TBProAudio dEQ6 Dynamic 6 Band Equalizer Instruction Manual

TBProAudio dEQ6 Dynamic 6 Band Equalizer

Product Information

The TBProAudio 2022 is a dynamic equalizer called dEQ6. It features 6 bands and supports stereo/MS processing. The plugin offers high-quality oversampling and includes an accurate spectrum analyzer. It is designed to make dynamic filtering easier and allows users to monitor the difference between the input and output signals, as well as the input and output spectrum. The dEQ6 is developed by TBProAudio and is compatible with various operating systems and digital audio workstations.

Features

• 6 band stereo/MS dynamic equalizer
• High-quality oversampling (up to 4x)
• Accurate spectrum analyzer

Minimum System Requirements

• Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.11
• OpenGL 2 GFX card (for Windows)
• Metal GFX card (for Mac OS X)
• SSE2 CPU
• Supported plugin formats: 32/64 Bit VST, 32/64 Bit VST3, 32/64 Bit AAX (for Windows); 64 Bit VST, 64 Bit VST3, 64 Bit AU, 64 Bit AAX (for Mac OS X)
• Tested with: Cockos Reaper, Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo/Wavelab 6+, FL Studio 12+, PT2018+, Reason 9.5+, Studio One, Ableton Live

Product Usage Instructions

Interactive EQ Display

The spectrum/filter curve view can be enlarged by clicking on the top left icon. The filter button activates the filter and can be dragged using the mouse. Right-clicking opens the filter popup menu. The analyzer popup menu hosts various settings for the spectrum analyzer and the reference spectrum management. The 5 small left icons control the display of the various filter response curves. The EQ magnitude area scales the EQ range using the mouse wheel.

Plugin Modes

dEQ6 offers high-quality oversampling, which can be adjusted up to 4 times. Oversampling is used to correct magnitude/phase distortions near the Nyquist frequency.

Plugin Controls

Mouse usage:

• Click and drag horizontally changes parameter value
• Shift-click and drag slows down parameter change
• Ctrl-click resets to default value
• Double-click opens value edit box, finish with enter

Presets

The preset menu loads and saves user presets. User presets stored under %localappdata%/dEQ6V4 (Windows) or /Users/xxx/Library/Application Support/dEQ6V4 (Mac OSX) are imported as user presets. The previous and next buttons step through all presets. Reset to default sets the current plugin settings as the default settings. Save as Default sets the current settings as start-up/default settings.

Plugin Menu

Click on the menu icon to get information about the plugin, perform an online version check, open the online manual and change-log, and change the GUI size/scale.

Undo/Redo

The undo/redo feature allows users to revert or reapply parameter changes.

Plug-in Settings

Over Sampling

Incoming signal can be oversampled up to 4 times. Oversampling reduces magnitude/phase distortions near the Nyquist frequency and makes the filter sound more analogue.

Analyzer

This control selects the main analyzer mode:

• All: shows the summed left/right spectrum
• Left: shows the left spectrum
• Right: shows the right spectrum
• Mid: shows the M/S mid spectrum
• Side: shows the M/S side spectrum

Analyzer Settings

Spectrum Decay

This setting adjusts the decay of the spectrum analyzer. The value can be set from 1 to 9999ms. A value of 9999ms enables Vaverage mode (AVG).

Main Gain

This setting controls the output volume of the plugin.

Introduction

Welcome to dEQ6, a 6 band stereo/MS dynamic equalizer with high quality oversampling and accurate spectrum analyzer.
dEQ6 controls the filter gain of each band by a compressor/expander. This reduces or increases the gain in a specific frequency range, depending on the program material. The detector signal for the compressor/expander is processed by a pre filter which is controlled by the centre frequency and Q-factor of the dynamic filter. This ensures that the
compressor/expander is only activated by content in the specified frequency range.
On top dEQ6 comes with a new function called AB-LM Lite providing perceptual loudness matching.

dEQ6 makes it much easier to work with dynamic filtering:

• Monitor the difference of input and output signal. This helps to verify the correct function of the dynamic filters.
• Display the difference of input and output spectrum.

