What does the analog knob do in MTurboEQ?

[Aesaire]

It's not covered in the manual btw, someone might want to update that.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/downloa ... urboEQ.pdf

[MeldaProduction]

It's some sort of feedback nonlinearities, hard to explain, just try and use if you feel like it

[Mrs_Midi]

It's some sort of feedback nonlinearities, hard to explain, just try and use if you feel like it

Oh no, do explain, please.

[Hexspa]

You can probably stick a plugin doctor on it to observe its behavior. I don't know all the ways to analyze a plugin's effect but RMS, harmonic distortion, stereo spread, and frequency response don't tell the whole story like you'd think; or they do but I can't tell with just an analyzer and MLoudnessAnalyzer. Plugin Doctor lets you observe compression behavior as well, I believe. I don't have a license for it and don't mean to promote another developer, it's just that it seems like a relatively unique tool.

[magmagwa]

Basically randomization to emulate instability of analog hardware. It's not the same as actual analog emulations that emulate the specific circuits and then assemble those circuits in software. The Drop by Cytomic is a great example of such an analog emulation.

[Hexspa]

It does nothing for the low pass filter but here's what it does for the high pass:

mturboeq-hpf-analog.gif

Some models, it appears to do nothing; or at least not for every control.

[Hexspa]

the low shelf:

ls-small.gif

it doesn't shrink the plugin

[Hexspa]

high shelf:

hs-small.gif

[Hexspa]

Bell filter:

bell-small.gif

[Hexspa]

Compresses high-level signals:

comp-knee-small.gif

comp-att-rel-small.gif

like the linear (SPL) response, any band that works with this feature has to be active in some way whether adding or reducing a given frequency. The dynamic behavior seems the same either with positive or negative gain on the EQ band.

The saturation knob also has a dynamic function, boosting level overall but compressing the highest-level signals:

sat-knee-small.gif

--

sat-att-rel-small.gif

Actually, the analog knob creates a pretty high ratio compression when you crank it higher. Other than that, the saturation and analog knobs seem to combine pretty linearly dynamics-wise:

both-knee-small.gif

--

both-att-rel-small.gif

Maybe it would have been best to have cranked the analog knob in the first two videos but, hey, I'm learning too.

[Hexspa]

saturation
sat knob adds all harmonics pretty linearly with strong 2nd, 3rd, and staggered 4th and 5th harmonics
analog knob adds strong odd (3rd and 5th) starting with low frequencies

when combined, all harmonics appear more linearly

harmonics-small.gif

--

hammerstein-small.gif

The analog knob also makes you want to do something else when you analyze it for long enough. I'm just wondering why I can only get it to work on a limited number of models i.e. I think the motortown one has no analog functions available. *bug*?

In the end, Vojtech's explanation was the most succinct: harmonic and dynamic nonlinearities. This is definitely a plugin which benefits from oversampling.

[Hexspa]

Basically randomization to emulate instability of analog hardware.

No randomization that I could tell.

[steve2KVR]

...slightly off topic...Hexspa, how did you create those images?.../s~

[Hexspa]

...slightly off topic...Hexspa, how did you create those images?.../s~

With my computer

Plugin Doctor. Linear analysis for the frequency response, harmonic analysis for the 1kHz sine, Hammerstein for the frequency-dependent harmonics, dynamics slope for the threshold/knee, and attack release for the low-high-low dynamics levels (incidentally, this plugin has essentially a zero-attack release or perhaps a lookahead. It can also do intermodulation distortion, THD+N and even analyze hardware. Won't tell you if you've got COVID, though.

[dmbaer]

I don't know all the ways to analyze a plugin's effect but RMS, harmonic distortion, stereo spread, and frequency response don't tell the whole story like you'd think

According to audio expert Ethen Winer:

Only four parameters are needed to define everything that affects audio quality: Noise, frequency response, distortion, and time-based errors.

You can read the whole explanation here:

https://ethanwiner.com/audiophoolery.html

Of course he's mainly talking about audio (hi-fi) gear, but virtual gear follows the same rules, I would think.

Plugindoctor helps to analyze frequency response and distortion brilliantly. Noise, not so much, and time-based errors not at all. Still, it's a gem of an analytical tool for audio-engineering geeks.