frei:raum - Magic EQ?

[ATN69]

I got a reply from Sonible regarding issues in FL Studio. I will share their response here in case there are more FL Studio owners who encounter the same issue as I did. Sonible wrote,

We encountered a similar issue lately and found the following workaround in FL12:
frei:raum ist actually also VST3 - it's simply not copied to the respective folder
- pick the VST freiraum.dll (probably from C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins) and MOVE it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
- rename it to freiraum.vst3
- open FL and load an instance of frei:raum - the user interface will open (please do NOT start playback)
- click the 'Settings' icon in the top-left corener
- switch to the 'Processing' tab
- tick the "Used fixed size buffer" checkbox
- audio should start to flow now

Please also make sure that the overall buffersize is at least 1024 samples!

Further, there's also a fix from Image-Line taken from their their forum:
http://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic.p ... e#p1254124

1. Open FL Studio.
2. Refer to the 'Plugin Database > Effects' folder of your FL Studio Browser.
3. Locate and delete any freiraum entries saved in this location by right-clicking the entry and selecting 'Delete file...'. If you don't have a favorite entry for freiraum you can proceed.
4. Download, extract, and launch the attached freiraum.reg file. (see attachment)
5. Accept any prompts regarding applying the registry key and values.
6. Restart FL Studio once the keys and values are applied.
7. Navigate to 'Plugin Database > Installed > Effects > VST' and load the freiraum plugin entry from this location. Test the plugin.

For those concerned about what the registry file does, it adds a key for 'freiraum' under 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Image-Line\Shared\Plugins\Fruity Wrapper\Plugins\VST' with some predefined Wrapper Settings for the plugin, in particular 'Use fixed size buffers' is enabled.

[Armadillo]

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".

I found it only does a few dB as well, but it just sound so incredible musical.
It seems like it doesn't matter where you add or subtract your dB's, they always change the tonal qualities of the content in a pleasing way.
I'm not sure I have much need for Proximity and Entropy EQ but Smart EQ appears to do wonders on the few things I've tried it on. Will have to test more though

[Caine123]

quick question, when i boost/cut so much that the meter is always maxed out (eg at the red band) then is it clipping? shall i reduce it then like with a limiter/compressor or doesnt it matter with this vst?

[woodsdenis]

A quick FYI, got a response from Sonible about the differences between the seperate + plugins and Frei:raum, the extra features in the + versions will be put into Frei:raum soon. I will use it probably for mastering as it seems to do wonders with the tiniest amount of magic wand @ 5k and up. Whatever grunge is there it cleans it up in a very transparent way.

[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.

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".

I just emailed them as I saw a reference about an upcoming v2 on their site regarding the inclusion of speech EQ in the comparison table. They replied instantly, confirming that v2 is imminent, will include optional iLok protection as well. And it’s a free upgrade. Great support, by the way.

[plexuss]

I never thought I'd see frei:raum on deep discount sale. I tried the demo when it came out and it blew my mind but I can't justify spending that kind of money on a plugin because I make very little money with music. In any case, I mentioned earlier I am working on a very challenging mix and so far I have not been able to get the guitar and voice to sound the way I want. When I share my mixed with the artists, they have not been satified with the results - same with me. I used frei:raum and finally achieved a mix and master that I am happy with. Not only that, the artist is too, they replied "This one is it. Absolutely beautiful."

Here are a couple tracks. First is the final mastered track using fri:raum on the tracks in the mix. The other is an AB track where it switches back and forth between the mix the artists did, and preferred, and my mix. The guitar was a real challege to get sounding right. You can hear why in the AB. The guitar has a lot of nasty resonances and sounds, but the spectrum is all there. I needed something like frei:raum to balance all that out. The voice was easier to deal with but had its problems with background noise, sibilance and inconsistency.

Final master:
https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/he ... -c/s-jWIDz

AB with original artist mix:
https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/he ... ab/s-ecfwm

[ghettosynth]

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.

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".