Features

dEQ6 offers following features:

• 6 independent filter + compressor/expander
• 3 filter types, analogue design, minimal phase, zero delay
• many comfort functions to setup multiple bands
• independent stereo/left/right/mid/side processing per band
• side chain support, narrow/full band
• sample rates up to 192 kHz
• real” over sampling, up to 4x
• hi-res spectrum analyzer with 32k FFT
• pre/post-EQ spectrum, max/average/live spectrum, stereo/left/right/mid/side
• smoothed, ISO R40 smoothed, raw data spectrum and bar spectrum
• post filter predictive spectrum
• spectrum delta mode
• advanced input/output meter
• EQ cheat sheets
• spectrogram
• frequency tracker
• extended input/output meter, Peak/RMS/EBU/VU
• perceptual loudness matching (powered by AB-LM Lite) and gain “freezing”
• narrow-band sweeping mode
• spectrum freeze mode
• sample exact A/B toggle for all processing modes
• monitor delta mode
• precise parameter input
• undo/redo
• large, resizable and easy to use GUI
• XML based preset management
• full DAW automation support, smooth parameter change
• 64-bit internal processing
• very efficient CPU usage design

Overview

• The interface of dEQ6 is straightforward and easy to use.
• In the middle is the main EQ/spectrum display which lets you monitor the incoming and outgoing spectrum and adjust the filter response curve.
• On the bottom are all controls of the 6 filter (e.g. type, threshold and attack/release times). The main meters, gain and mix control are placed on the right side.
• On the left side are the controls for the analyzer settings (e.g. frequency/magnitude range). The top area keeps the plug-in option menu and various plugin controls like, main analyzer mode (all channels, left, right, mid or side), preset management, curve display control, bypass/freeze/reset button and AB-LM Lite (perceptual loudness matching).

Interactive EQ display

• The spectrum/filter curve view can be enlarged with the top left icon.
• The filter button activates the filter and can be dragged by mouse. Right mouse click open the filter popup menu. The analyzer popup menu hosts various settings of the spectrum analyzer and the reference spectrum management.
• The 5 small left icons control the display of the various filter response curves.
• The EQ magnitude area scales the EQ range (mouse wheel).
• The frequency area scales and offsets the frequency view (mouse wheel, mouse click drag). The spectrum magnitude area scales ad offsets the spectrum view (mouse wheel, mouse click drag).

Filter parameter

• dEQ6 consists of 6 stereo dynamic filter in series. Each filter can be configured individually by setting type, stereo placement (all, left, right, mid and side), frequency, gain, q-factor, threshold, ratio, attack, release time and gain reduction range.
• Additionally the source of the compressor detector can be changed to internal/external and narrow/wide-band.
• dEQ6 offers 3 analogue modelled filter. The filter quality can be increased by using oversampling. This ensures “analogue” filter magnitude/phase response near Nyquist frequency.

Comfort functions

• Many filter parameters can be controlled together e.g. filter gain, threshold or range.
• Some parameter can be set depending on program material or frequency range e.g. threshold, attack or release. These functions help to set up complex jobs quickly and easily.

Plugin modes
dEQ6 offers high-quality oversampling (up to 4x). Oversampling is used to correct magnitude/phase distortions near Nyquist frequency.

Minimum System Requirements

• Windows 7, OpenGL 2 GFX card
• Mac OS X 10.11, Metal GFX card
• SSE2 CPU
• Win: 32/64 Bit VST, 32/64 Bit VST3, 32/64 Bit AAX
• OS X: 64 Bit VST, 64 Bit VST3, 64 Bit AU, 64 Bit AAX
• Tested with: Cockos Reaper, Steinberg Cubase/Nuendo/Wavelab 6+, FL Studio 12+, PT2018+, Reason 9.5+, Studio One, Ableton Live
• For latest information please visit www.tbproaudio.de

Plugin Controls

Mouse usage:

• Click and drag horizontally changes parameter value Shift click and drag slows down parameter change Ctrl click rests to default value
• Double click opens value edit box, finish with enter.

