Best EQ analyzer?!!

[Red Black]

Software?

Voxengo SPAN
Izotope Insight
Flux Pure Analyser

[AVSbeats]

Originally Posted by Red Black

Software?

Voxengo SPAN
Izotope Insight
Flux Pure Analyser

Awesome thanks for the info! I will check them out

[stinkyfingers]

Voxengo GlissEQ

[ciro]

I´m using the Blue Cat´s FreqAnalyst (the free one) .

Ciro

[totalgear]

[Babaluma]

Originally Posted by AVSbeats

best analyzer for mastering

my ears

[MASSIVE Master]

+1 on the ears. Analyzers are great tools for calibration but rarely tell you anything really useful when listening to music...

[AVSbeats]

Thanks all! Yeah the ears the main tool for all of us musicians but some people don't have the ability to hear the problem like me so that is why i use the analyzer, it helps me.

[Tommy D]

HOFA IQ Analyzer for me..

[AudioRadar]

voxengo Span. If you want white noise to appear flat, then inspector IXL (span can do this too, if you set the slope to 0 but imho IXL is easier to read that way)

[mastertone]

Hofa IQ-EQ 3, Extremely versatile
apulSoft apQualizr - Amazing GUI and super fast analyzer, and most important, sounds great.

[IIIrd]

ears, as mentioned above

[Tarekith]

DMG Audio's eQuality has a nice analyzer, and it's a great mastering EQ too.

[francois]

pinguïn pro audio meter

[bendermastering]

I really like Flux Pure Analyzer even though it is a very CPU heavy and expensive suite. If you have the processing power for it I totally recommend it!

[emrr]

Spectrafoo is nice.

[tyrobins]

The "ears" answer is not very helpful. Even the most experienced mastering engineers use metering as a tool to accomplish their task.

I like izotope insight or ozone 5 advanced metering.

[Babaluma]

Originally Posted by tyrobins

The "ears" answer is not very helpful. Even the most experienced mastering engineers use metering as a tool to accomplish their task.

Completely, 100% disagree. We might use metering for setting levels, and I'll frequently run noise or sine tones through my analogue chain for level matching or other calibration purposes, but when it comes to the actual mastering, I am closing my eyes, listening to the music, and tweaking those knobs until it sounds better. That's it.

I feel the reliance upon the "visual" in what we "hear" to be one of the main causes of detrimental music processing in the last few years. I even sometimes get prospective clients sending me .jpg's of their waveforms in Logic, asking me if it "looks" OK! I mean, how am I supposed to reply to that? I usually come off pretty snarky by telling them that it tells me nothing, and that I need to actually LISTEN to it...

Sorry, on a ranty-roll this evening!

[dcollins]

Originally Posted by tyrobins

The "ears" answer is not very helpful. Even the most experienced mastering engineers use metering as a tool to accomplish their task.

Do they? I think most have some type of level meter, but spectrum? Not so sure.

Probably inversely related to experience.


DC

[zsaezsaespeck]

Ears First, but a little double check is always nice.

I've been using the analyzer in FabFilter's ProQ quite a bit for ITB double checks while in a DAW.

I've yet to get them out for anything outside of room setup, but from my days doing live sound SignalScope and Spectrafoo are great as well, although stand-alone.

[apartment dog]

Meldaproduction MAutoDynamicEQ and other EQ's.

[DJCSUN]

Spectral analysis can be rather useful in the low end when working in a less than optimal room in my experience, as it's pretty easy for problems in a null (or peak for that matter) to slip by you if you can't hear them. But otherwise you should always rely on your ear first.

[AUDIOBOMBER]

Originally Posted by mastertone

apulSoft apQualizr - Amazing GUI and super fast analyzer, and most important, sounds great.

this !!!! an you can zoom in like crazy

[AudioRadar]

Originally Posted by AUDIOBOMBER

this !!!! an you can zoom in like crazy

I just tried it and seems to me like an inferior version of glisseq (or span if you just need/want the analyser)

Imho the best analyser I have ever seen (apart from SPAN and possibly IXL) has been the Foobar2000 spectrum analyser. That thing would be a beast as a vst with a few more options.

[mrmike186]

Would you use a different analyzer for mastering than one for let's say comparing bass guitar to a bass drum?

[John Moran]

Originally Posted by dcollins

Do they? I think most have some type of level meter, but spectrum? Not so sure.

Probably inversely related to experience.


DC

+1

spectrum doesn't tell you what it sounds like or what the musical content and context is.

[AudioRadar]

Originally Posted by mrmike186

Would you use a different analyzer for mastering than one for let's say comparing bass guitar to a bass drum?

There are different analyser settings. Generally you can vary between speed, resolution and smoothing.

Usually a setting of intense smoothing and very low speed is called mastering setting, but imho that doesn't really mean much. If you have one analyser where you can change the settings yourself (e.g. Voxengo span) you only really need 1 analyser.*

E.g. 1 drumloop here (obviously speed can not be seen on a picture...):

All with a linear slope, rather than a flat one....

normal resolution, quick speed
good for a general idea

high resolution and low speed
good for exposing detail (took the screenshot a bit too late so the kick is missing)


High resolution with smoothing, low speed (often called mastering analyser)
I find that one quite helpful sometimes, if you need to eq 2 sounds so they don't conflict, because you can see where most of the frequency spectrum is occupied.


I wouldn't pay a mastering engineer so he can look at a fancy spectrum analyser though, I pay him so he can use his experienced ears and get the mix ready for distribution.

[kaboom75]

DMG Audio Equick you can resize it to near full screen and watch that spectrum graphic jump around in detail. It's also transparent and got that phase linear thingy.

[mrmike186]

Great stuff guys