Price History
Product Overview
The 4020 Retro EQ is a four-band equalizer that prioritizes musicality over surgical precision, making it a practical choice for engineers seeking warmth without compromise. Its architecture pairs two shelving bands at the extremes with parametric mid-range controls, a configuration proven effective across decades of mixing. What distinguishes the 4020 from conventional EQ designs is its gain-dependent variable slope system, which automatically adjusts Q character based on boost or cut amount. This means aggressive adjustments maintain definition rather than deteriorating into harshness - a trait valuable when corrective and creative work overlap in real sessions.
The complementary filter set employs McDSP's split-octave topology, offering gentle 12 dB/octave slopes near the selected frequency with the option to steepen to 24 dB/octave. This flexibility allows subtle tonal shaping or decisive frequency rejection without the phase complications of steeper traditional filters. Double precision processing ensures numerical stability throughout extended sessions, while the proprietary anti-clip output stage eliminates digital ceiling artifacts, backed by analog saturation modeling that has long been McDSP's technical foundation.
Native v7 brings optimized performance for Apple Silicon and current Intel architectures, alongside refreshed interface design and expanded preset library. Zero latency operation positions it equally well in mixing and tracking scenarios. The plugin suits mixing engineers seeking transparent yet characterful tone shaping, and tracking engineers requiring coloration without obvious digital artifacts. Relative to competitors combining filter flexibility with tonal personality, the 4020 offers genuine sophistication at reasonable computational cost.