Presets

• Preset menu loads and saves user presets. Presets stored under %localappdata%/dEQ6V4 (Windows) or /Users/xxx/Library/Application Support/dEQ6V4 (Mac OSX) are imported as user presets. Previous and next button step trough all presets.
• “Reset to default” sets the current plugins settings as the default settings.
• “Save as Default” sets the current settings as start-up/default settings.

Plugin menu

Click on the menu icon to get info about the plugin, online version check, open the online manual and change-log and change GUI size/scale.

Undo/redo
Undos and redos parameter changes.

Plug-in settings

Over sampling
Incoming signal could be over sampled up to 4 times. Over-sampling reduces magnitude/phase distortions near Nyquist frequency and let the filter sound much more “analogue”.

Analyzer
This control selects the main analyzer mode:

• All: shows the summed left/right spectrum.
• Left: left spectrum.
• Right: right spectrum.
• Mid: M/S mid spectrum.
• Side: M/S side spectrum.

Analyzer Settings

Spectrum Decay
Adjusts the decay of the spectrum analyzer. 1 to 9999ms, 9999ms enables average mode (AVG).

Main Gain
Output volume.

Mix
Mix of original and processed signal.

Freeze
Freeze current spectrum measurement.

Reset
Resets spectrum display.

A/B
Passes the incoming signal directly to the output.

Monitor
Lets you monitor the delta signal IN – OUT. In this mode you can easily verify the correct functioning of your dynamic filter.

AB-LM Lite
Please refer to chapter 7.

Frequency Scale
Scales the frequency range of the spectrum display

Frequency Offset
Offsets the frequency range of the spectrum/filter curve display

Spectrum Magnitude Scale
Scales the magnitude of the spectrum analyzer

Spectrum Magnitude Offset
Offsets the spectrum curve

Spectrum Magnitude Slope
Slope tilts the graph of the frequency spectrum around 1kHz with the given slope in dB.
Values from 3dB to 4.5dB give a more “natural” balance between low and high frequencies.

Link filter to spectrum
Links the scaling of spectrum and filter magnitude range.

Filter Magnitude Scale
Scales the magnitude of the filter curve display.

Main Meter

A small LED On top lids up if level goes over 0.0 dBFS.
Numbers below the meters display the maximum values. Reset by mouse click.

Channel Mode
In/out, In Left/Right, Out Left/Right, In Mid/Side, Out Mid/Side and off.

Meter Mode
Peak (dBFS), RMS (AES 17, dBFS), EBU ML (LUFS), EBU SL (LUFS) and VU (dBVU).

Dynamic Equalizer Parameter

Off/Static/Dynamic
Sets filter band to inactive, static or dynamic (filter plus compressor).

(S)olo
Solos the band, band needs to be active (static or dynamic)

(I)nternal/(S)ide-(C)hain
Each filter band uses the intern or the external side-chain signal as input for the compressor, either narrow band or full band (“+” mode).

