Acon Digital Equalize

[stian]

Wow, mixed phase is just awesome, in minimum is same/on pair/identical as usual suspects (Pro Q, Equick...), but in mixed mode, just wow, seriously best thing there is now, just mixed phase is worth the price alone, hats off to you

Thank you very much for your kind words! I spent much time developing the mixed phase mode, so it's very nice to hear that you like it so much.

Best,
Stian

[nicksohn]

Wow, acon digital's support is great!!
Actually it is making me buying their product, I already have tons of eq, reverb though..

[Zexila]

Wow, mixed phase is just awesome, in minimum is same/on pair/identical as usual suspects (Pro Q, Equick...), but in mixed mode, just wow, seriously best thing there is now, just mixed phase is worth the price alone, hats off to you

Thank you very much for your kind words! I spent much time developing the mixed phase mode, so it's very nice to hear that you like it so much.

Best,
Stian

Thank you for all your time and dedication

Anyone who isn't completely oblivious and deaf should appreciate what you did for all of us, real game changer, I could care less at this point what any other surgical EQ has to offer if there isn't something that can challenge your mixed phase mode, it's that good and relevant, it makes Equalize clear winner in any shootout, I dare anyone to prove me wrong and do his own shootout

[stian]

Thanks, Nichsohn and Zexila!

Best,
Stian

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Acon has just released a great update to this EQ today. It squashes all remaining bugs and adds a cool feature.

This thing is amazing.. as some of you know i have been intensely searching for my go to EQ since moving full time away from reason anad back to logic, and have picked the acon.. and there were MANY contenders.. It wasn't just the price, but the features - you have more control over the curve than any eq on the planet.. i am sort of shocked that pro q gets 40 pages or whatever and this gets 8.

I have tested the cpu and over many instances with mixed phase modes it is 1:1 with the fab filter. So there you go.

The latency is minimum phase mode has been fixed, some curve update problems fixed, and the DB on the cut filter has been increased from 12 to 24. So now you can do huge bottom end bass bump tricks as well as the typical resonant low pass filter sweeps.

I gave some suggestions to Stian to make it "the one eq to end them all" and he seems pretty receptive..

I would really love to get some feedback here which would be useful to acon also i am sure, to see if you guys think the ideas i presented have any merit.

1) Because Acon EQ has 2 analyser curves, i asked for a sidechain input so one could be dedicated to source and one to sidechain, to resolve frequency clashes.

2) Simply for the sake of competition, i suggested a spectrum grab type feature like ProQ2, as that is actually the only thing pro Q can do that acon can't. Furthermore, aside from presets of 6 and 12 like pro Q2, acon has decimal point free flowing steepness on the cut filters which makes them the most useful around. Just one thing it does that pro q can't, as well as that fine level of control on bells and shelves.. try replicating those with pro q, you can't!

3) A simple dynamics mode like gliss EQ.. the gui is totally resize-able so i think it would be quite ok to add this , or if it's not added as part of a permanent display, perhaps have a dynamic button that switches the knobs to dynamic mode display. The gui is already incorporating this sort of knob switching anyway.
This is the only reason i keep gliss eq around these days, so i really hope this is added so i can just use the acon for *everything*. Imagine just an "amt (going from say -60 to plus 60)", "attack" and "release" knob. That's it. Would be awesome. And with the solo band we could really hone in to de ess for example, or carefully dynamically boost just certain low frequencies, kind of like bx boom. Many other possibilities of course could come from even a simple dynamics mode.

4)Right now the analyser doesn't have a summed L+R average type mode so you can see it all on the one curve. It has mid/side/l/r individually only, with option of two curves, I tend to use a single post eq analyser only where i like everything summed to one curve. Anyone else would like this?

5) I also asked that up to 30khz+ be added, as even though it's beyond any human's hearing, we can all see with maag eq how great boosts at ultra high frequency can sound.. it's all about the curve, and since acon has such intricate control over the shape of the eq, i think it would be very useful to have the maximum higher than the current 22khz.

How do you guys feel about these suggestions? I am racking my brain and can't think of anything else whatsoever it could ever need. It's reliable, low cpu, looks gorgeous especially on ultra hd, and such a tweakable eq - i really love this thing! Even if it never changes from how it is now, this is easily my favourite overall EQ plugin of all time. Price to quality ratio is simply unmatched.

If i had to pick one from above, i think i would pick the dynamics mode.. well i think i would have to pick 2, the dynamics and the sidechain input. Since the EQ can already display 2 analyser, I am sure the sidechain input is much easier to add than a dynamics mode, but then again, i don't understand coding.

[stian]

Hi Theo,

This thing is amazing.. as some of you know i have been intensely searching for my go to EQ since moving full time away from reason anad back to logic, and have picked the acon.. and there were MANY contenders.. It wasn't just the price, but the features - you have more control over the curve than any eq on the planet.. i am sort of shocked that pro q gets 40 pages or whatever and this gets 8.

