Equality VS Pro-Q (final answer, Equality).

[4damind]

...It will probably have all the features of our competitors though, and will come with EQuality...

This sounds great. Most important thing is to get a more functional and designed GUI and also look to the often mentioned things (like the knob range/behaviour) compared to the competitors.

DSP is "ready", now the focus should be set to a better GUI for the other/new version. You should try Fabfilter Pro-Q again and test it very deep to get an idea why people prefer this plug-in for the GUI. Nobody needs a clone of Pro-Q but some ideas could be the base for a new and better version

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

thank you (K.O.) for the beautiful GUI

Thank you!

Damn, if EQuality had a introductory sale for that release... I am sure people would swarm in like ants.

Actually the opposite will happen, when we do more work we'll increase the price. This was always intended; we wanted to thank the people that supported us from the start, but we're interested in defining standards, not making budget software that we can't afford to properly support and develop.

We only discount our products in the first month, this is to compensate users for the "extended beta test" period, where early on they may find (and often help us resolve) bugs and to thank them for their support. We have absolutely no plans for any type of sale in the foreseeable future and the early adopters will always get the lowest price (and our love, of course). Anything else would be unfair, we really dislike it when a product is launched and then 6 months down the line there's a massive sale - it's a kick in the teeth for the people that believed in you the most.

Sorry for the in-depth reply, but Dave gets a lot of "when will the next sale be?" emails and I thought I'd clarify our position. Sales in pro-audio are often a sign of the beginning of the end, and like the Jimmy Castor Bunch "we've just begun".

[vata44]

"We only discount our products in the first month"

This is exactly what I mean... I did not intend to mean some sort of massive $10 sale. However, something a little enticing to "act now we are celebrating!"

The internet is difficult sometimes, because the inner emotional feelings and meaning is often lost when there is not face to face human contact.

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

This sounds great. Most important thing is to get a more functional and designed GUI and also look to the often mentioned things (like the knob range/behaviour) compared to the competitors.

We've already spent a lot of time considering this years ago. Most mastering engineers we consulted (which were our primary target market) loathed the Pro-Q GUI, and the current EQuality GUI was a result of their requirements. It was always a lot easier to do something like the Fabfilter, obviously (less is less), but we needed to meet the needs of people that wanted an EQ to work the way they like to work. For some this meant seeing all the numbers all the time, for some it meant only using knobs and having no visual distractions. All of these methods pointed towards optimal numbers of band counts, and the only people that have asked for more tend to be doing sound design.

Also, we don't see a point to knobs at all on a graph only EQ GUI. Look at Pro-Q, what are those huge circles actually telling you? They're a really poor visual representation of the data, you need the tooltips to see what's going on. Wouldn't you rather that area was smaller and you had more graph?

All input gratefully received.

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

However, something a little enticing to "act now we are celebrating!"

The internet is difficult sometimes, because the inner emotional feelings and meaning is often lost when there is not face to face human contact.

Well, it won't be a new product, it'll simply be an extension of EQuality and won't be available separately. The upshot is - old customers will get it for free, new customers won't.

I know what you mean about the internet, it's a good reason not to take it all too seriously! All of this could change next week!!

[Rosebudd]

"We only discount our products in the first month"

This is exactly what I mean... I did not intend to mean some sort of massive $10 sale. However, something a little enticing to "act now we are celebrating!"

The internet is difficult sometimes, because the inner emotional feelings and meaning is often lost when there is not face to face human contact.

But I think what he is saying is EQuality has already had it's introductory sale. And this new stripped down mix EQ will simply be an addition to EQuality. A free reward for early adopters, but the price will go up for everyone else. Not down. So in simple terms if you are looking for your intro deal on EQuality you should buy it now before it goes up in price

edit:oops I answered a bit too late!

[Bronto Scorpio]

It sounds like I have to save up some money very fast

Cheers
Dennis

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

edit:oops I answered a bit too late!

Late but accurate!

[Guenon]

will we still be able to have the current EQuality GUI because i love it the way it is and i think Pro-Q is insanely ugly and hard to work with,,,

Yes, and you're in the majority.

That's a bit of a low blow, imho, quoting someone who feels that "Pro-Q is insanely ugly and hard to work with", then saying that he's in the majority.

I get that you "officially" targeted your comment at the "I love the way it [EQuality GUI] is" part, but quoting it this way still makes it seem like an intentional jab.

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

That's a bit of a low blow, imho, quoting someone who feels that "Pro-Q is insanely ugly and hard to work with", then saying that he's in the majority.