• I: internal, narrow band
• I+: internal, wide band
• SC: side-chain/channel 3+4, narrow band
• SC+: side-chain channel 3+4, wide band

Global

This set of buttons modify all parameter in a row, if filter is active (e.g. all Q-factor values of all active filter). E.g. In order to initialize dEQ6 at the beginning, load the initial program, set all filter to “dynamic”, let the audio run, click “set threshold” button (which sets all active threshold values to max peak value) and decrease threshold level further until red filter curve starts to moving and/or GR meters start to glow red.
Off/Static/Dynamic: mouse click toggles all static bands to dynamic and visa versa, shift mouse click toggles all disabled bands to dynamic and visa versa.
Freq: increase/decrease dynamic filter centre frequency (mouse click and drag up/down, mouse wheel)

• Q: increase/decrease dynamic filter steepness
• Gain: increase/decrease dynamic filter gain (static)
• Threshold: increase/decrease dynamic filter threshold level, set threshold to max peak level (mouse click)
• Ratio: increase/decrease dynamic filter ratio
• Attack: increase/decrease dynamic filter attack time, set attack depending on dynamic filter frequency
• Release: increase/decrease dynamic filter release time , set attack depending on dynamic filter frequency
• Gain: increase/decrease dynamic filter gain range

Peak Meter

• Displays current peak value in the range of -60 dBFS and +12 dBFS. The small gray line indicates max peak value, the small yellow line the current threshold value which can be changed by mouse click and drag, or mouse wheel.
• Change by mouse activates dynamic mode.
• Below the LED meter the numerical value of the maximum peak value is display. It is reset by mouse click.

GR Meter

• Displays current gain reduction value in the range of -60 dB and +12 dB. The small gray line indicates max gain reduction value.
• Below the LED meter the numerical value of the maximum gain reduction value is display. It is reset by mouse click.
• Click on GR meter range (12, 6, 3db) cycles through different ranges.

Interactive EQ/spectrum display
The interactive display combines filter curve and frequency spectrum in one display. The view and all filters can be fully controlled with the mouse.

Enlarge view
Toggles size of spectrum/filter curve view

Filter button

• Click and drag the filter button to set frequency, gain or Q of the filter. Additional shift key slows down the mouse movement.
• Dynamic mode: The current level is displayed as grey circular bar. The current gain reduction is shown as red bar and the threshold as yellow line.

Double click on the button activates/de-actives the filter. Additional ctrl key resets filter settings. Right mouse opens the filter popup menu :

• Title: activates/de-activates the filter
• Type: selects current filter type
• Channel: selects current stereo placement
• Dynamic: enables dynamic filter
• Solo: solos filter
• Reset: resets filter to default values
• Invert Gain: inverts filter gain (where applicable)
• Invert All Gain: inverts the gain of all active filters (where applicable)
• Move Out: resets and de-actives the filter and sets the filter frequency to highest value (moves the filter out of the view)
• Mouse drag: changes filter frequency and gain
• Shift key + mouse drag: slows down mouse movement
• Mouse wheel: changes filter Q
• Shift key + mouse wheel: changes filter Q slowly

Spectrum and filter curve view

• The frequency range can be changed by placing the mouse over the frequency area and using the mouse wheel (or shift key + mouse). The frequency offset is changed by dragging the mouse. Ctrl key + mouse click resets view settings.
• The range of the spectrum magnitude can be changed by placing the mouse over the spectrum magnitude area and using the mouse wheel (or shift key + mouse). The spectrum offset is changed by dragging the mouse.
• The range of the filter magnitude can be changed by placing the mouse over the filter magnitude area and using the mouse wheel (or shift key + mouse). Ctrl key + mouse click resets view settings
• The small icons “A”, “L”, “R”, “M” and “S” toggle the display of the respective filter curves:

Analyzer popup menu
The analyzer popup menu hosts many options to adjust the spectrum analyzer and the curve display

