thEQred

Preeminent Linear Phase Equalizer

Linear phase precision, velvet softness

An equalizer with linear phase precision and velvet softness. For mastering ears, and other discerning engineers.

thEQred is an 80 bit frequency domain, linear phase mastering EQ. thEQred was designed for the most demanding artistic equalization tasks.

In addition to all the user–centric features that MAAT brings you, thEQred features our proprietary VariSlope™ technology. With VariSlope, shelving and cut filters offer continuous adjustment of any slope in the range from near 0 to 24 dB/octave. Unlike other EQs that let you define or draw the curve, VariSlope offers unique versatility while preserving the sound quality MAAT EQs are known for.

Red Is The New Black

Think of thEQred as LP PEQ Red 2.0…MAAT have taken the fundamentals of Algorithmix’s exemplary LinearPhase PEQ Red, and given it a MAAT makeover. There is no other æsthetic equalizer like thEQred. With its ability to invisibly provide spectral counterweight to mixes that lean one way or another, thEQred excels at straightening up biased content. Add crystalline air without stridency to a dark mix, or beef up lower mids and bass without bloat or loss of focus. With twelve bands or Sections of precision, linear phase parametric equalization featuring unique shelving filters, mastery of complex mixes without changing their overall sonic character is just a few clicks away.

A little backstory…An idea was born to reissue this masterpiece, along with the other legendary Algorithmix EQs, and make it available as 64 bit in all common formats and (finally!) for macOS. As a power user, MAAT's visionary Friedemann had some ideas in mind regarding the improvements. Specifically, he wanted to make the user interface, the UI, more flexible and faster to use because there is no other tool in the mastering chain that receives as much “seat time.” The result: Our thEQ UI and feature set. The UI affords super fast setup and includes a number of unique features which help to speed your work: The positive & negative Contribution function including absolute difference, the highly adjustable sonogram which makes detecting problem spots easy, and the possibility to play a note on the keyboard that you have in your head and then snap a Section to that respective frequency with one click. Also, having all twelve Sections visible simultaneously, not to mention the SORT button function.

Frequency Forward

thEQred works in the frequency domain. That is, the input signal is first transformed into a spectral representation. Then, that spectral equivalent is operated upon. Special measures have been taken to ensure high resolution at critical low frequencies while keeping temporal resolution untouched. Unlike common frequency-domain filters, MAAT's linear phase approach avoids drums or other instrument containing strong transients from being blurred. In addition, extremely high compute resolution has been used to avoid any cumulative truncation effects typical in complex frequency transforms. This results in unblemished sound quality.

There are other plug–ins on the market using frequency–domain techniques. Most of them apply relatively low frequency resolution and then claim that frequency response mathematically interpolated between a few set points or that freehand drawing is the best solution. This may be true for some industrial applications, but such filters simply don’t sound musical. We’ve worked hard to insure that filter shapes in thEQred exactly match the best analog references. The result is sonic quality that is undisputed, even at baseband 44.1 and 48 kHz rates.

Unobtrusive Power

“An equalizer should have no, ideally, should have no distortion of its own. It’s almost impossible to do it without some distortion but, that’s the aim. So, if you can do that…Now there are a lot of equalizers about, where people have just taken a circuit out of some reference book and hoped for the best and they’ve never really succeeded because they haven’t taken into account all these other things.” — Rupert Neve on EQ in Rupert Neve: The SOS Interview on YouTube

thEQred was designed to deliver the highest possible linearity down to subsonic frequencies. This and other powerful features hide behind its clean and simple UI. Eye candy is great for newbies, but thEQr isn’t your typical filter: thEQred packs all the advanced features you need into one resizable window that’s easy on the eyes. Not only does the UI “get out of the way” so you can be more productive, we’ve incorporated industry–first features that speed your workflow, neatly packaged to make thEQred easy and intuitive to use.

Better By Design

Whether you’re looking for gentle rehabilitation, colorless correction, or simply baggage–free spectral contouring, our proprietary, precision algorithm delivers on the promise of linear phase EQ. Bring the power and purity of thEQred to bear for all your critical equalization tasks.

Features

As Friedemann says, “It’s all about the curves.” Along with all the features of our thEQ family, thEQred incorporates a unique and proprietary filter technology allowing you to adjust any slope between nearly 0 and 24 dB/octave. Almost any filter needed or desired can be dialed in quickly and easily, from broad shallow strokes to cascaded deep cuts.

• Five Panorama modes; stereo, mono (L+R), left–only, right–only and difference (L-R) for focused treatment or enhancement
• Two Stereo modes; Left/Right or Mid/Side
• Four Contribution modes; positive addition only, negative addition only, EQ contribution only, and “normal” EQ out help you to keep track of your progress
• Extended frequency range covers the ultrasonic, suitable for any HRA post
• Equal delay at all frequencies independent of filter settings, perfectly preserving the time relationship of harmonics
• No phase distortion and no temporal dispersion, eliminating transient smear
• Freedom from unwanted coloration for exceptional clarity, transparency, and definition
• Exclusive VariSlope technology offers shelf and cut filters with any roll-off in the range of 6 to 24 dB/octave as well as continuous slope adjustment below 6 dB/octave, impossible with any classic filter
• Twelve Sections with eight freely assignable parametric filter types: classic bell, high or low shelf, high or low cut as well as VariSlope high or low shelf, and high or low cut
• Adjustable Q for shelving and cut filters
• Proprietary algorithms deliver extraordinarily low distortion and noise
• For ultimate fidelity, deep 80 bit super double precision internals virtually eliminate rounding errors and distortion
• Perfect emulation of analog filter characteristics, clearly perceptible when equalizing audio at baseband sample rates
• Extremely shallow VariSlope shelves for gentle brightening or added weight
• Cascade cut filters for “brick wall” characteristics
• Resizable UI for easy and precise adjustments or for ultra–high resolution displays
• MAAT’s smart AutoGain for effortless A/B comparisons
• Inbuilt tone generator makes for quick location of trouble spots
• SORT function eliminates the need for busy, distracting UI elements
• TUNE function aligns center frequencies to Western tunings
• Grid snap toggles between surgical and musical applications, emulating popular hardware resonant frequency choices, including Maselec and Manley

Extras

• Exclusive dual view, monochrome/color real time spectrogram with user adjustable temporal wiper lets you choose “when” to transition to low distraction monochrome
• Choice of parametric editing via numerical fields or directly via the graphical display
• Operates at up to 384 kHz sample rates for HRA or game audio workflows
• Complete setup exchange across multiple instances
• Automatic latency compensation with all modern DAWs
• A/B comparison for fast decision making

System Requirements

• Available formats: AAX Native (Pro Tools 10.3.10 and newer), AU, VST 2, VST 3
• macOS 10.9 and newer, 64 bit only
• Windows 7 and newer, 32 & 64 bit
• OpenGL 3.2 or newer