EQ

The EQ effect consists of six tone control sections. The overall transfer is showed in the display at the top. Each section has its own Bypass button.

EQ window

Lo Cut

The Lo Cut section is a lo cut filter. The cut off rate can be 6,12 or 18 dB/octave. The cut-off frequency can be 20 Hz up to 2 kHz.

Bass

The Bass section can be a shelving or bell-type equalizer. Boost/Attenuation can be -12 dB to +12 dB. Frequency can be 20 Hz to 1 kHz. If the Vintage button is active the equalizer follows the classic Baxandall curves: cutting low frequencies will be accompanied with a slight boost of the lower-middle range and vice versa. If the Shelve button is active no dipping or peaking will occur. If the Bell button is active the equalizer will affect a one octave band only.

Lo Mid

The Lo Mid section is a parametric equalizer. The center frequency can be 50 Hz up to 2 kHz. The Bandwidth can be 0.05 to 2 octaves. The Gain can be -12 dB to +12 dB. The section is inactive when Gain is zero (the green indicator will dim).

Hi Mid

The Hi Mid section is a parametric equalizer. The center frequency can be 500 Hz up to 12 kHz. The Bandwidth can be 0.05 to 2 octaves. The Gain can be -12 dB to +12 dB. The section is inactive when Gain is zero (the green indicator will dim).

Treble

The Treble section can be a shelving or bell-type equalizer. Boost/Attenuation can be -12 dB to +12 dB. Frequency can be 1 kHz to 20 kHz. If the Vintage button is active the equalizer follows the classic Baxandall curves: cutting high frequencies will be accompanied with a slight boost of the upper-middle range and vice versa. If the Shelve button is active no dipping or peaking will occur. If the Bell button is active the equalizer will affect a one octave band only.

Hi Cut

The Hi Cut section is a hi cut filter. The cut off rate can be 6,12 or 18 dB/octave. The cut-off frequency can be 500 Hz up to 20 kHz.

Spectrum Display

The actual frequency spectrum of the audio signal can be shown in the graph. This can be a great help in setting up the EQ.

Clicking the button at the bottom-right corner of the graph will show a menu that controls the frequency spectrum that's shown in the graph:

One of the following signals can be shown:

• EQ input
• EQ output
• Master section's output (if the EQ is used in the mixer's Master section), (Pro Plus edition only)
• Band effect in or output (if the EQ is used in a Band effect), (Pro Plus edition only)

The realtime behavior can be one of the following:

• Real time: This option looks nice, but isn't of great value when it comes to setting up the EQ.
• Average: a moving average is displayed.
• Total Average: The average is displayed.

The full scale value can be 0, -10, -20 or -30 dB. The scale can be either 10 or 20 dB/division.

The spectrum can be shown using:

• No Bands: high resolution, but of little psycho-acoustic value.
• 1/3 Octave Bands: Similar to Critical Bands at higher frequencies, but higher resolution in the lower range.
• Critical Bands: this is the way the human ear works.

The spectrum display will be reset automatically when either the Transport is started or the EQ window pops up. You can reset the averaging mechanism manually by pressing the F5 key (Windows) / Command-R (Mac).

Well mastered recordings typically have a spectrum that's flat at frequencies below 500 Hz, and decreases at 20 dB/decade (6 dB/octave) above this frequency. The Flat Mastering option boosts frequencies higher than 500 Hz with 20 dB/decade, so a well mastered recording will show a flat spectrum. Potential problems can be easily found this way.