Pulsar Audio offers the Pulsar w495 equalizer plugin ($49 value) as a free download until October 31st, 2023.
Pulsar w495 emulates the Neumann w495 hardware equalizer, a revered successor to the PEa and OEV equalizers. This two-channel EQ module features transformer-balanced inputs, a low and high-frequency filter, a boost-cut filter with adjustable bandwidth, and an amplifier in a single unit.
It was admired for its superior sound quality, with crisp highs and clean lows, a low noise floor, and the ability to function excellently as a bus or mastering equalizer. As such, it played a pivotal role in mastering a vast majority of vinyl discs between the 1970s and 1990s.
Pulsar Audio’s w495 stands as a tribute to the legendary Neumann w495, replicating most of the original functionality while introducing some workflow enhancements you would expect from a modern equalizer plugin.
You get the same 5-band parametric EQ setup and the smooth musical curves that made the original Neumann w495 one of the most sought-after EQ modules of its era.
However, Pulsar w495 takes things a few steps further by adding modern features like mid-side processing, visual curve editing, automatic gain compensation, and a built-in spectrum analyzer.
The visual curve editor lets you adjust the gain, frequency, and Q values directly on the curve editor. You can also use the keyboard modifiers to quickly fine-tune the settings.
The auto-gain feature is an excellent workflow enhancer, compensating for volume changes introduced by the equalization. It uses a C-Weighting-based algorithm for level compensation based on EQ curve analysis, where the compensation gain is solely dependent on your EQ settings.
The plugin also has an oversampling feature, with processing rates up to 384 kHz. It allows higher oversampling settings to be applied at export, resulting in a higher sound quality when rendering the final mix.
Another handy feature is the freely resizable user interface. You can click and drag the lower-right corner to adjust the GUI to your preferred size.
Pulsar w495 typically costs $49, but you can get it for free from Pulsar Audio’s website for a limited time. Visit the product page linked below, add the plugin to your shopping cart, and complete the checkout process to claim your free plugin license.
The free download offer ends on October 31st, 2023.
Pulsar w495 is available in VST2, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats for Windows and macOS.
Download: Pulsar w495 (FREE for a limited time)
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37 Comments
Tomislav Zlatic
onThanks to BPB readers Királyfi and El°HYM for the info!
Adolfo
onGracias
Gery Zenz
onwow, thank you!
Jwolfe
onthis now my go to EQ i love it
EG
onThanks will give it a go
Anandhu
onCool! Thank you Mr.Tomislav and BPB readers!
Amara
onOk
Dave B
onCool, thanks for the info. Ordered mine on The Pulsar account to go with Massive, Mu, Smasher. Those others are great emulations so this one should as well.
Michal Ochedowski
onWow, that was a smooth ordering process, including account creation. Very generous offer. Thanks for sharing.
Drugged
oniLok warning! Nearly installed that mutha with the pre-selected “PACE iLok license support” in the installer!
Dave
onHi guy,
Does it need an Ilok license/account?
If so I will pass…
Thank you
alex
onYes it does. I’ll pass, too, as usual.
Lucas
onUnfortunately, yes, that why I’ll be skipping it.
Free shouldn’t include utterly pointless protection.
Some companies get it though, Nembrini for instance: free plugins = zero iLOK garbage.
Ike
onTip: don’t install the included Pace Manager (Ilok) if you already use Ilok on your system. It messes everything up!
John B.
onyes unfortunately this happened to me and broke my existing iLok setup. Trying to do a system restore didn’t fix it, so make sure you check the installation options before installing!
Artem
onWho activated! Tell me, how it displayed in iLok: W495 (Free) or just W495? It’s important for me!
Gery Zenz
onjust W495. Allow Transfer: yes
Artem
onMany Thanks!
Pisces
onThanks Tom, I’m not down with the iLok system though..
Easy
onThis looks perfect:
-autogain, which makes easy to judge your eq moves.
-mid/ side option for each band
-nice visualization
-a little bit of saturation
-oversampling
Mikey
onMany similarities with TDR Slick EQ. But Slick EQ (even free one) is superior, the Pulsar has a beautiful interface though!
Sam
onHaving checkout problems, after I input my billing information the progress wheel just keeps spinning and then eventually says “error processing checkout, please try again”. Anyone else getting this?
Sam
onJust got it to work, I had to include “USA” in my billing address and it worked.
Angelo
onI clicked on the link (using Opera) and got this message:
“Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from pulsar.audio (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).”
No one else had this issue?
PureFire
onThanks T, BPB & Pulsar, this is a very nice offer
@Angelo
I did also see this message with Safari & Brave browsers on Mac, after successfully placing my order and attempting to download the installer file from email (also see this “Private” message when trying to access Pulsar website from web search result), i did try emailing Pulsar but i got delivery failure back, maybe best to wait until later, at the moment brave says “this site can’t be reached” and Safari says “Safari can’t find the server”
Dan
onSame deal here, I’m getting a cloudflare error on their website. They probably just got more traffic than they expected. BPB is getting huge ;)
JT
onI also got the warning on Edge and Mozilla: I want to Plugin Boutique and they have the free version there, with a download – so no need to register at Pulsar?
PureFire
onthanks for the info, Pulsar website seems ok now, web page is loading at least
Nick Hope
onhttps://pulsar.audio/w495/ is down at the moment
“Web server is returning an unknown error – Error code 520”
JD
onTheir server is overwhelmed and it’s down right now.
El°HYM
onTheir Server got hammered down due to Traffic as it seems. This is what they just wrote on GS a few ago:
‘Hello again dear Gearspace friends,
Due to too many visitors to our website and several attacks aimed at stealing a large number of activation codes, we’re having trouble issuing a license to each and every one of you.
The situation should return to normal within 48-72 hours.
We apologize for the inconvenience… Thank you for your patience.
The Pulsar Audio team’
lia
onI always Find magic on this blog.
Thank you!
Steffen
onI grabbed it via Plugin Boutique, as suggested on the Pulsar website, but I’ve yet to receive a serial number.
El°HYM
onShould be right inside ‘My Products’ then.
Steffen
onNot native Apple Silicon (M1, M2).
Steffen
on👆🏻 Disregard my last entry. My DAW had disabled the plugin, since I didn’t have iLok set up properly. All good now. 👍🏻
Fred
onAnd how you fix that?