Linking of TotalEQ parameters in Reaper

[scotofil]

Hi all, I'm trying to create ye olde emphasis & de-emphasis FX chain (see e.g. the below video) in Reaper 6.57 with TotalEQ 1.3.3, but I'm having a very hard time trying to figure out what and how to map from what. Has anyone managed to do this already?

As a basic proof of concept, I tried to use a single bell band:

1. I added two instances of TotalEQ to my FX inserts:
   1. The first one is the emphasis EQ, renamed to Emph
   2. The second one is the de-emphasis EQ, renamed to Deemph
2. I linked the PH. INV., LINK IO & EQ. LOUD (and Reaper's own Bypass) controls of Deemph to the same controls of Emph - all work like a charm
3. I created a single bell band in Emph at 100Hz (roughly, as precisely as my mouse pointing allowed), and pestered the gain control
4. I created a single bell band at around 100Hz in Deemph as well (both were red dots if that matters), and pestered the gain control as well
5. I then tried to link the last touched parameter of Deemph (i.e. the only EQ band's gain control) as usual to Emph's Eq 0 Gain control

No success.
I then tried to map Deemph's EQ gain to one of Emph's other Eq X Gain bands, but did not come to a deterministic conclusion which one to choose.

Is there a clear mapping rule for these?

My goal would be to map for each band their type, Q and frequency from Emph to Deemph, and also map, but invert the gain control (for bells and shelfs e.g. a 6 dB boost in Emph should result in a 6 dB cut in Deemph).

All recommendations are welcome (ideally I would like to understand how this should be done, but if someone happens to have an RfxChain file for this already, feel free to share as well)! Thanks in advance!

[hatefish]

Hi,

not sure this is the right answer, anyway:
The first freq (or band) added is the red one and its “ID” in Reaper is 0 for all its parameters (e.g. Eq On/Off 0; Eq Shape 0 … ) (please refer also to the attached pic)

and until the 7th frequency is added the rule is:

ID Color
0 Red
1 orange/yellow
2 lemon/yellow
3 green
4 blue
5. purple
6. indigo

then we did the things more complicated and starting from the 8th band the colours loop is repeated.
So the 8th point (ID: 7) is red and so on.
Hope it helps.
Maso

TotalEQ-freqs-colors.png

[scotofil]

...
Hope it helps.
Maso

Thanks for the quick help Maso! That kind of helped.

I basically linked each parameter of the de-emphasis instance to the same parameter of the emphasis instance. Apparently it only works correctly for a band if all of the "core" parameters of the band (On/Off, Shape, Freq, Gain, and Q) are linked, but that's fine.

I also linked most of the other parameters except for the band-specific saturation and the global saturation, as saturation would kind of ruin the concept (although IMHO linking none of the band-specific Analog, band-specific Solo and global Analog controls make sense). I will upload the chain to the stash after some testing.

However I found a weird behaviour:

1. I link the following parameters of the "Deemph" instance to the same parameters of the "Emph" instance:
   1. The "Link input and output gain" parameter (i.e. the "LINK IO" button) and additionally also
   2. the global "Input Gain" and also
   3. the "Output Gain"
2. If I turn on the LINK IO button in the "Emph" instance
3. And then if I modify e.g. the input gain of the "Emph" instance
4. Both of these changes are correctly applied also to the "Deemph" instance
5. However the input & output gain controls of the "Deemph" instance appear to be oscillating between the value that is set on the "Emph" instance, and some other value(s)

Would it be possible to check this?

[scotofil]

I made a video about it, the behaviour starts at 3:19, the first 3 minutes is me setting up from scratch

[hatefish]

Ok,

I think I have found a solution for the de-emphasis/ emphasis
Maybe it is not as straightforward as I expected but it works.

I was not able to do it with the Reaper parameters modulation and I used the ReaTeam Macro Controller that imitates the Ableton Live macros.

You have to download the repack from here:

https://reapack.com/

Please refer to the user guide for the installation and authorization on a Mac:
https://reapack.com/user-guide

When ready start it and search for this MIDI utility:
Macro controller
Right-click on it and select install.

