Dynamic Equalizers, how many are out there and which do you use?

[legendCNCD]

TDR Nova has no competition

[Agility]

Never liked the TDR Nova(preferred the free vlad one but eventually went back to TB FIX) interface or the control of sound, everything is too smooth.TB Fix and MautoDynamicEQ are the best IMO.

Agreed the TB FIX interface could be improved though but the control is great.

[budweiser]

sonalksis dq-1, probably the father of dynamic eqs.

[J-909]

Thanks everyone for your reviews, I hadn't seen both Tb Fix and AE600.

I find the best candidates either Nova or TB Fix. But I have to say that having tried other alternatives I am not quite satisfied. I mainly want to control transient-ish signals, mainly the kick.

For instance, Fabfilter Pro_MB does not quite make it, I cannot get punch in the sub-bass, it gets empowered bot not punchy (even in hard knee and expansion upwards/downwards both in linear and dynamic phase). I find this more mastering oriented as I said.

As for Ozone 7, I can not achieve drastic results even tho there are more parameters to change than in Neutron. Again too mastering oriented

In Neutron I can quite get what I want but not fine tune it (no attack, release etc).

I am ending up using distorsion and eqing in several stages but it's not as predictable as a dynamic full spectrum control.

I will test TB-Fix and Nova and let you know my thoughts. AE600 goes out of budget

Not exactly sure what you are trying to achieve but if you are trying to use a dynamic equalizer on a single kick sample/sound to get "punch", I'd suggest a very different approach.

Or are you trying to give extra punch to a kick that is already within a mix or a drumloop?

If you absolutely have to go with the "lets EQ it dynamically!" approach then a something like Melda Dynamic EQ or even FabFilter Saturn could be a lot more suitable (but perhaps too much control and fiddling to set them up). In saturn for instance you can build your own transient shaper and then target it at anything.. including the volume of a split band.. or just the EQ part of the split band.

Having said all that, I still suspect you are trying to create "punch" in a very strange way. You can't think of just a part of the frequency spectrum in a sound as "punchy". Transient shaping a very narrow band of frequencies (for instance just the fundamental of a kick) does NOT create punch. It can actually do the very opposite and make something "flabby" and "slow" feeling.

Thanks for your answer. I don't agree with the fact that you cannot get punch on a narrow band of the spectrum, you absolutely can. I mean, I want that part of the spectrum to jump in fast as possible. I know in the low end that "fast" is not that fast but with some plugins (even transient shapers) the band amplification gets in kind of slowly, somehow delayed. In Waves Trans-X for instance there is some latency I guess for avoiding that. Anyway, mi ideal would be to have total control over whatever band I and still cannot get it. Maybe just "punch" is not the word I should be using.

You might be right Melda is the answer (it definitely is but I don't like the way bands are arranged graphically).

By the way, regarding the kick it's not the fundamental I am trying to manage (in fact that one I want to tame it down), it's frequencies around it

[J-909]

sonalksis dq-1, probably the father of dynamic eqs.

+Good bet!

[jens]

sonalksis dq-1, probably the father of dynamic eqs.

Certainly not - in 2004, when DQ1 was first released, Voxengo GlissEQ was already at V2.

[J-909]

Ok, I have tried Nova yesterday and it is an excellent plugin but honestly I haven't been able to get close to what I want. The behaviour is laggy/smooth which I guess is due to a smooth knee threshold. They definitely need a knee control to get harsher and/or quicker behaviour.

As for the rest it is an ideal plugin, easy to manage bands, tweakable dynamics and eq parameters and the best part is to be able to process some bands at a time. A good competitor.

[Novalis]

It has a lot of features going at the same time, so the high CPU hit is normal. It has an eco mode for a reason.

Of course, but not all features are turned on at the same time.

What I'd like to know is, how Nova compares to other dymamic EQs, in regards to CPU usage.

[bmanic]

Thanks for your answer. I don't agree with the fact that you cannot get punch on a narrow band of the spectrum, you absolutely can.

Example please.

[Unaspected]

Any EQ + envelope follower.

[TIMT]

Thanks everyone for your reviews, I hadn't seen both Tb Fix and AE600.

I find the best candidates either Nova or TB Fix. But I have to say that having tried other alternatives I am not quite satisfied. I mainly want to control transient-ish signals, mainly the kick.

