Overloud has released the EQ550 equalizer in VST, AAX, and AU plugin formats for PC and Mac. The company is giving away 1,000 free licenses per day from March 12th until March 18th.

EQ550 emulates the API 550 series of hardware equalizers. These classic discrete four-band equalizers were used on many hit records in the 60s and 70s, remaining among the most sought-after pieces of studio gear to this day. The developers claim that EQ550 is a “hyper-realistic simulation” of the original hardware, using fourth generation DSP technology to emulate its characteristics in software form.

Overloud’s brand new EQ550 plugin is a 5-band equalizer (two shelving/peaking bands, two peaking bands, and one band-pass filter) with individual cue adjustments for each band. The plugin emulates all transformer circuits in the original hardware unit, resulting in pleasant coloration of the processed audio signal. Despite being a highly detailed emulation of analog hardware, EQ550 is extremely CPU efficient. According to the info available on the product page, over 1,500 instances of the plugin can be loaded on a MacBook Pro Retina without overstraining the CPU.

The plugin is regularly priced at $139 but you can currently register a copy completely free of charge. Every day between March 12th and March 19th, Overloud is giving away 1,000 free EQ550 licenses. To register your free license, you must log in to your Overloud user account (registration is free) and click the DOWNLOAD FOR FREE button on the page linked below. Be patient if you see any errors during the process because Overloud’s servers are currently dealing with extremely high amounts of traffic.

The software is available in VST, AU, and AAX plugin formats for compatible digital audio workstations on Windows and macOS. Both 32-bit and 64-bit host applications are supported.

EQ550 is available for free download via Overloud (offer ends on March 18th, 2018).