DMGAudio eQuality

[DaveGamble]

Originally Posted by adl

Thanx for the explanation Dave!

Could you give us also a word about the difference between "Digital" and "Digital+" ? Not sure when to use what (why not always use the "+"-mode (it MUST be better...it has a plus! )

Gladly!

Digital+ mode works like this:
1) Measure the error between the Digital response and the (magnitude) response from the Analogue curves
2) Create a minimum-phase representation of the error-correction filter.
3) Add that in.

As you may or may not know, short FIR filters have dreadful low-end accuracy, but GREAT high-end accuracy, so it's possible to use a short FIR (i.e. not too much cpu) to fix the top end!

As for when to use it... my general workflow (for mixing) is based around Digital mode. If I find I have to pay very close attention to the top-end on a track, I'd consider Digital+; audition it, and see if I can hear a difference to justify the extra cpu spend. In general, Digital mode does a great job (as far as I've heard, in both senses), but if nothing else, it's reassuring to know that Digital+ is there in case I ever need it

Cheers,

Dave.
P.S. RTAS just went to beta.

[Marando]

Hi Dave,

I have been testing your plugin shortly last night and I already think that I found (again) my new "go to" EQ. The sound is great, and, for me at least as important, I like how it works!

However, for the first time in at least 5 months, I had a Cubase 5 crash when I removed a track that had the eQuality on it. Not sure if it's eQuality that causes the crash, I might try later today if I can repeat it.

I will let you know.

[adl]

Originally Posted by DaveGamble

Gladly!

Digital+ mode works like this:
1) Measure the error between the Digital response and the (magnitude) response from the Analogue curves
2) Create a minimum-phase representation of the error-correction filter.
3) Add that in.

As you may or may not know, short FIR filters have dreadful low-end accuracy, but GREAT high-end accuracy, so it's possible to use a short FIR (i.e. not too much cpu) to fix the top end!

As for when to use it... my general workflow (for mixing) is based around Digital mode. If I find I have to pay very close attention to the top-end on a track, I'd consider Digital+; audition it, and see if I can hear a difference to justify the extra cpu spend. In general, Digital mode does a great job (as far as I've heard, in both senses), but if nothing else, it's reassuring to know that Digital+ is there in case I ever need it

Cheers,

Dave.
P.S. RTAS just went to beta.

Thanx Dave!
Really helpful information. thumbsup

eQuality runs very different with Ableton Live 8.1.1 on my PC.
I usually have no problem with Live 8 (maybe i am the only one, but i have close to zero crashes and can have very long sessions using lot´s of plugin and Live still runs smooth). With eQuality i get crashes usually when my CPU is above 60%. Then crackling occurs and shortly after that i get an error message and Live shuts down. Not sure if other Live User experience this as well and certainly Live isn´t the stablest DAW and a bit picky about VST´s. But as i wrote above i usually have no crashes whatsoever.
Damn, it´s a fine EQ for sure and i played around with it for the last 3 days but with this instability within Live i don´t think i can purchase it.
I run several UAD cards with nearly all the EQ´s they have but the workflow of eQuality is great and the analyzer is handy thing i really don´t want to miss anymore (maybe UAD updates the Cambridge EQ one day...).

Let me know if i can be of any help to get eQuality perform better within Live.

All the best!

Thomas

[DaveGamble]

Originally Posted by adl

eQuality runs very different with Ableton Live 8.1.1 on my PC.
I usually have no problem with Live 8 (maybe i am the only one, but i have close to zero crashes and can have very long sessions using lot´s of plugin and Live still runs smooth). With eQuality i get crashes usually when my CPU is above 60%. Then crackling occurs and shortly after that i get an error message and Live shuts down. Not sure if other Live User experience this as well and certainly Live isn´t the stablest DAW and a bit picky about VST´s. But as i wrote above i usually have no crashes whatsoever.

I have had reports of issues with Live 8; I'm still waiting to hear back from Ableton on this. However, in v1.04, I did fix an issue (1.04 has the fix) which I believe may have been responsible for the oddness that people have experienced in Live8. Are you currently using 1.04? I know the updates do come out in floods; sorry about that, I want to get all the bugs ironed out as fast as possible. If not, please can you grab the update (just redownload from the site and reinstall; check Setup->Credits to see which version is running)? If the issue is still outstanding, then I'm back to the drawing board, but it's entirely possible that this is improved now.

Cheers!

Dave.

[Arksun]

I must admit I've sometimes noticed slightly unusual behaviour in Cubase regarding the ASIO meter when using the EQuality demo version. Sometimes the meter gets a little jumpy moving up n down erratically, especially if i switch to analog or linear phase.

The strange thing is that sometimes after its been running a while and modes switched around it eventually settles to a steady ASIO meter position, regardless of eq type.

I haven't tried it in a heavy project yet where cpu usage is high so can't comment on its behaviour then.

Perhaps there is some cpu usage/threading that could still do with a little bit more tweaking inside it?.