Thank you very much for your kind words! I'm very glad that you chose Equalize after such a thorough comparison.

1) Because Acon EQ has 2 analyser curves, i asked for a sidechain input so one could be dedicated to source and one to sidechain, to resolve frequency clashes.

This is a great idea and should be fairly simple to implement. I've received the same feature request earlier, so this seems like a useful feature to many users.

2) Simply for the sake of competition, i suggested a spectrum grab type feature like ProQ2, as that is actually the only thing pro Q can do that acon can't. Furthermore, aside from presets of 6 and 12 like pro Q2, acon has decimal point free flowing steepness on the cut filters which makes them the most useful around. Just one thing it does that pro q can't, as well as that fine level of control on bells and shelves.. try replicating those with pro q, you can't!

I'll look into the spectrum grab feature in Pro Q2 and see if that's something that would make sense in Equalize as well.

3) A simple dynamics mode like gliss EQ.. the gui is totally resize-able so i think it would be quite ok to add this , or if it's not added as part of a permanent display, perhaps have a dynamic button that switches the knobs to dynamic mode display. The gui is already incorporating this sort of knob switching anyway.

Yes, that would be very nice to have. I've haven't implemented this earlier because it would be challenging to keep the CPU usage down while maintaining the current flexibility. However, I think a parallel setup would be possible and this is something I'll definitely think about. The linear and mixed phase modes would be ideal for that.

4)Right now the analyser doesn't have a summed L+R average type mode so you can see it all on the one curve. It has mid/side/l/r individually only, with option of two curves, I tend to use a single post eq analyser only where i like everything summed to one curve. Anyone else would like this?

Actually, the mid channel is simply (L+R)/2 so that should be exactly what you're looking for if I understand you correctly.

5) I also asked that up to 30khz+ be added, as even though it's beyond any human's hearing, we can all see with maag eq how great boosts at ultra high frequency can sound.. it's all about the curve, and since acon has such intricate control over the shape of the eq, i think it would be very useful to have the maximum higher than the current 22khz.

That makes sense, since you would be able to create filter curves that aren't currently possible. The only question is how to deal with the curve display since the bullet shaped handles would disappear out of the view. I'll think about that...

If i had to pick one from above, i think i would pick the dynamics mode.. well i think i would have to pick 2, the dynamics and the sidechain input. Since the EQ can already display 2 analyser, I am sure the sidechain input is much easier to add than a dynamics mode, but then again, i don't understand coding.

Yes, you are right, side chaining would probably be much easier... The only hurdle would be some testing on different hosts, since side-chaining isn't really defined in the VST 2.4 standard, although most hosts interpret additional input channels as side-chain channels as far as I know.

Thanks again for your valuable feedback, that's very much appreciated!

Best,
Stian

[sinkmusic]

Multi-channel analyzer is a nice feature indeed.
I use it quite often with IIeq Pro or Melda Multianalyzer.
Maybe it could work either using side-chain or like Sknote Strip or Iieq, by detecting the other instances used in the project ?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

wow Stian thanks for the amazing replies! You actually have me a bit excited! I must admit the multi display and dynamics is the only reason i keep gliss around, and the multi display the iieq around (cause i find it really buggy in general). Put it this way, acon comes closer than any other so far in becoming the dream "all in one". And i would love to delete all the others (except of course specialised character analog hardware emulation eq's). I really am trying to keep things to as minimum as possible these days.

Stian thanks so much for clarifying the analyser "mid", so that is generally the option i would want, unless i specifically only want to monitor the frequencies of the "side" content, correct?

Also, there is nothing wrong with checking competition - for example to download the demo of gliss Eq and see how he does the dynamics.. no crime in that.

@sinkmusic, don't you think sidechain is a nicer way, cause it means less cpu possible as we are only using one plugin instance?

@Stian, if dynamics mode is too cpu intensive, just have a button for enable/disable.. Surely it wouldn't use anything if one didn't enable? Or an even cooler idea.. the installer installs two version, dynamic and non, and user can choose which to instantiate Just trying to come up with best compromise i can think of.

This EQ deserves WAY more buzz than it's getting.. it's not just "another EQ". Just as ProQ2 is special, this one is too for different reasons (the control over the curve).

Also Stian, one thing I am still confused over, recently you implemented a feature request for me to increase DB of cut filters to double - and you said to me that DB is very different to Q. For example, with other cut filters of all other eq i tried, where they do have resonance, or Q, it is always displayed with that name. Yours is the first time I saw "db". Would you mind explaining the difference? In theory, it works the same sound wise to me, just the calibration is different (for example what I might have in pro Q 2 at 3 Q in an 18db slope low cut filter at 80 hz to create a bass cut and bump, in acon EQ i have the same settings but a "10 db" setting for where the "q" usually is.)

