FR: EQ, enhance!

[Hexspa]

Hi, hope you're swell. Melda EQs only range from 20Hz-20kHz and ordinarily this is sufficient. However, there are edge cases where one might use an expanded range. These range from scientific signal modification to anecdotal reports that frequencies outside of our hearing range may influence a sound in some way to sound design concerns where one may want a sound which contains 16Hz for cinematic (perhaps tactile) effect and seek to manipulate the amplitude of that frequency. Further, the DC Blocker in MUtility is actually a regular high pass filter which ranges from 70-200Hz. Surely, if the range of Meldaproduction EQs was expanded, this filter could be made more transparent. Please expand the EQs from 0Hz to whatever the nyquist resolution of the project happens to be (dynamic extension).

Thank you for your consideration.

[vectorwarrior]

Yeah, I've requested that for three reasons:
- the EQ shapes are different if the samplerate is set to 44.1khz or 48khz compared to higher (e.g. 96khz), this includes using oversampling. So essentially you get a different filter shape depending on the samplerate, this doesn't seem right to me and the 'squishing' of filters at high frequencies is not transparent, which causes me to ALWAYS oversample any melda effect with filters in it.
- I also work at higher frequencies as I have gear and microphones that operate higher and I often work on ultra sonic material (sound design for games often uses this for various reasons), so I need control and visibility over those ultra sonic frequencies
- I also have to clean up a lot of sub-sonic low-frequency material too and you simply can't see or control that stuff clearly in melda EQ's. The analyzers have insane FFT settings, but it's wasted when you can't see things. I usually open things up in spectral editors elsewhere (e.g. Acon Acoustica) to better manage this material.

So I would support increasing the range and having it be user definable. However, when asking about this before, Melda said that they'd have to rewrite a large amount of code and it's clearly not 95% of people's use cases, so it's just not their priority. I understand that, but it's a shame as their tools are otherwise incredibly powerful for this sort of work.

Curious what others think about this issue.

[monoaudio]

I understand there has to be a trade off of amount work per feature, and I'll still happily use Melda regardless, but it would be nice to be able to work in those extended ranges. I often set a high pass at around 10Hz, outside of any normal reproductive range, but doing so stops any "heavy" frequencies afecting compressors etc, which happen a lot when you're creating feedback systems and glitchier sounds. I don't really have a use case for extending upwards personally, but I can absolutely see where you're coming from if your projects are at higher rates etc. It does seem a bit odd that we can do things like enable oversampling to 1024x but the filters stop out at 20k, although again I absolutely understand there is a cost associated with these decisions.

[Hexspa]

Thanks for your support, friends. It's true that we've made many requests of Meldaproduction and they graciously either fulfill or deny our requests based on numerous factors including the effort-to-reward ratio that both of you mention. However! Melda only seems to be growing and with the partnership with Image-Line, I can only assume their growth is geometric and they can take on new projects. After all, 5% of a large number is still a large number - and three of those 5% include us so hopefully we can convince them it's worth it.

Vectorwarrior, I did a search for this FR but saw nothing. I didn't mean to steal your request so please take this post as support of your original effort.

Cheers.

[Hexspa]

What about logarithmic y-axis EQ movements? I was thinking this would be a neat option to have: scaling the level of 0dB to +-3dB to have greater "throw" in the vertical mouse movement than +-18 or 24dB. While recreating a Pultec emulation curve, I noticed that big movements in the GUI corresponded to relatively microscopic movements in a modern digital EQ. With logarithmic scaling, similar to a mixer's fader, you could have more 'movement resolution' for fine adjustments around unity. Maybe a checkbox?

I'm not Math enough yet to really know what logarithmic means but that's what this link calls it so I'm rolling with it: https://dfdeboer.github.io/HOW_S/fader.html

[Hexspa]

Another request, if I may:

Can we have the EQ text fields in the Bands section display note names, please? I know there's a 'tooltip-style' popup when using the graphical nodes but sometimes, at a glance, I'd like to know what notes my EQ nodes are on. The reason for this is because I relate frequency bands more to musical notes. What I've observed is that often a project's EQ points will fall on octaves and fifths and I like to organize my arrangements and mental understanding this way. To me, G#7 is better than 3322Hz. I realize this is probably niche right now but I expect that it will grow. Thanks.