OK - to fully qualify my statement for suspicious minds, I meant that the majority of EQuality users tell us they're happy with the GUI as it stands and that we won't be replacing it with a Pro-Q style interface.

[Guenon]

Also, if your primary target market is mastering, why is it marketed as "something for every track of your session" on your front page?

But, in all seriousness: I have been demoing EQuality for a couple of weeks now, and I love it. It's a serious wake up call of an EQ plugin. I don't care for the defensive tone that one can read between the lines in some of the recent posts, however.

[Krzysztof Oktalski]

Also, if your primary target market is mastering, why is it marketed as "something for every track of your session" on your front page?

Because thousands of producers use it wherever they need an EQ. We had mastering engineers in mind first and foremost, but it's a great tracking EQ too.

I don't care for the defensive tone that one can read between the lines in some of the recent posts, however.

Maybe stop reading between the lines?

We think Pro-Q is a great plugin as a quick, easy-to-use tracking EQ. If we didn't think this we wouldn't be developing a graph only version of EQuality to match it.

This is my last word on this thread, thanks to all.

[Dr.Gunjah]

We've already spent a lot of time considering this years ago. Most mastering engineers we consulted (which were our primary target market) loathed the Pro-Q GUI, and the current EQuality GUI was a result of their requirements. It was always a lot easier to do something like the Fabfilter, obviously (less is less), but we needed to meet the needs of people that wanted an EQ to work the way they like to work. For some this meant seeing all the numbers all the time, for some it meant only using knobs and having no visual distractions. All of these methods pointed towards optimal numbers of band counts, and the only people that have asked for more tend to be doing sound design.

I guess it's more that people that are frequently using analog gear are more comfortable to EQuality, while the "digital people" find Pro-Q more intuitive.
I'm more the digital guy that doesn't see any sense in putting 20 knobs an a GUI if it can be done comfortably with 5 too.

Also, we don't see a point to knobs at all on a graph only EQ GUI.

I usually use the graphic interface for a rough placement of the filter curve and then finetune it with the knobs via mousewheel.
Mousewheel feels much more precise to me than dragging, especially at Pro-Q because IMO they have mastered intuitive mousewheel usage.
I really like the graph+knobs thing at Pro-Q too because I don't have to remember all the different modifiers that are needed when only using the graph.
You can still make a button to show/hide the knobs for people that don't need them.

Look at Pro-Q, what are those huge circles actually telling you? They're a really poor visual representation of the data, you need the tooltips to see what's going on.

That's right, it would really be cool if there was a well readable text representation of the current value below the knobs. Though tbh I prefer the value to be on the tooltip only(but therefor readable) over the values on the EQuality GUI that are so small that I have to get closer to the screen to read anything.

Cheers,
Doc

[Guenon]

We had mastering engineers in mind first and foremost, but it's a great tracking EQ too.

I agree, it is indeed.

Regarding the GUI of Pro-Q, in my opinion it's been a "more than meets the eye" thing all along. There are countless of graph EQ GUIs out there, and no matter how straight forward to implement they might seem, compared to the current EQuality interface, I'm one of those who feel like Pro-Q's interface is something special in action. In the middle of a project it's fluid, creative, smooth. Even more so with the fresh update and the killer idea of soloing in that particular way.

So yeah, it has (again, in my opinion) something special going for it, something that can't just be simply glossed over like this:

It was always a lot easier to do something like the Fabfilter, obviously (less is less), but we needed to meet the needs of people that wanted an EQ to work the way they like to work.

[4damind]

We've already spent a lot of time considering this years ago. Most mastering engineers we consulted (which were our primary target market) loathed the Pro-Q GUI, and the current EQuality GUI was a result of their requirements. It was always a lot easier to do something like the Fabfilter, obviously (less is less), but we needed to meet the needs of people that wanted an EQ to work the way they like to work.

Aah Ok, if the GUI is more designed for some people loathing the Pro-Q GUI then it makes sense. But if the goal is to make the best available EQ, then you should also look back why so many people prefer for the GUI Fabfilter and not EQuality I would never make a clone of Pro-Q! But some ideas and also the implementation of some details are IMO better with Fabfilter.

And no, it's not easier to implement and design a GUI like Fabfilter. It makes a lot more work to design such elements and program the code around them. Unfortunately there are not many good interface designers with the knowledge about design and implementation of GUIs and so Flux and Fabfilter are today often mentioned.

Anyway, you've got many input from the users what they prefer and like (also when it's not your primary target market)