For instance, Fabfilter Pro_MB does not quite make it, I cannot get punch in the sub-bass, it gets empowered bot not punchy (even in hard knee and expansion upwards/downwards both in linear and dynamic phase). I find this more mastering oriented as I said.

As for Ozone 7, I can not achieve drastic results even tho there are more parameters to change than in Neutron. Again too mastering oriented

In Neutron I can quite get what I want but not fine tune it (no attack, release etc).

I am ending up using distorsion and eqing in several stages but it's not as predictable as a dynamic full spectrum control.

I will test TB-Fix and Nova and let you know my thoughts. AE600 goes out of budget

Not exactly sure what you are trying to achieve but if you are trying to use a dynamic equalizer on a single kick sample/sound to get "punch", I'd suggest a very different approach.

Or are you trying to give extra punch to a kick that is already within a mix or a drumloop?

If you absolutely have to go with the "lets EQ it dynamically!" approach then a something like Melda Dynamic EQ or even FabFilter Saturn could be a lot more suitable (but perhaps too much control and fiddling to set them up). In saturn for instance you can build your own transient shaper and then target it at anything.. including the volume of a split band.. or just the EQ part of the split band.

Having said all that, I still suspect you are trying to create "punch" in a very strange way. You can't think of just a part of the frequency spectrum in a sound as "punchy". Transient shaping a very narrow band of frequencies (for instance just the fundamental of a kick) does NOT create punch. It can actually do the very opposite and make something "flabby" and "slow" feeling.

Thanks for your answer. I don't agree with the fact that you cannot get punch on a narrow band of the spectrum, you absolutely can. I mean, I want that part of the spectrum to jump in fast as possible. I know in the low end that "fast" is not that fast but with some plugins (even transient shapers) the band amplification gets in kind of slowly, somehow delayed. In Waves Trans-X for instance there is some latency I guess for avoiding that. Anyway, mi ideal would be to have total control over whatever band I and still cannot get it. Maybe just "punch" is not the word I should be using.

You might be right Melda is the answer (it definitely is but I don't like the way bands are arranged graphically).

By the way, regarding the kick it's not the fundamental I am trying to manage (in fact that one I want to tame it down), it's frequencies around it

If you want a punchier kick,control how long your hold stage is (dampened acoustic kick for example)or the length and depth of your pitch envelope(synthetic).you aren't gonna find what you are looking for because i don't think changes in an EQ (despite it having an envelope or not)are close enough to audiorate in order for it to produce transients in frequencies especially that low.EQ works like a delay don't forget and the taps get longer the lower the frequency is,there's no way getting around that unless you do weird things to the impulse of the filter itself where you compromise attenuation and magnitude for phase accuracy and speed.also it would be better if you just worked to make that punch come through above other elements when it needs to and for how long it needs to aka you can't do that with a Dynamic EQ if we are talking like an exponential cutoffs for e.g 5-10ms at 200-100hz
These are all arrangement and sample/sound design dependent things too,not stuff i would rely on mixing or processing for.for example,10ms at 100hz could sound punchy in one arrangement,and flabby in another


All this being said,TB FIX is the quickest i have come across,but it's still not drum transient "quick"

[Gamma-UT]

Based on what the OP doesn't like and from what I can make out of what's wanted - I have to ask: why a dynamic EQ for this job? I'm getting the feeling that a de-esser is probably going to be more successful at doing the job - DMG Essence, the Sonnox one or even the venerable Waves C1 in split-comp mode, all of which can be coaxed into duties that aren't about de-essing.

[spacekid]

Based on what the OP doesn't like and from what I can make out of what's wanted - I have to ask: why a dynamic EQ for this job? I'm getting the feeling that a de-esser is probably going to be more successful at doing the job - DMG Essence, the Sonnox one or even the venerable Waves C1 in split-comp mode, all of which can be coaxed into duties that aren't about de-essing.

I keep thinking that maybe he just needs to find a different type of compressor to do the job, and just combine that with EQ and maybe a transient shaper. Just based on what I would do in the situation. That does take into account that he can isolate things though.

[budweiser]

sonalksis dq-1, probably the father of dynamic eqs.

Certainly not - in 2004, when DQ1 was first released, Voxengo GlissEQ was already at V2.

Yeah, so glisseq is the grandfather, that's ok.

[camsr]

I don't think there are any dynEQ plugins that envelope fast enough to distort (maybe mDynEQ does), you may be out of luck OP.