I just emailed them as I saw a reference about an upcoming v2 on their site regarding the inclusion of speech EQ in the comparison table. They replied instantly, confirming that v2 is imminent, will include optional iLok protection as well. And it’s a free upgrade. Great support, by the way.

Well, I'm still not the kind of guy that buys $300 EQ plugins, but, that's getting my attention at any rate. I like how they do iLok as well, it only takes one of your authorizations.

[Caine123]

I never thought I'd see frei:raum on deep discount sale. I tried the demo when it came out and it blew my mind but I can't justify spending that kind of money on a plugin because I make very little money with music. In any case, I mentioned earlier I am working on a very challenging mix and so far I have not been able to get the guitar and voice to sound the way I want. When I share my mixed with the artists, they have not been satified with the results - same with me. I used frei:raum and finally achieved a mix and master that I am happy with. Not only that, the artist is too, they replied "This one is it. Absolutely beautiful."

Here are a couple tracks. First is the final mastered track using fri:raum on the tracks in the mix. The other is an AB track where it switches back and forth between the mix the artists did, and preferred, and my mix. The guitar was a real challege to get sounding right. You can hear why in the AB. The guitar has a lot of nasty resonances and sounds, but the spectrum is all there. I needed something like frei:raum to balance all that out. The voice was easier to deal with but had its problems with background noise, sibilance and inconsistency.

Final master:
https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/he ... -c/s-jWIDz

AB with original artist mix:
https://soundcloud.com/musicofplexus/he ... ab/s-ecfwm

Very nice. For me the final master misses a bit of the bodiness

[plexuss]

Here are a couple tracks. [snip...]

Very nice. For me the final master misses a bit of the bodiness

I hear you. The bottom end of this track is a real challenge because its inconsistent. This mix is the comprimise because it gets boomy very quickly. since we are working with an acoustic guitar and voice, I felt it prudent to prioritize the mid range and this in turn comprimised the bottom end. bringing up the low end in the "body" band isn't the solution and using a dynamic EQ was too audible. Plus its all dependent on what you are monitoring with.

Anyway thanks for the compliment. Im just happy I was able to put something together that the artist liked as he was pretty fixated on his own mix as the defacto.

[Caine123]

Here are a couple tracks. [snip...]

Very nice. For me the final master misses a bit of the bodiness

I hear you. The bottom end of this track is a real challenge because its inconsistent. This mix is the comprimise because it gets boomy very quickly. since we are working with an acoustic guitar and voice, I felt it prudent to prioritize the mid range and this in turn comprimised the bottom end. bringing up the low end in the "body" band isn't the solution and using a dynamic EQ was too audible. Plus its all dependent on what you are monitoring with.

Anyway thanks for the compliment. Im just happy I was able to put something together that the artist liked as he was pretty fixated on his own mix as the defacto.

Np at all. I only listened with small headphones .
I struggle too with a testmix. It has not much body but the first acapella has enough brightness + body. The 2nd vocal verse is thin, narrow without body. I wanna test later in the studio to either automate freiraum or add a 2nd instance with near identical settings muting the firdt instance.

[TrojakEW]

What copy protection it use? It is I-lok? Not going buy ilok app.

[cfanyc]

saw the price and had to test it.

Tested for correcting/improving 4 finished mixes with specific areas that I would like
to hear improvements (for my ears anyway).

Compared head-to-head to neutron1 intelligent function (with manual adjustments as needed).

Conclusion: mind blown and bought immediately! this is seriously impressive. It basically lets you achieve
"balance" in the sense that you can enhance the elements you wish or hide others
while not screwing up the clarity/image/tonal balance/punch/proximity or other desirables.
Neutron 1 sounded very inferior by comparison because it would always fix something and
screw something else (even with manual adjustments).

At this price should be a total no brainer as far as I am concerned.

[Neon Breath]

What copy protection it use? It is I-lok? Not going buy ilok app.

[Winstontaneous]

Bought without demoing, now check this out...

So, it works great on Cage's 4'33"?

[camsr]

What's this about adding Ilok in the future?