MDynamic EQ Threshold control

[djscorb]

Hi Vojtech

Firstly thanks for MDynamic EQ, it is a fantastic plugin and it really saves the day on many occasions here in both mixing and mastering.

One thing I find a little frustrating is that the threshold control is not on the main window. 90% of the time I find that auto settings for attack and release give me what I need so I don't mind them being in the floating panel. I find the default setting for threshold (silence) is nearly always too strong an effect when using corrective dynamic eq, so for me threshold needs to be dialed in manually everytime which creates a lot of extra clicking to configure.

I appreciate that there are a great many parameters in this plugin and that not all of them can be viewed simultaneously but I definitely feel threshold for each band should be on the main window.

Is this something you would consider?

Many thanks

Scorb

ps. I love the bandshelf and slope filters, fantastic

[MeldaProduction]

Thank you Scorb. Anyway I'm afraid this probably won't happen. That's one difference between MDynamicEq and MAutoDynamicEq - MDynamic eq should be the little guy with less features and parameters, or at least most of it hidden. Please check MAutoDynamicEq about that.

Actually the threshold control has been added after the first release, because some people wanted it. There was a long discussion about it and to be honest I personally never touched it in my projects. It seems some people just cannot get over the traditional compressor controls for some reason. Well, it has its purpose, but cluttering the main screen with it, rather not.

[djscorb]

Hi again

Ok, thanks for replying.

Unfortunately I didn't realise that the auto version was the flagship so to speak. I have no need for the Auto match features really, just a good dynamic EQ for corrective processing. Sometimes you only want to reduce gain somewhere in the spectrum when something excessive occurs. Threshold is vital for this.

I can see now from the screenshots that the threshold is there on the main window for the Auto version.

I guess I can save more presets and name them according to different threshold settings. That should ensure that I spend a little less time going back and forth with the band settings panel.

Please consider it for an update as it is a huge improvement for workflow and the fact that it is already like this for the Auto version demonstrates it's validity.

After all, what's good for one should be good for the other though wouldn't you agree?

All the best

Scorb

p.s I am, off to find the thread where this was discussed previously, maybe I can get some more tips on this great plugin

[djscorb]

Wow, that was quite an epic thread about the development of MDynamic EQ.

It got quite heated between Dan Worrall and yourself a couple of times! Now there is a guy who is passionate about Dynamic EQ

I have to say I fall on Dan's side when regarding what a Dynamic EQ should be. It is almost exactly the same conclusion that I came to that having a high threshold and high ratio is the most useful scenario in which I reach for dynamic eq. This is particularly for correction situations in mastering when you need the dynamic response to react to one element and not another.

I learnt a lot from the thread though and will certainly try out the log mode.

I just realised that I can map threshold to the multiparameters at the base of the plugin. Unfortunately it only gave a readout in percent rather than of the control it is mapped to so didn't really help much

Of course, then digging a little deeper I realised that I can edit the multiparameters to show the units of the first mapped parameter so I am now good to go. I can have threshold for four bands available on the main GUI and leave the fifth band at default. I've saved this as a default so my issue is largely solved

I might also make a preset where the multiparameters at the bottom control threshold, attack, release and channel linking for just one band when you really need to reach quickly for correcting one rogue frequency with minimum clicks.

Pretty much happy with this solution!

I have to say though that I think you are a little too keen on floating panels. it can get a bit confusing for the user sometimes. It could be simpler. For instance why does shift clicking open a panel to edit numerical values when nearly every other developer simply achieves this by double clicking and editing it on the text label itself. Absolutely no need for yet another panel there in my opinion.

Anyway sorry for the long post but I thought if any body else had a similar workflow issue then this workaround might be useful.

Cheers

Scorb

[MeldaProduction]

Hey Scorb, I'm glad you found a solution .

So, about the floating panels (usually called popup windows) - well, sometimes there just isn't enough space and personally I hate tabs and other solutions - too clumsy and so much clicking... Also popups sometimes can be left open, which is great if you want to control 2 bands at the same moment for example.

About text edit - actually did you know there aren't just sliders? You can use knobs or buttons, where it works with double clicking . Check Settings.

[djscorb]

Hi again

Ok great, I will look into that. Seems like you thought of everything. I'm impressed.

Cheers

Scorb

[MeldaProduction]

Thanks
The GUI engine is extremely versatile, though many people don't even know it's there . In the forthcoming major update it should be "better" .

[djscorb]

Hi again

I thought I would post here rather then opening another thread.

I have a question about something I am trying to achieve with MDynamic EQ.

Basically I am in a mastering session and there is a sound that is a little too loud in the mix. The easiest way to get MDynamic EQ to "see" it and therefore trigger gain reduction is by finding it's most prominent frequency in the side channel as it is more exposed relative to the rest of the mix.