• Pre Filter: toggles display of pre-filter spectrum
• Sidechain: toggles display of sidechain spectrum
• Post Filter: toggles display of post-filter-spectrum
• Delta InOut: toggles display of delta spectrum (post – reference)
• Post Predictive Spectrum: toggles display of pre filter spectrum plus filter curve
• Spectrum Curve Type: smoothed (moving averaged), ISO smoothed (frequencies according ISO R40), raw data and bar spectrum (1/6-1/48)
• Max: show additional maximum spectrum
• HiRes Analyzer: activates high resolution FFT
• Spectrogram Mode Inplace: off, standard, heat map (normalized spectrogram), overlay to spectrum view.
• Frequency Tracking: shows frequency maximum
• Spectrogram: please refer to chapter 6 of the manual
• Show Analyzer Grid: toggles display of spectrum/magnitude grid
• Show Add EQ Curves: toggles display of individual filter response curves
• Show Musical Note: toggles display of piano key display
• Show EQ Info: toggles display of EQ info while dragging the EQ buttons
• Show only selected curve: displays only the curve belonging to the active filter. Filter becomes active through a click on the filter button
• EQ Cheat Sheet: toggles display of various cheat sheets.
• Reset Analyzer: resets settings of the spectrum/filter curve view

Narrow-band Sweeping Mode
Enabled by holding the alt key. Please note that also the gain of the narrow-band is affected by the cursor position. The narrow-band filter gain is determined by the scale on the right side (filter magnitude).

Spectrogram

The spectrogram provides a different visual representation of the audio spectrum compared to classical spectrum curve. X and y axis represent time and frequency of the signal, the different colours the signal strength .

• dEQ6 provides following features to get more value from the spectrogram representation:
  • display of spectrogram either horizontal or vertical
  • linear, logarithmic, Mel, Bark and ERB frequency scale (vertical only)
  • frequency slope and amplitude offset
  • various coloration schemes
• The frequency range can be changed with the control “frequency scale”. The frequency range can be repositioned with the control “frequency offset”. The control “spectrum offset” controls the amplitude of the spectrogram and therefore the coloration

AB-LM Lite

• AB-LM Lite is a perceptual A/B loudness matching algorithm to help you avoid the pitfall of ‘louder is better’, so you can evaluate the impact of the plugin on your incoming and outgoing audio signal at equal loudness.
• When you engage AB-LM Lite, the algorithm analyzes the incoming signal and compares it to the outgoing signal via its RMS values and applies an automatic gain adjustment so you can focus on the plugin settings and what they are actually doing to your audio, without being distracted by loudness differences.
• Please to note that AB-LM Lite limits the gain adjustment to +/- 12dB to avoid gain overshoots.
• AB-LM Lite lets you automatically minimize the loudness either quickly (mode fast) or gently (mode slow).
• The “target” symbol top right of the fader sections freezes the last AB-LM Lite gain and switches AB-LM Lite off. This function prints the last AB-LM Lite gain settings to the gain structure of CS-5501.
• The small white LED indicates if AB-LM Lite freeze gain is active. Click on the “target” symbol sets freeze gain to 0.0 dB.
• AB-LM Lite is an automatic, simplified algorithm to help your workflow, based on our more advanced dedicated AB-LM plugin, which allows perceptual loudness matching of third party plugins and even complete plugin chains. AB-
• LM also offers more advanced options, including advanced measurement modes and snapshots.
• For the more advanced features of AB-LM, please see www.tbproaudio.de.

Demo mode versus Registered Mode

• In demo mode (without activation) the plug-in mutes audio every 90 seconds for a short period. This could be circumvented by clicking on the “TBProAudio” logo within 90 seconds.

Plugin activation

• The plugins needs to be registered/activated to remove demo restrictions. Please go to  www.tb-proaudio.de to purchase the activation key. After purchase you will receive an email from TBProAudio with either the (zipped) activation key file or the activation key in text form. Go to the plugin menu->Activate plugin. Please follow the steps described here: https://www.tbproaudio.de/support/productactivation. After successful activation the key symbol shown in the GUI appears in golden colour.

Conclusion

• So finally if you have any questions or suggestions just let us know. And have fun with our tools.
• Your team from TBProAudio 🙂

References

• TBProAudio - Professional Audio Plug-Ins for Mixing, Mastering and Recording - VST VST3 AU AAX | TBProAudio
• Product Activation | TBProAudio

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