[Nspace]

Another request, if I may: (...) I know there's a 'tooltip-style' popup when using the graphical nodes but sometimes, at a glance, I'd like to know what notes my EQ nodes are on

I am part of those who long ago requested that informative popup with the precise frequency to be displayed and changing as we move the nodes around the EQ field. This is such a learning tool in itself, where we are able to visually identify the specific freqs, as we preview and choose the points we like or move away from, while setting the target EQ curve.

Your second request here, to have the musical notes displayed... would make much more sense as a fixed grid background layer (optional?), so then, when we move the EQ nodes we could visually see these getting closer or distant to each of the notes' bar/marker.

Apart from this, +1 on extending the EQ frequencies range

[DarkStar]

I don't often set EQ band frequencies to exact notes, but, as a stop-gap, you could try using [Areas] > Octaves, or Keyboard 1. Or, if you have enough patience you can edit your own Area preset.

[Hexspa]

I don't often set EQ band frequencies to exact notes, but, as a stop-gap, you could try using [Areas] > Octaves, or Keyboard 1. Or, if you have enough patience you can edit your own Area preset.

That's a good idea.

Another idea I just had was what if we could drag and drop the control columns in the Bands section? I often get them in the wrong order (band 7 at 200Hz, for example) and would love to reorder them. Or a 'band manager' (not the lead singers girlfriend) sort of like how we have a multiparameter manager.

Cheers.

[Hexspa]

Another request, if I may: (...) I know there's a 'tooltip-style' popup when using the graphical nodes but sometimes, at a glance, I'd like to know what notes my EQ nodes are on

I am part of those who long ago requested that informative popup with the precise frequency to be displayed and changing as we move the nodes around the EQ field. This is such a learning tool in itself, where we are able to visually identify the specific freqs, as we preview and choose the points we like or move away from, while setting the target EQ curve.

Your second request here, to have the musical notes displayed... would make much more sense as a fixed grid background layer (optional?), so then, when we move the EQ nodes we could visually see these getting closer or distant to each of the notes' bar/marker.

Apart from this, +1 on extending the EQ frequencies range

Or even a snap-to-note value or even snap-to-key or snap-to-chord or some kind of real time color feedback. For me, having the text in the Bands section is sufficient and ideal. Ultimately, they're to names for the same thing so I think having the option makes sense.

[Hexspa]

I don't often set EQ band frequencies to exact notes, but, as a stop-gap, you could try using [Areas] > Octaves, or Keyboard 1. Or, if you have enough patience you can edit your own Area preset.

Earlier I showed up just to ask about band reordering. I totally forgot about zones and I'll definitely be using those. Thanks for the reminder.

[eelpout]

Melda EQs only range from 20Hz-20kHz and ordinarily this is sufficient. However, there are edge cases where one might use an expanded range. These range from scientific signal modification to anecdotal reports that frequencies outside of our hearing range may influence a sound in some way to sound design concerns where one may want a sound which contains 16Hz for cinematic (perhaps tactile) effect and seek to manipulate the amplitude of that frequency.

I'd really like to use MAnalyzer and EQ, but apparently 32', 16Hz pipe organs do not exist in the MeldaProductions corner of the multiverse.

In the meantime, back to Voxengo and Blue Cat. Great to have options.

[vanerio]

Melda EQs only range from 20Hz-20kHz and ordinarily this is sufficient. However, there are edge cases where one might use an expanded range. These range from scientific signal modification to anecdotal reports that frequencies outside of our hearing range may influence a sound in some way to sound design concerns where one may want a sound which contains 16Hz for cinematic (perhaps tactile) effect and seek to manipulate the amplitude of that frequency.

I'd really like to use MAnalyzer and EQ, but apparently 32', 16Hz pipe organs do not exist in the MeldaProductions corner of the multiverse.

In the meantime, back to Voxengo and Blue Cat. Great to have options.

I had the same limitation today recreating some saturation machines, were DC filtering or high pass filters from 0 to 20 Hz make a lot of difference. Unfortunately, although I love Melda plugins, they do not let me analyze or recreate this filters

[Hexspa]

I understand and strongly empathize with limited development time, as Vojtech has reminded us. Still, I think that sub-20Hz manipulation is worth pursuing. Thanks for the supporting anecdotes, maybe we'll get our wish