*EDIT*

Ok, it seems to be related to the GUI. Specifically when I'm moving the mouse cursor over the surface of the gui (over the graph or the eq knobs specifically), that can really make the ASIO (and task manager CPU) meter jump right up.

By comparison, I can run Voxengos SPAN with high res fft display, hover my mouse over it or change its zoom realtime whilst playing with zero impact on Cubase ASIO meter/CPU, so I don't think its a specific graphics card issue on my end.

Cubase 5 , XP Pro 32-bit

[adl]

Originally Posted by DaveGamble

I have had reports of issues with Live 8; I'm still waiting to hear back from Ableton on this. However, in v1.04, I did fix an issue (1.04 has the fix) which I believe may have been responsible for the oddness that people have experienced in Live8. Are you currently using 1.04? I know the updates do come out in floods; sorry about that, I want to get all the bugs ironed out as fast as possible. If not, please can you grab the update (just redownload from the site and reinstall; check Setup->Credits to see which version is running)? If the issue is still outstanding, then I'm back to the drawing board, but it's entirely possible that this is improved now.

Cheers!

Dave.

I used the 1.0.4 version when experienced the behavior in Ableton. Even i noticed it worked better in 1.0.4 than in 1.0.3, so there is definitely an improvement, but still some oddness.

Interesting that Arksun has similar problems (gui related CPU spiking). I noticed that in Live as well i get more crackling / cpu spiking when the eQuality gui is open. As soon as i close it the crackling and CPU spiking is gone.

[rumleymusic]

There is something glitchy going on in Windows. Sometimes running the plugin in a chain will cause major CPU spikes that will persist until the computer is restarted. Even if the plugin is removed from the session.

Once this thing is fully stable though, it is going to be a real giant killer. Sounds fantastic.

[DaveGamble]

Originally Posted by rumleymusic

There is something glitchy going on in Windows. Sometimes running the plugin in a chain will cause major CPU spikes that will persist until the computer is restarted. Even if the plugin is removed from the session.

Once this thing is fully stable though, it is going to be a real giant killer. Sounds fantastic.

Which host are you using? Live again?

I've managed to track down a copy of live8. I'll be able to investigate this now.

Cheers,

Dave.

[adl]

Originally Posted by DaveGamble

Which host are you using? Live again?

I've managed to track down a copy of live8. I'll be able to investigate this now.

Cheers,

Dave.

Awesome!!

[explorer]

Originally Posted by Arksun

Ok, it seems to be related to the GUI. Specifically when I'm moving the mouse cursor over the surface of the gui (over the graph or the eq knobs specifically), that can really make the ASIO (and task manager CPU) meter jump right up.

I noticed similar in Logic. Using the GUI seems to take more power than the Sonalksis EQ for example. When I am running a big project this can be an issue.

[droogs]

i think its a lil bit bitchy in cubase 4.5 too!



.) a non active band should get ACTIVE when it get dragged

.) that setup window should bei smaller too,
to see the changes in realtime!
decrease the width of the sections, and rearrange the sections smaller!

.) it always resets when loading? i want my custom default preset to load every time


.) i think built in presets as startingpoints is missing too

.) i want a analyser view only

but i luv this feature monsta dave

[Arksun]

Originally Posted by droogs

i think its a lil bit bitchy in cubase 4.5 too!


.) i think built in presets as startingpoints is missing too

.) i want a analyser view only

It does have built in presets, at least they show up in Cubase 5, the problem is is that they either dont seem to load at all or take forever to load (sometimes 10 seconds!). Othertimes they load instantly.

I think this is partly due to the EQ mode. Like if the EQ is already in Analog Phase mode and I load another preset thats also Analog Phase its instant, but if I tried to load a Digital type instead it may take ages to finally show up.

Wierdly, this doesn't seem to affect .fxp preset imports, its more cubases internal preset system.

Also following on from the GUI issues I was reporting before where just hovering mouse over surface causes ASIO and CPU to jump quite a bit. Sometimes it does it, other times it doesn't and its perfectly stable. Which is going to make pinpointing that bug difficult :/

*EDIT* The presets only show up when loading the VST2.4 version of EQuality in to Cubase, not the VST 3 version, which is probably why you couldn't see them in Cubase 4.5.

FYI, the ASIO/CPU spiking n graphical issues occur with both VST2.4 and VST 3 versions in Cubase 5

[Mike Couzzi]

Originally Posted by rumleymusic
There is something glitchy going on in Windows. Sometimes running the plugin in a chain will cause major CPU spikes that will persist until the computer is restarted. Even if the plugin is removed from the session.

Once this thing is fully stable though, it is going to be a real giant killer. Sounds fantastic.

