Equalizers

Table of Contents

Introduction

If you are familiar with Softube, you know that we are really geeky when it comes to vintage gear. We love the sound of quirky analog equalizers, such as the amazing high mid band on the Trident A-Range or the lovely thick distortion from the Summit Audio EQF-100. However... we also love a good workflow, and sometimes these vintage representations don't cut it and we become forced to add another, "modern", EQ to the signal chain.

That's why we did Equalizers. Not Equalizer, but Equalizers, with a plural "s" to emphasize that it's more than a single equalizer.

In essence, it's a modern equalizer with all the bells and whistles that you would expect. Super optimized CPU, with nice colorful curves that you can drag around, dynamic bands, individual channel control (mid, side, left, right), and all that. We'll probably add more features along the way.

However, there's more. You can also load modeled Softube equalizers into Equalizers, for example the Trident A-Range or Abbey Road RS-127. That will give you the full experience of Trident A-Range, but also modern features such as EQ curves and frequency analyzer. If you need an extra band, you can always add a "modern" band while using the Trident A-Range. Rather nifty, huh?

Equalizers with a modern dynamic band (yellow curve) and the Core Vintage Dual Equalizer loaded.

User Interface

The user interface is rather straight forward, with a large area showing the EQ curve and frequency analyzer. At the bottom, you have the menu to the left ("Vintage ↑") to load in the additional vintage equalizer. Clicking the text Vintage or Modern will disable/enable that EQ.

Global Controls

At the bottom you'll find the global controls: Vintage On/Off, Vintage Selector, processing order, and Modern On/Off

Vintage On/Off
Disable/enable the vintage EQ by clicking on the "VINTAGE" label in the bottom left.
Vintage Selector (triangle pointing up)
Opens a menu to select a vintage equalizer.
M→V, V→M
Sets the order of the equalizers: modern before vintage or vice versa.
Modern On/Off
Disable/enable the modern EQ by clicking the "MODERN" label in the bottom right corner.

Meters

At the top of the window you have output meters, left and right, and between those you see the current mouse position described in hertz, decibels and musical notation.

Behind the EQ curves you have a frequency analyzer showing the left and right output audio.

Modern Equalizer Bands

Hovering a band will open the band menu.

Each equalizer band is equal and has the following control set.

Type
Selects the type of band

  • Low Cut, High Cut (orange curve)

  • Bell (yellow curve)

  • Shelf (purple curve)

  • Notch (red curve)

The combination of all modern bands is indicated by the white curve.

Mute (the "on" icon)
The On/Off icon will mute the band, which can also be achieved by double-clicking the dot.
Solo
Solos the current band, and in some cases solos the currently selected frequencies. Solo behaves differently depending on which Band Type is selected:

  • Cuts: Solo will let you hear what's being removed. So if you solo a high cut filter, you will hear the removed high frequencies.

  • Shelves: Solos the difference between the added band and the dry signal. If you are making very small changes with a shelf filter, the soloed audio will be low in level.

  • Bells and Notch: Solos the band, like a band pass filter. Solo is the same regardless of band gain, which lets you hone in on target frequencies without adjusting the gain.

  • Dynamic Band: Solos the difference, so that you will hear what is being removed or added.

Delete (trash can icon)
Removes the selected band.
Gain, Frequency, Q
Adjusts the basic EQ parameters for each band.
Slope
Only available for high and low cut (from 6 to 48 dB/oct).
Stereo Mode
Sets the channel mode for that band.

  • Stereo: The band operates the same in both channels

  • Left, Right: The band will only operate on the selected channel. The band is also excluded from the combined yellow curve, and will be indicated with an "L" or "R" symbol next to its dot.

  • Mid, Side: The band will only operate on the selected channel. The band is also excluded from the combined yellow curve, and will be indicated with an "M" or "S" symbol next to its dot.

Dynamics Section

Each band with a bell or shelving shape can easily be made dynamic so that the gain level reacts to the incoming audio. This is useful if you want to reduce harsh sibilants or a boomy kick without changing the overall tone of the track.

Dynamic bands get four more controls: Threshold, Attack, Release and Ratio.

Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS) a band to immediately make it dynamic!

Once you turn on dynamics, by setting Dynamics to either "Int." (normal mode) or "Ext." (external sidechaining), four extra parameters are displayed in the band menu. In most cases, you won't have to adjust these, except perhaps the Threshold control.

Top: With dynamics engaged, the gain of the EQ will change when the audio gets above the threshold. With normal ratios (Ratio > 0), the band's gain will be 0 dB below the threshold, above the threshold it will gradually move towards the band's gain setting. The maximum amount of change is determined by the gain of the band. Bottom: With inverted ratios (Ratio < 0), the band will start at the static EQ gain, and move towards the 0 dB line when audio rises above the threshold.

