frei:raum - Magic EQ?

[thecontrolcentre]

What kind of copy protection does it use?

[pheeleep]

ATN69, does it come in vst2 and vst3 versions? Just making sure you tried both if that is the case.

[Sampleconstruct]

What kind of copy protection does it use?

Online activation of serial number.

[ATN69]

ATN69, does it come in vst2 and vst3 versions? Just making sure you tried both if that is the case.

During installation I only saw vst and aax. No vst3. I installed both 32-bit and 64-bit versions and so far I only tested 64-bit because that's what I mainly use. I will check Bitwig and FLS 32-bit as well.

Protection is a serial number you put in and register. There is a popup window first time you open the plug. It register the computer id in Sonible system so if you change harddrive or computer you need to contact them. The serial is good for installation on 2 computers.

[Fleer]

They will add optional iLok protection, as well as some additional features, coming soon at no cost for v1 owners, as confirmed by Sonible.
This is a helluva plugin.

[Audio Plugin Deals]

So nice. I just installed it and opened FL Studio. When I add frei:raum into my project it crashes FL Studio, and it's happening every time.

Please get in touch with SONIBLE, they have some tweaks which could help solve this issue.

[ATN69]

So nice. I just installed it and opened FL Studio. When I add frei:raum into my project it crashes FL Studio, and it's happening every time.

Please get in touch with SONIBLE, they have some tweaks which could help solve this issue.

I already did and I gave them all the details I have. All I can do now it just wait for them to get back to me. I actualy have FL Studio installed on 2 different computers. One in the office and one at home. I will try it at home tonight and see if I get the same result. Both 32-bit FL and 64-bit FL crash.

[TrojakEW]

@ATN69 - try this http://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic.php?t=140975 and let us know if it is working. I'm considering to buy it too and have flstudio .

[ATN69]

@ATN69 - try this http://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic.php?t=140975 and let us know if it is working. I'm considering to buy it too and have flstudio .

A million thanks for sharing this information. It worked like a charm I made a quick test of frei:raum and it seems to be working just fine now.

[TrojakEW]

What is your opinion? Does it really do magic?

[ATN69]

What is your opinion? Does it really do magic?

Too soon to tell since I need to test it some more. It does however do magic on the CPU load ...black magic that is This laptop I have in the office is not very powerful though. It's an i5 quad with 8GB RAM. It's nothing to write home about in other words. It will be great to try it at home later with my new computer.

Edit: I tested it out a little bit more and especially the smart EQ function, and the result is surprisingly good. I think this EQ will be just fine on the mixbus as a tool to "polish" the track and give it that final touch. My feeling is that using as insert on every channel will kill the CPU quite quickly.

[yellowmix]

I demoed it and decided to buy it.

Running an i7 @ 3.4 gHz and it doesn't sweat at all, 1.3% CPU which is something like 15% realtime CPU. Note that it has a significant buffer, showing up as 4096 samples for me, so adjust your audio interface latency accordingly or your CPU will weep. My interface doesn't go up that high, but at 2048 samples it handles it fine.

My short review: great for post-production, great for mixing and mastering, potential for sound design.

So it's three EQ-based algorithms in one plugin. The Smart EQ is the star of the show. It's got 5 bell bands plus a low and high cut. It's a normal, capable EQ until you enable magic. Three of the five bands are magic-enabled. There's a wand button on each one that enables it to analyze your content. You play your content, and hit the record button on the band node. You can have all three learn at the same time. It will indicate when it's done learning.

Stop here if you don't want spoilers.

If the EQ is flat it does nothing. Now start moving the magic nodes around. It has a very finely-defined EQ curve that adds and subtracts in a seemingly random way. Switching the node to subtract or gain simply inverts the magic curve. On the master, it can increase clarity of the whole mix, but you need to listen and see if gain or subtract is better, and where the curve is best applied. The UI can convert to a "blind" mode without the EQ graph to remove visual bias. I'm with the SOS reviewer on this. It's scary that it does all of this by itself, where you would spend a significant amount of time doing it manually. But you still do need to tweak it.

The Proximity EQ's effect is very apparent. Simply put the Proximity knob to its extremes. At low values it sounds muffled/distant and at high values gets louder but in a closer distance way. You have the same number and type of bands if you want to affect certain EQ ranges. Not sure if this is some HRTF stuff going on. But with subtle modifications, it can bring elements back and forward. I can see this used on busses and individual tracks.

The Entropy EQ works on inharmonic/harmonic content. It's an outside-the-box transient shaper. On drums, it's the difference between the noisy transient and the more tonal body decay. It's really interesting on vocals. If you know how a talkbox works, where you have to voices consonants but unvoice vowels, that's what it does. It will either tone them down or increase them. It looks for constant waveforms vs everything else. Again, it's got the same number of EQ bands and types, so you can target specific frequencies. So this is great for drum busses but lots of potential for sound design too.

I already have Newfangled Elevate but I had to get this. It's the dawn of a new age, it's simultaneously frightening and exciting. I need to run a lot more mixes through them both. I'm prognosticating that results are going to be heavily content-dependent.

Please don't take my word for it. Demo it and try it on your specific material. I put in my email address on Sonible's website, they emailed me a download link immediately, sent another email with links to tutorial videos. Installing it was a snap and it's a really interesting experience to explore it.

[epiphaneia]

They will add optional iLok protection, as well as some additional features, coming soon at no cost for v1 owners, as confirmed by Sonible.
This is a helluva plugin.

I´ve been demoing it yesterday, and while I liked what it did, I was surprised that even when I pulled the magic bands all the way up or down, the changes were very small, more often than not 2-3db max. Does that mean that this EQ sees my mixes as "balanced", and doesn´t find any "major imbalance" to correct? Seems I´m not getting it yet...

Anyway, may I ask where you found the news regarding iLok and further development? As these points address exactly the two major doubts I have:
a ) I dislike their copy protection
b ) I worry that this sale indicates either "soon-to-be abandonware" or "paid upgrade soon, expand user base first".

[pascal020]

I demoed it and decided to buy it.

Running an i7 @ 3.4 gHz and it doesn't sweat at all, 1.3% CPU which is something like 15% realtime CPU. Note that it has a significant buffer, showing up as 4096 samples for me, so adjust your audio interface latency accordingly or your CPU will weep. My interface doesn't go up that high, but at 2048 samples it handles it fine.

My short review: great for post-production, great for mixing and mastering, potential for sound design.

Great review. Much appreciated!

[Caine123]

I bought it. I didnt want more after tracks 5 but i just couldnt stop thinking about it after checking reviews etc for 2 hours lol

The issues i had were asap sorted out abd the support fast.

I had only a few quick plays.

1. A song with some acapella where i sadly have the acapella never received so mixing only the instrumental is possible but missing the acapella.
Ok 8 year old and bad mix + freiraum. Wow. Really nice adjustments. More pleasing for me. Nice!

2. A mix where i thought it would be already awesome. Here i didnt do much and freiraum didnt afjust much too. Still i lile the changes it made! A bit more body which i didnt miss first but now. Aahhaha

For 60 bucks i think a no brainer. But bad mixes will always be bad mixes but with freiraum a bit polished