New Music Gear Monday: Trident Digital EQ Plugins

Trident Digital EQ plugins image

Perhaps the greatest rock and roll console ever built was the Trident 80B. The desk just had an edge that couldn’t be beat, with a sound that was especially particularly symbiotic with that style of music. While the entire desk as a whole was responsible for the sonics, the EQ in particular was the centerpiece and now the 80B is available as a plugin along with its parametric brother the CB9066, as part of the Trident Digital Edition Series.

Trident 80B Plugin

Let’s look at the 80B EQ plugin first, which is notable for its wide bands and smooth analog character that’s often described as “British sounding.”

The 80B is a shelving equalizer with Hi-Pass filter, Low Shelf, Low Mid and High Mid bands with sweepable frequency, and High Shelf bands. The High Shelf band is switchable between 8kHz and 12kHz with up to 15dB of boost or cut. The Low Shelf band is switchable between 60Hz and 120Hz with up to 15dB of boost or cut.

The High Mid and Low Mid bands have 15dB boost or cut and frequency selection controls. The High Mid frequency is sweepable between 1kHz and 15kHz, while the Low Mid is sweepable between 100Hz and 1.5kHz. There’s also a 50Hz Low-Cut switch and a Phase flip button.

Trident CB9066 EQ Plugin

The CB9066 is a parametric equalizer version of the 80B and was designed sometime in the mid-70s using tantalum capacitors, Class A topology, and a somewhat unique frequency sweep technology with 10:1 range.

The plugin has three fully parametric bands plus low and hi-pass filters. Each band features Q (bandwidth), frequency, and 16dB boost/cut controls. The filters have adjustable frequency and, unusual for the time, slope controls. Very narrow Q settings are possible for very precise or very extreme EQing.

Both plugins are available for 64-bit Mac computers and 32/64-bit Windows PCs in VST3, AAX, and AU formats.  The CB9066 has an introductory price of $79 (normally $179), while the 80B’s introductory price is $59 (normally $149). There is a 7 day free trial period available for both plugins.

These seem to be the first plugins in the Trident Digital Edition Series and we’re excitedly on the lookout for any additions. You can find out more about the 80B plugin and the CB9066 plugin on the Trident website.


Crash Course image
Spread the word