Cheers!

[stian]

Multi-channel analyzer is a nice feature indeed.
I use it quite often with IIeq Pro or Melda Multianalyzer.
Maybe it could work either using side-chain or like Sknote Strip or Iieq, by detecting the other instances used in the project ?

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll investigate both possibilities, but side-chaining is probably safer for projects with many tracks since it doesn't introduce dependencies between tracks that the host isn't aware of and could potentially harm the load balancing.

Best,
Stian

[stian]

Stian thanks so much for clarifying the analyser "mid", so that is generally the option i would want, unless i specifically only want to monitor the frequencies of the "side" content, correct?

Yes, exactly!

Also, there is nothing wrong with checking competition - for example to download the demo of gliss Eq and see how he does the dynamics.. no crime in that.

Will do...

@sinkmusic, don't you think sidechain is a nicer way, cause it means less cpu possible as we are only using one plugin instance?

I think that's true, please see my answer to sinkmusic earlier.

@Stian, if dynamics mode is too cpu intensive, just have a button for enable/disable.. Surely it wouldn't use anything if one didn't enable? Or an even cooler idea.. the installer installs two version, dynamic and non, and user can choose which to instantiate Just trying to come up with best compromise i can think of.

Yes, I think an enable / disable button would be a good solution.

Also Stian, one thing I am still confused over, recently you implemented a feature request for me to increase DB of cut filters to double - and you said to me that DB is very different to Q. For example, with other cut filters of all other eq i tried, where they do have resonance, or Q, it is always displayed with that name. Yours is the first time I saw "db". Would you mind explaining the difference? In theory, it works the same sound wise to me, just the calibration is different (for example what I might have in pro Q 2 at 3 Q in an 18db slope low cut filter at 80 hz to create a bass cut and bump, in acon EQ i have the same settings but a "10 db" setting for where the "q" usually is.)

Well, the hard part is actually explaining the Q factor... The dB is fairly straight forward. It is simple the maximum level of the resonant peak relative to the passband level. The Q factor is derived from bell shaped filters and can be used to create resonances when applied to cuts or shelving filters. The relationship between the two parameters is, however, not trivial to explain. Hopefully, you'll find the resonance in dB to be more intuitive after getting used to it, since it relates more closely to the amount resonance as you can see when you drag the resonance handle upwards in the filter curve.

Best,
Stian

[steffensen]

Been demoing this a bit, and i do like the sound!
I am missing a option for fine control over the parameters though.
Holding Ctrl turns that on i guess (so ok, its not missing!), but i need to move my mouse all over the pad to move the parameter 0.1 step. Having that option working better would be essential for me, as i do a lot of finetuning.

I love how Equality handles this, its so smooth. I can even choose to adjust by very small values with the mouse.

Also, it seems the Mute of bands are a bit flakey in Ableton Live. I haven't yet checked out the new updated version though, so might be fixed already.

Overall a big thumbs up however!

[ObsoleteAcc99]

actually I agree with you 100% about the fine tune, it's awkward. You press the command key the have to wait for it to "sync" with the display and you move by .1

there should be a way to hold shift also to just drag smoother and finer without delays

[stian]

Been demoing this a bit, and i do like the sound!
I am missing a option for fine control over the parameters though.
Holding Ctrl turns that on i guess (so ok, its not missing!), but i need to move my mouse all over the pad to move the parameter 0.1 step. Having that option working better would be essential for me, as i do a lot of finetuning.

I love how Equality handles this, its so smooth. I can even choose to adjust by very small values with the mouse.

Thank you very much for the feedback, I just tested the fine tuning and I agree that it could be improved. I.e. the frequency knob should move in 0.1 steps when fine tuning.

Also, it seems the Mute of bands are a bit flakey in Ableton Live. I haven't yet checked out the new updated version though, so might be fixed already.

In what way flakey? Is it easy to reproduce? It should be indicated visually when a band is muted, though, that's on the to-do list already...

Overall a big thumbs up however!

Thanks, glad to hear that!

Best,
Stian

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Ok i will test the muting in ableton as i have 9,2 installed here and see if i can reproduce or realise what steffensen means. Will BRB..
(ps could be steffensen is on windows though not mac which is what i will test on).

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Ok that was easy, i see what he means.

I just created a new instance of acon eq.. i inserted 5 bands and made very audible adjustments with all of them. Then i bypassed one band. It worked as expected. But when i clicked on any of the other bands, they still show as bypassed, even though they are not. And then when i click the bypass button again, it un bypasses the correct band, ie the one i had bypassed.

So the question would be, is it a global setting for bypass, or is it *supposed* to be per band? Cause you can't bypass multiple bands, one band at a time cause the button gets "stuck" to whatever you have chosen for previous band.. make sense?

so there you go, i see how beta testers do miss things, as i totally missed that, and that's because, i never even tested it one time