EQ

The EQ effect consists of 6 tone control sections. The colored dots correspond to the 6 sections. You can move them to control the section Gain and Frequency knobs.

The overall transfer is displayed in the display at the top. A small version appears in the effect slot itself.

Each section has its own Bypass button ('B').

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.

There's a Spectrum box below that graph, more options appear after you've selected a signal for display:

• EQ input
• EQ output
• Master section's output (if the EQ is used in the mixer's Master section) (Pro edition only)
• Band Effect in/output (if the EQ is used in a Band Effect) (Pro edition only)

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 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 averages 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).

The full scale value can be 0...-30 dB, use the mouse to move the graph up or down. The scale can be either 10 or 20 dB/division, use the button in the bottom right corner or pinch on your trackpad.

Reference Spectrum

A reference spectrum can be displayed. This can help you setting up the EQ for mastering purposes. You can compare the song's spectrum to other songs of yours, or to comparable commercial recordings.

The built-in Standard reference spectrum is typical of many well mastered recordings.

You can click the Reference box and choose 'Import...' to extract the spectrum from an audio file. Alternatively you can drop a file on the Reference box. The new spectrum will be added to the list, and it can be renamed or deleted just like presets.