Cranborne Audio Carnaby HE2

The Cranborne Audio HE2 is an evolutionary successor to the renowned Carnaby 500, bringing a unique and revolutionary EQ concept to your professional audio toolkit, utilising harmonic saturation to sculpt and refine your audio content with precision.

The Cranborne Audio Carnaby HE2 is a 2U, 19-inch rackmount digitally-controlled Stereo, dual-mono & mid/side 3-band HarmonicEQ® with an additional 2-band shaping EQ, designed to elevate your audio processing to a professional level.

Enhanced Harmonic Saturation

Unlock the true potential of your audio sources, stems, and mixes by infusing them with genuine analogue harmonic saturation. The Carnaby HE2 offers you the tactile familiarity and control of a traditional equaliser while harnessing the power of harmonic content manipulation. This innovative approach furthers the sonic possibilities, delivering a distinctive sonic signature to your projects.

3-Band Parametric EQ with Unparalleled Versatility

Whether you're working on Stereo, Dual Mono, or Mid-Side processing, the Carnaby HE2 boasts three bypassable, interactive HarmonicEQ® bands per channel. Each band features 10dB of boost/cut and provides individual sweepable, overlapping frequency controls. Like its predecessor, the Carnaby 500, the Carnaby HE2 imbues each band with a unique harmonic blend tailored to its frequency range, ensuring an unmatched level of musicality.

High-Frequency Enhancement: The HI band extends from 5kHz to an impressive 25kHz, employing smooth saturation to expand high frequencies naturally. This creates an ethereal sense of air and breath, ideal for vocals and acoustic instruments.

Low-End Depth: The LO band covers frequencies from 420Hz down to 20Hz, using hard-clipping saturation to extend subharmonic frequencies into the audible low end. Whether you seek subtle warmth or extreme subharmonic saturation, the LO band delivers.

Midrange Brilliance: The MID band acts as a peaking filter with a fixed Q and a wide sweepable frequency range from 200Hz to 6.2kHz. It infuses harmonic emphasis throughout the frequency spectrum, elevating your audio source.

Dynamic Response for Artistic Freedom

Unlike conventional EQs, the Carnaby HE2 exhibits a dynamic response, intensifying total boost/cut and harmonics as you drive the circuits harder. Each band includes Input and Output level controls, offering a ±20dB level adjustment range. This flexibility enables you to push the Carnaby HE2 for enhanced saturation and distortion effects or dial it back for pristine EQ adjustments.

Digital Control with USB and Network Connectivity

The Carnaby HE2 redefines control with remote operation capabilities via USB or an Ethernet network. Our intuitive control plugin seamlessly integrates with the Carnaby HE2 hardware through the USB or NET ports, providing direct, effortless, real-time control and recall from your DAW. It streamlines the process of saving and loading presets, enhancing your workflow efficiency.

Achieve precise tonal sculpting by independently bypassing each of the three frequency bands. This feature empowers you to audition and fine-tune your settings with unparalleled accuracy.

Extended HF & LF Shaping

The Carnaby HE2 offers precise HF, and LF cut controls with individual bypass options for further sound refinement. These controls enable you to tame and shape your audio with precision.

Mid/Side Processing

Especially valuable for mastering, mixing, and sound design applications, the Carnaby HE2 introduces Mid/Side processing capabilities. It enables you to apply HarmonicEQ® separately to the mid (centre) and side (stereo width) components of your stereo signal, all without the need for additional hardware. The Carnaby HE2 seamlessly handles encoding and decoding, offering unprecedented control.

Seamless Integration for Outboard Hardware

The Carnaby HE2 incorporates bypassable TRS Inserts on each of its two channels. These inserts are post-M/S encoding and pre-M/S decoding, allowing seamless outboard hardware integration before your signal enters the HarmonicEQ® processing chain, giving you total control over your audio.

Cranborne Audio Carnaby HE2 Specifications :

• Hi Band EQ Filter Type: High Shelf Filter
• Frequency Range: 5kHz - 25kHz
• Boost/Cut: 12dB,  @ -6dBu, +13dB, - 18dB, @ +14dBu
• Harmonics: ~8% THD+N (100Hz, +4dBu) ~12% THD+N (100Hz, +14dBu)
• EQ Mid Band Filter Type: Peak Filter
• Frequency Range: 200Hz - 6.2kHz
• Boost/Cut: ±5dB @ -6dBu +10dB, - 18dB @ +14dBu
• Harmonics: ~8% THD+N (100Hz, +4dBu) ~12% THD+N (100Hz, +14dBu)
• Lo Band Filter Type: Low Shelf Filter
• Frequency Range: 20Hz - 420Hz
• Boost/Cut: ±8.5dB @ -6dBu  ±12dB @ +14dBu
• Harmonics: ~8% THD+N (100Hz, +4dBu) ~12% THD+N (100Hz, +14dBu)
• Hi Cut Filter - Progressive slope low-pass filter
• 1st order - 3db per octave, 2nd order - 6db per octave, 3rd order - 12dB per octave
• Frequency Range: -3db, 8kHz -40kHz
• Lo Cut Filter - Progressive slope high-pass filter
• 1st order - 6db per octave, 2nd order - 12db per octave, 3rd order - 18dB per octave
• Frequency Range: -3db, 18Hz -180Hz
• 1/4" TRS Inserts: Balanced, dedicated send & return, normalled
• Post M/S encoding & Carnaby, pre M/S decoding
• Max Input Level (Return): +26.0dBu (<0.003% THD+N)
• Max Output Level (Send): +26.0dBu (<0.003% THD+N)
• Mid/Side Type: Encoder/decoder, Matrix: Sum-difference matrix
• Width: 48.3cm (19”) (Rackmount)
• Height: 8.9cm (3.5") (2u)
• Depth: 23.6cm (9.3")
• Unit Weight: 6kg (13lbs)