Boosting vs. Cutting

Normally (with the default ratio of +3), a band will start at 0 dB of gain, and when the audio level gets above the Threshold, it will start to move towards the Gain level of that band. So a band with negative Gain (less than 0 dB), will start at 0 dB, and decrease the gain when the audio gets louder. If the band is boosting (above 0 dB), the band will increase the gain when the audio gets louder.

  • Cutting: If you have negative gain on a band ("cutting"), the dynamics will reduce the gain of the audio above the threshold. This is the normal "compressing" mode.

  • Boosting: If you are boosting a band ("positive gain"), the dynamics will increase the gain of the audio above the threshold. This is also called "upwards expansion".

However, this depends on the Ratio setting. A positive ratio (the second half of the slider) will reduce the gain when the band is cutting, and increase the gain when the band is boosting. The opposite applies for ratios in the first half of the slider.

All this might seem a bit complicated, but the rule is quite simple:

  • Ratios between 0 and 10: the band's gain will go from 0 dB to whatever it is set at. It will increase the gain if the band is boosting, it will decrease the gain if the band is cutting.

  • Ratios between -10 and 0: the band's gain will go from it's current setting down to 0 dB. It will start at the band setting, and as the audio gets louder, it will move towards 0 dB.

The range of the compression/expansion is always the range of the band, so a +9 dB bell filter will have 9 dB of range.

Left: With "Normal Ratio" (Ratio > 0), the EQ curve will go from 0 dB to the gain the band is set at. The change in gain will start at the set threshold. Middle: With "Inverted Ratio" (Ratio < 0), the EQ curve will go from the current band gain towards the 0 dB line. Right: The ratio modes are essentially symmetrical, Ratio=10 with cut is the same as Ratio=-10 with boost, but with a make-up gain corresponding to the inverse of the band's gain. It's easier than it looks, I promise...

Dynamics
Turn on dynamic compression for the band, which also expands the rest of the dynamic section's controls. Typically, you don't need to adjust any of these except for the Threshold.

  • Off: Dynamics are turned off

  • Int. (Internal Sidechain): Dynamics are turned on, and is listening to the audio of the current band.

  • Ext. (External Sidechain): Dynamics are turned on, and is using the audio input from the plug-ins sidechain input.

A dynamic band is indicated by ↕, an "up and down" arrow just beneath to the dot.

Threshold
Sets the threshold for when the band should start to attenuate.
Attack, Release
Sets the attack and release times for the attenuation
Ratio
Sets the ratio of the attenuation, determines how drastic the gain changes should be.
  • Inverted Ratio (-10 to 0). The band starts at its Gain setting, and move towards 0 dB when audio gets louder.
  • Normal Ratio (0 to 10). The band starts at 0 dB, and move towards its Gain setting as audio gets louder.

Adding A Vintage Equalizer

First, you need to install one of Softube's many modelled Equalizers. We are currently supporting these equalizers:

  • Chandler Limited Curve Bender
  • Empirical Labs Lil FrEQ
  • Tube-Tech Equalizers Mk II
  • Trident A-Range
  • Summit Audio EQF-100
  • Focusing Equalizer
  • Passive Equalizer
  • Active Equalizers
  • Abbey Road RS135, RS127 and RS127 Rack
  • Tonelux Tilt and Tilt Live
  • Core Vintage Equalizer and Dual Equalizer

Of these, both the Chandler Limited Curve Bender and the Core Vintage Dual Equalizers support full stereo with individual control sets and individual curves when the channels are unlinked.

  1. Open the Vintage menu
  2. Select an equalizer from the menu
  3. Adjust the vintage equalizer from the vintage UI

Click the white arrow to open the "Load Vintage Equalizer" menu.

If you click on the background, the vintage equalizer will get minimized. Hover the vintage EQ to maximize it again.

Hovering or clicking on the small thumbnail will open the vintage equalizer user interface.

Keyboard Shortcuts

This is a list of supported keyboard shortcuts to use in tandem with mouse click or mouse movement.

macOS

  • Q adjust: Command + mouse drag
  • Constrain to gain or frequency adjustments: Shift + mouse drag
  • Solo band: Option + Command + mouse click
  • Change slope (cut filters): Shift + mouse click
  • Dynamics On/Off: Option + mouse click

Windows

  • Q adjust: Ctrl + mouse drag
  • Constrain to gain or frequency adjustments: Shift + mouse drag
  • Solo band: Alt + Ctrl + mouse click
  • Change slope (cut filters): Shift + mouse click
  • Dynamics On/Off: Alt + mouse click

Credits

Cameron Clark -- signal processing, UI programming
Patrik Holmström, Arvid Johnsson, Anna Pohl Lundgren -- UI programming
Kim Larsson, Anton Eriksson, Arvid Rosén -- signal processing
Niklas Odelholm, Torsten Gatu -- product design
Johan Bremin -- quality assurance