Now put 2 instances of TotalEQ and 1 of Macro controller in a track

Press the trim button in the track and locate the first EqGain0 (it’s the gain of the first band in the first TotalEQ instance)

Click the “mod” button, flag the “link from MIDI…” in the button that appears below select “Macro Controller Macro1”

Now the macro1 in the macro controller should control the gain in the first band of the first instance of TotalEQ

End of the easy part, now there is the hard one…

Open the Macro controller and click the Edit… button (right upper corner), it opens a kind of code editor, at the end of the code you should find this:
slider1:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 1
slider3:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 2
slider5:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 3
slider7:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 4
slider9:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 5
Copy the following line below slider9 in the code editor:
slider11:50<100,0, 1>Macro 6

Close the editor, it will ask if you want to save, select save.

Open the Macro Controller again and you should find the macro6

Go back to the trim button and click it. Locate the Macro Controller section and click the mod button relative to macro6

Flag the “link from MIDI or FX…”
In the button below this time select the Macro Controller Macro 1

In the slider below set offset=0 and scale=-100

Go back to the click button and this time locate the section of the second instance of the TotalEQ, find the EqGain0 (it’s the gain of the first band in the second TotalEQ instance)

Click the “mod” button, flag the “link from MIDI…” in the button that appears below select “Macro Controller Macro6”
Set offset -100% and scale 100.

Now if you move the macro controller the 2 gains of the first band in the 2 instances of TotalEQ will go in the opposite way.

Really hope it helps

Best

Maso

[mevzu]

Ok,

I think I have found a solution for the de-emphasis/ emphasis
Maybe it is not as straightforward as I expected but it works.

I was not able to do it with the Reaper parameters modulation and I used the ReaTeam Macro Controller that imitates the Ableton Live macros.

You have to download the repack from here:

https://reapack.com/

Please refer to the user guide for the installation and authorization on a Mac:
https://reapack.com/user-guide

When ready start it and search for this MIDI utility:
Macro controller
Right-click on it and select install.

Now put 2 instances of TotalEQ and 1 of Macro controller in a track

Press the trim button in the track and locate the first EqGain0 (it’s the gain of the first band in the first TotalEQ instance)

Click the “mod” button, flag the “link from MIDI…” in the button that appears below select “Macro Controller Macro1”

Now the macro1 in the macro controller should control the gain in the first band of the first instance of TotalEQ

End of the easy part, now there is the hard one…

Open the Macro controller and click the Edit… button (right upper corner), it opens a kind of code editor, at the end of the code you should find this:
slider1:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 1
slider3:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 2
slider5:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 3
slider7:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 4
slider9:50<0, 100, 1>Macro 5
Copy the following line below slider9 in the code editor:
slider11:50<100,0, 1>Macro 6

Close the editor, it will ask if you want to save, select save.

Open the Macro Controller again and you should find the macro6

Go back to the trim button and click it. Locate the Macro Controller section and click the mod button relative to macro6

Flag the “link from MIDI or FX…”
In the button below this time select the Macro Controller Macro 1

In the slider below set offset=0 and scale=-100

Go back to the click button and this time locate the section of the second instance of the TotalEQ, find the EqGain0 (it’s the gain of the first band in the second TotalEQ instance)

Click the “mod” button, flag the “link from MIDI…” in the button that appears below select “Macro Controller Macro6”
Set offset -100% and scale 100.

Now if you move the macro controller the 2 gains of the first band in the 2 instances of TotalEQ will go in the opposite way.

Really hope it helps

Best

Maso

Hi,
Did you try Realearn? I use it for every midi mapping to control parameters of plugins and Reaper controls. Maybe its worth to check it out.

[hatefish]

Hi,

thanks for your suggestion. It can be a reliable solution for controlling any parameter with a controller.

[scotofil]

I think I have found a solution for the de-emphasis/ emphasis
[...]
Really hope it helps
Best
Maso

Thanks Maso! As I mentioned in a previous reply, I've already managed to create the linking correctly for all required parameters (I actually generated PROGRAMENV elements for each required plugin parameter of TotalEQ and then added those to the chain's .RfxChain file with a text editor).

My only concern now is this weird jumping of the input & output gain controls which I tried to demonstrate in the video in my previous reply. Were you perhaps able to have a look into that?