A Pultec on the mix bus acts as a tone control for the entire record: a broad, musical lift of the top and bottom that lets you EQ less on individual tracks. Because the Pultec is a passive, inductor-based "program equalizer" (program meaning the whole mix), even large boosts stay smooth and natural in a way most parametric EQs cannot match.
Matt Ross-Spang takes this a step further: he starts his mixes with the Pultec, before touching anything else.
Starting the mix like a mastering engineer
When Dr. Dog brought Matt "Fat Dog," recorded on a 1-inch 8-track in a cabin, the tracks were dark. Beautifully dark, like a Super 8 film: warm, hazy, not quite in focus. The biggest risk in the mix was polishing that away.
So the first session move was not a kick EQ. It was raising the faders, getting a rough balance, and playing with the two Pultecs across the 2-buss with the band in the room. How bright can this record get before it stops sounding like Dr. Dog? That one decision set the tonal direction for the entire album, exactly the way a mastering engineer works.
The actual settings
On the mastering-version Pultecs at Southern Grooves, the "Fat Dog" mix ended at roughly:
+2 dB at 100 Hz, bandwidth fairly tight, for overall weight
+3.5 dB at 8 kHz on the top boost, the record's entire "air" decision
Later in the mix, a Curve Bender added just 1 dB at 16 kHz to extend that lift, because a record cut to an old tape machine through Warm Audio 351 preamps does not have unlimited top end on its own.
Why this changes how you mix everything else
With the whole mix already sitting in the right tonal world, individual tracks need far less EQ. Matt describes it directly: doing a little on the whole mix means doing less individually. Instead of brightening twenty tracks separately (and adding twenty phase shifts), one smooth program EQ moves everything together and keeps the source material's character intact.
The Pultec sits at the end of his 2-buss chain: V610 comp limiters first for peak control, then a Fairchild for tube-and-transformer tone, then the Pultecs. He has tried every other order; this one always wins, because the Pultec's boosts stop triggering the compressors when it comes last.
Plugin or hardware?
Matt started doing this with Pultec plugins and only bought the hardware after the move became central to his sound. The technique works the same way in the box: instantiate a Pultec-style EQ on your master bus at the start of the mix, set your overall brightness against reference material, and then mix into it.
FAQ
Won't EQing the mix bus first mess up my individual EQ decisions?
The opposite. It removes the need for most of them. You make small corrective moves on tracks instead of trying to create the record's overall tone twenty times.
What frequencies should I boost on a mix bus Pultec?
The classic move is a gentle low shelf (60 to 100 Hz) and a top boost between 8 and 16 kHz. Start with 1 to 2 dB of each and adjust against songs you trust.
Does the Pultec order matter in a mix bus chain?
Yes. After the compressors is the common choice, so your EQ boosts do not drive the compression.
Watch Matt make this exact decision, with Dr. Dog in the room, in the new Inside the Mix series filmed at Southern Grooves in Memphis.