I know I can unlink the channels in mid/side mode, but what I would like to do is use the side channel to also trigger gain reduction in the mid channel.

I can't find a way to achieve this. Is there a way to trigger GR in the mid channel based on what is in the side channel?

If I go after the same rogue frequency in the mid channel other elements in the mix trigger gain reduction and not the sound I am chasing.

I hope that makes sense. I know that the Brainworx Dynamic EQ can do this and it seems with all the options available in MDynamicEQ that it should be possible.

Thanks for any help.

Scorb

[MeldaProduction]

Uuuu, so you want to affect both M & S, but listen only to S, correct? Well, that cannot be done directly. I'll add it to to-do list, but with low-priority, this is kind of extreme.

Anyway I can think of a more or less simple trick:

If you lower the M in gain before the processing and increase it after by the same amount, you can just listen to both M&S in the plugin. You'll probably need 2 other plugins - say MUtility, one before, one after, both in M mode, first one with gain say -24dB, then the equalizer, then the other MUtility with +24dB. Not exactly perfect solution, but should do the trick .

[djscorb]

Hi Vojtech

Thanks for the extremely quick reply

I think I see what you are saying. This would allow the side channel to act as the louder signal and yeah, I can see that working.

It occurred to me after I posted that the perfect way to achieve this would be to assign which channel acts as the key signal for a given band, perhaps even a slider that crossfades between the two would add further flexibility.

Another useful thing that I have also longed for is two separate threshold sliders for either L & R or M & S. Usually the mid channel is far stronger in level and being able to dig in deeper on the side using a lower threshold would often be useful.

For the moment I have managed to complete the session using DMG Audio Compassion as it allows one channel to listen to the other's signal. It is a bit of a compromise though as the split feature in Compassion affects a broader band of frequencies than I would have liked.

I will try your suggestion as it sounds like a clever way around the problem.

Many thanks

Scorb

[MeldaProduction]

My pleasure Scorb .

Well, about the channel crossfades, it's not that simple I'm afraid. And it's worse - think about surround... One would really make his head spinning from that idea...
Anyway I'll add the ideas to to-do list and we'll see in the future.

[Moonwrist]

You could try to get that only side channel action with using side chain.
Make the track a 4 channel track.
Send main channels 1-2 to these extra channels 3-4.
Put a plugin to code it m/s and then mute the m.
MUtility with only m and volume down should do the trick.
Remember to configure it to channels 3-4 only.
Now channels 1-2 have you original sound and 3-4 have only side signal.
Then put MDynamicEQ next and click the side chain option and the plugin affect to original signal but is triggered by the side signal in channels 3-4.

[MeldaProduction]

Good thinking . If it's easier or not, that's a question, but it would certainly do the trick.

[djscorb]

Uuuu, so you want to affect both M & S, but listen only to S, correct? Well, that cannot be done directly. I'll add it to to-do list, but with low-priority, this is kind of extreme.

Anyway I can think of a more or less simple trick:

If you lower the M in gain before the processing and increase it after by the same amount, you can just listen to both M&S in the plugin. You'll probably need 2 other plugins - say MUtility, one before, one after, both in M mode, first one with gain say -24dB, then the equalizer, then the other MUtility with +24dB. Not exactly perfect solution, but should do the trick .

Hi again

I meant to post a while ago because I recently tried the suggestion you made about attenuating the mid channel (by 24 dB as it turns out) before MDynamicEQ and then re-boosting afterwards in order for the side channel to act as the trigger for reduction in the mid channel.

When doing so I realised that the channel linking is broken when using M/S mode. It works as expected in L/R mode but I thought I should let you know.

Is this something that can be easily fixed? It seems to be fully linked at 100% but anything below that is not working as it should.

I still think it would really be better to have a threshold slider for each channel and then all scenarios are more easily catered for but I'm guessing that you would be unlikely to change something as major as this. If you were able to do this, a simple link/unlink button and two threshold sliders would really open up a lot of possibilities with this plugin as a problem solver.

Anyway, let me know if you need me to give you steps to reproduce the channel linking issue.

Cheers

Scorb

[MeldaProduction]

Hi Scrob,

ok, I need the steps to reproduce it - didn't you by any chance just lower volume of channel 1 (left) ? You NEED to adjust M volume, not L! Hence you need to use MUtility to do that for example.

About the dedicated control - quite frankly it's very low priority on the list now, because how specialized it is (there are many many more important and interesting things to do to be honest). You know, such control would be very very complex - you said simple link control, but it's there, but it doesn't solve your case! In your case you'd need to control any channel with any set of channels. That would need a dedicated popup with levels for each channel, very painful. And the processing part is another issue...