market
 d. www.softube.com 


Softube has really made a name in the audio game for analog modeling. For those who don’t know what analog modeling is its taking hardware and creating software that sounds just like the hardware, or as close they can get it. With the mix bundle you get their passive-active pack, which features 3 EQ’s, the FET compressor, which models the 1176 and the TSAR-1R, which is a mini version of the TSAR-1 reverb. The passive-active pack is modeled after 60’s and 70’sBritish EQ’s. These EQ’s aren’t surgical EQ’s, but they are very good and boosting and sweetening your tracks, especially in the high end. The FET compressor is a 1176 on steroids. low and high cut filters, look ahead and a mix knob makes this a very versatile compressor. The reverb is the best I’ve used in a plugin. I’m comparing that to Digidesign D-verb, AIR verbs, Sonnox reverb (which is a very good reverb!) and McDSP revolver verb. I just finished a mix for JaShayla where I used this reverb on her vocals and the results were amazing. This bundle is versatile, but the least versatile IMO. However these are really, really good sounding plugins.

From affordable plugin bundles

3. Waves Musicians Bundle 2
 a. price $99
 b. plugins 6
 c. plugin originators, veterans in the game
 d. www.waves.com 


If there is one thing you are guaranteed to see in commercial studios besides pro tools and an analog console its plugins from Waves. Waves has been making plugins since 1992 and has what I believe is the largest number of plugins available than other company at 128. Waves has also been the most expensive I’ve seen, but over the last few years they have been lowering their prices to help compete with all the new competition. The Waves Musicians 2 bundle, which I paid $199 for two years ago, gives you some nice plugins for an affordable price. These were the first plugins I ever purchased. This bundle gives you eq, 3 compressors, and a delay. The Rvox compressor is easy to use and easy to get good results with, making it my favorite plugin in this bundle. You get Raxx specifically for bass, Rvox for vocals, and Rcomp can handle everything else. The Req is good, and considering it comes in a $99 bundle makes it great. Waves also runs specials all the time. This bundle ranks #2 in versatility to me of the three.

Sending your beats and sessions to artist and engineers

Since I get so many sessions that look like WTF I decided to write some some Do’s and Don’ts when sending your beats to artists. This is mostly for producers but some can be applied when sending off your session to a mix engineer. 

1. Do not send mp3’s! A mp3 is good for listening and in some cases tracking to, but once a beat has been purchased the artist needs Wav files to have the song mixed once it has been recorded. Wav files should typically be 44.1k or 48k and 24bit.
2. Each sound should be separated on its own track. This includes the kick and the snare. This will allow the mix engineer to properly mix the song. If there are 20 sounds in the beat, then the artist needs to be sent 20 different wav files. These will of course be too big to email so use a service like dropbox or wetrasfer to upload and email the files.
3. Name your files. This will make you look more professional and will make your mix engineer very happy. Even if you just label your tracks kick, snare, hi hat, etc. Its better then audio 1, audio 2, audio 3. 
4. Your tracks should have no clipping. If its hitting the red then pull it back some. Clipping in the digital world is never good. 
5. Include a a master track with your beat. This way if you full beat needs to be heard instead of playing all the wav files together the master track can be played. 
6. While we are on master tracks make sure to leave some headroom on the master track. Many sessions I get when I go to track the song the master track is so hot its pinned into the red clipping. I have to trim it down 12db just to have it at a level where I can hear the artist on top of it. 
7. Always include the BPM. Easiest way to do this is to add it to the name of the beat, or to the master track. For example mybeat1_BPM95. When its time to record having the BPM will make the engineer’s a lot easier when its time to copy a hook, or the mix engineer when they want to add delays. This also beats opening up a session just to see the BPM.
8. When moving beats and sessions from one DAW to another its best to start the song at bar 1, but the beat or music at bar 2. This will ensure if something needs to be looped it will loop properly. I’ve noticed starting at bar 1 can chop of a few milliseconds or samples of the song. Then when you go to loop it the track won’t loop smoothly. Starting at bar 2 gives your DAW 1 bar to start  up ensuring that it captures the whole start. Basically be careful of your DAW chopping off the beginning on the music before you track it out into wav files. 
9. If you can, contact the artist’s engineer and see how he or she wants you to deliver the files and if they have any special requests. This way you can get the beat to the artist’s engineer just how they like it. 
10. Ask the artist how he or she wants the arrangement to be or if they want to sequence the track on their own. Don’t assume the artist wants three 16 bars verses and four hooks. If the artist wants to sequence the track on their own then send them the 4 or 8 bar loop of each sound. Again be sure to start the music at bar 2 but export from bar 1. Then the artist can loop the track out how they please.