Antelope Audio Blonder Tongue Audio Baton

Enter the Antelope time machine for a trip back to 1959! We present a faithful emulation of the Blonder-Tongue Laboratories Audio Baton – an all-tube graphic equalizer so rare and special, it has an actual album named after it. Time-appropriate looks aside, the Audio Baton boasted seven separate amplifiers tuned to distinct frequencies, followed by high- and low-pass filters running in parallel, with their outputs routed to separate level controls.

The frequency choices are such as to correspond to actual notes and octaves on the piano keyboard, hence its presence above the red-and-white vertical stripes. They move up and down with the turning of the rotary controls, visualizing boosts and cuts. This way, a frequency response curve is graphically overlaid on top of the colorful stripes where each frequency region is distinctly colored.

Despite its technical proficiency, the Audio Baton was an inexpensive unit that found its way into audiophile homes and recording studios alike. Covering it in February 1959, AUDIO magazine qualified it as ”indispensable to anyone interested in dubbing from old records,” and “strongly recommended to anyone who does much recording.” Also noted by the magazine – “Rolloff of either lows or highs due to poor microphones or narrow-range amplifiers or recorders can be corrected easily, and response peaks can be smoothed out as desired.”

In terms of audio character, the Audio Baton compares favorably to other great equalizers of the era. Think a cross between the rare Altec 9073A “Motown” graphic equalizer and the famed Pultec tube-amplified make-up gain stage.

Antelope Audio’s team of DSP and electrical engineers recreated the Blonder-Tongue Audio Baton EQ in its entirety, exclusively for the Synergy Core FX processing platform. The one change we added is purely cosmetic – a Magic Eye peak meter on the upper right, which we felt enhances this unique equalizer’s late 50’s aesthetic and provides useful visual feedback.