I had the same problem with certain other plugs inserted before it.
The sound is quite good,especially for very narrow cuts.
The only thing I wish for is using 1 instance to be able to split each band for Mid or Side operation,like the Refined Audiometrics or Sonoris Eq's
Great GUI

[johnnynash]

Originally Posted by rumleymusic

There is something glitchy going on in Windows. Sometimes running the plugin in a chain will cause major CPU spikes that will persist until the computer is restarted. Even if the plugin is removed from the session.

Once this thing is fully stable though, it is going to be a real giant killer. Sounds fantastic.

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I'm using Cubase 5 on PC. Sound is absolutely great though.

[Alxi]

Very interesting EQ

I'll keep a close look at this thread

-Alxi

[kdm]

Originally Posted by Marando

However, for the first time in at least 5 months, I had a Cubase 5 crash when I removed a track that had the eQuality on it.

Same here with Nuendo. eQuality caused a "Serious Error". Removed it and that seemed to resolve the error. I think it could be related to the /3G switch and how much memory is free (I had about 1.2G free at the time - the limit for many 32 bit plugins with that switch), but it could also simply be a bug in the plugin vs. VST 2.4/3 spec.

[6pod9]

Working fine here on Logic 9 / 10.5.8 Leo.

I was pretty impressed with the character I got out of it. Specially the bottom end. Let's see in comparison with some other Eq's.

[Saf]

Hi Dave,

I'm looking for a flexible parametric eq and this looks like a serious candidate! It has a very complete feature set! Can you give me an indication when the RTAS format will be available? I don't really like messing around with te VST to RTAS wrapper.

All the best,

Saf

[Ruud Unit]

Is it possible to toggle individual bands to Left, Right, Mid, Side, or all within the same instance of the plugin? I couldn't figure out how to do that (if it's possible). I really love the way this works with the Fabfilter Pro-Q, for example. It's a bit clunky to have to load multiple instances of the plugin for each type of stereo setup.

I love the sound and I really want to support Dave - I've been reading his dev blog since the early sonalksis days. I'll probably buy the plug either way, but it will be easier for me to part ways with my cash if I can make it work as I've described above.

[Arksun]

Originally Posted by Ruud Unit

Is it possible to toggle individual bands to Left, Right, Mid, Side, or all within the same instance of the plugin? I couldn't figure out how to do that (if it's possible).

Fraid not, if you want to process both mid AND side you have to load 2 instances one after the other. Would be cool to have control over both in same plug though I agree.

[miro]

Originally Posted by Arksun

Fraid not, if you want to process both mid AND side you have to load 2 instances one after the other. Would be cool to have control over both in same plug though I agree.

+1
it's the ONLY thing I miss. besides that: amazing!

[Ruud Unit]

Originally Posted by Arksun

Fraid not, if you want to process both mid AND side you have to load 2 instances one after the other. Would be cool to have control over both in same plug though I agree.

Oh well - consider it a feature request. Dave, I confess I'm still going to buy it either way. So much for my negotiation skills...

[Silver Sonya]

Is this a mono EQ as well? In DP7, I'm only seeing it as a mono-to-stereo plug-in.

Apologies if this has been addressed earlier in the thread.

- c

[Ruud Unit]

Seems to be working stereo -> stereo in DP7 here. I don't have my DAW in front of me right now so I'm not sure about any specifics in my setup.

EDIT: Sorry, I misread your question. I'll check to see if it works in just mono in a second.
EDIT 2: Yeah, it shows up mono -> mono for me. Must be something screwy on your end.

[Coyoteous]

Originally Posted by Ruud Unit

Must be something screwy on your end.

Citation du jour.

[uylink]

i'm on macbookpro osx10.5.7
after install equality and download demo license.tar and double click license.command interface showed expired and i can't try the demo

anybody with same issue as me?

thank you

[gearfreak]

Originally Posted by uylink

i'm on macbookpro osx10.5.7
after install equality and download demo license.tar and double click license.command interface showed expired and i can't try the demo

anybody with same issue as me?

thank you

Install EQuality again and see if it works.

[DaveGamble]

Hi all, sorry for disappearing. Been hard at work on v1.05 which is out now.

Changelog:

Fixed handling of filter slopes for automation
Fixed automation issue with VST3
Fixed fine-control for knobs (shift-drag)
Fixed Autolisten to be immediate (without needing adjustment of knob)
Fixed handling of denormals
Fixed issues with Reaper/Samplitude on window resizing
Supports VST 64bit processing
Display correct positions for control-handle of bypassed bands
Soft-switching band bypass
Configurable autolisten gain
Autolisten ignores Q adjustments pref
Improvements for K-metering

v1.05 *should* remedy all reported instability issues.

RTAS is due tomorrow, with a good wind and fair luck
I've a few extra requests (48db/oct slopes) that might make it into that release too...

Sorry for the absenteeism. I'll give everyone proper replies tomorrow before I start on the RTAS.

Love to all,

Dave.

[zvenx]

Don't you ever rest? :-)
thanks for these.
rsp

[adl]

For me the new 1.0.5 crashes Live 8.1.1 on windows worse than with 1.04.

Can anybody please check?