Beta version of MDynamicEq available, optinions?

[MeldaProduction]

Hi Vojtech,

As I suspected, the combined Threshold and Ratio controls are severely limiting this plugin's maximum potential.
For some vocal deessing, I wanted to set a high threshold and high ratio, to only cut the extreme sibilance, but to cut it quite strongly.


There are 2 other key points that should be addressed to make the ultimate dynamic EQ.

1) Ability to set 'trigger frequency' and 'target frequency' to different frequencies,
2) Ability to monitor each band's 'trigger frequency'.

Both of these functions are available in BX_dyneq. I think it would be a very good idea to demo that plugin.
In particular, play around with the 2 solo buttons in the EQ section. From memory, one of them you can only hear once signal exceeds the threshold, which was excellent because you can hear exactly what is being taken out.


All the best,

Hi,

well, I'll check the BX_dyneq, but did you really check everything ?
For example, click a right mouse button on a band. Then click the "Advanced" button and now you can use a LP/HP filters for the band signal AND you can also completely shape the gain response! That's much more than you can do using threshold and ratio!!
What is not there is the monitoring the band frequency, that's true. I'll think about how this could be done, but I'm not sure how to put it into the workflow reasonably. We'll see.
Anyway let me know what do you think .

[smuff]

I am on a Mac and I presume this will be ported at some stage? In the mean time can we have a sneak peak at what you are all on about ie a screen grab. I have the total bundle and love it and I cannot wait for the Dynamic EQ to come out!

Good Luck with the build

S

[MeldaProduction]

Sure, it's just that Macs are always the last thing to do. Here's the screen :



Plus quite more advanced stuff in the band settings ...

[pendle]

Great work Vojtech !

Spotted a tiny bug though,

I was just playing around in Reaper automating various things and noticed that if you try and automate Frequency ( and everything else in the band settings ) Dynamics is the one that gets the automation.

It works fine if you set up a multiparameter and automate that, but not from direct host automation.

Hope this makes sense.

cheers

Pendle

[MeldaProduction]

Aaaa, thanks, I'll check it out!

[MeldaProduction]

Well, I have checked in Cubase and everything seems fine. The thing is, if you move a band, all of the parameters will be sent to be automated, but as the value hasn't changed, it is usually ignored by the host. Could that be it?

[pendle]

I just tried it again, and yes its fine if I use Reapers parameter automation menu then frequency = frequency.
I have a shortcut where i can wiggle a parameter , press a button and the automation lane pops up on the track view. When i do this by wiggling the frequency control in the MDynEQ bands menu then frequency = dynamics.

[MeldaProduction]

Hmmm, well maybe ask Cockos about that? I'm not really sure what you mean by all that, and frankly I never really found out how to use automation in reaper, so it probably would be a little complicated for me to explain.
Anyway the main problem is probably that the eq sends all automation parameters, when you move a band. I'll try to fix this a little though.

[pendle]

Don't worry , I'm sure you've got bigger fish to fry : )

[IIRs]

Hi Vojtech,

Been trying the new beta... we're definitely getting there, but I confess I found the dynamics transfer editor somewhat confusing: it defaults to a diagonal line that would represent no compression at all in most dynamics processors, but that's obviously not the case here. After some experimenting I managed to create a high threshold plus high ratio type setting like this:



But I would have got there a lot quicker with the traditional threshold and ratio controls!

Then from a workflow perspective: if you adjust the frequency you are processing, or tune the sidechain filters, the signal level will change and the graph points will all need adjusting to compensate. This is much more effort than just tweaking a threshold parameter... maybe I just need to get my head around it better, but at the moment I would happily swap that graphic editor for a set of standard compressor controls which could be tuned without switching windows.

What is not there is the monitoring the band frequency, that's true. I'll think about how this could be done, but I'm not sure how to put it into the workflow reasonably.

How about an option to switch the main EQ graph to show the sidechain filters instead? You could then use the existing auto-listen feature when tuning them.

[smuff]

And again good luck.S

[IIRs]

I just tried it again, and yes its fine if I use Reapers parameter automation menu then frequency = frequency.
I have a shortcut where i can wiggle a parameter , press a button and the automation lane pops up on the track view. When i do this by wiggling the frequency control in the MDynEQ bands menu then frequency = dynamics.

I'm not really sure what you mean by all that, and frankly I never really found out how to use automation in reaper

Reaper provides a function which allows you to quickly create an automation lane for the last parameter you touched, which can be much easier than hunting through a long list of automatable parameters. Presumably it relies on the automation data sent from the plug-in to work out which was the last control you touched...

Saying that, I can't reproduce the problem in Reaper 4: the "last touched" parameter shown in the Param menu above the plugin gui always seems to be correct, and creating an envelope lane for it works fine.

[pendle]

hmmm

I just tested the "last touched " thing and it still goes to dynamics.

Which version of Reaper are you on IIRS ?

I'm 4.03pre4

cheers

Pendle

[IIRs]

Reaper ver. 4.02

Currently testing the 32 bit build on my laptop. I'll try the 64 bit versions when I get to the studio...

[MeldaProduction]

Hi Vojtech,

Been trying the new beta... we're definitely getting there, but I confess I found the dynamics transfer editor somewhat confusing: it defaults to a diagonal line that would represent no compression at all in most dynamics processors, but that's obviously not the case here. After some experimenting I managed to create a high threshold plus high ratio type setting like this:

But I would have got there a lot quicker with the traditional threshold and ratio controls!

Then from a workflow perspective: if you adjust the frequency you are processing, or tune the sidechain filters, the signal level will change and the graph points will all need adjusting to compensate. This is much more effort than just tweaking a threshold parameter... maybe I just need to get my head around it better, but at the moment I would happily swap that graphic editor for a set of standard compressor controls which could be tuned without switching windows.

What is not there is the monitoring the band frequency, that's true. I'll think about how this could be done, but I'm not sure how to put it into the workflow reasonably.

How about an option to switch the main EQ graph to show the sidechain filters instead? You could then use the existing auto-listen feature when tuning them.

This is all because it is not a traditional compressor! Dan, I think you should really stop trying to adjust the multiband dynamics approach here. It even seems to me, that all you will get is a multiband compressor. This is not, what this plugin is or will be. It is an equalizer after all, and the point is, that it can manipulate the bands dynamically, but if I wanted to compress it, I'd use a multiband compressor, right?

The curve is linear by default, because the normal approach is like that. It's simple : input level goes up -> gain goes up (or down if negative). That's it. So if you for example find out that your peak filter is working nice, but when the trumpet plays loud, it's just too much, you just set a negative dynamic gain and the equalizer will therefore apply lower gain, when the trumpet is loud. And you have it fixed! No need for god damn threshold and ratios .

It is intended to be powerful, but easy to use, which is exactly what the threshold/ratio approach is not! With the custom shape you can mess things up, but the main core should still be simple. Try to find out, what you can do with it, instead of messing with thresholds and ratios you are used to. They are slow, hard to use etc... I believe this simple approach is much more powerful, but you have to open your mind to it .